Demand Gen Vs. Lead Gen: Which One is for Your Business?

Demand gen vs. lead gen has amounted to a ton of confusion within the last several years, similar terms in name but different in concept.

If you read recent marketing literature, you may think they mean the same thing, but this is not true.

Key Takeaways

Demand generation and lead generation are distinct concepts in marketing; demand generation focuses on creating awareness and interest in a brand, while lead generation aims to convert this interest into tangible customer leads.
Effective demand generation ideas involve careful market research to attract the target audience, utilizing various methods such as social media, webinars, and content marketing to create a need or desire for the product.
Lead generation builds on the interest created by demand generation, emphasizing quality over quantity in capturing leads, with tactics like optimizing website forms, incentivizing content sharing, and leveraging customer testimonials to convert interest into sales.

Is Demand Generation the Same as Lead Generation?

Your sales team understanding the differences between demand generation and lead generation is a must nowadays.

Demand generation marketing creates awareness and demand for a brand. Demand generation gets attention and can drive traffic to your website or store. Lead generation involves turning interested people in your business into actual customers.

Demand Generation Specifics

There is a great deal of strategy involved in a demand generation campaign. Demand harvesting strategies are based on information collected by market researchers. Researchers will work hard to find the perfect way to lure people to a brand.

Demand Generation Methods

There are different lead generation methods.

The efforts you use will depend on whether or not you are marketing toward other businesses or looking to serve the general public.

The trick to demand generation campaigns should be to attract a target audience. You want to create a need or desire for a product via marketing. After someone watches your advertising, they should be more likely to buy your product.

There are a few different methods of demand generation. You may attempt to get people to fill out a form, or even sign up for an online class or webinar. You also may try to get them to engage with social media, videos, or blogs.

Once a lead is generated you will want to nurture it. Even if it doesn’t transform into an immediate purchase, it is still salvageable. A marketing company or sales company may try several different approaches to a nurtured lead before giving up on them.

Most marketing professionals will use a series of tactics to generate demand.

Web Analytics

Web insight or analytics involves the measurement and analysis of web data. It is used to increase traffic to a website and ultimately to garner more sales. It does considerably more than just find out how many people are coming to a website. Web analytics will measure the website’s effectiveness.

There are many web analytics apps out there. The best of them will tell you the results of your advertising campaigns. It will show you any changes in web traffic from campaign to campaign. It will also show what articles they are reading when they get there.

One major thing that web analytics can tell you is your key performance indicators. KPI measures the performance of individual business activities. If you are analyzing your website performance by using key performance indicators you will want to select those marketing KPIs carefully.

A good KPI should be quantifiable and straightforward. You should only use a few of them and They should be directly tied to your marketing goals. It is important to use the same KPIs consistently.

One thing you should never do is use vanity metrics. Vanity metrics are web statistics that simply make you feel good about your site without giving you any understanding of why people have come to visit.

Examples of good KPIs would include conversion rates from visitors to buyers, social media link visitors, and people who have signed up for your email service. You want to focus on the kind of hits that end up making you money.

Content Marketing

When a company uses the technique of content marketing, it will disperse content to various places on the internet to attract a specific audience. The hope is that the content you distribute will cause the viewer to take a profitable action.

It can be hard to discern what is valuable content. You have to know what content people will actually seek out. It should create a need for whatever product it is you are ultimately selling.

Infographics

In business-to-business marketing, infographics are very popular.

Charts are often used in infographics. A good infographic will often illustrate the need for a particular product or service. It can also show the positive results of using it.

If you can get media to use your infographic, it will add credibility to your brand. It will also help to establish you as an expert.

Podcast

Podcasts can give you and your brand visibility. The way you use podcasts will depend on the type of product you are marketing.

If you offer educational services, starting your own podcast will help to establish you as an expert. If you are a guest on someone else’s podcast it allows you to introduce yourself to the public. In some cases, you may be able to start a podcast for free. A good podcast will contain quite a bit of information and focus on one specific subject.

Video Marketing

Videos and vlogging can also help to promote a business. Anyone can start a YouTube channel. You can advertise your product free when you create a video.

If you can, you should hire a professional camera person to assist you in making a good video. If you are not able to afford such luxuries, a video you make yourself can still attract customers to a store or website. It is a good idea to make videos consistently. If you can get people to subscribe to your videos, They will get a notification every time you make a new one.

