B2B demand generation: 4 steps to build sustainable sales pipelines
How do you create a B2B demand generation strategy that delivers sustainable inbounds? It’s a big question, but ultimately B2B demand gen focuses on two things; generating demand and capturing demand.
So if you’re looking to build sustainable sales pipelines for your B2B, you’ve landed on the right page.
In this blog, we’re focusing on how B2Bs are driving revenue and growth today – taking into account economic uncertainty, changing buyer behaviour, tighter budgets/resources and more. While we can’t possibly cover every nuance involved, here’s a blueprint to get you started.
We’ll cover:
What is B2B demand generation?
Why a B2B demand generation marketing strategy is a must-have
4 key steps to B2B demand generation success
Let’s dive in…
What is B2B demand generation?
So, the (sort of) new kid on the block is B2B demand generation. It’s a strategy leading B2Bs use to build awareness, generate leads, nurture prospects, and build a strong pipeline of potential customers. All to drive more sales, shorten sales cycles, and increase average order value.
While this might sound sort of like lead generation, there’s a big difference.
Lead generation vs demand generation
Now, a lot of businesses have started to use the term ‘B2B demand generation’ for general marketing strategies and campaigns. But this isn’t right. What they’re probably currently doing is lead generation. Demand generation is quite different:
Lead generation = This approach markets to the masses to increase interest in your products and services. Common tactics focus on gated content, such as free guides, and performance marketing tactics, like PPC.
Demand generation = This term covers a variety of sales and marketing actions that attract, convert, and retain customers. It includes persona-based content and activities much further down the sales funnel – such as lead nurturing.
Essentially, it's more targeted and relatable marketing which is proven to get cut through.
>> Read more on this here.
Now, let’s delve into why B2B demand generation is a must-have for businesses that want to thrive. Let’s face it, who doesn’t?
Why a B2B demand gen strategy is a must-have
The way B2Bs buy today has radically changed. We’re a secret bunch. We don’t like to fill in forms and submit email addresses to get content… Or even just ‘like’ social posts. We like to be left alone to find answers to our biggest pain points. We often don’t want to hear from a member of a sales team.
In fact, B2B buyers have all but replaced sales reps with trusted self-service content.
It’s all very different from even three years ago. Gone are the days of gating content, following up straight away with a sales conversation or even leaning on engagement metrics to see how marketing efforts are performing.
Without the ability to see who is engaging, you’ve got to change tact. And this is where B2B demand generation comes in.
We talk about it in two steps:
Generating demand: To capture the c.90% of the industry that is not ready to buy yet.
Capture demand: To appeal to the 7% who are looking for a solution and the 3% that are actively ready to buy now.
As you don’t know where potential customers are in the B2B buyer journey, it’s essential you create marketing that appeals to both audiences. And that’s why you need to switch to a thought leadership led approach and provide more value. Think helpful free tips and practical guidance. This will help you to cast a wider net and get more potential buyers into the top of the funnel.
This image helps to articulate this a little better 👇
>> Read more on this here 🔥
Still not convinced? Using our demand generation framework, we’ve seen:
Higher conversion rates
Higher average order values
Increased engagement rates
Significantly higher quality, qualified leads
Strong revenue and return on investment 💸
Want more specific details? Here’s a mix:
Our smallest client has gone from being unknown to landing top tier banking clients
One client changed their entire value proposition, leading to a multi-million pound contract
Multiple new clients ranking no1 for keywords, plus featured snippets
4,000+ views for lots of our blogs on Finextra - including getting clients featured in the newsletter for free
Improved LinkedIn engagements from 3 - 50% by repurposing blogs into flipbooks
Generated hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of demand for B2B data & tech businesses
The ability to measure marketing metrics like these is high on the agenda for leading B2B marketers, board members, and investors. It’s why B2B demand generation is starting to take off 🚀
So, what now? Let’s look at how B2Bs successfully switch to a demand generation approach.
4 key steps to B2B demand generation success
These are the four key ingredients to building a strong sales pipeline.
Step 1: Identify your target audience 🕵️♀️
You’ll probably feel inclined to skip this section because your marketing team knows it's basic marketing 101. But hear me out. Despite knowing you need to niche, tons of B2Bs don’t. Why? Because they fear missing out on the masses.
However, if you don’t niche on a target audience, you simply can’t address their pain points, speak in their language, or add value to customer journeys. Whereas, with it, you can get better cut-through, reduce customer churn and identify lucrative prospects.
