What Is Demand Generation Marketing? Best Strategies and Examples

In today's digital age, the traditional approach to marketing has become a relic of the past. With the vast amount of information readily available at our fingertips, customers are no longer solely reliant on companies to inform them about their products and services. Instead, they have become self-sufficient, conducting their own research before making a purchase. 

This shift has resulted in a complex and lengthy customer journey, making it essential for businesses to adapt their marketing strategies. Enter demand generation marketing, a modern approach that recognizes the need to create demand for your product through a variety of channels and tactics. 

With the constant emergence of new technologies, customer preferences, and competition, demand generation campaigns have become all the more critical to businesses seeking to establish their market position and drive growth. According to a Demand Gen Report, 69% of companies have increased their demand generation budget from the previous year for exactly this reason. 

In this article, we'll explore demand generation marketing, including the best strategies and examples, to help your business generate more leads and ultimately drive more sales.

What Is Demand Generation in Marketing?

Demand generation marketing is a business strategy focused on creating a demand for a company’s products and services. This strategy is typically used in B2B marketing, where the sales cycle is longer and involves multiple decision-makers.

Demand generation strategies involve several methods, including content marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), webinars, events, and more. The idea is to create a holistic marketing strategy that reaches potential customers at different stages of the buying process and provides them with the information and resources they need to make informed decisions.

The ultimate goal of demand generation marketing is to create a pipeline of potential customers that can be nurtured over time and eventually converted into paying customers. By building awareness and interest in a product or service, demand generation marketing helps to generate more qualified leads, which can result in higher conversion rates and ultimately more business.

What Is Demand Generation vs. Lead Generation?

Demand generation and lead generation are both essential parts of marketing yet serve different purposes. While demand gen is focused on building awareness and interest in a product or service, lead gen is focused on identifying and qualifying potential customers who are already interested in making a purchase. Let’s break down the key differences:

Demand generation 

This strategy involves creating interest and awareness in a product or service to generate demand for it. It aims to reach a broad audience and build brand awareness, educate potential customers about the product or service, and generate interest in it. The goal of demand gen is to create a pipeline of potential customers that can be nurtured over time and eventually converted into paying customers.

Lead generation

This strategy involves identifying and collecting information about potential customers who have expressed interest in a product or service. It focuses on gathering information about individuals who are already interested in your business and may be ready to make a purchase. The goal of lead gen is to identify and qualify potential customers, and provide them with targeted information and offers to help move them closer to making a buying decision.

12 Best Demand Generation Strategies

Given the complexities of the customer journey, demand generation has now become an integral part of the marketing process. From using programmatic ads to creating compelling content, these tactics give you actionable ways to build brand awareness, engage the right prospects, and grow your customer base. Follow these top twelve demand generation strategies to optimize performance:

1. Develop a content plan. 

Creating a content strategy is a critical aspect of any demand generation strategy. Content is the backbone of all marketing efforts, and it is the primary way that businesses can communicate with their target audience. A well-crafted content strategy can help establish your brand, attract new leads, and nurture relationships with existing customers. 

To develop a successful content strategy, you should first identify your target audience and their pain points. Think about the type of content that will resonate with your audience, whether it be blog posts, videos, social media content, case studies, surveys, or other relevant content.

You’ll also want to consider the best channels to promote your content along the way, such as email marketing and paid advertising. By taking the time to develop a comprehensive content strategy that aligns with your overall demand gen goals, you’ll be able to create a marketing engine that drives your campaign.

2. Create thought leadership content.

As marketing and sales teams constantly strive to outdo their competition, it's no surprise that demand generation strategies have become increasingly essential. Among these strategies, creating thought leadership content stands out as one of the most effective ways to attract and engage potential customers.

By producing content that is both educational and informative, such as whitepapers, e-books, and webinars, you can establish yourself as an industry leader and gain the trust and confidence of your target audience. 

Creating industry-leading content that speaks to the challenges faced by your target audience will also allow you to show an understanding of your customers’ needs and offer solutions to their problems. This strategy not only helps to generate more leads but also increases the likelihood of converting them into loyal customers.

