Transform Your Marketing: From Lead Generation to Demand Generation

When someone says the average cost per lead in the IT industry is $208, it might be unclear if that’s good or bad. However, it’s definitely wasteful if none of these leads convert into sales. For the record, $208 is one of the highest costs among industries.

“Wait! What if I find a way to generate more leads with the same budget? This will cut overall expenses, right?”

That’s wishful thinking. Increasing the number of leads tenfold would require more salespeople to process them, leading to higher expenses. If these leads aren’t qualified, they won’t convert to sales, potentially lowering your ROI.

Good news: You can cut expenses and drive revenue by using demand generation activities instead of lead generation. Don’t know what those are? Let me give you a tour.

What is Demand Generation?

Demand generation is a marketing approach that creates customer demand before bringing in leads and converting them into sales. Unlike lead generation, demand generation focuses on quality, not quantity, since high-quality leads are more likely to become closed deals.

Example:

Suppose you’re Googling exercises to improve your basketball game and stumble upon an article mentioning the importance of the right sneakers. You start wondering if your sneakers are good enough and what makes good basketball sneakers. Clicking a link leads you to another article with guidelines for picking the right shoes.

Ten minutes ago, you didn’t know you needed new sneakers, but now you’re a perfect lead for the sales department. The combination of guest posting and audience-centered content generated demand by offering a simple solution to a problem you hadn’t considered.

Demand generation is not just about B2C relationships; it’s crucial for B2B marketing too.

There are many demand generation activities and tactics you can use to form long-lasting B2B relations. Here’s how you can build an effective strategy.

10 Demand Generation Activities and Tactics for Your Strategy

1. Find Out Who Your Ideal Customer IsStart by imagining your ideal client or buyer persona based on data. Determine the optimal size of companies your product is useful for, their business area, average check, and goals. Knowing their desires, pain points, and actions helps in creating more real and relatable buyer personas.
2. Map Your Customers’ Journey to Discover Their NeedsUnderstand the path of a person’s interaction with your brand, usually consisting of:
   • Awareness
   • Consideration/Search
   • Purchase
   • Retention
   • Advocacy

   Equip them with the right tools at each stage, such as ads, helpful articles, and videos.

3. Create and Optimize Quality Content for Different StagesDecide what type of content to show at each stage of the customer journey. For example, video reviews and infographics for the awareness stage, and detailed guidelines and case studies for the decision-making stage. Ensure content is informative, well-structured, and SEO-optimized.
4. Choose Channels for Content Marketing ActivitiesUse multiple distribution channels to reach your target audience. Social media for short descriptions and videos, and blogs for long-reads. Personalized emails based on data collection can also be highly effective.
5. Take Advantage of High-Performing ContentRepurpose content, such as breaking down an ebook into a series of articles and posts. This maximizes the reach and impact of your content.
6. Meet Your Potential CustomersOrganize events like workshops, conferences, and webinars to engage interested individuals and build trust through face-to-face communication.
7. Cooperate with Partners for Lead GenerationPartnerships and collaborations can generate demand through recommendations and joint campaigns. Partner companies can lead potential customers through the buyer journey without your participation.
8. Help Your Sales and Marketing Departments Work in SyncEnsure both departments cooperate and complement each other’s efforts to avoid redundancy and improve efficiency. Joint meetings and agreed-upon goals help achieve better results.
9. Automate Everything You Can to Improve PerformanceAutomate data collection, analysis, reporting, and emailing. This optimizes workflows and frees up time for more creative tasks, leading to better performance and higher conversions.
10. Think About What You Can Give for Free in Demand Generation MarketingOffer freemiums, trials, or samples to encourage potential customers to buy your product. Other free content like ebooks or templates can also attract and engage leads.

Track and Analyze Your Progress with Metrics

Collect and analyze data to understand if your strategy works and how to improve it. Metrics like engagement rate and conversion rate help build an effective data-driven demand generation strategy.

How Do Demand Gen Activities Help You Drive Revenue?

By testing and combining various activities, you create a demand generation strategy that increases your profits through:

• Higher Conversion Rates: High-quality leads are more likely to buy.
• Less Wasted Time: Demand-generated leads already know your product’s benefits.
• More Brand Recognition: Better content leads to more shares and increased trust.
• Reduced Personnel Expenses: Efficient processes require fewer people.

Final Thoughts

The principle “The more leads, the better” loses its relevance for B2B marketing. Quality of leads is now the critical parameter. An effective demand generation strategy creates demand before collecting leads, ensuring your marketing efforts drive revenue and don’t go to waste.

Put on your analyzing cap, test and measure demand generation activities, adapt them to your customer journey map, and create quality content. This approach ensures your demand generation efforts are successful.