Demand generation is an important part of finding leads that could become buyers someday. Here are seven tips you should incorporate into your company’s demand generation strategy.
1. Distinguish Demand Generation from Lead Generation
Although sometimes referred to interchangeably, these two strategies serve different purposes. Lead generation aims at people already aware of your brand and the goal is to convert them into customers.
Demand generation drives awareness of your brand – your target audience is people who may not have heard of your business. The goal is to inspire interest in your product or service by creating a need for it.
In other words, lead generation creates customers while demand generation is one of the first steps toward making a sale. It helps your organization reach new markets and engage with people who aren’t necessarily in a buying cycle but who might be later. Think of it as a collaboration between the marketing and sales departments.
2. Highlight Good Customer Reviews
One of the best ways to drive brand awareness and leave a lasting impression on potential buyers is through reviews. Positive customer feedback fosters trust in a company and is crucial for converting leads into customers. A 2023 survey of U.S. online shoppers found 43% of people cited customer reviews as very helpful, with an equal number of respondents doing research before buying a product.
3. Nurture Your Leads
A hallmark of demand generation is marketing and sales teams working together to drive customer engagement. When the marketing team reaches a potential customer, they must stay in tune with that person’s attitudes, beliefs and concerns. The staff can create useful content that answers the potential buyer’s common questions or gets them more interested in the product.
Lead scoring can help you evaluate whether someone will eventually become a customer. Instead of wasting resources on a lead who never intends to make a purchase, you can focus your efforts on the most promising prospects. A tracking and scoring system lets you assign points to leads based on their social media activity, demographics, engagement and more.
4. Monitor Lead Feedback
In addition to using a scoring system to pursue promising leads, it’s important to keep a close eye on the type of feedback your leads give you, whether directly or indirectly. This feedback can shape your marketing strategy as a whole.
For example, how many leads open your emails? How much time do they spend watching your social media ads and when do they click away? Answering these types of questions will give you a better idea of whether your outreach strategy is meeting people’s needs. If not, you can adjust it accordingly.
Maybe sending fewer emails or appealing to a different audience would generate more demand for your product. Perhaps cold calling isn’t working for your business anymore — a recent study found less than 20% of surveyed companies used it. You can also test different deployment times to see if customers engage with your brand more at certain times of the day or week.
5. Utilize Social Media
Demand generation is all about driving interest in your brand and engaging directly with prospective customers is a great way to do that. Social media lets you respond to individual comments, post engaging content and answer people’s messages in record time.
As well as using ads to drive people to your site, you can create a dedicated account where you share photos, videos and stories that generate awareness of your business. You can also use social media to understand who your customers are better. Who engages with your page the most? What kind of needs do your followers have and how could you meet those needs?
6. Create Helpful Content
Publishing online content like blog posts that answer buyer questions improves your brand’s credibility. Unlike outbound marketing, content marketing also helps potential customers stumble across your website with the help of SEO and leaves people feeling happy you helped them. They’re more likely to remember you as an industry expert they can turn to when they have questions.
When creating content, developing a buyer persona is often helpful so you can more vividly picture your target audience. Where are their pain points? What kinds of questions do they have?
You should also define the purpose of your content and decide what types of reactions you want to encourage from potential buyers. Then, choose how to promote your content and where to publish it.
7. Offer Free Resources
Give potential customers a free tool related to your product or service. For example, SEO software provider Moz offers a free domain authority checker on its website, allowing people to analyze the credibility of other sites. On the same page, Moz links to its products, blog and other SEO tools, helping generate demand.
Another way to draw in potential leads is by offering free guides or tutorials. If you run a plumbing service, you can create YouTube videos walking people through basic skills like plunging a toilet or fixing a leaky faucet. It might seem counterintuitive, but giving away some information can actually encourage people to buy your product or service.
Create Your Demand Generation Strategy
There are countless people out there who would love to know about your business – it’s just a matter of reaching them. Ensure your sales and marketing teams work together to generate interest and demand. Then, use these strategies to grab people’s attention and direct it where you want it to go.
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