What is Demand Generation? 

If you are looking to gain more customers or raise brand awareness, you should consider using demand generation.

Demand generation is the process of finding consumers that are likely to be interested in your brand or products.

This can be done in several different ways, which we will discuss here. Your business could likely benefit from using demand generation and this article will help you find out the best way to implement it for your business.

How is Demand Generation Different From Lead Generation?

When you are researching demand generation, you might realize that it is very similar to lead generation. While there are certainly some similarities, there are also some important differences worth mentioning. 

Depending on the business, they may have different ideas for what standards have to be met to consider something a lead. For example, some businesses may consider a consumer who significantly interacts with the brand a lead. Other companies might believe a consumer simply has to visit the company’s website to be considered a lead. 

Demand generation marketing only considers a consumer a lead if they have had multiple interactions with the brand. Specifically, to be considered a lead, a consumer must have multiple interactions with the brand. This has significant advantages over lead generation because companies can ensure that they are not wasting their time on consumers who may not actually be interested in the brand. 

demand generation marketing

What is a Lead Scoring System?

When you are learning what is demand marketing, it is important to familiarize yourself with the lead scoring system. As previously mentioned, a large part of demand marketing is developing significant interactions with consumers before you consider them as leads. Different interactions that consumers participate in will determine if they are considered leads or not. 

Many companies use different scoring systems, but most companies agree that certain activities make a consumer more likely to be considered a lead. For example, if a consumer only views content on your site, they will be given a lower score than a consumer that downloads that same content. Not every website has content that can be downloaded. This is why different companies will have different scoring systems. Other activities that will gain more points include watching a video. Typically, watching a video is given a higher score because the consumer likely spent more time watching the video than when interacting with other types of content. This type of reasoning is typically consistent with lead scoring. To put it simply, if the activity involves more time and effort from the consumer, then it will likely be given a higher score. 

How to Create a Demand Generation Strategy

1 – Set Goals for the Campaign

Before you start to implement any demand generation strategies, you need to decide what you want to gain from using demand generation. Are you looking to increase sales? Traffic to your website? Or something else altogether? Knowing your goal for using demand generation marketing is crucial. 

Determining what you want to gain from demand marketing is so important because it will affect which demand generation strategies you use. If you just want to increase sales, then some techniques may not be best to use for your business. This will ensure that you are not wasting your time on any activities that will not help you achieve your goals. 

A note of caution when setting your goals: make sure that they are realistic. Setting goals that are unachievable will only lead you to become frustrated. Additionally, you should revisit your goals as time goes on. You might need to adjust your goals over time depending on the success demand generation has for your business. 

what is demand generation

2 – Measure Your KPIs

After you have set the goals you want to achieve with demand generation, you should make sure that you are consistently measuring your KPIs. KPIs, or key performance indicators, help measure certain statistics so that you can see how close you are to achieving your goals.

Typically, most companies will define their KPIs as website traffic, lead magnet interactions, cost per lead, free trial sign-ups, and customer acquisition cost. Tracking these metrics can help you see how close you are to reaching your goals. It is important that you check these frequently because only checking your KPIs once can be misleading. You might happen to check your KPIs on a day when performance is low. You do not want to make any serious decisions based on data that was only checked once. 

3 – Develop Content for Your Strategy

An important aspect of demand generation marketing is to engage consumers so they can actually become leads. Creating content is a great way to engage consumers and get them interested in your brand.

At this point, you are not actually looking to make any sales from consumers. You simply want them to engage with your website or social media accounts. Having more consumers interact with your brand will likely lead to more sales in the future. You do not want to aggressively pressure your audience to purchase your products. This will likely turn consumers off from doing just that. 

You might be wondering what type of content is best to make for an effective demand generation strategy. As long as you are brand-appropriate and the content is related to the industry you are in, you honestly cannot go wrong. Usually, companies will write articles, but different types of content can also be very effective. For example, many brands have found success in posting video content on YouTube. 

demand generation strategy

4 – Use a Lead Magnet 

An often-used technique in demand generation marketing is a lead magnet. A lead magnet is any program that requires consumers to opt-in. For example, a weekly email newsletter that requires consumers to sign-up by providing their email would be considered a lead magnet. 

The reason lead magnets are commonly used is because it is a great way to gauge the interest of your consumers. It is safe to assume that consumers who are not that interested in making a purchase from your company will not participate in an opt-in program. Lead magnets help separate the users who are actually interested in purchasing your products from the consumers who are just visiting your website. Additionally, lead magnets help engage the consumers who are invested in your brand. The more invested in your brand and website consumers are, the more likely they will be to develop brand loyalty. 

5 – Partner with Industry Professionals 

Partnering with industry professionals can be a great way to get more consumers to visit your website. This can often be a very cost-effective way to implement demand marketing because oftentimes the professional simply wants a shout-out. 

Of course, the following the professional will have to determine if they expect payment or not. The audience size of the professional determines if paying them would be worth it financially. If they have a large audience, this could be a great idea. Even if they do not have a large audience and simply want a shout-out, this is a really effective strategy. Giving them a shout-out helps give your business more legitimacy. Additionally, they will shout you out which will bring more potential leads to your website. As long as you check the legitimacy of the industry professional, you cannot go wrong with this technique.

demand generation

6 – Focus on Your Social Media Presence 

It is crucial that this step does not get overlooked. Make sure that you are spending the necessary time and effort needed to keep your social media profiles up-to-date and use them to engage with your consumers. Social media can be a great way to introduce consumers to your brand and hopefully convince them to visit your website. 

If you are already creating content as part of your demand generation strategy, you can repost your content on your social media accounts. Video content is a great option to promote on social media. This is largely because you can post a shortened version of your content and if the consumer likes it, they might be interested in visiting your website. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok are great for shortened versions of your videos. The more platforms you are able to bring in consumers from the better. 

FAQs about What is Demand Generation?: 

  • How is demand generation different from lead generation? 
  • What is a lead magnet? 
  • How do you use demand generation?
  • Is it important to set goals when using demand generation? 
  • How does developing content affect demand generation? 

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