The right demand generation strategy will take your business to new heights.
You've developed a product or service to meet the needs of your target audience, but demand isn't as high as you want it to be. By boosting your brand presence and improving how customers view your offering, you can enjoy higher demand and the increased revenue that comes along with it.
To do this, you have to understand what demand generation entails and how to build a strategy that ensures your audience knows your brand and the value behind it. Using the right demand generation strategy for your brand will build trust among your target customers and ultimately grow your business.
What is demand generation?
Demand generation involves using marketing to create awareness and demand for your company's product or service. In most cases, a demand generation strategy focuses on a specific target audience. At the same time, demand generation can also lead to wider general awareness of what your company offers.
As a result of increased awareness and interest—whether from your target audience or others—demand generation can bring you more leads and paying customers.
For small and midsize businesses (SMBs), demand generation strategies are a way of taking the reins when it comes to attracting customers. While larger companies have big marketing budgets they can allocate to primetime commercials and ubiquitous billboards, smaller companies need to be more surgical with their marketing efforts. Demand generation strategies make this possible.
Looking for branding resources?
Check out our Branding Essentials for Successfully Marketing Your Small Business.
Demand generation lowers customer acquisition costs
The unique benefits of lower customer acquisition costs and increased brand awareness are key motivators for marketers looking to create a demand generation strategy.
By carefully planting and nurturing your marketing efforts, you can significantly prune customer acquisition costs (CAC), a key metric in the demand generation sphere.
CAC refers to how much it costs to acquire a new customer. If you spend less on getting a customer than the customer spends on your product, you win. Gauging wins and losses is relatively straightforward once you take into account customer lifetime value (CLV).
Suppose your average customer purchases products from your business for five years for an average spend of $100/year. That person's CLV would be 5 x $100 or $500. If you spent $250 on marketing to that customer, that would be a clear CAC win..
Smaller organizations have to use demand generation while considering CAC and CLV. While it takes more effort to painstakingly position and nourish each marketing endeavor, the drop in CAC can more than justify the time and money you spend.
Want more help lowering CAC?
Check out these 3 Tips To Develop a Customer Acquisition Model That Drives Growth
Demand generation vs. lead generation
With demand generation, you're increasing awareness of and interest in your product/offering and its attributes—particularly how they solve your target audience's problems.
Lead generation focuses on turning customers who've already shown some interest in your offering into highly qualified leads and, ultimately, customers.
In a lead generation campaign, you're trying to gather contact information so you can connect with leads and turn them into paying customers. With demand generation, you're showcasing value to inspire interest in what you're bringing to market.
While lead generation has a fixed place in the marketing funnel, demand generation can occur at various phases. For instance, you could generate demand before gathering contact information but you could also reinforce the sales process with a demand generation campaign aimed at people who are already qualified leads, nurturing them into customers.
/ CASE STUDY
How demand generation facilitates brand awareness
Brand awareness is a byproduct of many different marketing strategies, and demand generation is no exception.
In a recent Capterra interview, Chris Gerbig, co-founder of clothing retailer Pink Lily, reflected on how this works. Pink Lily's success stemmed from the fact that "the brand benefitted as a result of what we did on the marketing side."
"I think it requires understanding that you need to have a lot of different marketing channels, a lot of different campaigns—and just trying to make sure you have someone on the team who understands the differences between each channel."
In general, when trying to maximize brand awareness, Gerbig advises: "Take calculated risks, and then study what worked and what didn't work. You have to take a step back after you try something new and say: 'OK, why did this work? Why did this not?' This is [applicable to] business in general and not necessarily [only] branding or marketing. I would say just start. You can’t be successful until you try and then take calculated risks and measure the success."
Like Pink Lily, to effectively build awareness and strengthen your position in the market, you can use influencer marketing, social channels, events, and paid and earned media.[1]
6 demand generation strategies
These six strategies can be used individually or combined to form a comprehensive approach to demand generation.
1. Nurture high-quality leads
This always involves an element of personalization. You can provide content that connects to a problem your target customers are trying to solve, or use email campaigns (segmented by group) featuring messaging that resonates with recipients.
To whittle down your target audience for a lead-nurturing initiative, employ lead scoring, which involves ranking leads based on how they engage with your product.
2. Incorporate account-based marketing
With account-based marketing, you focus on certain kinds of accounts, such as high-value customers or specific companies, to generate demand.
3. Invest in partner marketing
Partner marketing involves teaming up with other companies to help promote each other's offerings. This benefits your demand generation strategy by expanding your customer base. You can also take it a step further by focusing on customers that fit a certain profile, such as those who reside in certain cities or who have spent above a specific amount in the past year.
Narrow your search for branding agencies with our list of companies in the following areas:
4. Use intent channels
Intent channel demand generation involves crafting a communication strategy based on customers' intent to make a purchase. You can gauge intent by analyzing abandoned shopping carts or the amount of time customers spend in store based on geolocation data.
In other situations, you can determine intent channels using demographic information and then marketing toward certain groups on social media, via email marketing, or using pay-per-click campaigns.
Don't overbid on your pay-per-click campaigns!
With our bid calculator, you can find your target, maximum bids, customized to your specific business goals.
5. Develop education and content materials
Informational and educational materials can help customers understand how your product solves their problems, resulting in increased interest and demand. Demonstrating your product offering in action, as well as how to use it, showcases its utility and appeal.
6. Implement a lead scoring system
With a lead scoring system, you can focus on the highest-value leads and establish useful scoring metrics based on factors like:
How motivated customers are
Words or phrases they use in transcripts of chats with customer service or sales reps
The length of time they spend on your site or engaging with marketing materials
How long they’ve been leads
The number of products they’ve put in shopping carts
Existing clients they're affiliated with
The strength of another customer's referral
Of course, you can score leads however you'd like, as long as the metric reflects the target's purchasing intent.
Demand generation and branding are intertwined, and a branding agency can aid your efforts
Your brand and your demand generation efforts are tied together; one informs the other in a constant cycle. Capterra has the resources you need to support your efforts, but you don't have to do it alone. The right branding agency can be invaluable, and help you achieve results you didn't expect.
Explore: