Demand Generation is a fairly new term in the marketing space. There’s typically confusion between this concept and lead generation. You would think that lead generation is creating demand, right? Yes, but lead generation is a part of demand generation.
In this article, we will dissect the definitions of demand generation and lead generation, why you should have a separate plan for both, and take a look at some of the tactics associated with each framework.
What is Demand Generation?
Demand generation is a strategic application of generating customer interest and curiosity at every step down the conversion process for a customer. From initial customer acquisition and nurturing to final sale conversion, the efforts you put in to create a positive experience for the customer are a part of demand generation.
Demand generation’s goal is to spark customer interest in your brand or product, also known as building brand awareness. You want them to become ambassadors of your company, and ultimately lifelong customers. If you don’t account for demand generation, customers will become bored of your brand or not engage with it in the first place.
What is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is a microcosm of demand generation found at the top of the funnel. The sole objective of lead generation is to identify and target people who are potential prospects and get them to enter your marketing funnel.
You can usually identify lead generation through a benefit-and-reward relationship between the business and the prospect. Typically, a business targets a prospect using some form of gated content.
A gate is usually a website form where a user must enter their information in exchange for a reward. The content behind the gate can be an infographic, video, or any piece of content that can be of value to the prospect.
In exchange for their information, the prospect is rewarded with content behind the gate. That content can provide value in ways like educating the prospect on how to solve the problem they were researching when they landed on your website.
The Problems with a Lead Generation-Only Approach
Every business owner, marketer, or sales team loves a ton of leads in their pipeline. However, if you focus only on acquiring leads, you will create an environment where you can potentially generate a large number of leads, but they won’t know a thing about your brand and won’t convert as efficiently.
The quality of lead should be taken into consideration more so than the quantity of lead. If you are targeting prospects and giving them the necessary information and time to be nurtured to learn about your brand, that is great. If you become impatient and call these leads right after they sign up, you most likely will run into problems.
The Differences Between Lead Generation and Demand Generation
| Lead Generation | Demand Generation |
| The primary focus is to turn prospects into leads | The primary focus is to create brand awareness and attract new audiences |
| Uses tactics to acquire user information like sign-up forms. | Tactics are generally related to educating audiences about the brand or solving a user problem. |
| A lead generation-only focus will yield large quantities of leads that distrust your brand and most likely won’t convert. | A demand generation-focused approach will lead to a healthy number of “marketing qualified leads” and “sales qualified leads”. |
| Lead generation is not cost-efficient in the long run. It’s expensive generating new customers. | Demand generation creates customers for life. |
Demand Generation Tactics to Consider
Drive with Content Marketing
Quality content is key to virtually any marketing strategy. If you create content that makes you sound like you don’t know what you’re talking about, how can you expect people to take your brand seriously and trust it as a source for solutions to their problems?
Having a website blog is essential for a demand generation framework. Not only will it help you reach new prospects through organic channels like Google’s search engine but it will be the fuel for your email marketing strategy. It doesn’t make sense to utilize email marketing as a channel when you don’t have a blog because you will be reliant on content hosted on other websites. You want your audience to stay engaged with your brand.
The key to a successful content marketing strategy is to create content that your audience wants whether it is a blog post or video that you upload on social media.
Take a look at what your competition is using for content and make a better version of it. For example, if you see that your competitor has a blog article in the top 10 of Google, write a better version of it. In addition to the better blog article, throw in an infographic and a video explainer. You always want to top what your competitors are doing.
Also, don’t be afraid to be innovative and try new types of content. Again, take a look at your competition and identify gaps that you can expose. For example, if your brand competitor uses blogs but doesn’t have a great social media presence, you may want to take advantage of that gap and build out your social media presence.
Educate and Entertain with Video
Videos are a great way to find a new audience or keep your existing one entertained. People tend to forget that YouTube is one of the larger search engines after Google. How many times have you gone to YouTube looking for a DIY solution to a problem you’re looking to solve? Probably a lot.
Since video is a medium where people can see your product in action, it can be a powerful tool for your brand.
Sticking videos on product pages can allow prospects or leads to get a better understanding of the product they are viewing.
Jump on the Podcast Wave
Another great medium to include in your demand marketing strategy is podcasting. Podcasting has grown in popularity within the last 15 years with the invention of streaming services. It’s a great way to find new audiences because you can put a voice to the brand name.
Podcasts also provide lots of valuable insights and tips that people might take away with them. Once they realize that the podcast is very beneficial to them, they will subscribe, tune in every week and let their friends know about what they’re listening to.
Lead Generation Tactics to Consider
Use Lead Magnets
A lead magnet is essentially a reward for a prospect in exchange for their contact information. They can be considered an enticement for someone to take action on a lead form.
Lead magnets need to be compelling and very engaging. They also need to provide some sort of value. For example, a great lead magnet might be an infographic containing survey results of “the biggest problems digital marketers are facing in 2022”.
They also need to be downloadable and available right away. A downloadable lead magnet might perform much better than a handout or calendar that needs to be mailed and shipped to a prospect’s house. People want their content now.
The only drawback to using a lead magnet is that sometimes your lead quality can be poor because people might use a piece of fake information just to get to the downloadable content. As long as the email checks out you should be alright.
One way to make sure this occurs is to send the downloadable to their email address instead of a downloadable file from right off your website. This forces the prospect to give you the correct email address.
When working with magnets or any form of lead generation, you need to be wary of the information you are asking when they sign up. For a lead magnet, the minimum you should ask for is at least an email address. If necessary, you can also ask for a first name and last name.
Once you begin to ask for more information, the conversion rate of the lead generation form decreases as the number of fields or the requirements for the prospect begins to increase.
Utilize Contact Pages
Having a contact form where people can ask you questions directly is a great way to acquire new leads. The only caveat is that you need to include an opt-in message allowing you to contact them about promotional emails or asking them to sign up to receive a newsletter. That way the prospect is aware of your intentions.
Email Newsletter Sign-ups
An email newsletter sign-up form on your website is another way to get prospects. This method is more effective than a lead magnet because the prospect is directly opting into getting direct email communication from you. They will provide you with the correct email address because they want to receive the newsletter.
You can obtain email newsletter sign-ups by including a signup form in various areas on your website. The homepage and blog pages are probably the better-converting areas for an email newsletter sign-up.
Pop-ups prompting for email sign-ups are a great tool as well when used properly. Usually, an exit pop-up after you receive a visitor to a blog article politely asking them to consider signing up works well.
If you include too many pop-ups, you might get a lot of people bouncing off your website because pop-ups are deemed to be part of an invasive web experience. Also, most browsers have pop-up blockers so your form won’t be able to be viewed by the prospect.
Surveys
A strange web behavior characteristic is people love answering questions. If presented with a question online, there’s a chance that a website visitor will answer it, and the next one, and the next one, and so on. This makes surveys very effective for lead generation. Plus you can acquire behavior information about the lead to help target them better.
Let’s say you own a website that sells paint and you create a survey asking what is their favorite color of paint, based on that question you’ll learn what that contact’s favorite color is and collectively what is the favorite color of that audience that completed the form. Based on that information you can then better tailor your paint offerings.
A suggestion when using surveys is to keep the number of questions brief and put a lot of thought into what you are trying to ask.
Conclusion
Adopting a demand generation strategy for your business is probably the best bet for future success. Since it already includes a lead generation strategy within the framework, you’ll have all your bases covered. Relying solely on lead generation can lead to problems down the road.
