In all industries, the need for demand generation is exponentially increasing. Almost everyone is talking about its importance and emphasizing that it should be implemented in every business.
With the advancement in every sector of the world, we can say that it’s time to step up the game. Whether you are running a small or big business, it’s important to do marketing uniquely. But as mentioned earlier, marketing is also advancing, and businesses are shifting from traditional marketing to cutting-edge technologies.
If you can create demand for your product and show it in front of the right audience, you can quickly transform the direction of your company. You need to find an audience who want your services, and your business can help them.
But many businesses are doing the same thing. You might ask yourself, how can I be unique? How do I show my audience that my services are all they need? Well, that’s where demand generation will help you.
It will directly talk with your audience and tell them answers to all the questions in their head. Answering all the questions that might cause resistance or stop them from purchasing. Let’s discuss more B2B demand generation and how you can implement it for your B2B business.
Related: What is Lead Generation?
What is B2B Demand Generation?
Demand gen is basically creating hype or, in simple words, demand for your business, products, offers or services. It is done by aligning demand gen campaign goals with your buyer’s objectives and pain points. The primary goal is to inform your audience that you can help them. Giving them a sneak peek of how your offer is the perfect solution for their problem.
When you create demand for your product, you don’t need to worry about the competition around you. Because people will come to you, it also minimizes the sales cycle and increases the conversion rate.
So in the chaos of many people, businesses and offers, you have successfully positioned yourself as a problem solver. And that’s what’s most important if you wish to stay in the eyes of your target audience and scale your business.
Pro Tip For B2B Demand Generation
Many marketers make the huge mistake of being impatient. They want immediate results in minimum time, which sounds like a huge scam and makes no sense. You must remember that B2B demand gen requires consistency and is time-consuming.
With demand gen, you establish an unbreakable bond with the target audience. Showing that you are the ideal vendor for them. Due to the wish to see quick results, many people ignore the important aspects of B2B business. Thus they fail to see any significant results from demand gen campaigns.
Let me make it simple for you with an example. Your business is like a garden that needs water daily. Trees and beautiful flowers won’t grow in your garden if you don’t water them (demand gen). If you don’t water your garden, how will you reap its benefits and get tasty fruits and flowers? (capture demand).
So instead of going into someone else’s garden to find a suitable flower or fruit. Water your garden, and everything else will come with it eventually.
Implementation In Businesses
You might wonder whether B2B demand gen is best for your business. It’s completely fine to get confused and become curious about it. Here are some examples to clarify the business concept in which you can implement B2B demand gen.
Example #1:
A law firm that’s basically working with mergers of tech companies. They help them smoothly merge and eliminate any legal obligations.
So who’s their target audience?
Obviously, tech companies want to merge. They can reach out to them to avail of these services.
Example #2:
A tech company that helps legal firms. They ensure there are no file management problems for these companies.
In this case, who’s the target audience?
Yes! It’s legal firms that are facing difficulty in managing files and using legacy filing systems.
Example #3:
Another tech company that makes software for legal firms. Especially for firms that help in merging legal and tech companies. With their software, the process becomes much easier.
Who do you think their target audience is?
Exactly. All tech and legal companies that want to merge.
However, it’s important to remember that B2B is not limited to tech or legal companies only. Any B2B company can use demand gen for their business. In a nutshell, if a business has a service, offer or product that can help other businesses, they can use this strategy. They can create demand and get more leads.
So instead of waiting for companies to find the problem in their existing working patterns and then seeing your business as a solution, you can present yourself as a guaranteed solution to their problem and get solid leads. But how does it start? It begins with simple curiosity, which builds into questions. Ask yourself;
- What industry might need our XYZ product, services or offer?
- Why would the companies in this industry purchase from us?
If you can answer these questions confidently, you already have a clear idea regarding your business. Remember that no matter what your business is, it’s important to gain the trust of your buyers.
Process Of B2B Demand Gen
The overall process might confuse some people. That’s why I will describe it to you in the simplest form. It will help you understand the basics to implement them in your business.
So initially, you need to understand your target audience. Identify who they are and check how you can solve their problems. It is followed by brand awareness because no matter how much you invest in marketing, if your audience can’t recognize you, then all your strategies are bound to fail.
This usually happens when you are showing your product to the wrong people. So market yourself in front of the right people.
If a person once gets your services, keep talking with them for a follow-up or testimonial. Even if a prospect shows resistance, keep nurturing them and give them gentle reminders on how you can help them. Then ultimately, convert them into your customers.
In the above paragraph, I’ve explained different stages of B2B demand gen in a much simpler way. But remember, in practicality, it’s far more complex than traditional marketing funnels.
The outcome is to nurture these leads so they become buyers. Moreover, you must remember that demand gen is incomplete without marketing and sales. Both teams must work harmoniously to see the best B2B demand gen results.
Best 5 Demand Gen Strategies
You might already know how important B2B demand generation is. Then it’s time to help you create a robust demand gen strategy for your business. So you can also reap its benefits and see amazing growth in your business.
Many demand gen strategies exist, but I recommend experimenting with what works best for your industry. I’ll share the top 5 strategies any B2B brand can use.
Public Relations
Don’t hide behind the curtains. It’s time to show your brand in front of everyone confidently. For this, you can set up a public relations campaign. It allows your brand leadership to be featured on many social media channels, news and television.
But it’s important to stay up-to-date about the latest trends in the business. And when any idea catches your attention, don’t let the fear of failure get in between. Pitch your idea and wait to present your brand to millions.
