Tactics To Help You Get More From Your Demand Generation Program
What is B2B demand generation? Just as it sounds, it’s a coordinated marketing strategy designed to constantly generate a demand for your products, brand, and company. Simply put, it’s making sure potential customers are continuously aware of and want your products.
It’s also a critical part of any company’s B2B marketing plan.
But don’t get it confused with lead generation. Lead generation is the collection of leads and customer information through various single or series of marketing campaigns. It’s a sub-category of demand generation. (To learn more about the difference between lead generation and demand generation, see our previous blog.)
Demand generation (aka demand gen) is a much more involved process. It’s a tightly-woven operation executed through integrated data-driven campaigns. The most effective strategy is full-funnel demand generation. That’s where marketers synchronize efforts with sales teams to provide information prospects need through every level of the marketing funnel.
So how do you do that? While the promotional tools and tactics for demand generation companies use may vary, there are some that have been proven to be the most effective time after time. Here are four of them.
1. Make Your Website Your Focal Point
No matter what tools you use, your demand generation campaigns should always point directly to your website. In fact, your site should be the focal point of your entire marketing program. Everything you send out into the world should lead right back to you.
Keep your marketing and company information up to date with your most important and engaging content and assets. Not only does this provide necessary details and information prospects need to move from the inquiry stage to paying customers, your site traffic also helps you track the success of your demand gen efforts.
2. Be A Trusted Authority with Helpful Content
You designed your products to help customers. Your content should do the same. Skip the sales pitch. Set yourself up as a trusted authority through B2B content marketing by providing messaging that helps prospects reach goals and solve problems.
Then adapt that message through a wide range of formats: email campaigns, whitepapers, newsletters, blogs, articles, videos. The options are endless. So are the opportunities. Beneficial content takes the answer to “What can you do for me?” to a whole new level. It helps customers see your products as a solution rather than a cost.
But the real key to successfully matching your content to the demand gen process is by creating continuously evolving messages that provide the additional answers they need during the buyer’s journey.
3. Give Prospects Something They Need
Sure, everyone loves a good bit of swag. But what people need in order to generate demand for your products is compelling information. This ties back into the helpful content mentioned above. Of all the possible content formats you can use, whitepapers are one of the most powerful.
Normally, the rule is to keep marketing messages short and sweet. But people seeking solutions are usually open to longer, more in-depth information, especially once they’ve started moving farther into the funnel.
There’s a reason why 68% of companies are using whitepapers as part of their marketing initiatives. Because they work. Not only do they provide detailed information, they also draw attention to your companys’ expertise to prospective buyers.
4. More demand with a helping hand
No matter how big your company is, you can always use a helping hand. Creating and executing the best demand generation campaigns takes a lot of expertise and teamwork, especially when your potential target audience is massive.
You can’t be everywhere at once. Work with a marketing partner who can help generate more contacts in certain strategic areas while you go after others. There’s no such thing as too many opportunities. A coordinated multi-front approach applying various demand generation techniques is the key to reaching a wider group of potential new customers.
Need a marketing partner? Demand Generation solutions are at the heart of every benefit we offer. Whether you need widespread campaigns or precision account-based marketing. So contact us today.