Demand generation is the process of creating and nurturing demand for your products or services. It is an essential part of any business strategy as it helps to create a consistent flow of qualified leads for your sales pipeline.
However, creating a demand generation strategy that generates results can be challenging, especially for small B2B businesses.
In this blog post, we’ll answer how to develop a B2B demand generation strategy and explore the seven key steps involved in it.
Let’s get started!
1. Understand Your Target Audience
Understanding your target audience is critical to the success of your demand generation strategy.
Without a clear understanding of your audience, it is difficult to create targeted messaging and content that resonates with them.
When you understand your audience, you can create targeted messaging that speaks directly to their pain points and needs. This can help you attract qualified leads and nurture them through the sales funnel.
To define your target audience, you can use strategies such as:
- Customer surveys to gain insights into the needs and pain points of your target audience
- Data analysis to identify trends and patterns in your customer data
- Customer persona development, which involves creating fictional representations of your ideal customers based on your existing customer data and research
Once you have defined your target audience, you can use this information to use language and messaging that resonates with them and choose channels that they frequent.
2. Develop Your Value Proposition
Your value proposition is a statement that explains what you offer, how you are different from your competitors, and why your target audience should choose your product or service.
To create a unique value proposition, you should start by researching your target audience and your competitors. You should identify the needs and pain points of your audience, and understand how your competitors are positioning themselves in the market.
Once you have this information, you can create a value proposition that is unique and compelling. In your unique statement, focus on the problem you solve for your target audience and what makes you different from your competitors.
The best way is to integrate it into your messaging and content across all channels, from your website and email campaigns to your social media and advertising. It should be consistent and reinforced throughout the customer journey, from the awareness stage to the consideration and decision stages.
3. Create a Multi-Channel Approach
A multi-channel approach is necessary for a successful demand generation marketing strategy because it allows you to reach your target audience through multiple channels and touchpoints.
95% of demand generation marketers know the importance of a multi-channel approach, but only less than 70% leverage it.
With a wide distribution channel in place, you can increase your visibility and reach, and nurture leads through multiple stages of the demand generation funnel.
Some channels to consider when creating a multi-channel approach include:
- Social media
- Content syndication and marketing
- Email marketing
- Search engine optimization (SEO)
- Paid advertising
Choose the channel that’s most effective for your target audience.
To create a cohesive strategy that leverages multiple channels, you should start by defining your target audience and the channels they are most likely to use. It’s also important to track and measure your results for each channel and make adjustments as needed.
4. Work on a Demand Generation Content Strategy
Content is an important part of your demand generation strategy because it allows you to attract and engage your target consumers.
You may like to see how we helped an HR tech company generate demand for their new HR solution using ABM content syndication. We successfully generated 3014 MQLs to fuel their sales pipeline.
And so can you!
But with the right demand generation content strategy.
Here are a few points to remember when creating your content strategy:
- You should focus on creating content that positions yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
- Build trust and credibility with your target audience by showcasing what you can do and how you’ve helped other clients before.
- Use a mix of different content types – informative blog posts, whitepapers, webinars, videos, and infographics.
- Ensure that the type of content you choose best fits the stage of your demand generation funnel. For example, blog posts and social media updates can be used for awareness and consideration, while webinars and ebooks can help you qualify leads with buyer intent.
- When creating content, keep your target audience in mind and create content that speaks directly to their needs and pain points.
- Your content should be informative, educational, and engaging, and should provide value to your target audience.
- Also, decide on the most effective content distribution channels to reach the right accounts. For example, LinkedIn works best for most B2B buyers.
5. Implement Lead Scoring and Qualification
Lead scoring and qualification are important processes for your demand generation marketing strategy because they allow you to prioritize your leads and focus your efforts on the most qualified prospects.
To set up a lead scoring and qualification process, you should start by defining the criteria for each process:
- For lead scoring, you should consider factors such as website activity, email engagement, social media interactions, and content downloads. The prospects should have shown interest in your content or products/services.
- For lead qualification, you should consider factors such as job title, company size, industry, and budget. They should match that of your ideal customer profile (ICP).
Once you have defined your criteria, you can set up your lead scoring and qualification process using a marketing automation tool or CRM software.
This will allow you to track and score leads based on their behavior and demographic data, and segment them into different categories based on their level of engagement.
6. Track and Measure Success
Tracking, and measuring the success of your demand generation strategy is crucial for understanding what is working and what isn’t. It will help you optimize your approach over time.
You should:
- Monitor key metrics like:
- Website traffic
- The number of social post impressions and click-throughs
- Email open and click-through rates
- Blog post or web page read times
- The number of subscriptions to your newsletter or webinar
- And more
- Identify areas for improvement in terms of:
- Content quality
- Messaging
- Content distribution channels
- Optimal send times
- Social media engagement
- Lead-to-customer conversion rates
- And more
- Track your progress toward your goals.
- Make data-driven decisions about where to focus your efforts.
Monitoring these metrics will help you gain valuable insights into how effective your strategy is and tweak it for a higher ROI.
For instance, if your email open rates are low, you may need to rework your subject lines or send times. Similarly, if your website traffic is high but your conversion rates are low, you may need to revise the copy and calls-to-action (CTAs) on your landing page.
7. Continue to Refine and Optimize Your Strategy
Demand generation is an ongoing process that requires continuous monitoring and refinement to stay effective over time. You need to assess results and adjust your approach regularly.
To monitor and refine your strategy, you should:
- Regularly review your success metrics and performance data to identify areas for improvement. This could involve testing different messaging or content formats, experimenting with new channels or tactics, or refining your targeting or segmentation approach.
- Stay up-to-date with industry trends and best practices.
- Keep a close eye on your competitors to understand how they are approaching demand generation.
- Adapt new trends and proven strategies into your marketing and demand generation plan to stay ahead of the curve and continue driving measurable results for your business.
Ultimately, the key to success in demand generation lies in the willingness to experiment, learn, and adapt.
Build Your B2B Demand Generation Strategy
A well-executed demand generation strategy can drive more traffic, generate more leads, and ultimately, lead to more revenue for your business.
So, invest your time and resources into developing a comprehensive and effective strategy to position your company well for long-term success.
We hope that the tips and best practices outlined in this post will help you build a demand generation strategy that drives real impact for your business.
Now, take action and get started.