B2B Demand Generation: Definition, How it Works, Tips and Beyond

What is B2B Demand Generation?

B2B demand generation gets your ideal customers interested in your products or services. But it doesn’t stop there. After you’ve gotten their attention, a B2B demand generation strategy turns them into qualified leads.

The end goal is to have a pipeline of qualified leads you can pass on to the sales team for conversion.

In B2B, demand generation often involves a longer sales cycle. The decision-making process for business purchases can be more complex. Not to mention, it could involve several stakeholders.

As such, you may need to sustain your demand generation efforts longer. Plus, use various tactics and channels to reach and engage potential customers.

For example, a project management software’s primary audience is project managers. However, since project managers don’t control the company’s budget and usually don’t have the authority to make business investments without approval, it would likely take the software longer to convert this type of customer.

As for their demand generation initiatives, the software company might host weekly webinars that cover project management tips. They run social media ads to promote the webinar. They can even record it so that new leads can get instant access after they register with their email address.

Some other common tactics used in B2B demand generation include:

• Content marketing. Creating informative, educational content. This helps potential customers understand the value of the products/services. It also establishes trust and credibility to build client relationships with the brand. High-quality, search-optimized content brings traffic to your website. This traffic comes from potential clients if you’re targeting keywords and search queries they make. If the content provided them value (through answering their questions, solving a problem, guiding them through a process, etc.), they become interested in how else you can help them.

• Email marketing. Once someone subscribes to your email list, they’re considered a lead since they’ve given you their information. The interest has already been generated, usually by content marketing. But since demand generation doens’t stop at brand awareness, now your job is to nurture their interest by sending them relevant content.

• Social media marketing. The content you post on social media should be similar to what you post on a blog. It generates interest by providing value. Using the right hashtags, posting consistently, and sharing helpful, valuable content brings new traffic to your page. Once on your profile, they can click your bio links, explore more posts, view your stories, and more to learn more about your brand.

Research shows that B2B brands’ top three goals for demand generation are:

• Lead quality over quantity
• Improved campaign results
• Improving sales and marketing alignment

Alt text: B2B marketers’ top demand generation priorities graph

Let’s say a software company created an e-book explaining how to use live chat software for e-commerce.

They would promote the e-book through targeted advertising and email marketing campaigns. The target audience would be businesses trying to improve their e-commerce optimization with live chat features on their store.

The e-book wouldn’t just provide valuable information to potential customers. It also positions the software company as a thought leader in the e-commerce industry. In the end, this generates interest and leads for their business.

B2B Demand Generation vs. Lead Generation

B2B demand generation and lead generation are often used interchangeably. But they are distinct processes with different goals and strategies.

B2B demand generation creates awareness and interest in a company’s products or services. It’s focused on identifying and nurturing leads to drive revenue growth.

Demand generation tactics attract potential customers. They educate them about the products/services, and encourage them to take action, such as filling out a lead form or requesting a consultation.

For example, a marketing automations software company might write a detailed blog post about how B2B marketers can save time and money using automation software for their social media ad campaigns. Somewhere in the blog post, they include a CTA (call-to-action) requesting readers to sign up for a 30-minute webinar where they demo how to use their software to double their leads.

On the other hand, lead generation captures potential customers’ contact information. Such as their name, email address, and phone number.

The ultimate goal is to try to convert them into paying customers. This could be in the form of lead generation ads, email campaigns, social media marketing campaigns, or even cold calling in some cases.

An example of lead generation would be the CTA in the blog post we mentioned above, or just like this one 👇

Demand generation happened when the blog post successfully brought in traffic and held the attention of the potential customer (reader). The reader clicked the post from the search results and was interested enough to keep reading.

Lead generation happened when the reader successfully handed over their contact information.

Because of this, demand generation is the first step before lead generation. Leads can’t be generated if interest (demand) isn’t generated first.

Here are a few of the main differences:

• Goal: B2B demand generation creates awareness and interest in products or services. Lead generation aims to capture potential customers’ contact information.

• Audience: B2B demand generation focuses on attracting and nurturing potential customers. Lead generation strategies focuses on identifying and capturing contact information from potential customers.

