5 Demand Generation Trends For More Customers.

5 Demand Generation Trends For More Customers.

Does the term inbound-omnichannel-lead-collaborative-content-strategy scare you? In marketing, there are so many buzzwords, trends, tactics and concepts that it’s easy to get swept away by definitions. Sometimes, these words are even used inter-changeably adding more and more confusion to the concept.

Demand generation is one of those terms. There is so much confusion surrounding such a powerful concept that marketers often miss out. So in this blog post, we here at Engagement Factory will set the record straight on Demand Generation – and even point you in the right direction on 5 ways to get the most out of it.

What is Demand Generation?

Demand Generation is the process for generating awareness and interest in a company’s products and services through marketing programs, with the goal of increasing customers and revenue.

What Demand is not and not be confused with is:

• Lead Generation: which is the signalling of consumer interest or an inquiry into products or services of a business.
• Inbound Marketing: which is a technique for drawing customers to products and services via content marketing, social media marketing, search engine optimization and branding.

Demand generation is more like the umbrella term that encompasses lead generation and inbound marketing.

So as marketers, we need to view demand generation as the synergy that exists between sales and marketing teams, and how we move our potential customers through the funnel from MQLs and SQL’s as a general business strategy, NOT as just a tactic specific to marketing.

Demand generation can also be defined as a gradual, comprehensive, holistic approach to engagement that comprises dedicated inbound marketing tactics, social interactions, event based campaigns (like webinars), always-on campaigns and more!

Done properly, demand generation can create awareness around the issues most relevant to your business, provide sales the qualified leads it needs to close deals, and position marketing as a revenue generator instead of a cost centre.

What are the demand generation trends that can help you convert more from each campaign?

Now that we have cleared that up, here are a few tips you can use to kick-start your own demand generation.

1. Create awesome content for each stage of the customer journey.

Sometimes this would mean giving away your best stuff! But don’t worry too much about that, because what you are trying to do is BUILD TRUST with your prospects. This way, they will recommend and pass on your content as useful to other people in the industry spreading awareness.

By offering something of real value, the prospect is also more receptive towards engaging in communication with you, as they’ll see you as an expert. In a way, this is one of the most effective ways of generation demand.

2. Prioritize Social Media Marketing and Advertising.

Social media is a gold mine for demand generation.

As an example, if you are in the B2B space, you should take advantage of what LinkedIn has to offer.

LinkedIn has evolved from just a professional networking site to a lead generation, content sharing platform. More and more B2B marketers are investing their advertising budgets on LinkedIn.

Some of the benefits of advertising on LinkedIn include:

•  Access a tremendous audience.
•  Target your audience with accuracy.
•  Customize your budget to your business.
•  Connect with individuals in your target audience directly.
•  Support your account-based marketing campaigns.
•  Create a variety of ads, from video to text.

This does not mean neglecting other social networks, just that you should know what works best for your own audience.

3. Try out video marketing.

Audiences expect video to be part of their digital experiences. Videos are fast replacing text and image-driven content across marketing campaigns. Information on video is easy to process, allowing you to drive your point across to your potential users. In fact, marketers who use video grow revenue 49% faster than non-video users.

4. Optimize your e-mail marketing strategies.

Email marketing best practices still apply, even in a demand generation campaign:

• Proper segmentation ensures followers only receive relevant messages and helps boost open rates.
• Personalizing a subject line can also increase your email open rates.
• Constant A/B testing of different emails helps determine which tactics are most effective and refine your campaigns accordingly.
• Most importantly, don’t flood inboxes with low-value offers.

5. Provide engaging UX on your website with hard data.

Your website is usually the user’s first touchpoint with you. This means that you must provide a positive experience to the site visitor through your website.

Your website is the best opportunity for you to convince visitors about your product/service. If your website isn’t constantly optimized for the user’s changing needs, you are missing out on large opportunities for your business. Due to this, you need to keep a tab on important statistics and routinely test out new copy and designs so that you can optimize your website and increase conversions.

Whether you want to develop and deploy more strategically integrated campaigns or simply maximize ROI, we’re passionate about guiding you to the right strategies, processes and technology to make it happen. Check out our framework to align your outcomes to your

company’s objectives through Data, tools, process and technology in this free download. Alternatively, we have a video on demand generation that we think will make the concept a lot more clear to you.