3. Invest in marketing automation.

Investing in marketing automation is undoubtedly one of the best demand generation strategies that a business can adopt. This tactic focuses on automating ‌marketing tasks to increase customer engagement and speed up the sales cycle.

With marketing automation, you can create targeted and personalized campaigns, track customer behavior, and gain valuable insights into your target audience, all of which can save you valuable resources while driving revenue at the same time.

Additionally, marketing automation for demand generation can help to improve the quality of leads generated by marketing efforts, as it allows businesses to identify and focus on the prospects likely to convert. 

With marketing automation, you can create more efficient marketing processes, freeing up time and resources to focus on other critical tasks. 

4. Use search engine optimization tactics.

Did you know that 90% of companies aren’t visible on search engines at all? That’s why search engine optimization is such a powerful demand generation strategy that helps companies optimize their online presence and increase traffic to their website. 

This approach focuses on improving a website's search engine ranking through keyword optimization, backlinking, and other techniques to build a strong online reputation.

One way to apply SEO tactics is to conduct keyword research and incorporate high-value keywords into your content and metadata. By targeting keywords that are relevant to your products or services, you’ll be able to increase your chances of appearing in the search results and attract more users to your site. 

5. Personalize email marketing campaigns.

Email marketing continues to be a top demand generation strategy for businesses looking to increase their customer base and drive more revenue. By improving the design, messaging, and targeting of your emails, you can create campaigns that resonate with your audience and encourage them to take action. 

One way to enhance email demand generation marketing campaigns is to focus on personalization. By segmenting your email lists and tailoring your messaging to the specific needs and interests of each group, you can create highly targeted campaigns that are more likely to resonate with your audience. This can lead to higher open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates, as well as increased customer loyalty and retention. 

Be sure to test different elements such as email opening lines and closing lines, calls-to-action, and images to see what resonates best with your audience. By continually refining and optimizing your email campaigns, you’ll be able to generate more demand for your business.

6. Take advantage of programmatic ads.

One of the most effective demand generation strategies is programmatic advertising. Instead of relying on traditional advertising methods, programmatic ads leverage advanced technology to incorporate real-time data and machine learning algorithms to advertise to the right people at the right time.

Programmatic advertising on social media is also a highly effective way to reach a wider audience and drive more leads. With billions of people actively using social media platforms every day, you can tap into niche groups or markets to create targeted ad campaigns that reach your ideal customers. 

Another advantage of programmatic advertising is its powerful, real-time analytics. This means you can quickly identify which ads are driving the most traffic and conversions, and make adjustments as needed to improve your results. 

By continually refining your ad campaigns based on these insights, you’ll be able to optimize your programmatic advertising efforts and generate even more demand for your products or services.

7. Focus on account-based marketing. 

As competition in the business world continues to increase, companies are constantly seeking new ways to stand out and capture the attention of their ideal customers. One approach that has proven to be highly effective is account-based marketing (ABM).

Unlike traditional marketing techniques that cast a wide net and hope to attract as many leads as possible, ABM is a targeted demand generation strategy that prioritizes quality over quantity. 

By focusing on specific accounts that have the highest revenue potential, companies can tailor their marketing efforts to the unique needs and preferences of each prospect, resulting in more meaningful interactions and conversions.

Additionally, ABM can help to improve sales and marketing alignment, as it requires close collaboration between sales and marketing teams to create targeted campaigns that meet the needs of individual accounts.

With its ability to hyper-personalize campaigns and engage decision-makers, it's no wonder that ABM has become another sought-after demand generation strategy in the industry today.

8. Build brand awareness.

In the competitive world of demand generation marketing, building brand awareness can be the key to unlocking success. By creating a recognizable brand image, you can establish trust and loyalty with potential customers, driving more demand for your products or services.

Not only does brand awareness increase the chances of converting leads, but it also sets a strong foundation for other demand generation strategies, such as content marketing and social media advertising.

However, building a brand is no easy feat. It requires consistent messaging, quality customer experiences, and a deep understanding of your target audience and ideal customer profile (ICP). But with the right approach, building brand awareness can be one of the best demand generation strategies in your marketing arsenal.

