Are you wondering what the battle between demand generation vs lead generation is? Or how should your B2B business should go about using either of them?
B2B businesses want to grow by increasing their market share. This is only possible through effective marketing of the business!
At Pace Creative, a full-service content and digital marketing agency, we cater to the B2B needs of navigating through the world of digital marketing.
Two key options to acquiring amazing digital marketing outcomes are demand generation and lead generation. For perspective, 53% of marketers say that more than half of their budget is allocated for lead generation. This article covers the details of what these two options entail and most importantly, how they are different from each other!
What is Demand Generation?
From a B2B point of view, demand generation is quite self-explanatory. Demand generation is when a marketer creates awareness and demand for products or services, thereby expanding the audience base and generating leads. Best practices for demand generation are data-driven strategies that marketers use to raise interest and encourage actions.
What is Lead Generation?
Lead generation takes over from demand generation and is the conversion of prospects into customers. This is done by nurturing the interest of the potential customer who are already aware of what the business does.
Limitless opportunities are available for marketers to experiment when it comes to lead generation; however, 61% of marketers consider lead generation their biggest challenge.
What is the Difference?
The simple answer to what demand generation does vs what lead generation does is that the former aims to get people interested in a product or service whereas the latter aims to convert that new interest into sales.
With demand generation, marketers convey a mostly one-sided message and do not gather any information from potential customers. With lead generation the marketers are gathering prospects’ data and using that information to nurture their specific wants and needs using personalized messaging.
Lead Generation Funnel
A lead generation funnel is a systematic approach to generating leads for a business.
The sales journey is made of 4 stages:
1. Awareness (traffic) –> 2. Interest (leads) –> 3. Consideration (nurturing) –> 4. Purchase (revenue)
This is a framework that we use to guide our client’s efforts when promoting their business. The consideration phase helps qualify leads for your sales team to nurture.
Types of Lead Generation
Several types of lead generation are available to marketers, all bringing their own advantages.
Some of these are:
- job applications
- blog posts
- white papers
- industry-specific articles
- publications
- reports
- guides
- eBooks
- events
- assessment tools
How to Build a Lead Generation Funnel
The process of lead generation has developed to such a degree and is covered in such detail that it is considered a science.
The four main steps in this process follow:
- A lead discovers the business and what it does through its website, blog post, or social media.
- The lead clicks on a call-to-action prompt.
- The prompt takes the lead to a landing page where more information on the product or service is provided.
- The lead feels encouraged to provide their contact information.
What’s the secret to the entire process? Content!
B2B Generation Examples
Here are some examples of the companies that we helped in creating lead generation solutions for in the technology, SaaS, and IT industries:
Hitachi Vantara – Enterprise Cost Calculator
Pace Creative collaborated with Hitachi Vantara to develop a customized Enterprise Cost Search Calculator as an online lead generation tool.
IQVIA – Inbound Lead Generation Campaign
The Human Data Science lead generation microsite from this global big data technology leader combines health sciences and data sciences to make accurate predictions for healthcare companies to maximize their profits.
Coreio – Lead Generation Campaign (SaaS)
Pace Creative worked with Coreio and Microsoft 365 in developing an IT lead generation campaign strategy to provide customized IT infrastructure to address specific remote workers IT challenges.
If you are looking to boost your business with unmatched lead generation, reach out to us – we will be happy to help!
