Demand generation in B2B world refers to the process of creating, nurturing and managing the buying interests of the customers in your product or services. All this is done via marketing campaigns that include lead management activities, market analysis and database management.
The process may sound easy and simple but is very sensitive and complex. All these activities require lots of skills and expertise. The first step in the process of demand generation is to analyze market conditions and realize the changes these conditions have brought in customer’s behavior.
One major change which is very obvious is the use of internet and social media. Today’s buyer searches for information online through various sources. Before buying any product they do look for its reviews and ratings. In such cases, marketers must focus on understanding the needs of the buyer and facilitate the buying process.
Here are some B2B Demand generation Basics that a marketer should always keep in mind.
Data – To start a demand generation process the first and the most important element of your campaign is Data. Bring out all your prospects & customer’s data that you have. The main things you need here are name, job title, size of the company, industry sector, email address and phone number. The next step is to organize your data into various categories for e.g. technical decision makes, business decision makers, manufacturing companies, etc. This segmentation help you send relevant information to your prospects.
Phases – A demand generation campaign comprises of three phases; awareness, consideration and preference. In the awareness phase, prospects identify their needs & requirements. In consideration phase they have specified the need and evaluate potential suppliers. In the preference phase they compare various vendors and their offerings and finally make a buying decision.
Content – Content is the essence of any marketing campaign. At every stage in the demand generation process, a marketer should always provide valuable information to his prospects. The information provided to the prospect helps in decision making. Providing them case studies, whitepapers, infographics etc. in the awareness phase would be appropriate for a prospect. On the basis of the information provided by you, the prospect would decide on his core requirements. At the consideration phase offer comparative reports so that he is able to consider a supplier. In the preference phase provide your product information for e.g. brochures etc.
Analysis – Analysis and measurement is the main stage in demand generation process. Align your tasks in such a way that you get to know about a prospect’s behavior. For example, send an email describing about the downloadable content available and provide a link to the page. See if they are interested and download the material. If they do so, send them a thanking email. Send them another email asking if they would want some more information about the same. If they agree, you can count them as a hot prospect.
Integration – Demand generation is a process that integrates both sales and marketing efforts. The first two phases of demand generation process are monitored by marketing team and the third phase is monitored by sales team. At this point a sales representative makes an effort to contact prospect to fix-up the first meeting. At this stage the demand generation campaign has provided a high quality lead which lays a foundation for improving sales conversion rates.