In a market where competition is brutal, and consumer habits continue to evolve — strategically marketing your company is essential. Amid countless strategies and creative ideas, one approach never fails to deliver tangible results: Demand Generation.
Demand Generation is the very first step to growing your business and getting eyes on your featured products or services. Dive into some timeless practices that can pivot your current marketing to put your effort where the most return lies.
We’ve detailed five demand generation best practices that keep things classic, with the number one focus being a return on your marketing investment.
What is Demand Generation?
Demand generation is an important strategy for any company with a growth mindset. In simple terms, demand generation means attracting fresh attention to your company and services. It takes a strategic mix of marketing tactics to creatively generate awareness and make it turn into more than a glance, but a sale.
Often confused with lead gen, these two strategies serve very different purposes within the marketing funnel. Lead generation's main focus is on nurturing pre-existing relationships. Demand generation has the primary goal of getting new eyes on your content.
To learn more about the difference between demand and lead generation, check out our blog, Demand Generation and Lead Generation — The Dynamic Duo.
Now that you understand more about what demand generation does for your business’s sales — here are 5 best practices to help you start generating revenue.
5 Demand Generation Best Practices
1. Set clear goals for your results
At 1 Bold Step, we like to remind each other, “If you aim at nothing — you will hit it.” If you never set clear goals for what demand generation best practices look like, then how will you know if it’s been achieved?
Sit down with your team and create a clear set of goals for successful demand generation. This can include marketing, sales, leadership, and anyone who wants to contribute. Have goals that are specific, attainable, and timely, and ones that you can measure with clear KPIs (Key Performance Indicators).
Then, in a few months or a year, you can revisit your original goals and decide if you were right on track or need some realistic adjustments. For example, we’ve noticed that giving tactics like digital ads a three-month test is the most accurate way to decide if they’re working.
2. Define your target audience
Successful demand generation isn’t possible without a detailed understanding of your customer. Identifying your ideal target audience is the best way to market to people who already want to do business with you.
Spend time researching the firmographics and demographics of your target audience to gain a better understanding of their intent. Quality research of your target audience includes their previous purchasing habits, and pain points when it comes to buying. This will help you find out what the competitors are doing better to attract your customers.
3. Personalized and Relevant Content
Creating content tailored exactly to your target market is not a step to skip over. Mirror your customer's distinct needs in the type of content you’re presenting. Whether the content is blog posts, social media updates, or viral videos, you must ensure it contains valuable content for your viewers.
Not only does personalized content boost engagement, but it also builds trust. The buyer now knows you value their interests. This might seem like an unnecessary step, but once they are ready to buy or recommend a friend, it will have been worth the effort.
4. Collaborate with sales & marketing teams
Without aligning sales and marketing teams, leads often get lost in transition. This results in countless losses of revenue and productivity. The goal is to create a process for seamless handoffs of leads from marketing to sales. If done right, leading to a new customer relationship.
Take a look at the flow cycle below created by Gartner. Their research showed that a focus on aligning sales and marketing teams makes you 3x more likely to achieve your demand gen goals.
By creating clear communication standards for each step of the process, you've caused both teams to work together. Striving towards the common goal of a successful customer experience. This makes sure every need is met, not only the current problem your prospect is facing.
Both teams can now examine individual results and which steps are generating growth. Download our free Revenue Operations Alignment presentation to get insights on bringing these two divisions into lockstep.
5. Adapt and Improve
Once you’ve done the heavy labor of creating a target-focused demand generation strategy, don’t let it get set aside and become outdated. Continuously optimize your content and strategy as your market and audience change. Studying your data and making the appropriate adjustments is the only way to make this work worthwhile.
Evaluate what’s working and if you can invest more of your time and resources into things you already know provide you a return on your investment. Apply the same method to what’s not working and decide if you can completely cut these things out and increase your capacity.
Stay agile, and keep adapting. Market trends will never stop evolving, as will consumer behavior. Experimenting is part of the learning process. Every failure is an opportunity to discover something new about what it takes to close the deal.
Time to get started
Demand generation is a key strategic step in your marketing journey. It is the most accurate way to attract people to your company’s market. The practices above can help get you started in finalizing a demand-generation process that drives sustainable growth and generates revenue.
If you've begun to realize there is no way you could do all this yourself — what you might need is a strategic growth plan. Get in touch with our team and watch us prove marketing value to your business’s growth.