• Tactics: B2B demand generation tactics bring in traffic, create brand awareness, and generate interest. Because of this, common tactics include writing blog posts, making social media posts, hosting webinars, etc. Lead generation tactics promote lead magnets that require contact information. For example, to get a free ebook, register for a seminar, or download a guide, the viewer has to complete a lead capture form that takes their email address and adds them to the brand’s email list.

How Does B2B Demand Generation Work?

Now that you know what B2B demand generation is, it’s time to learn how it works. In this section, we’ll review the five steps a successful B2B demand generation strategy takes so you can start crafting your own.

Step 1: Identify Target Audience

The first step in B2B demand generation is identifying the target audience. Understand your audience’s specific needs and pain points. Then, tailor marketing efforts to address them.

You can do this through:

• Market research. Market research is the process of gathering, analyzing, and interpreting data about a market to gain insights for decision-making purposes. In this case, it’s used to help you identify the specific demographics, likes and dislikes, pain points, and burning questions of your ideal customers. For example, you can use keyword tools like Ahrefs and Mangools to identify search queries they commonly make. You can also analyze data from your previous social media ads to discover which demographics your campaigns appealed to the most.
• Customer surveys. Surveys are the most direct way to get to know your current customer base. Ask previous customers or current clients if they could fill out a quick, one-minute questionnaire. Include questions such as how they heard about your product, what they hoped to get out of it, what they currently use it for, etc.
• Analyzing website data. Tools like Google Analytics give you deep insights into the audience you’re currently attracting on your website. You can identify demographics such as age, sex, country, and more. Plus, identify the keywords that are bringing in the most traffic, which allows you to understand which pain points your target audience struggles with most.
• Data from social media channels. Like ads, your social media pages also provide demographic insights if you’re using a business account.

Step 2: Create Awareness

Next, create awareness of your company’s products or services among potential customers. You can do this through various tactics, like content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, and targeted advertising.

According to MarketingCharts, the most successful top-of-the-funnel demand generation tactics for B2B brands are in-person events, lead nurturing campaigns, and webinars.

Source

Alt text: most successful tactics for B2B demand generation

Using this information, a web development company could host a one-hour talk at a local marketing event where they explain how to optimize a SaaS website to improve their conversion rates. Before or after this talk, they hand out a visual or summary of the talk with their contact information included.

Step 3: Nurture Leads

The next step is to nurture your leads. This involves providing valuable information and building a relationship with them over time.

The goal is to keep them engaged. Brands can do this using email marketing, webinars, personalized content, and more.

For example, once you’ve captured a lead through a magnet—such as a free ebook or a webinar registration—nurturing that lead would entail continuing to send them emails consistently with useful content they can employ to continue achieving their goals.

This includes strategic personalization, such as email segmentation, where your email list receives content based on the reason they subscribed. This ensures one segment of your audience doesn’t receive content that’s irrelevant to them but relevant to other segments.

Another highly effective method to nurture leads is through email sequences, such as the one we can propose with LaGrowthMachine which is a B2B lead generation tool:

An email sequence is a series of emails based on a specific topic that interests or concerns your subscribers. The goal is usually to teach or guide them through this topic with practical advice they can implement to start seeing results.

Step 4: Qualify Leads

As you nurture leads, it’s important to qualify them to ensure they’re a good fit for your products or services. This involves assessing a lead’s level of interest, budget, and decision-making authority.

If you haven’t already done so, identify more specific details of your ideal lead, such as company size, location, job title, budget, and reasons why they want to use your product. Then, ensure you request this information in all your lead capture forms or over phone calls if you use an appointment model.

Once you have this information, use their budget, level of urgency, alignment with your offerings, and the potential for long-term partnership to determine priority. From here, you can develop a scoring system that assesses leads’ priorities based on their fit with your ideal customer profile. Assign points to different characteristics, actions, or responses to determine how you should prioritize following up with them.

This is also where having a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software comes into play.

Keep a record of all interactions and information obtained from the leads. Your CRM should easily be able to maintain a centralized location of all lead data. This will help you track progress, evaluate success rates, and refine your lead qualification process over time.

Step 5: Convert Leads into Customers

The final step is converting leads into paying customers. This is where your sales team takes over and works to close the deal.

