When the B2B marketers set out to create a demand generation strategy they need to have a broad perspective in mind. The reason for this is that demand generation requires a specific amount of cooperation from both the sales and the marketing team, which is often overlooked by a lot of marketers.

Since demand generation is a data driven process, the best of the tactics identify and nurture the key prospects from both the sides of the sales cycles, over a long term. The demand generation tactics engages the prospects through multiple platforms and touch points.

This article is going to walk you through the efforts of how B2B marketers create a detailed demand generation strategy. We will explain every phase of demand generation funnel with emphasizing on optimization as well as sales creation.

We will be discussing specific touch points like:

1. Display re-targeting
2. Webinars
3. Sponsored research
4. Lead scoring

Must Read: 9 demand generation books every marketer must need to know

Understanding Demand Generation Strategy

Demand generation is used for bridging the gap between a company’s revenue and sales operations. It is a marketing system that includes several touch points from creating email list, to blogging, to social media promotion and all other inbound marketing tactics that are a part of the company’s demand generation strategy.

Demand generation is, however, not inbound marketing. The strategies may include inbound marketing techniques but it is just a single part of company’s bigger demand generation funnel. Similarly, demand generation isn’t lead generation either. Although a lot of people might not discriminate leads, demand generation is all about identifying potential prospects. You will bring only the highly qualified leads (Sales qualified or Marketing qualified) to the sales rep during the lead nurturing process. Demand generation strategy is about facilitating more sales and high conversion rates.

You can call demand generation as a weekly newsletter, a sponsored white paper, a webinar sponsored by the company or a meet up event. It is most definitely not a quick fix like the banner ads or cold email blasts.

More importantly, your demand generation strategy will identify the best touch points and target them for engaging the customers with. With this method a strong demand can be created for new as well as existing clients and prospects.

Must Read: Hack: Unlimited Demand Generation With Content Marketing

Nurture Leads for Better Demand Generation

When you are setting out to find more demand for your product, remember the prospects who have already shown interest. This investment will be a much smaller yet easier one to inspire your audiences to look at you in a new, improved way.

Moreover, if you have a poor strategy for nurturing leads you will waste your quality leads.

An ideal demand generation strategy should assess and divide leads that are not ready to buy and maintain their interest for future reference.

Nurturing lead is about arranging leads in a segmented list that are more effective and a precise email marketing campaign. This is the reason why you can use demand generation throughout the prospects life.

Segmentation of list helps you assess the following factors:

1. Size of the company
2. Web behaviour
3. Job roles
4. Integrating email clicks
5. Product line fit

Similarly, metrics like content downloads, web page views as well as total visits on site will let you know which content will be the strongest choice for approaching the leads.

All you need to do is prioritize these factors and the test them. By doing so your messages will target the segmented leads more effectively.

Must Read: 15 demand generation statistics every business must need to know

Score Leads for Better Demand Generation

The sales and marketing department should collaborate for determining demographics, behaviours and activities that qualifies the leads for your company. When you establish a lead scoring system it will allow you to rank your leads on the basis of their scoring.

Using the lead scoring system in your demand generation strategy can help you to target the leads that are best and are already in your funnel. When the lead scoring system will be in place, the sales team can touch the hottest leads for better sales and increased productivity.

Lead Generation Metrics

There are 5 lead generation tactics that are worth tracking.

1. The sales reps will love you for passing along clearly qualified leads. To recognize if your content is attaining the proper target audience and how effective its being is very essential. With lead scoring in place, you could discard unqualified leads and get an accurate picture of your overall performance.
2. You can minimize your cost of MQL to maximise the results. Tie a CRM with your marketing data for calculating the price of acquiring a qualified data.
3. Even as price per MQL is notable for indicating the health of your lead generation projects, look down the sales funnel to see how powerful those applications surely are. Measuring total spending against net profits will offer deep insight into the long term high-quality of current programs.
4. Your challenge as a lead generation marketer will be to determine which program to run. Which part of the demand generation strategy is producing highest ROI?
5. First touch ROI isn’t always an accurate way to evaluate a program. Some applications are influential after B2B lead generation, even as others seem most appealing at the primary or second touch point. Taking a wider angle will often display the larger truth about lead generation efforts.

Must Read: MQL to SQL conversion rate

Key Takeaways

Your demand generation strategy will need a lot of your attention for both existing leads as well as future leads. Your demand generation strategy will be successful only when you have created and harnessed the demand within all the available SQLs and MQLs.

Marketers should look into lead generation, lead nurturing through the whole sales funnel and lead scoring to ensure that the programs are effective now and will remain the same in the future. This requires prioritizing certain techniques like webinars, videos, display retargeting, free resources and bring people in your marketing funnel. Any B2B marketer will be well equipped to develop a strong demand generation strategy with these tools in hand.

Must Read: Demand Generation Etiquettes

Vikas Bhatt

Vikas Bhatt is the Co-Founder of ONLY B2B, a premium B2B lead generation company that specializes in helping businesses achieve their growth objectives through targeted marketing & sales campaigns. With 10+ years of experience in the industry, Vikas has a deep understanding of the challenges faced by businesses today and has developed a unique approach to lead generation that has helped clients across a range of industries around the globe. As a thought leader in the B2B marketing community, ONLY B2B specializes in demand generation, content syndication, database services and more.