How to Craft a Strong Demand Generation Strategy

Most marketing and sales leaders have heard of lead generation: the process of identifying potential buyers and scoring their contact information to pave the way for conversions. 

But there’s another conversion strategy that’s transforming the traditional sales pipeline: demand generation. 

Often conflated with lead generation, a demand generation strategy prioritizes driving brand awareness and nurturing leads to increase sales. A well-crafted demand generation strategy will align marketing and sales efforts to create a seamless customer journey. Learn how to generate demand organically for optimal conversions. 

What is demand generation?

Demand generation is a marketing and sales strategy designed to attract, engage, and convert high-value prospects through targeted marketing efforts. 

An unfamiliar sales professional might ask, “Isn’t that the same as lead generation?”

While both strategies strive to convert potential buyers into loyal customers, lead generation takes a more direct approach—building interest with the explicit goal of directing leads through the sales pipeline. 

Sales teams have historically leaned on lead generation for most conversion efforts. However, it often results in:

• Low close rates.
• Increased junk leads.
• Ineffective workflows.

Where lead generation drops the line, demand generation picks up the slack. 

Instead of throwing out single lines to hook interested leads, demand generation programs cast wide nets, spreading buzz without the explicit intent to reel in leads. Marketers increasingly find that this strategy resonates more with modern buyers by providing value upfront and creating natural excitement for useful products. 

In the face of dwindling conversions from lead generation, marketing and sales leaders believe demand generation holds the key to more sales—and greater impact. 

Key components of a successful demand generation strategy

Every successful demand generation strategy is built on these foundational elements:

• Audience research and segmentation.
• Content marketing and thought leadership.
• Multi-channel distribution (SEO, paid media, social, email).
• Lead nurturing and marketing automation.
• Sales and marketing alignment.

Master each piece of the demand generation puzzle for a strategy sure to convert naturally and with ease. 

Understanding the target audience

First, and most importantly, teams must understand who they’re generating demand in. Demand generation only works when campaigns are tailored for the audience segments they’re meant to attract. 

To develop deep connections with potential buyers, follow these steps:

1. Conduct detailed audience research – Teams should first develop a comprehensive, data-backed analysis of both current and target audiences. Use website and social media analytics tools to determine audience members’ age, gender, geographic location, behavior, and more. Run focus groups or interviews to collect audience sentiments and pain points. 
2. Segment audiences – Based on the previous research, teams can now segment audiences based on common demographics, behaviors, and pain points. Audience segmentation helps teams create more relevant and personalized messaging that resonates with different sets of consumers. 
3. Develop buyer personas – With the power of data, teams should then create imagined buyers that resemble the key audience segments identified in the second step. Putting a metaphorical face to the name of potential buyers will help shape more effective marketing materials when it’s time to craft them. 

The role of content marketing in demand generation

Demand generation campaigns often align with the goal of thought leadership: when a brand positions itself as a valuable well of industry knowledge and expertise through free content.

High-quality content—from blogs and whitepapers to webinars and case studies—builds trust with audiences and nurtures leads for the long haul. 

Follow these tips to create compelling content that aligns with different stages of the buyer’s journey:

• Offer high value upfront and showcase industry expertise, making sure to balance authority with authenticity.
• Craft and maintain a consistent brand voice across all content channels—one that resonates with target audiences and encourages action.
• Implement AI tools to effortlessly generate content ideas, draft copy, and convert existing content into different mediums.

Leveraging multi-channel marketing for maximum reach

For teams to cast their demand-generating nets wide, they must develop marketing strategies for channels across the digital space. 

Create a cohesive demand generation approach by integrating these key marketing channels into each campaign:

• Paid media.
• Email.
• Social media.
• Search engine optimization (SEO).

Consistent messaging across these channels will improve brand recognition and engagement and distinct personas keep brands at the front of consumers’ minds. All it takes is a quick look at Instagram and TikTok comment sections to see how many brands (Duolingo and Target, to name a few) have become their own influencers. 

Lead nurturing and marketing automation

Demand generation improves upon one major limitation of lead generation: lead nurturing. Often with lead generation, leads end up in automated sales pipelines before they’re fully qualified, threatening the possibility of a conversion. 

Engage prospects effectively by implementing these approaches into demand generation strategies: 

• Specialized email sequences – Prospects might feel frustrated when they receive a “sign up” email after they’ve already completed the action. Create specific email sequences that pick up exactly where the prospect left off and lead them naturally to the sales pipeline. 
• Highly personalized messaging – 71% of consumers don’t just want personalized brand experiences—they expect them and even more feel shortchanged when they don’t receive them. Tailor messaging to each consumer using the audience research and segmentation strategies above. 

