If your audience can’t see you, they can’t choose you. They need to know who you are and what you do. Only then will they be compelled to search for you, follow you, and engage with your content. Brands need to give audiences the types of content they want to consume without requiring them to talk to a salesperson.
So, how can B2Bs manage all that? Simple, demand generation.
B2B demand generation is an integrated marketing communications strategy that aims to drive awareness of and interest in a brand’s products and services. Demand generation targets qualified leads through education, addressing consumer pain points, and offering solutions to those pain points.
The goal of demand generation is, quite simply, to generate demand! This is accomplished by building brand awareness and developing a captive audience who engages with your brand by consuming your content, engaging on social media, and more. Ultimately, demand generation should produce more qualified leads and convert more of those leads into customers. It’s a cross-silo effort from marketing, sales, product development, and more, and it can include tactics like:
So if demand generation is instilling interest in a brand’s products or services, what’s the difference between that and lead generation?
While demand generation is all about creating awareness, interest, and demand for your products or services, lead generation is focused on identifying potential customers and nurturing a relationship with those prospects.
So, in the long-term view, B2B brands need demand generation strategies that create a groundswell of interest so that when marketers and sales teams employ lead generation strategies, it’s like (qualified) fish in a barrel.
Related reading: 9 Key Lead Generation Strategies for SaaS Companies
When companies invest in generating demand alongside generating leads, they are sure to see a number of positives, including:
To execute a demand generation strategy well, companies need to have a presence where their target audience is (most often social media, with LinkedIn and Twitter being key for B2Bs), they need to be easily searchable, and they need to have a wealth of informative content that runs the spectrum from the basics of what they do and who they are, to the specifics of each component of their product or service, to how their product or service is used in certain industries, what their belief system is in regards to CSR, who their leadership is, and more.
The key to a strong demand gen strategy is to go beyond creating awareness. Strong demand generation marketing includes informing and educating your audience, engaging with them, and giving them the resources to learn more about your brand if they so choose. Then, if they become a lead, they will have already interacted with your brand in a number of ways before reaching a salesperson, meaning your sales reps only interact with truly qualified prospects, lowering your acquisition cost along the way.
Thought leadership is one facet of high-quality content that brands can use in their demand gen strategies, but it is also a strategy in and of itself. Leveraging thought leadership to spark conversations about your prospects’ biggest pain points, interests, or ideas in your industry is a great way to build personal connections, which is the necessary first step toward investing in a long-term relationship with that prospect.
Social media is key for building awareness and starting conversations. A strategic and creative social media marketing strategy may mean targeting your audience through paid ads and keeping them informed and engaged through an active organic social media strategy. Beyond getting in front of your audience, social media is also a great way to get feedback from your audience and learn about what they’re interested in, what their pain points are, and what resonates. Through social listening, you can identify key conversations in your industry and strategize how you can put your brand in the middle of them.
Partner with influencers.
Looking to get your brand in front of tens of thousands of eyes along with a recommendation from someone that the audience already trusts? Try influencer marketing. Influencer marketing accomplishes the brand awareness component by broadcasting your brand to an already-engaged audience. On top of that, because the audience already enjoys your influencer partner, they are more likely to heed the influencer’s review or recommendation—giving your brand automatic brand awareness and credibility.
With any new marketing strategy, it’s important to identify the must-measure KPIs. What metrics will tell you how your new campaign is performing? In order to assess and pivot your demand generation strategies, you must know your best acquisition channel as well as buyer intent and buyer closing data.
Marketers can define their brand’s best acquisition channel by tracking the number of marketing qualified leads (MQLs) and sales qualified leads (SQLs) per channel and the close rate of prospects per channel. This, of course, is done after deals have been closed (some of them, anyway).
Buyer intent data, however, indicates to marketers where prospects are in their journey—evaluating their actions online with your content, products, competitors, events, influencers, and more. The post-sale data here is closing data. In other words, why did the sale close? Buyer intent data shows you where your prospect is in the sales journey, but knowing why they chose your product, what made them decide when they decided, and other qualitative questions can paint a picture of your customer acquisition journey that you may never have seen before. Then, you can take that data and interweave it with the knowledge of your brand’s best acquisition channel for a seamless strategy.
AI can analyze customer data to create highly targeted content that resonates with each segment of the audience, thus driving engagement and demand. This means that AI systems will not only identify patterns in customer behavior but also predict future needs and preferences. By doing so, they empower brands to create content that addresses the specific concerns, desires, and interests of their prospects, dynamically adapting the messaging as the relationship with the customer evolves.
Related reading: The Pros and Cons of AI in Marketing
As smart speakers and voice-activated digital assistants become more prevalent, voice search optimization will be critical. Content that is optimized for voice search needs to be more conversational and direct to align with natural speech patterns. Ultimately, this can improve visibility in voice search results, making it easier for potential customers to find and learn about your brand’s offerings just by speaking.
To optimize for voice search, content must be succinct and structured in a way that aligns with natural language queries. That means focusing on long-tail keywords that match the more detailed, question-based searches typical of voice queries.
Companies must also ensure their online presence is optimized for local search, as many voice searches are local in nature. Optimizing for local search typically involves ensuring that a company’s location details are accurate and easily discoverable online, which is particularly important for businesses that have a physical presence or offer services in specific areas.
In the KPIs above, we talked about buyer intent and buyer closing data, and the importance of understanding both qualitative and quantitative metrics to evaluate your customer experience and demand gen strategies. Ultimately, however, brands need to depend on all kinds of first-party data—data given to them consensually by audiences.
With a cookieless future ahead, marketers need to rely on privacy-friendly ways to gather, store, and analyze data. Synthesizing data to gain insights will be a challenge, but that’s why it’s imperative brands begin the first-party data and privacy-first journey now while they have time before Google steals our cookies.
Go beyond blogs with interactive content experiences
Interactive content experiences are about creating a two-way street for engagement, making the audience active participants in the content they consume. This shift from static to dynamic content involves integrating quizzes, polls, assessments, and interactive infographics that do more than just present information—they invite interaction. Interactive elements for B2Bs could include user-friendly interfaces enabling buyers to explore content aligned with their interests, in-depth analytics providing marketers with insights into consumer requirements, and dynamic features facilitating online discussions.
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