Blog Post

Demand Generation

How to Create and Implement a Demand Generation Strategy

Growing your company always includes an overhaul of your marketing strategy. What works on a small scale is unlikely to translate as you seek to expand market share, and you could waste a lot of money and time trying—with little to show for it.

This is the perfect time to implement a Demand Gen strategy to drive growth. Do the research and plan the smart way forward.

In this post, we’ll show you how to create and implement a demand generation strategy to drive growth.

Benefits of a Demand Gen Strategy

  1. Increase brand interest
  2. Generate higher-quality leads
  3. Nurture relationships that create brand ambassadors
  4. Earn and hold market share
  5. Re-engage existing customers to increase retention/ CLV
  6. Turn existing customers into Demand Gen amplifiers
  7. Larger deals
  8. Key accounts
  9. Higher ROI

Challenges of Demand Generation

  1. Building an audience
  2. Consistently creating high-quality content
  3. Budget constraints
  4. Marketing-Sales alignment
  5. Capturing demand
  6. Turning leads to customers

As challenges, these represent opportunities you'll need to directly address and overcome through Demand Gen strategy.

How to Create and Implement a Demand Gen Strategy for Growth

Create Buyer Personas

You have to define an audience before you can build one. Your buyer persona is a fictionalized yet data-based representation of what your ideal customer looks like.

The clearer understanding you have, the more directly and effectively you'll be able to communicate with this target audience to grow it.

You can define and refine the audience for your B2B SaaS by factors like:

  • Professional factors. Industry, job role, decision-making structure, goals, challenges
  • Personal factors. Demographics, interests, hobbies, news and information sources they trust, what they do for entertainment, and shared life experiences.
  • Intent factors. What's driving their decision-making processes right now? What are they looking for? And what do they need to know they've found it?

Mapping the Buyer's Journey

  • Non-aware. They're unaware they have a problem or its impact on their ability to do their job, get business results, etc.
  • Problem-aware. They become aware—or are made aware they have a problem and how much it's hurting them. They have begun seeking B2B SaaS to solve this problem and consider some options.
  • Solution-aware. Now, they're aware of the kinds of solutions that exist. They're evaluating needs, benefits, pros & cons, cost, etc., to finalize their selection.

This is a journey. It can happen quickly. But most of the time, the person travels along this path looking at various sources of information.

Your demand generation strategy must ensure that you become a source of information, so they travel the path with you. This gives you the power to guide this person.

On your side of things, Generate demand > Capture Demand > Nurture/Engage > Close > Retain/Re-engage.

Fail to create a full-funnel, multi-channel experience, and you'll lose them if you can get their attention in the first place.

Determine Your Goals for Demand Gen

Goals should always be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timebound (SMART). They should take into account factors like:

  • How much can I achieve with this budget? Budget constraints, along with immediate business revenue needs, can drive decision-making. You could go all out and think long-term for outstanding growth, but work with what you've got.
  • Where's my target audience leading me? You've done your audience and competitor research to define the target audience. Your goals must reflect what you learned about where they are, how they make decisions, and the buyer's journey.
  • What can I track and measure? Consider how you'll measure if, where, when, and how your demand generation strategy and/or implementation is working. Do you have the technology you need to do that? What do you need to set up to ensure you can consistently, reliably, and confidently track performance?

Develop a Content Strategy

An MIT study found that 66% of marketers at top companies say businesses must focus on end-to-end customer experience and journeys to succeed.

You must target the whole buyer's journey across important channels to earn the benefits of Demand Gen. First, ask yourself where you need to have content.

  • Facebook ads and organic
  • LinkedIn ads and organic
  • Search ads and organic
  • Retargeting ads (various locations)
  • Email
  • Website
  • Downloadables
  • Account Based Marketing
  • Sales enablement
  • Publisher Direct
  • Mobile-first

A full-funnel Omni channel experience is critical for SaaS companies. If you're not currently full-funnel or omnichannel, this may seem like an overwhelming number of places to engage in demand generation.

So, I want to communicate that the right content strategy optimizes the content creation process to make this achievable.

Next, you must ensure you're creating content for the entire funnel. As a general rule, when people are non-aware, they need blog posts, videos, user-generated content, and ads that introduce them to the problem.

When they are solution-aware, they need demos and free trials to help them decide to buy your solution.

Nurture Leads

Your content strategy includes a clear path and method to not only generate demand but capture demand so you can turn MQL into SQL during mid-buyer's journey.

This is the time to build a stronger relationship with the prospect. Email is a great way to do this because you have greater control over the cadence and order of marketing messages.

Here, your strategy should address how you'll align marketing, sales, and service. Misalignment among these three cost SaaS companies money through customer and employee churn as well as lost productivity.

They must be united through definitions, purpose, communication, and technology. For example, use lead scoring automation to Speed the Lead to Sales at precisely the right time.

