What Is Demand Generation?

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• What Is Demand Generation?
• How Is Demand Generation Different From Inbound Marketing?
• What Are the Key Considerations to Keep in Mind When Evaluating a Demand Generation Strategy?
• What Are Different Demand Generation Strategies?

Even if you have a great product and a fantastic website, you may still not have as much traffic as you’d like. Implementing a demand generation strategy can fix this by vastly improving your lead generation and customer conversions. Consider a few useful demand generation strategies for your company to see more traffic on your website.

What Is Demand Generation?

Demand generation is a data-driven marketing strategy that increases potential customers’ awareness and interest in your company. It is a digital marketing strategy marked by its long-term funnel-based approach. An effective demand generation strategy hits every touchpoint on the buyer’s journey, from learning about the company to becoming a loyal return customer. The four parts of the buyer’s journey that are most valuable for demand generation include:

• Brand awareness
• Inbound marketing
• Sales enablement
• Customer retention

Demand generation is a valuable marketing strategy because it’s based on regular data analysis. As you continually assess how the tactics within your demand generation strategy are performing, you can make necessary adjustments and tweaks to improve your customer outcomes.

Consider these steps when structuring your demand generation strategy:

1. Set specific goals. Establishing objectives will help you create an effective, goal-driven demand generation strategy.
2. Define your audience. It’s important to know who you’re specifically targeting with your demand generation tactics. Create buyer personas or other customer profiles to help you establish a clear target.
3. Create content. Make content specific to each stage in the buyer’s journey. Anticipate what marketing content your customer needs to see and when for the strongest impact.
4. Distribute content effectively. Like content creation, you should carefully consider where you deliver your content to entice the customer to continue moving through the funnel.
5. Measure your results. Look at the data to see which tactics are effective and which you should replace. Do this regularly for the best results.

Image via Unsplash by startaeteam

How Is Demand Generation Different From Inbound Marketing?

Many people use the terms “demand generation” and “inbound marketing” interchangeably, but they’re not the same. Inbound marketing is a method of demand generation, meaning it’s part of the demand generation toolkit. With inbound marketing, a potential customer is actively looking for a solution to a problem when they discover your company organically. Demand generation is much broader and includes organic practices like inbound marketing as well as other tactics like lead generation and direct advertising.

What Are the Key Considerations to Keep in Mind When Evaluating a Demand Generation Strategy?

Demand generation strategies are incredibly wide-ranging. Many companies use similar tactics with varied results depending on their industry, customer base, and goals. Consider these aspects to evaluate a demand generation strategy effectively:

• Consider your goals — Ensure that every tactic you use is directly supporting your long-term goals.
• Perform quantitative analysis — Analyze your data regularly to see which tactics are effective and which aren’t.
• Continuously test — Run testing to see how you can improve your strategy. For example, send some customers an “A” version of an email and other customers a “B” version. See how they perform compared to one another.
• Rely on metrics — Use the metrics you acquire to guide your actions. Rely on data and statistics rather than instinct when taking action.

What Are Different Demand Generation Strategies?

There are a tremendous number of demand generation strategies that you can use. Consider trying one of these tactics to help you increase customer awareness and drive buyers through the sales funnel:

• Perform giveaways — To get potential clients interested in your company, give some of your products away. Particularly if you have online resources like eBooks, apps, or other resources, this is a simple way to gain interest.
• Use Facebook lookalike audiences — Facebook allows you to upload lookalike audiences, or user groups who resemble people who already follow you, which gives you access to more customers who match your target demographic.
• Create partnerships — Create partnerships for events like webinars or social media takeovers with well-known industry leaders to increase your visibility and followers online.
• Utilize managed placements — Managed placements make your classic display ads more powerful by only populating them for potential customers who meet specific criteria.
• Focus on remarketing — Use remarketing to target website visitors who stopped by once but didn’t convert in order to increase their interest in your company or products.
• Create content — Create original and engaging content regularly. Not only does excellent content improve your SEO, but it also educates your customers about your products and can increase conversions.
• Optimize emails — Run A/B testing on your emails to determine what earns the most click-throughs. Optimization can have a massive impact on your conversion rate.
• Maintain a lead scoring system — With a lead scoring system, you see not just the number of leads in your pipeline but also the quality of those leads and which are most likely to convert. Use that information to effectively target your customers with high-quality marketing.
• Post videos — Video marketing is a fantastic way to get the attention of your target demographic. Generally, users prefer watching a video over reading a blog post.
• Run contests — Run a contest to gain user interest in your company or products. Give away one of your products or another item of high value to the winner.
• Work on your SEO — Use SEO to ensure that customers who would like your products or services can find you through organic searches.
• Pair with blogs — Ask if you can write an article for an industry blog. You can gain visibility with your target demographic simply by posting in a new place. You can also link to your website and social media channels within the post.

Demand generation is a big-picture, long-term strategy that can help you identify new customers, guide them through the buyer’s journey, and encourage them to make a purchase. Demand generation is multifaceted and requires a number of varied strategies for success. Ensure that you’re using metrics and data to gauge whether your strategy is effective so that you can make changes as needed.

Knowledge Base: Intro to Marketing