Demand Generation: In Simple Terms
Have you ever participated in that contest on social media, where you had to follow a company’s handle (a pizza company, for example) and share one of their latest posts and place their hashtags on your post? And in return for this, you stood the chance to win a years’ worth of free pizza? Well, you just witnessed demand generation marketing in action!
The process of boosting awareness of your product/service and then generating genuine interest in it is the easiest definition of demand generation. The idea is to hit that sweet marketing spot with your targeted audience, make them understand the need for your product/service, and generate qualified leads.
Bringing in high-quality leads is a mountainous challenge for 37% of marketers these days, so generating demand can be unsuspectingly powerful.
In this article, we will explore the world of demand generation and attempt to explain why a sound strategy can be as effective as those deal-closers.
Why do you need a Demand Generation Strategy?
In the true sense of the term, demand generation is all about creating an awareness of a requirement in the minds of customers, i.e., telling customers why they need your product/solution. Of course, this may not sit well with a majority of your target group (TG), but it definitely knocks in a clear message if done properly.
The process helps your company to position your product/solution to customers such that it would either help them address a long-standing business problem or would help grow their business.
If you had to troubleshoot a lightbulb, would you check an article written on the Philips website, or the webpage of a local manufacturer? Demand generation strategies usually focus on customer-educating activities that would make the company an industry-leading source of trusted and valuable information.
Another big reason for needing an unyielding demand generation strategy is to build a strong pipeline of potential customers, some of whom can eventually become ambassadors and propel the brand.
Types of Demand Generation Strategies
Based on the TG, there are 2 types of demand generation strategies. Check out some morsels of information about both types below:
No. | Broad-Reach (Inbound) Marketing | Account Based Marketing (ABM) |
1. | You cast a wide net for customers through inbound marketing efforts like paid ads, email marketing, interactive social media, and content marketing. | You target a predetermined set of high-ticket accounts through marketing. Custom-made content like targeted ads, focus emails, and relatable content are areas of concentration. |
2. | The method here is lengthy but fairly simple: attract, filter, convert, close, and retain customers. | Here since the TG is key people (decision makers) in companies, the method will be customised and varied. |
3. | This strategy works well for most B2B businesses, and the techniques can be used across geographies as well. | This strategy works for niche markets, outbound marketing-specific industries, or if your company is a newbie in an industry. |
4. | Can have a slightly longer sales cycle and tends to for customers of a wider buyer persona – i.e., from individuals to collective groups. | You have a shorter sales cycle and relatively higher ROI with account-based marketing due to key accounts and a focused approach. |
5. | Example: Check out the Instagram account of The North Face, where the company posts inspirational, authentic, and relatable content that drives interest to the brand’s values and brings customers closer. | Example: Data warehouse provider Snowflake developed unique ads that targeted a handful of high-value accounts at specific times to increase their overall growth rate by 300% in a span of 15 months. |
5 Marvellous Demand Generation Strategies (for SaaS)
Putting together workable, result-oriented, and sustainable demand generation strategies in 2023 can be daunting, with the advent of AI and Machine Learning.
Keep it simple, especially if you’re into the SaaS business, by using any of the below strategies:
1. Building Content & Domain Authority
The epoch of the “Self-Serve B2B Tech Buyer” is now here. 65% of today’s workforce comprises Millennials and Gen-Z people whose buyer persona has married search engines and social media, so it’s imperative to have a bullet-proof content strategy that helps build and maintain your company’s domain authority.
While this can be done by engaging with B2B buyers through content formats like blogs, videos, case studies, white papers, and eBooks, review sites (and references) have become the biggest impactors on their purchasing decisions.
2. Marketing Automation for The Win
After constructing your pipeline of qualified leads, it’s time to bring in marketing automation! This involves primarily sending targeted messages and emails to these leads, and constantly engaging with them through the sales funnel. Include extra information, statistics, and latest buying trends to create an oomph factor for your SaaS brand, especially to those who are in the exploratory phase. The “Welcome” campaign by Airbnb that greets users with clear and engaging calls to action (CTAs) is a wonderful example of marketing automation.
3. Wiser Ad Spending
For swathes of top managers, key decision makers, and hustlers in the SaaS space, time is quickly becoming a costly asset. If these people are spending time on LinkedIn, Google, and Facebook, then you need to be promoting your content with PPC ads that will take you right to the top during search. ABM tactics can also tick well here. Take the below photo ad by Monday.com for example. The ad cleverly uses the rainbow colours of Apple to effectively target Mac users.
4. Display Remarketing Still Relevant
If you knew that a whopping 96% of website visitors leave without converting and nearly 50% of those people needed at least 3-4 more visits before making a purchase decision, would you be interested in a strategy that made them come back? Remarketing campaigns still make a lot of sense for B2B demand generation since the visual stimulus of seeing an ad after going to another site works these days.
5. Partnering with Industry Aficionados
Although it can be a long-drawn and tricky process to partner with SaaS industry leaders and spokespersons, the results can really tickle the demand receptors of your potential clients. Webinars, especially those with, say, a trending LinkedIn influencer, must include best-in-class practices, knowledge-sharing, and Q&A sessions to be really successful.
Metrics to Judge Your Demand Generation Tactics
The real achievement of a demand generation strategy is being able to quantify your efforts in some way. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is one such metric. CLV normally tracks the profitability of a B2B account over the entire length of your relationship with the account.
It goes without saying that Conversion Rates remain a critical metric of success. These rates measure how many MQLs (marketing-qualified leads) were funneled from the top and converted to SQLs (sales-qualified leads) and then further from there.
A great demand generation campaign, especially one that involves account-based marketing, can be easily measured using the average deal size. It can be calculated by dividing the total revenue raked in after the campaign by the number of deals closed.
Defining the Demand Generation Marketer
In 2023, the typical demand generation marketer needs to be data-driven and more customer-centric. One of the quickest moving B2B trends is leveraging buyer intent. Marketers would have to zero in all their efforts on what their TG is looking for and how they can leverage their own and 3rd party data to put a demand generation strategy in place. AI and ML are already advanced enough to capture demand intent signals from various social media and search engines to build models that can help this marketer.
Final Thoughts
In toto, demand generation is the holy grail of your sales and marketing funnel. Without a robust strategy for generating better demand, your SaaS business is like a ship without a mast. The nucleus of any demand marketing strategy is to know your TG through and through. Plan your strategies with a pointed focus with value-adding metrics that can really carry your brand through the B2B space and give your company a springboard to better success.
