An inbound sales strategy takes advantage of today’s empowered customers. These customers have access to all the information they need to make a purchase decision before even speaking with a sales agent.
Although demand creation and lead generation make up a significant portion of inbound sales, they are typically considered the same.
Today, you’ll learn how demand generation and lead generation work together to help your business expand and the contrasts between the two concepts.
Lead Generation vs. Demand Generation: What’s the Difference?
Demand generation is how your company expands its customer base and piques the interest of potential customers. This method aids in raising consumer awareness of your brand, educating them about it, and building their trust in it.
One of the most frequent ways to employ demand creation to pique the interest of your target audience is to blog and provide resources to guide them towards their goal.
For example, if you’re in the insurance industry, you could develop a blog about how to select the right insurance for your needs. This blog post educates the consumer about the different types of insurance readily available to them and provides insight into which type is best for their particular situation.
The result is that your target audience becomes aware of your business and trusts that you can provide them with information regarding their specific insurance needs.
On the other hand, lead generation aims to build interest in your company’s products and services through nurturing, with the ultimate goal of turning potential customers into paying customers.
For example, standard lead generation marketing methods include promoting gated offers on social media with lead capture forms and leveraging CTAs with lead gen forms to collect contact information and send subsequent emails.
Suppose that your business is an insurance agency offering life and auto insurance. After blogging about their benefits, you could craft CTAs to sign up for a policy and place them on your blog. These CTAs could include a lead capture form that requests the reader’s name, address, phone number, and email address for a free car insurance quote.
How Do Lead Generation and Demand Generation Work Together?
Why are the two concepts lumped together under the same marketing umbrella if they are so different?
That is because a good demand generation strategy can increase qualified leads and ultimately improve your business’s lead generation capacity.
By combining demand creation techniques with a solid lead generation strategy, you can ensure that more of your target audience chooses to become customers.
For example, you’re an insurance agent who uses demand creation to reach out to your target audience on the Internet. You’ve created blog articles and educational resources related to the types of policies you sell. You’re leveraging your blog to capture contact information via lead capture forms in exchange for a free quote. This strategy will help you generate new qualified leads that you can pass on to your sales team.
On the other hand, if you’re a home remodeling contractor looking to expand your business, it would make more sense to focus on lead generation. Many of your customers may already have preferred suppliers for their construction supplies. You’ll need to focus on lead generation techniques like blogging, article marketing, and banner advertising to drive more website visitors and convert them to clients.
Demand Generation Examples
Your marketing team can use various demand generation content types. However, they all have the same purpose: familiarizing the relevant people with your brand and the solution you offer.
You must use these methods strategically to fuel your demand generation efforts.
Creating Brand Awareness
To begin with, you need to get your brand known to potential clients. At the top of the sales funnel, your goal is to urge a potential customer to take action. Your lead gen content can be more aggressive when they’re in the middle of the funnel.
Creating positive links between your product or service and potential customers’ experiences is the goal of building brand recognition.
For example, suppose you’re a small business financial advisor. In that case, you can create and publish an infographic on the best times to invest in the stock market to reach new potential customers interested in learning about investing.
Aside from infographics, you can create videos, e-books, and case studies that answer potential customers’ questions about your product or service.
Thought Leadership
Your demand generation strategy can also help you establish critical thought leadership.
Though the term “thought leader” sounds incredibly fancy and doesn’t have a direct sales benefit, it does have an indirect one. Potential customers come to recognize your brand as the leader in the field, which often leads them to make purchases from you.
Say you’re an insurance agent who wants to promote your agency as a thought leader in the industry. You can create blog posts that answer relevant industry questions while providing insightful commentary. Doing this will make people in the industry think of your business as an expert in the field.
Building Trust and Credibility with Target Audience
Your target audience members may not always pay attention to marketing. To reach those who need convincing, start by creating a personalized message that’s relevant to your target audience.
Your brand will become credible if you’re providing content that’s valuable to your target audience.
For example, if you’re a financial advisor, you can create blog posts explaining the benefits of investing in your retirement using informative titles instead of click baits. That way, your target audience can be sure that you’re providing helpful content to help them achieve their financial goals.
Putting your target audience at ease is the key to trust-building. One way to accomplish this objective is by giving them what they want without forcing them to give up something in return for it.
Lead Generation Examples
Lead generation strategies are far more narrow and targeted than demand generation’s broad net. Webinars and white papers, for example, may be included in gated content marketing with optimized landing sites. Email drip campaigns can also be used as a long-term lead nurturing strategy.
Gated Content
This strategy requires visitors to your website (or potential customers) to provide personal information before they can access or download gated content. In most cases, the sales staff will use this information to contact the customer to promote your products and services.
Gated content is an excellent technique to gather valuable information about the people who are using your website. Email addresses, titles, corporate names, and phone numbers are some of the most valuable pieces of information you can collect. A “lead magnet” is another term for this form of content marketing.
In exchange for sharing their information, users get access to webinars, video lessons, surveys and research, e-books, and newsletters. Remember that visitors will expect something personalized and meaningful in return for providing you with their personal information.
An excellent example here would be Appboy. To access Appboy’s mobile marketing booklet, users must fill out a short form. There is absolutely no way to avoid providing the requested information. However, people can be convinced to provide their information by using opt-out links and publishing resources that explain how the information will be used.
Social Media
Even while social media has typically been associated with B2C marketing, more and more B2B companies are using platforms like Twitter and LinkedIn to educate their customers and find vendors for their online stores.
CMOs and other decision-makers will be more likely to notice your brand if you creatively use social media in their search for answers. Postings on your company’s social media pages can help humanize it. Prospects looking for solutions to their difficulties and answers to their inquiries can use your company profiles as a direct point of contact.
For example, you’re a small business financial advisor who wants to use LinkedIn to generate leads. Instead of sharing research and advice, the most successful B2B CMOs will share interesting personal details about themselves, like how they got a particular job or why they chose their career path. They can also post creative content that directly addresses the needs of their target audience.
You should write and publish original content on your company’s social media pages rather than linking to it on other websites where it is hosted.
The Takeaway
With the help of a reputable Google Ads agency, you can set up a cost-effective lead generation campaign that provides you with the traffic you need to drive sales. There are many different ways to access the right audience and close sales. Make sure you’re not missing out on strategies that will boost your business!