WHAT IS DEMAND GENERATION, AND WHAT IS ITS ROLE IN INCREASING AWARENESS?
Before exploring strategies and methods of demand generation, it is worth understanding what this term means. Demand generation is a set of marketing processes aimed at generating interest in your services or products across your target audiences.
The goal of this process is to create an appropriate, positive brand image. This is the demand generation stage when your customers learn about your company and how you can resolve their needs. It’s important to understand that demand generation is not about advertising — it’s about creating a feeling of need for your service or product. It’s about emotions that turn observers into active customers.
The main mission of demand generation is to transform your business from a supplier to a partner for your target audience. Your service or product should become a solution for your client’s problem. Such an approach gives the desired feeling of uniqueness.
Demand generation is the first and perhaps the most important step in building a relationship with your audience. At this stage, the customers decide whether they will research your product or service or move on to explore other businesses. Thus, demand generation is defined as one of the most critical points in the marketing process, which determines further business development.
HOW DOES THE DEMAND GENERATION STRATEGY ATTRACT POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS?
The main goal of the demand generation strategy is to drive attention, to convince potential customers that your product or service is worth their attention and meets their needs.
Let’s take a closer look at how demand generation works:
- Developing a UVP. The uniqueness of your product/service and the ways it differs from other similar products/services define its success. Determine what makes your offering special (quality, value, methodology, approach, expertise, etc.)
- Understanding Your Target Audience. Demand generation should be based on your target audience. Find out your potential customers’ pain points, expectations, problems, and interests. This will help you attract their attention.
- Creating Engaging Content. Use valuable and interesting content to attract the attention of your potential users and demonstrate your expertise. These can be articles, videos, case studies, etc., which will help you engage and retain your audience.
- Leveraging Social Media and Content Marketing. Social networks allow you to effectively interact with the audience, develop your community, and unite your brand’s fans.
- Marketing automation. Automated marketing tools allow you to generate personalized messages and marketing campaigns, facilitating the process of monitoring results.
- A Long Game. It’s essential to understand that the demand generation strategy doesn’t deliver immediate results. You shouldn’t expect an increase in sales right after the campaign’s launch. The demand generation strategy lays a foundation for long-term relationships leading to stable demand for your product or service.
These strategies aim at attracting the attention of your potential customers and increase brand loyalty.
WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO ALIGN DEMAND GENERATION WITH YOUR OVERALL BUSINESS GOALS?
Alignment of demand generation strategies with business goals is extremely important to marketing success. This will allow you to grow step-by-step, smoothly increase conversion, effectively use all resources, streamline analytics (you can remove or add only the necessary KPIs and make reporting more transparent and easier to understand), and ensure long-term business sustainability regardless of market changes.
WHAT ARE THE DEMAND GENERATION TACTICS?
We have already discussed how to make your demand generation strategy successful. Now, let’s explore some tactics you may find effective:
- Content Marketing
Content marketing is a powerful tool for engaging your target audience. By creating valuable informative content, you will win the attention of your potential buyer. It is important that this content meets the audience’s needs.
- Social Media and Influencer Marketing
Social networks are one of the most powerful channels for communicating with your audience and promoting your products or services. In such an environment, it’s easy to build trust, foster a community of supporters, and engage with customers. Influencers can provide additional impact on users.
- SEO and Organic Traffic
Search optimization is essential if you plan to develop your business. You can easily ensure your website’s visibility on search results pages thanks to content and technical optimization. This results in more website visitors, and, accordingly, more potential customers.
*Our team actively uses demand capture та demand generation methods. Read our case study to find out more.
- Email Marketing and Lead Magnets
Email marketing is another efficient tool for building trust with the audience. It’s worth using lead magnets to engage potential customers, such as free materials, checklists, or webinars. This way, you can not only engage leads but also get contact details of your potential customers.
In conclusion, demand generation is a critical part of the marketing strategy that helps attract users’ attention and start the process of converting them into customers.
WHAT IS DEMAND CAPTURE?
Demand capture is one of the stages in the marketing process, when your team actively works on converting your potential customers (individuals who showed interest in your products or services during the demand generation stage) into real buyers.
This stage is directly related to the final result (purchase or service agreement), which is why it’s so important. The main role of demand capture is to support and stimulate the customer’s interest, highlighting the advantages of the product or service so that the client makes a final choice.
*A few KPIs for the demand capture stage:
- leads converted into customers
- average time it takes to convert a lead into a customer
- increase in sales after implementing the demand capture strategy
WHAT ARE THE MAIN FEATURES OF DEMAND CAPTURE STRATEGIES?
The process of demand capture is primarily focused on converting leads into customers. The main goal of this stage is to direct all efforts to those who have shown their interest in your service or product and are potentially ready to make a purchase.
