While inbound marketing has the goal of transforming visitors to the b2b company site into leads and nurturing them to make them take the desired action, demand generation strategies are aimed at creating interest and awareness, generating the need in prospects of the product or service that the company offers.
In this article, we focus on demand generation, with 7 useful tips to make the strategy even more effective. Find out more!
How to take your demand generation strategy to the next level in 7 steps
Here’s what you need to start doing now for a successful strategy!
1. Make sure you know your prospects
If your (and your team’s) goal is to influence prospect demand, you need to know them inside out:
What makes them happy?
What worries them?
What are their current challenges?
This will help you find ways to directly address them, get their attention, build an emotional connection, and get them to take the desired action after visiting the company site.
If you’re not convincing prospects to take action, you’re not generating any questions.
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2. Do storytelling
People tend to forget facts, but they remember stories. Although marketers often focus on spreading data and numbers, we should instead start telling stories that engage potential customers. One of the best ways for start engaging potential customers is to create a Wikipedia page for yourself for this purpose.
People empathize with stories, because they create an emotional connection with the characters, and they are remembered more easily than data and facts.
Without a story full of emotion, adventure and involvement, any demand generation strategy is bound to fail, because it does not arouse interest.
3. Add videos to landing pages
Any b2b demand generation strategy should have a dedicated landing page, the landing page for interested potential customers.
Adding a video to each of these pages is a great way to increase engagement, time spent on page and conversions while decreasing bounce rates.
4. Create a pillar page with several proposals
Pillar pages are used to arouse curiosity and interest from potential customers and get them to take an action, so it is good to offer different possibilities.
Here is an example of a pillar page that concerns demand generation.
If prospects are early in the buying journey and aren’t ready to share their data, they can download an infographic or watch a video. If, on the other hand, they are in a more advanced stage of the journey, they can click on the call to action and fill out the form with their data. And if they’re ready to buy, they’ll have the option to seek advice from an expert, for example.
demand generation These pages are important for SEO, but also for keeping customers on the company site longer, even if they are at the beginning of the buyer’s journey.
5. Track visitors
When it comes to demand generation, one often immediately thinks of the ultimate goal: leads. In fact, the first sign of success is visitors to your company website or specific landing page.
Even if it is possible that some of the visitors decide to “come out” and start a conversation with the salesmen, some will continue their purchasing journey in a more silent and discreet way: tracking visitors allows you to identify opportunities already in this phase!
6. Try different options
The first proposal is unlikely to have been a huge success. What you can do, though, is collect and analyze data and refine the strategy over time. You can try different approaches, to understand which one is the most effective for your target. Sometimes it is precisely the combination of different elements that creates the winning strategy!
It may happen that multiple approaches fail, but don’t be discouraged! Indeed, it is appropriate to exploit even what does not work so as not to repeat it in the future.
Optimizing a demand generation campaign means just that: test, modify, fail, improve, analyze the data and learn what works and what doesn’t.
7. Leverage retargeting and remarketing
During a demand generation campaign, curiosity and interest are created, but user data is not collected. So you have to find another way to stay in touch with these potential customers.
Retargeting or remarketing is a great way to stay connected even after users leave your site.
Both strategies ensure that the company continues to be in the minds of users: in the first case, through online ads; in the second case, through email marketing campaigns. By doing so, you can bring customers back to your company site or even get them to interact with your sales team.
demand generation Continuing the conversation even outside the company website is essential for engaging prospects and turning them into customers.
The best marketing strategy takes advantage of different channels, platforms and approaches, so that each potential customer can choose the best path to reach your company.
Planning, executing and optimizing such a complex plan may seem complex and probably is, if you don’t have the right skills.
In this case, an agency specializing in b2b marketing strategies can be of fundamental support: if you need help, book a free consultation!