Marketing Authentically with Demand Generation vs. Lead Generation

Building awareness is a necessity for any successful business; however, in today’s world, people don’t want to be bombarded with ads or messages about how great your product or service is. Consumers want to feel connected with the brands they buy from. Marketing helps you achieve that, but demand generation and lead generation take slightly different avenues to get there.

What is Lead Generation?

Lead generation focuses on increasing interest within your target market through nurturing. In this approach, marketing tools combined with lead-generation forms or gated landing pages and a strong call-to-action are used to invoke interest and capture contact information for people with a need for your product or service. For a lead generation strategy to be successful, it’s important that you have enough relevant information about your target market (their preferences, common queries, and how they find solutions) to ensure your campaigns are getting in front of them and a budget large enough to support it. Once information is captured, the contacts are added to the sales funnel and gradually pushed through the process with the goal of converting them.

What is Demand Generation?

Demand generation combines lead generation tactics with authentic promotion principles to increase brand awareness, educate, and build relationships with consumers before they buy. This marketing approach focuses on getting in front of the target market where they’re at utilizing unique, value-add items (blogs, free tools, etc.) to generate awareness AND interest. The goal is to then move potential buyers from awareness/interest to action through nurturing and relationship-building initiatives – not selling. When done authentically, you can grow your business in a more impactful way.

4 Key Approaches to Authentic Demand Generation

A demand generation strategy can help you attract customers aligned with your target audience, vision, and brand. Here are 4 approaches to consider for your strategy:

1. Focus on the customer journey. Demand generation is about building relationships. Your customer journey can help you connect with your audience by focusing on what matters to them at every stage. You should first identify what your customers want and need, then provide information that aligns with them.
2. Give away value-based items. You can make your marketing outreach more cohesive by offering free products or tools to people in your target market. Giving away value-add items is a great way to gain the trust of your potential customers by showing them that you care and understand their needs.
3. Build relationships with your audience. Fostering relationships with your audience is essential for a successful demand generation strategy. Engaging and connecting with your target market before they’re ready to buy enables you to move consumers through the funnel more efficiently and helps keep your brand front of mind for when they’re ready to act. Social media can help you achieve this by providing a “window” into your brand and allowing potential customers to see who you are and what you value. Additionally, you can promote the tools and content you’ve created on your channels to increase awareness and get in front of those who may already be aware.
4. Manage the effectiveness of your demand generation program. A good demand generation strategy has key performance indicators aligned with the overall goals of your business. Tracking and analyzing your results on an ongoing basis can help you determine whether your efforts are yielding results, what strategies are most effective, and where to improve.

Generate Demand with IGNITE On Purpose

Growth begins with generating demand. Creating a solid, repeatable demand generation engine makes selling easier for your business. We do this through Authentic Demand Generation™, a strategy backed by science that combines proven ROI algorithms with authentic brand-building programs to help your target market become aware of (and eventually desire) your brand.

At IGNITE On Purpose, we combine demand generation marketing with innovative content and digital strategies to help your business grow. As a full-service digital marketing and demand generation firm, we provide a one-stop-shop solution to help small businesses increase awareness AND revenue.

Interested in learning more? Contact us for information on how we can help your business grow authentically and impactfully.

Click Below to Download our Free Guide on the Power of Authentic Promotion.