The main features of demand capture include:
- personalized communication strategy
- using various persuasive methods to engage a lead’s attention, encouraging them to make a purchase
- monitoring the leads’ reaction to offers and analyzing different approaches
*At this stage, you can use the following KPIs:
- monitoring lead-to-customer conversions
- how many (%) leads are interested in the purchase
- purchase satisfaction levels (you can track this by conducting surveys, tracking repeat purchases, etc.)
WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT IN DEMAND CAPTURE?
It’s essential that each client receives attention, that is, a certain level of customization of the message or offer. A demand capture strategy should be aimed at ensuring that the customer sees an offer tailored exactly for them. Consequently, concluding a successful deal or making a purchase increases the customer satisfaction level.
*KPIs for this stage:
- the level of message customization
- changes in customer loyalty
- changes in conversion and how they’re impacted by customization
WHAT ARE THE DEMAND CAPTURE TACTICS?
There are several effective demand capture tactics. They aim at convincing leads in your expertise and facilitating their decision to buy your product or service. Here are some tried-and-true methods:
- Landing Pages with Clear CTAs
Attractive landing pages often serve as a communication tool, telling users about all the advantages of your service or product. It’s important to add the right number of CTAs to the page to increase conversion. Your messages should show the user the value of your offering and what problem it can solve.
*Use the following KPIs:
- lead-to-customer conversion on the landing page
- number of clicks on CTA
- number of page visitors and the time they spend there
- Retargeting & Remarketing
These are great tools to expose your brand to customers who already know about you and have previously shown interest. It’s worth preparing tailored messages for this audience, the ones that can encourage interaction and remind them of the company, motivating them to make a purchase.
*Some KPIs you may find useful:
- increase of the average bill size among customers who made a repeat purchase
- number of repeat visits from each unique user
- conversion growth among former website visitors
- Creating a Sense of Urgency or Offering a Special Discount
Limited-time deals and promotions are another great demand capture tool. They create a sense of urgency and generate interest.
*Key success indicators
- number of purchases during the promotion period and their growth rate
- sales growth
- increase in customer loyalty
Here are examples to help you better understand how these strategies work.
DEMAND GENERATION
A series of webinars on new fintech technologies
To generate demand in the fintech sector, a B2B SaaS company specializing in blockchain solutions hosts a monthly webinar series. In each session, industry experts discuss how blockchain technology is transforming various aspects of finance, from payments and remittances to regulatory compliance and fraud prevention.
What has been done from the demand generation perspective?
- Email marketing: Targeted invitations sent to contacts from the fintech sector
- SMM: Sharing insights through LinkedIn and X (former Twitter)
- Content Marketing: Summing up the insights from webinars in the blog
Such an approach not only informs the target audience about the blockchain’s potential for fintech, but also establishes the company as a thought leader in this sector, stimulating long-term interest and demand for its solutions.
DEMAND CAPTURE
A Google Ads campaign for a company that delivers cloud security solutions
A B2B technology company that offers cloud security solutions has found that many companies are actively looking for ways to improve the security of their cloud infrastructure. To meet this demand, the company runs a Google Ads campaign targeting keywords such as “cloud security solutions,” “best cloud security service,” and “cloud security providers.”
The campaign directs ad traffic to the landing page, which contains:
- the key advantages of the solution, explaining how it reduces common cloud security risks and optimizes productivity
- customer testimonials, including success stories from established companies
- an offer to assess your cloud security for free, encouraging people to leave their contact details
By focusing on keywords that indicate readiness to buy or strong interest in the proposed solution, the company effectively captures demand from potential customers, which increases ROI.
COMBINING DEMAND GENERATION AND DEMAND CAPTURE: THE MAIN SECRETS TO SUCCESS
Your marketing strategy should be integral and complete regardless of the stage. Using demand generation or demand capture alone isn’t enough to achieve success. These methods work only together, with their harmonious combination allowing you to get high conversion.
HOW DOES DEMAND GENERATION AFFECT DEMAND CAPTURE?
Demand generation attracts potential customers’ attention and is the first step, a kind of magnet that attracts interest. Having attracted attention to your brand, you need to develop interest and convert leads into customers. When set up properly, the demand capture process helps keep potential customers engaged. At every stage, it’s important to deliver your messages in a logical sequence and without your audience even noticing it. This “seamlessness” ensures greater loyalty.
TIPS ON IMPLEMENTING DEMAND GENERATION AND DEMAND CAPTURE IN YOUR MARKETING STRATEGY
The success of these strategies directly depends on constant optimization and adaptation to market changes. Here are some tried-and-true tips from our specialists that will help you transform your approach.
- Step-by-Step Approach. Don’t start by implementing demand capture tactics first instead of demand generation — this can negatively impact conversions and won’t provide expected results.
- Shared KPIs. This will help identify gaps in the strategy and make improvements as needed.
- Analytics. Analyze the data to understand if you are on the right track.
- Automation. Automate everything that can be automated. This way, you’ll streamline processes and free up time for strategic planning.
In conclusion, the use of demand generation and demand capture methods can open up new opportunities for your business. The main thing is to use their potential correctly and understand how exactly they work in your niche.