Webinars
Remember that not every marketing technique is expensive. Nowadays, much information is available on social media, YouTube, and Facebook for free. Use webinars to leverage your business. An example of this is a paint company.
They want to reach out to skilled, experienced, creative and talented painters. They can hold a webinar to discuss things that interest their audience the most. It can be about exploring different brand colors, design options, and much more. However, don’t forget to give subtle references to your big offer.
Live
You can host a three-day masterclass or one-day event. Before making this decision, study your niche and other businesses. Make this experience unforgettable and memorable for everyone who attends the event. They should gain some value by joining your live event. You can do many fun activities as well, such as;
- Games for icebreakers
- Provide networking opportunities
- Interactive activities
At the end of the event, leave a small tip or discounted offer for people who joined the program. It’s important to note that hundreds and thousands of live events are held daily. Now it depends on you on how you plan to stand out from the crowd.
Free Information
Everyone loves free things. Whether it’s value, information or tools, free things are available and consumed by people. It’s also a great way to interact with your audience and make your brand experience more exciting. For example, suppose your brand deals with online tech stuff. You can offer some of the learning experiences for free to people.
Such as sharing it via social media posts, blogs or LinkedIn newsletters. You can think as broadly as you want. There are no limits to it. This way, your audience will believe that you are an expert and will get to see your experience in this short-form content for free. Other than that, you can also offer the following;
- Free e-book
- Templates
- Free short course
- Consultation call for free
It’s human psychology that when customers know they are getting something for free. They become more inclined towards it and are highly likely to purchase it.
Podcasts
According to a survey in which around 300,000 listeners participated, many interesting things were discovered. Almost 64% of listeners said they had bought something they had heard about in a podcast. So if you are not using this stream for your business, you are missing out. It will open a whole new level of buyers to you.
Top 3 Demand Gen Strategies Experts Implement
The list of B2B demand gen strategies is endless. However, making a conscious decision about how any practice will transform your business is important. I’ve found these 3 strategies that aren’t only effective. But also used by some of the biggest businesses. So everyone considering implementing B2B demand gen strategies should use these.
Continuing Education Units
This is a simple approach through which your participants can earn CEUs. But for that, you must host events, webinars and podcasts relevant to your target audience. Don’t shy away from marketing your brand in this way. CEU events will also include information about your business. All you need to do is to captivate your audience with groundbreaking strategies.
Make Case Studies
When you create case studies, you increase your authority in the market. You can give data on other brands and how they performed the strategy. Then you can talk about how you helped your client achieve their goals.
Remember, with this information, your position in the market can strengthen. A case study shouldn’t be small. It should be detailed and cover all the aspects of the strategy.
- Something that your client faced
- How they tried to solve the problem
- Overcoming these problems
- Finding new solutions
- An in-depth explanation of solutions
So, in short, your case study is teaching your audience incredible things. But avoid going off-topic in your case study because it’s about your brand, so it should have an essence of your brand voice.
Email Marketing
It’s not a surprise that around 4 billion people are daily email users. With email marketing, around 77% of people have seen an incredible increase in business growth. Email marketing is one of the most inexpensive and effective ways to market your business.
You can also utilize different tools available for email marketing. If you don’t know how to do it, it’s best to hire someone to do it for you. It’s not a good idea to skip this strategy because the results you can get from this are amazing.
Stop Struggling to Generate B2B Leads
In B2B businesses finding the best way to generate leads is the most crucial task. But doing it without a team of experts is extremely challenging. And even after all the investment, you don’t know if you will see any results.
Contact us today if you are ready to transform your B2B business with demand-gen strategies with guaranteed ROI. We put effort into understanding your business and creating and implementing an effective action plan to ensure your B2B business growth skyrockets.
FAQs
What Is the Difference Between B2B and B2C Demand Gen Campaigns?
Customers make buying decisions just on instinct. But suppose two decision makers are involved, such as husband and wife, mother and daughter, and son and father. In that case, the purchase process can prolong. Which still isn’t a prolonged process when compared to B2B. In B2B, businesses have to consider many other factors before purchasing.
Many decision-makers are involved, and nothing can be done without their approval. That’s why B2B demand gen campaigns must be stronger, more effective and customized. You can’t apply the same strategy here. Ensure that your message resonates with the key decision-makers, especially stakeholders.
Is Demand Gen Suitable for Only B2B Businesses?
No, this is not true. Demand gen isn’t limited to B2B businesses only. However, many people often connect demand gen and B2B. Any B2C business can use it to increase their business growth because the ultimate goal of demand gen is to increase product demand among your target audience. So your target audience can be business, as in B2B, or customers, such as B2C. Although strategies, techniques, and tips applied in B2B and B2C are different.
Is Demand Generation the Same as a Brand Building?
Demand generation and brand building are entirely different approaches to a growing business. In demand gen, we explore and implement strategies to attract more audiences and create interest in the company’s products or offers. In this strategy, the outcome is increasing leads and sales by making the audience aware of your company. In this, significant strategies are;
- Email marketing
- Content marketing
- Many lead-gen tactics
- Social media advertisements
Meanwhile, brand building creates an unforgettable, memorable and strong brand identity. In this, many psychological tactics are used to engage with the audience more deeply. Some brand-building tactics include all techniques to increase brand loyalty and awareness.
Often they are combined to maximize the results from the marketing strategy. It depends on the goals that the business wants to achieve.
I'm a very hard-working, motivated, and committed individual with a positive attitude towards life and a passion for doing new things that help people.I love challenges in my career because they make you more robust than before when you overcome them.