A beginner’s guide to demand generation

What demand generation actually is, the channels you can use, and tips for getting started with a demand gen strategy.

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If you’re in B2B sales or marketing, you’ve probably heard the term “demand gen” kicking around the office or on social media. Keeping up with all the different terms can be challenging and no one likes having to ask: what does that mean? You don’t want to out yourself as an imposter.

So, what can you do? Teach yourself, or at least, let us teach you. Welcome to our beginner’s guide to B2B demand generation. 

What is demand generation?

Demand generation is generating buzz for your product or service, which means developing brand awareness and recognition. You want to create an interest in your company’s product or service through marketing campaigns running over multiple channels, each targeted to different segments of your audience.

Demand generation strategy 101

So now you’re an expert on what demand generation is, it’s time to implement it. But how do you come up with a successful demand generation strategy? 

There are different paths you can go down when coming up with a strategy:

• Prospecting
• PR
• Social media
• Content marketing
• PPC or paid advertising
• Account-based marketing

All of these reap rewards but the size of those rewards usually depends on how much time and money you invest in them. Most companies use a mix of all of these for a comprehensive demand generation strategy.

Content marketing should focus on relevant, engaging, and informative content. It should add value to your audience, and you should cover subjects where your brand is a genuine authority on the topic.

But what can you do if the internet (and market) is saturated with information about your specialised topic, product, or service? Act like you have the authority. Ever heard the term: fake it ‘til you make it?  That doesn’t mean making stuff up though (the internet is full of enough lies already, right? #fakenews). Research is essential when it comes to creating top-quality content, and investing in a great content writer.

Our top tip: Surveys (Typeform is a great website to get started with) and diving into your own data are great ways to come up with fresh and new information about a topic. 

It’s useful to start by developing a content marketing strategy. This will outline what you want to achieve, and how you are going to achieve it – incorporating all the types of content listed in our infographic above.

Make sure you’re always anaylsing and evaluating how your content does.

• Is your content bringing in leads as well as traffic?
• Which topics are resonating with your audience the most?
• Are you promoting your content via email and social media?
• Are people engaging with your content?

The best place to start if you’re a novice marketer or on a tight budget is prospecting.

How can prospecting help you to create demand?

Although prospecting might not be the first thing you think of when it comes to demand gen, it’s a great option for start-ups and small businesses. Content marketing gets results but it takes time and expertise whereas prospecting can be easily perfected (and it also gets results) by using a company like us to help guide you. 

No one wants to do more work than they need to, so if they’re after a product or service, they’ll go to a brand they already know. Prospecting creates demand for your product or service – you’re reaching out to businesses to get them familiar with you and what you do. That way, when they’re ready to buy, you’ll be the one that they know and make a beeline for.

At Sopro, we’ll reach out to thousands of your ideal customers, build demand for you and your brand, and increase your sales, all through prospecting.

Prospecting made easy.

Overall, whether you’re using prospecting, content marketing, or another digital marketing strategy, demand generation can be broken down into three different ways of creating demand for your product or service.

Building awareness

It’s important to dream big. Imagine your name in lights, an a Cappella group singing your name, or your brand being “verbified” (“I’ll Google it” has become a household saying).

The way to do that? Brand awareness. It’s like a Cheers episode, everyone needs to know your name.

So what works for building brand awareness?

We’ve even created our own TV ads, because yes, TV ads still work! Now you can target your TV ads to the right audience, with Sky Adsmart, which means they’re more effective than ever.

Online ads can be really highly targeted and seen almost anywhere online, with Google ads, Facebook ads, Linkedin ads, and the list goes on. This means ads are an amazing opportunity to reach even the most nuanced or hard-to-reach audience.

Everything’s connected. Some of these tools for creating brand awareness also help you in other areas of demand gen. For example, being present at marketing events is a great way to grow brand awareness but also to reach your existing audience, which leads us on to our next point.

(Colour Graphics lists the UK’s best marketing events.)

Capturing existing demand

As well as generating new demand, it’s important to cash in on existing demand. It’s essential you’re reaching the people who are actively looking for a product or service that matches what you do. 

SEO plays an important role as it does with creating brand awareness. If you’re not ranking on Google, even people trying to find you won’t be able to, you need to be able to reach as many businesses as possible. Let’s face it, no one’s crawling through the yellow pages anymore – you need to be on Google page one. 

Another way is to personalise your website for your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Once you’ve established what your ICP is, you can use that information to make your website specific to who’s visiting. This could push someone who was already considering you into converting (this tactic falls under ABM marketing which you can find more on here.)

Celebrating success

We’re loud and proud with our data, we don’t hide it behind the curtain: you can see it here. That’s because we believe the truth is in the numbers. We could go on about how transparency and honesty are at the forefront of everything we do (it is) but we don’t want to bore you. 

Our point? You want to ensure your successes are visible to your audience. Nothing is better PR than actually being good at what you do. 

That means including these on your websites and posting them on social media:

• Testimonials
• Case studies
• Any successful results that could incite a sale
• Any awards or celebrations

Sending out a weekly newsletter to your clients or prospective clients can be a great way to share information like this. Ping! It’s in their inbox that you just got another award. They don’t even need to be looking at your Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn to find out.

Sopro is an award-winning demand generation agency that drives new business with targeted multi-channel prospecting campaigns. We’ll complement any internal demand generation efforts and focus on getting qualified leads into your sales funnel. Spend more time working on projects that have lasting strategic impact, and let us do the hard work of demand gen for you.