9. Leverage intent data.

In today's overcrowded market space, businesses need targeted demand generation strategies to cut through the clutter and reach the right audience. Leveraging intent data is one such strategy that can help companies identify and engage potential customers more effectively.

By analyzing online behavior such as web searches, social media activity, and content consumption, intent data provides insights into users' interests, preferences, and search intent. Using these insights, you can create personalized demand marketing campaigns that resonate with your B2B target audience and generate more leads.

Another benefit of using intent data is that it allows teams to focus their efforts on ‌prospects who are ready to convert. By identifying users who are actively researching or considering a purchase, you can build demand gen strategies that address their specific needs and pain points. 

Moreover, intent data fully enables you to track and measure your marketing efforts to improve the effectiveness of future campaigns. 

10. Optimize lead scoring.

Optimizing lead scoring is a crucial and often overlooked aspect of demand generation. Developing a solid understanding of which prospects are most likely to convert allows you to focus your marketing efforts on the most promising leads.

To implement lead scoring as a demand generation strategy, you should first identify the key behaviors and characteristics that indicate a lead's interest in your brand. This may include factors such as website visits, email opens and clicks, social media interactions, and form submissions. 

By identifying the traits and behaviors of high-value customers, you can then tailor your campaigns to resonate with these individuals and drive more conversions. Furthermore, with the help of automated lead scoring systems, you can quickly and efficiently prioritize leads to guarantee you are focusing on the most fruitful opportunities.

11. Apply omnichannel marketing.

Nowadays, customers are interacting with brands on multiple platforms and devices, making it crucial for companies to adopt a comprehensive marketing approach. Omnichannel marketing, which integrates various channels such as social media, email, website, and mobile apps, has proven to be one of the most effective demand generation strategies.

Studies demonstrate that brands that master omnichannel customer engagement reap a massive 9.5% yearly increase in their annual revenue, an impressive six times more than those who fail to invest in this approach.

By providing a seamless and personalized experience across all touchpoints, you can better engage with your customers and build lasting relationships. With omnichannel marketing, you can gather valuable insights into consumer behavior, preferences, and buying habits, allowing you to tailor your messaging and promotions to individual customers.

12. Host virtual events and webinars.

Virtual events and webinars have quickly become one of the most effective demand generation strategies in the business world today. These online interactions offer a unique opportunity for companies to connect with their target audience on a more personal level.

Hosting events allows you to showcase your expertise, share valuable resources and insights, and interact with your audience in real time—regardless of your location. You can then can attract new customers, build brand awareness, and nurture existing client relationships, all while generating valuable leads and driving revenue.

Additionally, virtual programs can be recorded and shared online, allowing you to extend the lifespan of your content and reach an even wider audience. Furthermore, these are generally more cost-effective than in-person events, making them an attractive option for all businesses.

As more and more companies shift their focus to digital strategies, hosting webinars and virtual events is quickly becoming a go-to strategy for those looking to stay ahead of the competition.

Top 6 Demand Generation Marketing Examples

Whether you're looking to streamline your marketing efforts, improve lead quality, or gain deeper insights into your target audience, these demand generation marketing examples can help you achieve your objectives and drive growth for your business:

1. CIENCE GO Intent

CIENCE GO Intent is a demand generation marketing tool that provides advanced intent data to help businesses identify in-market buyers at accounts that can be prioritized for outreach. It gives businesses detailed, actionable insights into the behavior and interests of target audiences. 

By leveraging machine learning to scan billions of data points in real time, GO Intent helps marketers understand what their prospects are actively researching right now.

This actionable data provides insights into relevant topics, trends, and topics that can be used to create personalized campaigns designed to engage potential customers most effectively. 

By understanding customer behavior and creating customized campaigns based on this knowledge, GO Intent helps drive more leads, conversions, and sales.

Key features

• 7500+ B2B-specific topics
• New intent results every four hours
• Buying-window data for 60 days
• Lead scoring by contact and account
• Advanced click-tracking (AI)

Pricing

• Available by request
  
  

2. CIENCE GO Digital

CIENCE GO Digital is a demand-side platform (DSP) that allows real-time bidding for online advertising on targeted audiences, including display, video, and audio media. As a unique DSP, it also enables buyers to manage both ad exchange and data exchange accounts. 

