An Introduction To Demand Generation: What It Is And How To Use It To Improve Your Brand Awareness And Generate More Leads
With the development of digital means, a wide variety of B2B marketing and sales strategies can be put in place. However, one of the most promising is undoubtedly demand generation.
But what is demand generation and how does it work? Today we are going to look at this commonly adopted policy to improve a brand or product and generate more qualified leads.
What is Demand Generation?
Demand generation is an essential part of a B2B sales and marketing strategy. It focuses on long-term development of potential customers rather than immediate short-term opportunities such as lead generation. The main goals are to improve brand awareness and authority, as well as produce engaging content to engage prospects.
By implementing the right demand generation strategy, you can increase revenue by cultivating strong, qualified leads who are ready to buy later or immediately if you have what they are looking for.
Definition
A good definition of demand generation would be “the creation and maintenance of lasting customer interest through marketing actions and counter efforts that serve to generate conversions”.
This vision naturally encompasses a company’s business efforts to generate a broad and well-researched mess about its industry and brand.
How It Can Be Used
Techniques such as intelligent use of keywords, email marketing, paid and organic search can be used to achieve the objectives of this strategy. Additionally, the proper use of tools such as Google Analytics can help entrepreneurs, marketers, and sales managers measure program effectiveness.
Plezii, for example, also uses advertising cookies (with your consent) in order to amplify its effectiveness
How to Implement an Effective Demand Generation Strategy?
The first thing to do is to clearly identify your objectives; followed by the planning and execution of campaigns specifically targeting the target market.
Then you can determine what type of content do you want to create? Blog posts, infographics, and webinars are just a few of the many options available to find an organizational level interested in your product or service.
Steps To Follow
Here’s how to set up an effective demand generation strategy:
- Clearly state your goals
- Plan and execute campaigns specifically targeting the target market
- Determine what type of content you want to create
- Find an organizational supporter interested in your product or service
- Use the right channels to reach the right people – websites, social networks, emails, etc.
- Measure the impact of the program with Google Analytics or another similar analytical tool
Tools And Technologies To Use
The tools and technologies needed to implement an effective demand generation strategy include marketing software such as Google Analytics, campaign management software, CRM solutions, marketing automation program and management system database.
Examples of Companies That Have Successfully Implemented a Demand Generation Strategy
Many B2B companies use demand generation programs to improve their business operations and sales cycle processes. Here are three cases where a company has successfully implemented an effective strategy:
Case Study 1: Front App
Front App is a cloud-based platform for customer support teams. The company was looking to increase its visibility in the market and deployed a comprehensive strategy including: free tickets to major professional conferences; ads on LinkedIn retargeting potential customers; and launched her own podcast which proved extremely popular.
Case Study 2: Grammarly
Grammarly now has more than 11 million monthly active users in its ecosystem since 2007. To achieve this phenomenal result, the company has invested heavily in Content Marketing (with the very regular production of informative articles), the ‘Influence Marketing (she has developed a network of influential bloggers), SEO (making sure to maintain a strong presence on Google) and finally in Growth Hacking (pushing the limits to achieve your goals).
Case Study 3: Sisense
The Israeli company Sisense is a leader in analytics solutions. The marketing strategy implemented by the company targeted highly qualified people in the BI, analytics and data science sectors. To do this, it organized webinars attended by more than 90,000 participants; produced related content such as case studies, white papers etc., created contests and used partner marketing agencies.
By implementing demand generation correctly, you can improve your brand awareness, generate more qualified leads and increase the conversion rate to the end customer.
After looking at what demand generation is and how it can be used to improve brand awareness, generate leads, and increase lead-to-customer conversions, we can say that this practice offers countless benefits.
While demand generation was once considered a complex and expensive way for businesses, today, thanks to online technologies and accessible tools that are available in the market, it is relatively simple to implement. The best practices outlined here will allow companies to optimize their demand generation efforts to generate more qualified leads and convert more business opportunities.
With the right demand generation strategy and the right tools at your disposal, you can transform your business and dramatically increase your revenue.
