How often do you wish you knew more about B2B demand generation or feel like you’re watching some bizarre “Twilight Zone-like” episode about the marketer that tried everything to stop an invasion?
Well, you might not be alone, and in B2B marketing, it can feel like you’re either in the business of getting fast leads, no matter whether they’re truly qualified and ready for sales, or you’re slowly watching your position wither and die. Meanwhile, you’re trying to balance the demand for sales enablement content, read “material that sales can send after or during calls with prospects,” engagement on social media, and more.
It’s a lot of moving parts, and with that increased demand, there has been an influx of lead generation agencies claiming that B2B demand generation takes too long, costs too much, or lacks the all-important appointments of pay-per-booking programs. Why?
It’s because creating all these materials in tandem with handling search engine optimization (SEO), building out social media posts, engaging with followers, and tracking the data takes time, labor resources, and money. It’s a ton of activities to handle–plain and simple, and it’s usually easier to just let someone else run with the cold outreach in the hope that it leads to boundless leads that are instantly ready to buy.
That’s not a realistic outlook though; no one really likes cold outreach. It can work, but it needs something more–something more tangible, something that your prospects can look at and say, “okay, I get it, and I now trust this brand.”
Well, let’s get a few things straight and orderly. According to HubSpot, 59% of B2B sales professionals rely on sales enablement materials to close a deal, but another HubSpot report noted that 90% of marketing and sales teams rely on regular blogs as a means of generating leads.
It’s typically a conversation about demand versus leads, but the reality is that the best leads are the result of a robust demand generation process–something that takes an agile marketing strategy and leans forward into the future. But to do that, you have to first know the truth by understanding the myths of demand generation.
Prioritizing a single channel is perhaps the most common of all B2B demand generation myths. It’s easy to assume that demand generation means targeting the website and waiting on SEO results to roll in. While that is indeed how SEO works, there are ample opportunities to target more than a single channel. Yes, most of the channels will exist in a digital medium, but it’s a multichannel marketing strategy that will win the race.
Isolating B2B demand generation into only one part of the sales funnel is yet another issue that tends to arise. The issue comes from the perception that demand generation is all about building awareness. And demand generation will inherently include some facets of lead generation.
While lead generation is more about targeting people ready to convert right now, via ads, high-touch assets, or email marketing, demand generation builds out a full suite of content that caters to the needs of people across all stages of the funnel.
For example, demand generation offers up insight, downloadables and value-added content specifically geared toward people further down in the funnel. These materials draw the attention of prospects within the consideration and decision-making phases too.
Also, demand generation is more cyclic, prioritizing the full funnel and then restarting at the top. Thus, it works better in the context of a flywheel versus funnel-based marketing approach since it can target existing customers in addition to unknown prospects.
Speaking of turning existing customers into something more valuable for your brand, B2B lead generation is typically viewed as a one-and-done process. But, B2B demand generation focuses on creating interest to both unknown prospects and existing customers. Even in the digital age, customer’s voices and opinions carry weight, and in digital marketing, those customers can become evangelists for your brand.
They may leave reviews, revisit your site, forward your emails, and do much more than any single ad or interaction could accomplish. The real trick is getting these customers involved and advocating for your brand simply because of your messaging and marketing efforts.
LinkedIn is literally littered with lead generation agencies, and it’s most obvious in a user’s profile heading, “Added $200k+ in new pipeline via targeted lead generation services.” While that sounds fantastic, it’s merely a boasting point. Anyone can add enough pipeline with a strong enough cold calling and cold emailing process, but what happens after that? The answer rests where you have to look beyond the silos of demand versus lead generation.
Demand generation is all about building sustained interest that converts prospects into MQLs, and lead generation does the same. However, lead generation focuses on getting that initial conversion, such as offering a high-touch asset or downloadable piece of content in exchange for contact information. However, the conversation may end at that point. Will the prospect be encouraged to continue engaging? Will he or she receive marketing emails and alerts about new blogs, or will your number become a newly designated “do not answer” on the prospect’s caller ID? These questions are valid, and if you push too hard, especially with the demand to back up the lead gen side, you will only alienate people.
Demand generation often revolves around content creation. After all, you cannot create interest without strong content, or can you? Well, to clear the air, it is indeed possible to create demand without steady content.
But, that demand has a clear expiration point and is probably going to lead to burnout. How?