By combining a rich data set with tracking pixels, GO Digital allows for better targeting and increased effectiveness of ad spend. This customer data is then used to create demand generation campaigns that are tailored to potential customer interests, helping marketers reach their intended audience more effectively. 

By leveraging this powerful tool, marketers can increase the ROI on their ad spend, drive more leads, and generate higher sales conversions.

Key features

• Precisely targets millions of individual business users
• 100+ B2B filters (title, industry, company size, etc.) 
• Support for any ad type
• Detailed analytics and reporting
• Fine-grain bidding options and control

Pricing

• Available by request
  

3. Leadfeeder

Leadfeeder is a website visitor tracking platform that helps marketers identify and engage potential customers. The platform leverages insights from visitor data to determine their interests and intent. Marketers can use this information to create relevant marketing campaigns that target those individuals who have shown signs of interest in their products and services.    

Leadfeeder also helps marketers better understand the behavior of their prospects, giving them the power to create more personalized campaigns tailored specifically to their target audience to generate more leads.

Key features

• Google Analytics integration
• LInkedIn Connection
• Powerful filtering features
• Visitor identification
• CRM integration

Pricing

• Basic plan: $199/month
• Pro plan: $999/month
• Premium plan: $2999/month

4. Clearscope

Clearscope is an AI-powered platform that helps businesses create content that is optimized for search engines. The platform uses artificial intelligence to analyze web pages and identify key topics related to the user’s query.

This data is then used to generate content that aligns with user intent, enabling marketers to reach their target audience more efficiently and effectively. This in turn helps boost search engine rankings and drive more qualified traffic to generate higher leads and increase sales conversions.

Key features

• AI-powered content reports 
• Search volume and intent insights
• Content grading scale 
• Writer-friendly insights 
• Google Doc and WordPress integrations 

Pricing

• Essentials plan: $170/month
• Business plan: Custom pricing
• Enterprise plan: Custom pricing

5. Drift 

Drift is a live chat, in-app messaging, and email management platform designed for sales and marketing teams. It offers customizable live chat widgets, email follow-ups for abandoned chats, conversation histories, email campaign automation, and a robust AI-powered chatbot. 

The platform’s automated chatbot helps identify qualified leads and start conversations, allowing for faster lead scoring and nurturing. Through this tool, marketers can engage potential customers more effectively, drawing them further into the sales funnel and helping to increase their chances of conversion.

Key features

• AI-powered chatbot
• Customizable live chats widgets
• Email follow-ups for abandoned chats
• Conversation histories
• Email campaign automation

Pricing

• Premium plan: $2,500/month
• Advanced plan: Available by request
• Enterprise plan: Available by request

6. Outgrow

Outgrow is a great tool for producing highly interactive demand generation campaigns. Outgrow customizable platform allows you to build personalized quizzes, calculators, assessments, contests, forms/surveys, recommendations, polls, and chatbots for your business. 

Through the platform, marketers can create customized experiences based on a user's interactions with their content. This kind of personalization allows marketers to generate higher-quality leads and drive more qualified traffic. By leveraging this tool, marketers can increase conversions as well as maximize their ROI.

Key features

• Interactive content
• Quiz makers and calculator builder
• Pre-optimized templates
• Analytics and data integration
• No-code tools

Pricing

• Freelancer plan: $14/month
• Freelancer Pro plan: $25/month
• Essentials plan: $95/month
• Business plan: $600/month

Drive Sales with Demand Generation Marketing

Demand generation is a powerful marketing strategy for businesses of all sizes. By employing customer-centric tactics in your marketing plan, you can increase brand awareness, engage more customers, and ultimately drive more sales. 

Don't be afraid to adjust your B2B demand generation strategies accordingly—what works for one campaign may not necessarily work for another. The best way to get started is by considering which tools would be most effective for your business, then testing them out and seeing how they perform. 

With the right demand generation techniques and tools in place, you’ll be able to reach a wider audience, increase conversions, and turn potential buyers into long-term loyal customers.