Lead pot exhausted? - Time for Demand Generation!

There is currently a noticeable shift in the B2B marketing market. Many B2B companies that previously used lead generation (lead gen for short) now want to focus more on the ‘new trend’ of demand generation (demand gen for short). This is often due to a new awareness that the previously exhausted lead pots are not infinite and that lead numbers are falling as a result. But what exactly does Demand Gen mean and how does it lead to new leads?

 What is demand gen vs. lead gen?

Demand generation is about building long-term relationships between customers and a brand. This starts with creating awareness of a product or company. The aim is to increase demand even among people who previously had no contact with the solutions on offer. Demand generation therefore focuses on the top of the funnel.

Classic lead generation, on the other hand, starts deeper in the sales funnel (middle-of-the-funnel). Here, leads are intercepted from people who already have a certain level of interest in a product. This significantly lowers the hurdle for them to provide their contact details for more information in order to be contacted in the next step and, at best, converted into a paying customer.

 Different funnel stages require different advertising measures

Both approaches stand for different types of advertising measures. Classic lead gen works with landing pages, pay-per-click adverts and social media campaigns that advertise the download of a white paper, participation in a webinar or similar content. The conversion target takes centre stage here.

Demand Generation focuses instead on content marketing, organic social media posts, corporate influencers and PR activities. This type of freely accessible content is used to support the research process for a solution instead of directly sending a conversion message when the users are often not yet ready.

 Focus on customer relationships and brand building

 

It is important to focus on building a brand relationship. And as in interpersonal relationships, nothing works here without trust. Getting demand gen right therefore means entering into a dialogue with your target group, understanding their problems and only then developing high-quality content that delivers real added value. In the long term, building a relationship with (potential) customers also means continuously providing them with the right information.

 

According to  demand gen expert Tim Rath 

in most B2B markets around 95% are not actively in the buying process - so with pure lead gen, only 5% of the target group is addressed. What helps here is constant target group-focussed content in the form of socials, articles or videos that these 95% engage with until they have received enough information to enter a buyer journey.

 

It becomes even more targeted when the demand generation content is offered collectively in Content Hubs  so that users can more easily draw the right information from the entire content arsenal.

 We are only strong together 

This is a two-phase process in which lead-gen activities are only started once the necessary interest has been generated in a target group through demand-gen activities - especially when trying to get a new target group excited about an as yet unknown product.

 What exactly does the ‘new trend’ bring?

Any questions? Our campaign team will be happy to help you - not only with short-term campaigns, but also with the development of a holistic demand generation strategy. Together with our experienced Content- & PR-Team, we can create a long-term, customised roadmap with high-quality content.