And that’s where ICPs or buyer personas come in. More on this in the link just here 👇
📕 Read more: Demand generation strategy: How and why you need to build Ideal Customer Profiles (ICP)
Step 2: Create your campaign strategy: Part 1 - content ✍
There’s so much we could say on this but we’ll keep it brief (head over to our blog to find more content marketing tips).
Our biggest piece of advice here is to make sure your white papers, blogs, videos, infographics – whatever types of content – are unique. You need a unique angle and expert input. You can’t regurgitate what others are saying or keep it too general or it will just get lost in the sea of content.
Instead, your buyers need to feel compelled to read it and they need to get value out of it – which is why expert input is so important.
📕 Read more: Helpful Content: How to write for Humans and SEO
Step 3: Create your campaign strategy: Part 2 - distribution 📣
B2Bs can achieve a significant increase in inbounds and ROI by focusing on content distribution and sharing their content on multiple preferred channels.
Think about a quick distribution checklist for each piece of content (this is just a quick sample):
⬜ Direct mail
⬜ Email marketing (newsletters, lead nurturing, ABM campaigns)
⬜ Social media
⬜ Guest blogging sites
By reaching a larger audience with a single piece of repurposed content, you’re more likely to generate high-quality inbound leads, demo requests, and conversions.
Essentially, this effect is amplified when it occurs for every new blog, resulting in a substantial boost to demand generation.
💡Top tip: Consider sector-specific guest blogging for backlinks and repurposing into carousels and posts for LinkedIn engagement.
Step 4: Measure success 📈
Your senior stakeholders will hold you accountable for this and if they don’t see you hitting certain KPIs, they might just pull back the budget and axe an entirely right approach.
What’s a little frustrating is that a B2B demand generation approach is not a sprint. Whilst there is low-hanging fruit and quick wins, like running lead nurturing campaigns (I don’t think we’ve ever run one of these and NOT seen direct leads), the build of the big and sustainable sales pipeline takes time. That’s because of a couple of key factors:
It takes time for Google to rank relevant content (with an SEO approach)
It takes time for people to build trust in you – and they need to be ready to buy
It’s important that you include KPIs for each point of the sales cycle because it all adds up. So your website traffic (top of funnel), engagement rate (top-middle of funnel, depending on the type of content they look at) and conversion rates and cost per lead / customer acquisition costs (bottom of funnel).
Final step to a successful B2B demand generation strategy
Now, this was a bit of a whistle-stop tour. But, hopefully, you’ve got an idea of where you need to head next. It’s understandable if you’re feeling a little wobbly. We thought you might so we’ve created a more detailed guide to help you with B2B demand generation:
📕 Content and the art of demand generation: The new B2B playbook
It’s an instant download - no forms - and it covers:
The opportunity with demand generation
Why now is the perfect time for demand gen marketing
The impact of changing B2B buyer behaviour
The demand gen fundamentals
The power of demand gen content
Your demand gen approach: What to consider next
Some of the biggest B2B brands in the business are adopting B2B demand generation, like Drift, Cognism, and Gartner, to name a few. While your business might not be on such a large scale, adopting B2B demand generation may still be imperative for your business.
If it is, don’t fret. Follow this framework, start lean, and ramp up your demand gen approach when budget and resources allow.
Looking for demand gen experts to outsource work to? Why not put us to the test? As always, we’re here to help. Don’t hesitate to drop us a note! kerry@rooandeve.com | becca@rooandeve.com.
Or, if you still have unanswered questions, take a look at the most frequently asked questions below:
What is B2B demand generation?
B2B demand generation is a marketing strategy B2B businesses use to create and capture demand for your products and services. This B2B marketing strategy leverages content clusters and internal linking strategies and content distribution to create customer journeys with today’s buyer’s needs at the heart.
What is B2B demand generation vs lead generation?
B2B demand generation and lead generation have different strategies and metrics. B2B demand generation focuses on building trust with buyers to generate high quality inbounds. On the other hand, lead generation strategies usually result in low quality leads and lower sales conversions.
What is demand in B2B marketing?
Creating demand in B2B marketing aims to build your brand to be the first choice buyers consider when they are ready to buy. This requires splitting the funnel into two:
Creating demand (the 90% not yet ready to buy)
Capturing demand (the 10% ready to buy and researching solutions)