How to Create a B2B Demand Generation Strategy in 8 Simple Steps

Congratulations—you now know how B2B demand generation works! But how do you put this information into an effective strategy?

1. Define your target audience

Identify the ideal customer profile (ICP) for your business. This will help you tailor your messaging and outreach efforts to the right audience.

Here are a few ways you can pinpoint who your target customers are:

• Analyze your existing customer base to identify common characteristics and demographics
• Consider factors such as age, gender, location, income, interests, and pain points
• Use social media analytics to gain insights into your audience’s behavior and preferences
• Ask for feedback from your existing customers to understand their needs and challenges
• Watch industry trends and changes in consumer behavior to stay ahead of the curve
• Continue to analyze and refine your target audience as your business evolves

2. Set clear goals

Determine what you want to achieve with your demand generation efforts. This could be increasing lead generation, boosting sales, or improving brand awareness.

Setting goals is crucial in a B2B demand generation strategy as it provides a clear direction and measurable targets for your efforts. When doing so, follow these steps:

• Define the intention behind your demand generation initiatives. Start by identifying the broader business objectives that your demand generation strategy aims to achieve. These could include increasing revenue, expanding market share, launching a new product, or entering a new market.
• Develop more specific demand generation goals. Next, translate your initiatives into specific and measurable goals. For example, if your objective is to increase revenue, a specific goal could be to generate a certain number of qualified leads per month or achieve a specific conversion rate.
• Set SMART goals. Ensure that your goals are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART). This means setting goals that are clear, quantifiable, achievable, aligned with your business objectives, and have a defined timeframe. For instance, “Increase lead generation by 30% within six months” is a SMART goal.
• Consider historical data and benchmarks. Use historical data and industry benchmarks to inform your goal-setting process. Analyze past performance and compare it to industry standards to set realistic goals that challenge your team while still being achievable. You can take this data from previous ad campaigns, website analytics, social media analytics, etc.
• Break down goals into actionable metrics. Once you’ve defined your main goals, break them down into actionable metrics or key performance indicators (KPIs). These metrics should be directly tied to your goals and enable progress tracking. Examples of relevant metrics could include lead conversion rates, cost per lead, website traffic, or engagement rates on marketing campaigns.
• Regularly monitor and review progress. Keep track of the performance of your demand generation efforts against the KPIs you’ve identified. To do this, you can use analytics tools, CRM systems, and website reporting tools like Ahrefs. Review and analyze the data to identify areas of improvement, optimize strategies, and make necessary adjustments to stay on track.

3. Conduct market research

Understand your market and competition. This will help you identify market gaps and opportunities to differentiate your business.

Market research gathers and analyzes information about an industry or product. The goal is to help you make informed business decisions. It involves collecting data from various sources (surveys, focus groups, online analytics, etc.). Then, use that data to identify market trends, consumer preferences, and potential opportunities or challenges.

Market research can help you assess the competition and make informed decisions. Especially regarding product development, pricing, marketing, and other critical business strategies.

Follow these steps to make the most out of your market research initiatives:

• Define your research objectives and questions
• Choose the appropriate research methods (i.e., surveys, focus groups, online analytics)
• Develop a research plan and timeline
• Collect and analyze data using tools (i.e., statistical software, data visualization tools)
• Interpret the results and draw conclusions
• Use the findings to inform business decisions and strategies
• Continuously monitor and update your research as needed

4. Develop buyer personas

Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers. But they’re based on accurate data and research.

They help you better understand your customers’ needs, preferences, and behaviors. In turn, this lets you tailor your marketing and sales efforts according to them.

Data you need to gather include:

• Demographic information
• Job titles
• Pain points
• Goals and motivations
• And more

Having well-defined buyer personas can be valuable for businesses of all sizes. They help you create more targeted marketing strategies that resonate with your audience.

5. Create a content strategy

Develop content that addresses your buyer personas’ needs and interests. This could include blog posts, whitepapers, case studies, infographics, videos, and more.

A content strategy outlines how you’ll create, publish, and manage content. It involves determining the types of content that will resonate with your audience. Then, establish a plan for creating and distributing that content.

