Consumer behavior keeps shifting because of new technologies constantly changing customer demands, and economic factors repeatedly influencing markets. Today’s shoppers know more than their predecessors, as they are always connected, and tend to choose more carefully what they spend their money on. They also have access to different sources like social media, reviews, and influencers that can help them decide.
While coming up with fresh marketing ideas has always helped companies reach new customers, demand generation strategies can help them reach new buyers wherever they are, while also personalizing their shopping experience. What’s more, these new approaches can help businesses keep up with their competitors and use the latest technologies to give their business a boost.
Demand generation is a marketing strategy that aims to spark interest and awareness in a company’s products and services. Its goal is to create demand and foster long-lasting connections with potential buyers. This strategy differs from traditional lead generation, which aims to collect contact details from possible customers right away.
Instead, demand generation works by informing, cultivating, and steering leads throughout their entire buying process—from first learning about a product to making the final choice of buying it. At its core, demand generation aims to lay a solid groundwork for long-lasting business growth. It does so by sparking interest and raising awareness among possible customers, nurturing connections, and boosting sales.
Understanding demand generation
To effectively use these new approaches, however, marketers should first understand what demand generation really is and why it matters. Demand generation involves a range of marketing methods and initiatives designed to:
Increase brand awareness, by boosting visibility and showing customers the company’s unique benefits.
Inform potential buyers, by giving them helpful facts that can help them fix issues and understand everything there is to know about the company’s products and services.
Cultivate new leads, by connecting with possible customers and building a strong bond through tailored marketing strategies like newsletters, online seminars, and other methods.
Encourage problem-solving by supporting possible customers as they move from understanding their needs or problems to seeing a product or service as the answer to that issue. Needless to say, this leads to the potential customer finally making a purchase, boosting the company’s sales and profits as a consequence.
To sum up, demand generation strategies aim to increase brand awareness, inform potential customers by providing them with important data about products and services, and attract and maintain new leads. They also aim to present the company’s products and services as the best solutions available to fix the customers’ concerns or needs. Unlike traditional marketing strategies such as lead generation, demand generation emphasizes educating and cultivating new leads, and providing them with the best solutions for their problems. Moreover, demand generation is a complete strategy that includes lead generation and focuses on developing awareness for a company and its products and services.
Developing a top demand generation strategy
Demand generation aims to create brand awareness and set up authority so that potential buyers start the purchasing process on their own, while lead generation aims to turn an already interested audience into leads through direct contact. This may seem like a simple process, but demand generation is, in fact, a complex strategy that requires a multi-step approach. According to Gartner, at least five important steps are needed to develop a successful B2B demand generation strategy. These steps can also be followed to create a top B2C strategy:
1. Increasing brand awareness
Increasing brand awareness can play a crucial role in drawing in high-quality leads. This goal not only allows companies to benefit from their increased visibility on the market, but it also helps them create a positive image that customers trust and respect.
One effective strategy to increase a brand’s visibility and boost its reputation involves gathering recent genuine feedback from its customers. These reviews offer potential buyers honest insights into products and serve as social evidence. This mix of visibility and trust can depict a product or service as a dependable answer to buyers’ problems, making it simpler for customers to choose those products or services.
2. Creating a good content strategy
Building industry know-how is key to developing a good demand generation strategy. A smart content plan puts a brand in the spotlight as a reliable expert right from the start. Giving useful relevant information throughout a customer’s buying process not only addresses their concerns but also creates trust. Content made for high-value leads adds extra worth. When a brand answers common questions and offers helpful solutions through its content, it becomes the go-to expert. This guides potential buyers toward making purchases and helps build strong, lasting relationships.
3. Nurturing high-quality leads
Demand generation doesn’t end after first contact; companies need to nurture leads as they buy. Marketing and sales teams should work together to keep creating useful content that can help buyers move from knowing about a product to actually buying it.
To nurture leads, marketers must stay in touch through the right channels by using relevant content. By always keeping an eye on customer feedback and campaign performance, marketers can also tweak their approach to better meet the needs of their customers. This ensures the right message gets to leads when it matters most, which boosts engagement and sales.
4. Incorporating account-based marketing
Account-based marketing or ABM is mostly used in B2B settings, but it can work well in a B2C background too. ABM aims to create a marketing experience fit for specific accounts by influencing these customers to buy in order to boost profits. This method relies on grasping the unique purchase path of every high-quality account or customer. Marketing teams create buyer profiles for these special customers, and they can later use these profiles to produce content that addresses their specific needs.
5. Investing in partner marketing
Working in the digital age means companies need good ways to connect with customers on the internet. Partner marketing means teaming up with outside platforms that can help companies reach new audiences. Rather than running complex pay-per-click (PPC) ads on big platforms, companies can now work with other partners to connect with their ideal buyers at the right time. Numerous platforms now offer increased visibility and help businesses reach their ideal audience and later turn those leads into customers. This can make demand generation strategies more effective and it can also lower overall costs.
Demand generation in 2024 and beyond
At its core, demand generation means building a solid base for business success by creating awareness, nurturing leads, and ultimately driving sales. It is a complete set of strategies that requires both marketing and sales departments to work together for long-term success. Demand generation strategies are extremely useful in 2024 because they make use of new technologies, concepts, and data to power growth.