Consider this example. A small business is building demand by working with local organizations to support an upcoming conference. The business invests heavily in the event, and to their credit, the event organizers have promoted the business to every attendee. Now, the small business needs to wait on phone calls, answer questions, and hope that the work translates to meaningful interactions.
Technically, the conference served to build demand, but it came to an abrupt end at the closing ceremony. B2B demand generation efforts then need to focus on building materials that will support the pain points of conference attendees, and they need to get that material in front of them. In this way, content is an extension of how you can evolve demand generation, and demand generation is an extension of what you do with your content. That could include reaching out with targeted social media messaging, creating blogs that answer common questions, or even distributing new materials to newsletter subscribers. It’s complex and rightfully so.
Believe it or not, this is one of the more common myths in demand generation and often pops up when thinking about the sales cycle of B2B. As marketers, we tend to view everything through the lens of awareness if we don’t know exactly where a prospect is for sure. In turn, we usually put ourselves into this box of “working to raise awareness,” but we have to also be concerned with how those people in awareness can become viable leads in the decision-making phase. The sales team may clamor for more sales enablement content, but the potential customer may not want to see that information off the bat. They may not be actively searching for that information. So what do you do?
Consider creating content that will link to sales enablement pieces, so if the prospect shows interest, it is fully within his or her control of using that material. Of course, some sales materials can be gated, but the gate doesn’t mean all or nothing. This is where you have to blend the lines between lead generation and demand generation based on typical behaviors shown by visitors on your site.
Let’s say that your content on the best 3PL in Texas draws in the most leads, but after hitting that page, they tend to visit your proven process page before bouncing. Higher bounce rates on the proven process page mean that we’re losing the audience somewhere. Thus, it may be worth reoptimizing or tweaking your proven process page. There isn’t a right or wrong way to handle this conundrum, but as long as you act on the information, you will be headed down the right path. So, how do you know what to do?
The way we achieve this goal is by following the data, building new materials and assets, as well as making improvements to our digital resources to entice visitors to convert, even book a call in some cases. Essentially, sales and marketing both should be focused on demand and lead generation efforts, not one or the other. And in turn, your team will see more high-quality leads that come from across the gambit of your content marketing efforts, including case studies, gated content, organic search, organic social, and more!
Many short-term lead generating services are built on the premise of controlling the perceived buyer’s journey. However, B2B demand generation services are based on meeting prospects on their terms–sharing information when requested and connecting when appropriate. The Buyer’s Journey is a fantastic tool for guiding your content creation and distribution plans, but you must realize that you cannot force someone into decision-making if they’re not ready. Plus, doing so would make you look pushy, and no one likes a pushy salesperson, which even if you’re a marketer, will come across with such brashness.
You may have also heard of this myth in the past, but it wasn’t exactly written as is. If you’ve seen the requests promising 10+ leads per month or something along those lines, you’ve already seen people pushing quantity over quality. That’s a common tactic for spammy, ill-advised lead generation efforts, but why are they so prevalent?
The answer is found in cold, outbound marketing–where if you send enough emails and make enough noise through ads, you will have conversions. That does work, but again, it leaves you with a dry pipeline as soon as you stop. Even if you invest in the 10+ leads per month, they may not translate to revenue. Remember that sales activity by itself doesn’t translate to actual revenue for your business. Rather, you want to focus on the quality of individual leads. A single lead of high-quality is worth 10-100x those of poor quality, especially when you consider the likelihood of closing!
Worse still is the fact that if you get 10+ leads that are well outside of your ideal customer profile (ICP), you could set yourself up for a true headache in the future. It might not happen, but why worry when waiting on them to say, “yes, let’s talk,” could effectively turn those prospects into your biggest advocates? Thus, the quality becomes more valuable, and that means that you have to be focused on the bigger picture–B2B demand generation services’ value proposition.
Demand generation is about forging a sustainable source of leads, and in that fashion, it does have some similarities to lead generation. However, lead generation in some circles could also be used interchangeably with appointment setting services or cold calling. Rather than wasting time on these efforts that have little traceability and virtually rely on blind trust, true B2B demand generation services are based on building rapport with your audience and leveraging those relationships to create lasting, meaningful, and valuable relationships with your customers.
What are you waiting for? Find out more about how you can reach your target audience and improve lead generation through strategic demand generation by scheduling a meeting with JCI Marketing now.