Writing a book and putting it on a website such as Amazon can also help to establish your credibility. It is great if you can sell many copies of the book. However, even if you’re not a big seller, You can still use the fact that you’ve written it to market your product.

Ultimately a good content marketing campaign should make people aware of your product. Once they are aware of your product they should be interested enough to do research about it. They should then consider buying it themselves and ultimately make a purchase.

Using social media to your advantage is also an important part of digital demand generation. When doing research, businesses get a lot of their information from social media. Just posting things on your own social media pages is not enough.

You must join groups that have to do with whatever it is you are marketing. Listen to what people say and engage in conversations with them.

You want to educate people as much as you possibly can about why they need the type of thing that you are selling and why your product is the best way to fulfill that need.

You can also use social media to stay ahead of the competition. Make sure to be very aware of what your competition is doing at all times. If you read their blogs and listen to their podcasts, you can get ideas for your own business. You can also use information that they give you to counter their arguments and show why your product is better.

Lead Generation Specifics

There are a few specific things you will need to create lead generation strategies.

Lead Generation Campaigns

Once you have created a demand for your product, you will need to have a lead generation strategy to turn The interest you have created in your product for your product into sales.

Quality Should be the Focus

You should be focused on getting leads that will actually buy your product rather than a large number of leads in general. When it comes to paid content, The average conversion rate is 2.35%, the top 25% are converting at 5.31%. It should always be your goal to convert 10% of your leads.

Website forms Should Be Short

Getting a customer’s information is one of the most important lead generation tactics. Once you get a fish on your hook you want to reel it in carefully.

The website form you have for potential customers should be short and to the point. You do not want to ask for a lot of sensitive information right away. Making your customer feel as though they are in control is important. Especially when they first contact you.

Nothing is ever really as productive as word-of-mouth advertising. Sharing content is the word-of-mouth advertising of today. You can give your existing customers small incentives for sharing your content. You can offer them a small coupon for giving you references who sign up for a service you provide. . When you do this you will make them feel as though they are more than just a customer but part of a team.

Customer Testimonials

One of the easiest and best marketing strategies you can use is to make your customers feel like superstars. Ask everyone who buys from you for their feedback. If you get good feedback, be sure to ask a customer if they would be interested in a testimonial. You can offer them free products as an incentive.

Customer testimonials are free advertisements for you. A customer who gives a testimonial is likely to come back and buy products over and over again. They will invite their friends to your website to see their 15 minutes of fame.

Understand Where Your Leads Are Coming From

One of the most important parts of marketing a product is understanding how customers are getting to your website. Your analytics software should tell you how a customer discovered your product and what keywords were important to them in their decision to visit your website.

Once they are on your site, you should be able to see what products they clicked on and what content they engaged with.

Come Up With an Email Strategy

There’s no greater buying signal than somebody asking to be informed about updates on your company and events that your business is having. If a person requests to be put on your email list, they are definitely interested in your product.

You don’t want to overwhelm a potential customer with a copious amount of emails. An email once every two weeks will do. It is preferable to categorize your customers and send them information that is pertinent to them. You should always include a forward to a friend link in your emails.

Offer Coupons and Giveaways

If a customer is on the fence about buying a product, you may want to email them a 10% off coupon. You can also raffle off a piece of merchandise with your company name on it. Or promise them a free item when they order their first item.

Conclusion

You have worked hard on developing your product and it deserves to be seen. If you make a demand generation effort, people will go to your website. Getting the right people to your website it will generate plenty of leads. If you have a great product, stay in touch with your leads, and are mindful of your sales funnel, You should be successful in creating demand for your product.

FAQ

What is a demand generation strategy?

A demand generation strategy is a method employed by a marketing team by which a company will go about creating a demand for a product. It can entail the use of Infographics, social media, blogging, creating videos, and creating content for marketing purposes.
The ultimate goal should be to drive people to your business, store, or website. You should plan What you will say before putting them on the internet.

Is demand generation the same as marketing?

Demand generation is a way to develop marketing leads. Its goal is to create a need for a product. It’s part of the marketing funnel but it is not an entire marketing strategy in itself. It is part of an inbound marketing strategy rather than an outbound strategy. It should make the customer come to you.