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Want to grow your business? Get people to want your product. That’s the equation, but here’s what’s missing: the strategies that drive that demand.
Those strategies are also known as demand generation and compared to lead generation, they’re much more involved.
It starts with identifying audiences. Which set or sets of people are interested in your products and/or services? Once you’ve got that nailed down, you can move on to channeling them through the conversion funnel. If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s the same method marketers use.
Like marketing goals, demand generation goals also involve driving awareness and creating interest through the distribution of content. Outlining your brand’s demand generation process can help you expand in new and existing markets, launch new products and features, and coax current and prospective customers to buy more of your products and services.
What’s the difference between demand generation and lead generation?
Demand generation hinges on building customer relationships; it’s about creating awareness, nurturing relationships, and most importantly – maintaining those relationships. This process is accomplished by connecting with customers through emails, newsletters, blogs, social media campaigns, and any other content tools that demonstrate your value to your target market.
Lead generation, on the other hand, focuses on ushering the customer through the sales funnel by gathering key information about them so that you can hand in quality prospects to your sales team.
How does demand generation increase sales?
The simple answer? By making the case. What problem does your product solve? How does your service make someone’s life easier? What makes you stand out from the competition? Why are you the best?
Make your product or service a must-have by answering one (or all) of these questions across the buyer’s journey. The efficacy of your demand generation will be guided by how your products meet your target market’s needs.
Demand generation content should convince influencers and buyers that your product is a solution, improvement, or benefit. Make sure your content highlights those positive outcomes in communication channels like social media, webinars, newsletters, e-books, and articles, to name a few.
How do you generate demand in a new market?
In new or emerging markets, introducing the problem is key, which may involve defining how things currently stand (without your product). How will you identify the need? How will you change their perception? What solutions should they consider? What actions should they take?
- In exploring the solution, provide knowledge-packed content as it relates to events, case studies, and use scenarios.
- For your audience to commit to the solution, they need a story on how your product or service adds value to their lives or business. This can be delivered through presentations and demos.
How do you generate demand in established markets?
When operating in an established market, your challenge is to convince the buyer that you’re the right choice.
- To help make their decision, you need to justify the value of your product or service through references, business cases, or proposals.
- For them to make the selection, you need to reinforce their decision with tools such as impact assessment or ROI worksheets.
Demand generation strategies
1. Share free resources
You can create and share resources with your target audience that point out a problem or pain point. Demonstrate how you solve the challenge. Some resources you might consider creating are webinars, white papers, product videos, troubleshooting tips, and toolkits.
2. Capitalize on video content for social media
Short videos like reels or TikTok posts are highly impactful in creating connections on social media. As you boost the awareness for your brand, focus on not only your products and services, but the people behind them – that’s you! This human connection pulls the curtain back and lets your users get a more authentic look at the team behind it all. This creates trust as you grow a robust social media following.
And remember: Not only can you leverage social media channels to appeal to potential customers, but you can also engage and educate them. Nurturing those relationships could lead to even more demand.
3. Blog consistently
Your blog ranks among the most potent tools for demand generation. Consistently creating engaging content generates more organic traffic. Write articles about the current problems your target audience is facing and demonstrate how you can solve them. If you are not conversant with your target audience’s pain points and topics that would resonate with them, you can reach out to the sales and customer support teams since they are in constant contact with customers.
4. Leverage partner marketing
Partner marketing is where you co-create content with strategic companies to gain exposure to their audience and expose them to your audience. The most common form of partner marketing is joint webinars. Remember to only work with companies that have a similar audience to yours, but don’t have products that directly compete with yours. Otherwise, you could risk losing your customers.
5. Lead nurturing through email marketing
You can send a series of automated emails that educate leads on your product and guide them toward conversion. Start with a welcome email, then offer additional resources based on their interests. You can also use segmentation to deliver content that matches each prospect’s position in the buying journey, increasing engagement and relevance.
6. Leverage marketing funnels
- Build content for each funnel stage: A marketing funnel generally consists of stages like Awareness, Interest, Decision, and Action. Tailor your content for each stage to guide potential customers naturally through the buying journey.
- Top of funnel (Awareness): Create educational blog posts, infographics, and social media content to capture interest and introduce your brand to new audiences.
- Middle of funnel (Consideration): Offer deeper content like case studies, webinars, and product comparisons that address pain points and show how your solution stands out.
- Bottom of funnel (Decision): Provide product demos, free trials, and special offers to encourage purchase and close the deal.
- Nurture leads at each stage: Use email marketing, retargeting ads, and lead nurturing strategies tailored to where the lead is in the funnel. For example, send educational content to leads in the awareness stage and product-focused emails to those nearing a purchase decision.
For more information
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BBB Great West + Pacific contributed to this article.