In order to achieve sustainable business growth, companies are now especially focusing on implementing demand generation marketing. The need to create a demand for various products and services is becoming a challenge for many businesses. Hence, it is essential that companies think along the lines of scaling their business by acquiring new prospects through demand generation. This can be done either by educating in-house staff about this strategy or by availing of BPO services from reliable companies. This automatically leads to high-quality leads and an increase in revenue.
The Concept of Demand Generation
Demand generation refers to generating interest for your product or service, nurturing potential prospects into customers, and retaining those customers in the long run. All of this is done through a set of marketing and sales initiatives. It helps you discover and create opportunities like marketing alignment and data-driven business growth.
A demand generation marketer is measured as per the revenue generated from their contribution, instead of the number of leads they bring in. This means that the leads they pitch have a higher chance of becoming customers and are well-suited for the company.
Increasing Demand and Drive Revenue
Each and every stage of the marketing funnel is affected by demand generation, from directing unknowns to tap into your website to converting them into paying customers. Identifying the opportunities and gaps throughout this funnel helps you improve performance through optimization. Hence, by identifying your challenges, you’ll be able to build solutions for sustainable growth.
Difference Between Demand Generation and Lead Generation
Demand generation is much more complex than lead generation as it starts way before the potential lead even enters the buying cycle. Lead generation refers to gathering information about people showing interest in your product or service and consequently attracting them to your brand. This process stops when the buyer successfully connects with the company and the lead is entered into your database.
On the other hand, demand generation occurs throughout the buyer’s journey. From capturing leads to nurturing them into prospects, and ultimately winning sales, all come under the demand generation cycle.
Demand Generation Strategies
Any demand generation program requires strategies to generate the expected results. There are 4 key areas that these strategies fall into.
Brand Awareness
This is the first step in the demand generation strategy which starts by understanding and observing the people you wish to serve. During this stage buyer personas are developed, brand identity is built, thought leadership programs are created, and market strategies are crafted.
Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing uses organic means to attract customers and prospects to a customer. While it revolves around bringing attention to your brand for demand generation, it can also be used for lead generation and other marketing activities. Furthermore, it is content-heavy and draws traffic through blogs and SEO.
Sales Enablement
The main aim of demand generation is to close deals by empowering sales. This requires the demand generation marketers and sales team to work closely in order to align marketing activities and lead qualifications. The sales enablement tactics may include customer testimonials, case studies, product data sheets, internal materials, and FAQs.
Customer Retention
The stage of customer retention begins when a prospect becomes a customer. Customer retention is crucial to all businesses as it aids in achieving steady growth, improves brand presence, and proves customer loyalty. The retention methods may include ticketing systems, knowledge bases, customer advisory boards, and customer loyalty programs.
Benefits of Demand Generation
All other marketing efforts are directly affected by demand. Hence, focusing on it increases the chances of the other strategies being successful. The demand generation strategy comes with various benefits.
Specific Direction for Sales and Marketing
Deman generation helps you streamline your marketing efforts by establishing a target audience and key product selling points. This allows the sales and marketing team to achieve common goals.
Expansion of Customer Base
By demonstrating the benefits of a product or service through additional marketing materials, demand generation expands its reach to new audiences.
Help Against Competitors
To elevate its standing in an industry, a business must expand its customer base by creating demand for a product or service. Therefore, by creating effective demand marketing strategies, you can easily convert customers from your competitors.
Enhance Customer Retention
Customer turnover is reduced when businesses implement demand generation in their marketing tactics. This eventually leads to repeat customers as it helps the consumer understand the value of their services and products.
Conclusion
Demand Generation is an extremely important strategy in today’s modern world. The ever-increasing competitiveness of businesses urges them to implement effective tactics in order to measurably increase their revenues and employee retention rates.