What Is Demand Generation?
At its simplest, demand generation can be defined as – surprise, surprise – the
generation of demand for a business’ products or services. This is accomplished
through a gradual, comprehensive, and holistic process that often spans entire
marketing departments.
Demand generation, like conversion paths, can (and should) be thought of as a
funnel. Demand generation begins by identifying audiences that are likely to be
receptive to the marketing messaging of a brand, before shepherding prospects
through a funnel that addresses every stage of the conversion process. However,
unlike inbound marketing or traditional conversion paths (both of which play a
part in the process), demand generation aligns marketing closely with sales to
accomplish these goals.
Think of demand generation as a long-term relationship between a brand’s
marketing and sales teams, and prospective customers. Demand generation starts
by identifying and qualifying prospective customers through content and inbound
marketing, direct response and email campaigns, and events, before passing
these leads to a nurturing team. This team then further qualifies these
prospects through scoring systems depending on the stage at which the prospect
is in the conversion funnel, before passing these highly qualified, nurtured
leads onto the sales team.
Demand Generation vs. Lead Generation
Although demand generation and traditional lead generation might seem very
similar, there’s actually an important distinction between the two.
Some businesses are indiscriminate when it comes to leads and what qualifies a
prospect as a lead. Someone who merely visits a website, for example, might be
considered a lead to some companies. This is especially true of businesses that
rely on high-volume cold-calling to generate new businesses – think those
annoying companies that call you up to try and sell you steak knives.
However, demand generation identifies potential prospects based on their
initial actions and takes them through a (oftentimes lengthy) nurturing process
to provide sales teams with much higher quality, genuinely qualified leads.
This results in better conversations between sales reps and prospects, and – of
course – higher conversion rates and more sales.
Essentially, the greatest difference between demand generation and lead
generation is that demand gen is a significantly more comprehensive process that
takes place over a much greater span of time than lead generation, involves
close collaboration and communication between sales and marketing departments,
and incorporates elements of inbound, direct, and email marketing to nurture
prospects while offering them the material they need to learn more about how
you can solve their problems.
9 Demand Generation Strategies for New Brands
So, now we have a better idea of what demand generation is, how can you, as a
new or smaller brand, go about implementing it? Here are nine demand generation
strategies you can start using right now.
1. Give Away Your Best Stuff
Whether it’s a content download, a free offer, or another promotional campaign,
be sure to only give away your very best stuff. Although this might seem
counterintuitive, consistently offering giveaways of real value has several
benefits.
Firstly, it creates a sense of trust between your audience and your brand,
which means they’re more likely to come back to your content or your website.
Secondly, it reflects well on your brand – so much so that enthusiastic
prospects may take things one step further and advocate for your brand on your
behalf, becoming the elusive “brand ambassadors” companies are always talking
about. Lastly, by offering something of real value, your visitors are much more
likely to part with whatever information you need to begin qualifying them as a
viable lead, the first stage in the demand generation process.
2. Provide a Free Tool, App, or Resource
One of the most effective ways to create a successful demand generation
campaign as a new brand is by offering a free tool or resource.
Source - https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2015/10/22/demand-generation