Marketing and sales teams could feel overwhelmed by the amount of work it takes to manage personalized messaging sequences and nurture leads. That is, if they had to do it all manually. Luckily, there’s a plethora of AI-driven automated solutions ready to lighten the load. 

Teams can automate:

• Email sequencing.
• Message personalization.
• Lead qualification. 
• Performance analysis.

Automation can also streamline lead qualification and handoff to sales teams.

Aligning sales and marketing for demand generation success

Throughout this article, marketing and sales teams have been mentioned together when discussing demand generation strategy development. That’s because aligning these two departments is essential to this strategy’s success. 

Demand generation requires a balanced ecosystem that can support leads through the entire workflow—from initial impressions to closing sales. Like gardeners nurturing flowers for florists to arrange and sell, marketing and sales teams must collaborate to ensure seamless lead handoff. 

Here are a few strategies for building a stable, two-way bridge between teams:

• Identify and hone shared marketing and sales goals with unified key performance indicators (KPIs) for easy performance analysis. 
• Work together to create buyer personas so all team members know who to target during demand generation campaigns.
• Schedule periodic check-in meetings for teams to touch base and discuss needs. For example, sales reps can tell marketers which types of leads (and how many) they need during a specific quarter. 

Measuring the success of a demand generation strategy

Most companies schedule routine employee performance reviews—because without reflection, how could anyone improve? The same benefits apply to demand generation strategies. 

Marketing and sales teams can measure the success of their demand generation strategy using KPIs. Some essential ones include: 

• Marketing qualified leads (MQLs) – Marketers can identify MQLs based on behavioral data: CTAs they clicked on, pages they visited, resources they downloaded, etc. 
• Sales qualified leads (SQLs) – MQLs become SQLs once they’ve been nurtured enough for sales reps to confidently convert them into buyers. While MQLs might offer up contact information or download top-funnel content, SQLs express a clear intent to purchase.
• Pipeline velocity – This describes how quickly leads move through the sales pipeline—a simple way to measure the timeliness of demand generation and lead nurturing strategies. 
• Cost per acquisition (CPA) – To analyze a demand generation strategy’s cost-effectiveness, measure the total cost of acquiring a single paying customer. Calculate this by dividing the total ad spend by the total number of acquisitions. 

Data-driven insights from these KPIs will help teams refine and optimize strategies over time for even greater impact and return on investment (ROI).

Optimizing and scaling strategies

With a fully-fleshed strategy and data-backed performance insights, marketing and sales teams can test and iterate their demand generation efforts for steady, predictable, manageable growth. 

Continuously improve demand generation campaigns by following these tips:

• Repurpose successful thought leadership content for various channels. If a blog post brings in big numbers on the website, use it to create short-form video content for social media pages. This will help efficiently attract prospects from different corners of the market. 
• Implement account-based marketing (ABM) platforms to support and enhance paid digital strategies. 
• Prioritize the ultimate goal of demand generation: converting lead prospects into paying customers. 

Finally, effectively scaling demand generation efforts will drive sustained growth. Expand channels using tools like generative AI and automated chatbots, refine audience segments with robust and up-to-date data, and invest in new tech that will relieve any growing pains.

Building a sustainable demand generation strategy

Crafting an effective demand generation strategy requires audience expertise, quality cross-channel content, team collaboration, automated communications, performance analysis, and continuous innovation. 

Generate and convert high-quality leads with a data-driven, multi-channel approach that only demand generation can support. And for even more Power behind your sales pipeline, connect with Power Digital. 

Businesses—B2B and B2C alike—choose us for streamlined strategies, rapid growth, and unquestionable impact. With over $2 billion in generated revenue and 2.6 times faster growth for our clients, it’s clear that we deliver. 

Reach out for a consultation today. 

Sources: 

HubSpot. What Is Demand Generation? [FAQs]. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/what-is-demand-generation-faqs-ht 

Chatdesk. 5 Ways Brands Use TikTok Comments to Drive Stronger Engagement. https://www.chatdesk.com/blog/how-brands-use-tiktok-comments-to-drive-engagement 

McKinsey & Company. The value of getting personalization right—or wrong—is multiplying. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/growth-marketing-and-sales/our-insights/the-value-of-getting-personalization-right-or-wrong-is-multiplying 

HubSpot. How to Create Strong Sales and Marketing Alignment, According to LinkedIn’s Global Product Marketing Leader. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/sales-and-marketing 

HubSpot. SQL vs. MQL: What They Are and How They Differ. https://blog.hubspot.com/sales/sales-qualified-lead 

HubSpot. Maximizing Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) — Here’s What Experts Have to Say. https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/cost-per-acquisition 

Forbes. Demand Generation Strategies To Help Scale-Ups Thrive. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescommunicationscouncil/2023/10/27/demand-generation-strategies-to-help-scale-ups-thrive/