Track, Measure, and Optimize

You must make sure you can see the full impact of your marketing, sales, and service alignment, automation, and demand generation strategy. You need to know how your audience experiences your full-funnel, omnichannel experience.

Clear and reliable revenue attribution and reporting are essential to achieve this.

This not only proves ROI. It helps you identify gaps in the whole funnel, omnichannel experience. You can then eliminate what's not working and double down on what is to grow.

Matter Made helps B2B SaaS businesses grow. We help you create and implement a Demand Gen strategy to attract and convert more ideal customers and grow your business. Let's talk about generating demand for your B2B SaaS.

Blog Post

Demand Generation

B2B (Business-To-Business) and B2C (Business-To-Consumer) are two terms that often come up in the growth marketing world. You’re likely already familiar with these terms. 

However, knowing the difference between B2B and B2C and knowing how marketing strategies are different for each is another matter.

Marketing to B2B audiences and marketing to B2C audiences require different approaches, and that’s what this article will delve into. You’ll learn how to build a marketing strategy that makes sense, whether your focus is on B2B or B2C.

Customer Relationships

The first difference in strategies is noticed in how customer relationships are approached. Digital marketing, in general, has a big focus on building relationships with customers, and the way this is approached varies between B2B and B2C strategies. 

While B2C marketing likes to zoom in on personal relationships, B2B marketing is less intimate and has what could be called a "transactional" focus. Building long-term relationships take the spotlight for B2B marketing strategies, and the attention is more sales-oriented in B2C marketing. 

Keep in mind that both require customer services and good lead generation to be fast and effective. A "Speed to Lead" approach is essential.

Branding

B2B marketing takes a very different stance on branding than B2C marketing does. B2B focuses on positioning, whereas B2C is more concerned with messaging.

For B2B, good positioning is what makes you stand out among the competition and attract your audience.  Positioning is about more than branding; it’s about perception. It encompasses various elements — from content marketing to branding and social responsibility.

On the other hand, B2C marketing is concerned with what your target audience thinks about you. What does your company stand for? What does it support? People who feel they can relate to your brand are more likely to buy from you. 

Ad Copy

Marketing strategies also diverge for B2B and B2C when it comes to ad copy. B2B companies need to take a professional approach, while B2C companies have the freedom to be more playful and emotional.

Successful B2B marketing ad copy should stick to terms that their audience is familiar with and avoid being frivolous. B2C ad copy should speak the same language as its target audience.

Audience Targeting

The way B2B companies approach audience targeting is also different from how B2C companies do it. To build effective B2B marketing campaigns, it’s important to find a niche and make that the focal point of all marketing efforts.

B2C marketing is more funnel-focused, and this funnel will consist of awareness, interest, desire, and action. A PLG (product-led growth) funnel can also be quite useful. 

Traditional marketing can come in handy but requires a good understanding of existing customers and proven ways to generate leads. 

Using marketing automation software (like HubSpot) can make audience targeting more effective and less frustrating, especially when trying to stay focused on results rather than the small things that can distract your marketing team. 

Sales Cycle Length 

The sales cycle length for B2B marketing is, in most cases, longer than it is for B2C marketing. This is because the decision and approval process requires multiple signatures, so potential customers might need more encouragement to take the final step and make a purchase.

More lead nurturing is required for B2B companies to get the sales they want, and user experience is an important factor here. If customers don’t get the attention they need, they’re more likely to move away and support other businesses. Customer service is a prime part of the B2B sales funnel. 

The B2C sales cycle often requires less input from salespeople, though this varies widely across industries and audiences. 

Emotional Investment

Generally, B2B marketing is far less emotional than B2C marketing because the customers are more calculating. They are driven by evidence of performance and numbers. B2B marketing, therefore, tends to be more information-focused.

B2C marketing calls for more creativity, entertainment, and emotional investment. Customers are more focused on achieving happiness or satisfaction and make more impulsive decisions.

Paid media campaigns can be useful tools for building emotional investment in both B2B and B2C marketing.

Marketing Channels

B2B companies and B2C companies have different marketing channels to choose from when it comes to their marketing efforts. For B2B marketing to work, the challenges of the audience must be addressed, as well as their needs and relevant interests. For this, Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is crucial.

Other channels that are fruitful for B2B include PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising, referral marketing, content marketing, email marketing, and social media channels.

B2C companies can use outdoor advertising, influencer marketing, traditional advertising, and digital marketing strategies. Search engines and social media also play a big role, with platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook being some of the most popular and effective for B2C marketing.

B2B, B2C, and Matter Made

Planning a B2C or B2B marketing strategy isn’t easy and shouldn’t be taken lightly. 

A well-defined strategy that has the right approach to branding, customer relationships, and audience targeting can take your company to new heights. 

Why not combine efforts with Matter Made? We have a team of expert marketing professionals who can help you build B2C or B2B marketing strategies that will see you rise above your competition. 

Interested? Let’s talk!

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