A content strategy usually includes the following elements:

• Goal setting. Establish clear content strategy goals. Such as increasing website traffic, generating leads, or improving brand awareness.
• Audience identification. Identify the target audience. Then, develop buyer personas to understand their needs and interests better.
• Content creation. Develop a plan for creating high-quality, engaging content.
• Content distribution. Determine the best channels and tactics for distributing content. Such as social media, email marketing, or content partnerships.
• Metrics and measurement. Establish metrics to track the content strategy’s success. Use data to optimize and refine the strategy.

A well-defined content strategy can help businesses establish thought leadership, build brand awareness, and drive engagement and conversions. It also helps ensure that content creation efforts align with business goals and that you use resources effectively.

Research shows that content creation alone contributed to B2B marketers’ increased success rate by 78%.

Source

Alt text: 7 factors that affect B2B marketers’ increased success rate

6. Build a lead generation program

Develop a plan to capture leads through various channels. Examples can be:

• Running social media ads to lead magnet landing pages
• Crafting an email sequence whose end goal is to get subscribers to book a call with someone on your team or request a product demo
• Plan online events like webinars
• Attend or throw in-person marketing events where you can network with local or national businesses

Remember, a B2B lead generation program attracts and captures leads’ information. The goal is to generate interest in your offerings. Then, gather contact information from potential customers for follow-up and conversion into sales.

The tactics you use to generate leads will depend on your target audience, industry, and marketing goals. You should always look into your collected data to determine which sources of communication your ideal customers prefer.

For example, if you find that you have low email open rates and click-through rates, focus your efforts on the channel that does have higher engagement. You might have thousands of connections on LinkedIn and get an impressive amount of shares on posts you write, which could indicate that LinkedIn lead generation would be worth more of your time and money than pouring more into email for the time being.

7. Use marketing automation

Use marketing automation tools to streamline your lead-generation efforts. Plus, nurture leads through the sales funnel.

Marketing automation uses software tools to automate repetitive marketing tasks. This includes email campaigns, social media posting, and ad targeting. Marketing automation streamlines marketing processes and increases efficiency. It also improves the effectiveness of marketing efforts. It delivers personalized and targeted messages to prospects and customers immediately.

You can use marketing automation to:

• Nurture leads through the sales funnel. Do this by delivering relevant content and messaging based on behavior and interests

• Improve lead quality and conversion rates. Do this by identifying the most engaged prospects. Then provide them with personalized messaging and offers

• Increase customer retention. Deliver personalized messages and offers based on their behavior and preferences

• Improve marketing ROI. Automate and optimize marketing campaigns based on data and insights

Marketing automation tools usually include features like:

• Lead scoring

• Email marketing

• Social media management

• Landing pages

• Analytics

These tools can help businesses save time and resources. Plus, improve lead quality and conversion rates. And deliver more personalized and targeted marketing messages to prospects and customers.

8. Measure and analyze your results

Track your progress against your goals and adjust your strategy when necessary. This is where your KPIs come into play.

Remember the actionable metrics you set when breaking down your goals at the beginning of your demand generation strategy. If your goal was to increase revenue, you’ll likely care most about conversion rate and cost per lead. If it was to increase brand awareness, keep close tabs on your page views, bounce rate, and click-through rate on social media and emails.

There’s a surplus of tools available to easy track progress, a lot of which are free—such as Google Analytics, built-in social media business analytics, and CRM data collections, as we’ve mentioned.

Keeping close watch on this type of data helps you easily identify the most time- and cost-effective ways to increase your campaigns’ performances while maintaining the highest possible ROI.

For example, if you find that customers begin filling out lead capture forms but data from your email marketing software reveals that they abandon it halfway through, you could direct your efforts into improving the capture form—making it shorter, more trustworthy-looking, requesting less information, etc.—instead of falsely identifying the landing page as the issue and reworking content that’s already performing well.

The Right B2B Demand Generation Strategy is Key to Scaling Your Business

In conclusion, B2B demand generation is critical to any successful marketing strategy.

B2B demand generation can be a powerful growth driver for businesses of all sizes. It all boils down to having the right tools and strategies in place.

Stay ahead of the competition by optimizing and refining your demand-generation efforts. This leads to long-term success. You can maximize your demand generation efforts with these steps. Plus, drive growth in today’s competitive B2B landscape.