Demand generation campaigns do not always meet expectations. If your demand gen campaign gets off to a slow start or underwhelms, don’t panic. Stay the course, make the necessary adjustments and your demand gen campaign will eventually produce meaningful results.
Demand Generation Marketing Explained
The definition of demand generation is unambiguous: a marketing strategy centered on creating interest and awareness in the brand that spurs the formation of legitimate leads with the potential for conversion. Demand gen campaigns aim to portray the business as genuine and authoritative while artfully communicating the value offering to steer a steady stream of interested prospects toward conversion.
Continue to expand your leads through strategic demand generation and your revenue will increase in due time. Let’s shift our attention to why some demand gen campaigns fail and how to rectify those marketing missteps.
1. Review and Improve Your Demand Gen Strategy
Reflection is essential to personal and professional growth. A business owner, manager, or marketer who refuses to reflect on the success or failure of a demand gen campaign won’t make meaningful progress in the context of ramping up demand or converting those prospects into paying customers.
Brand marketing is centered on strategically communicating the merits of a value proposition, making it clear how the service or product in question benefits the customer. However, there is a significant hurdle in the way of prospect conversion. Potential customers won’t consider your value offering unless they know your company and its products/services. If a potential customer is unaware of the solution to the problem in his or her life or at work, there is no chance of conversion. A Demand Side Platform (DSP) guide for beginners is just one way to improve your demand gen campaign.
2. Highlight Solutions to Customer Problems
Refocus your demand gen strategy to target prospects’ pain points. The time you spend brainstorming and enhancing demand gen strategies with pen and paper, or even a vision board, has the potential to provide exponentially larger returns in the form of conversion maximization. The challenge lies in not only identifying pain points but implementing demand gen campaign strategies that highlight how the value offering addresses those issues.
When in doubt, lean on the expertise of demand gen professional for guidance in perfecting the subtle nuances of your current demand gen campaigns to make a truly lasting impact. These meaningful connections boost prospect conversion in the short-term and also in the weeks/months ahead after the implementation of marketing retargeting efforts as described below.
3. Adopt a Macro View
Connecting with target prospects is only half the equation for business success. Superficial connections through conventional outbound ads on radio, billboards, magazines, and newspapers are brief, surface-level, and ultimately fail to target those in need of your company’s service or product. Recognize that generating interest in your business requires targeted demand generation, be patient and let your campaign evolve as time progresses.
The most successful business owners are quick to highlight how spending money on demand gen and inbound marketing is a temporary financial setback with the potential to catalyze revenue. Razor businesses and even video game companies take significant losses on razors and consoles, respectively. However, the financial shortfall following the initial sale is made up with subsequent purchases of razor blades and video games.
Even if your business doesn’t sell anything shaving or gaming-related, there is a lesson to learn from such “loss leaders”. Think of your investment in demand generation campaigns as an initial loss leader that sets the stage for an influx of revenue as time progresses. As an example, offering a free download such as an e-book, a no-cost digital tool, or a free whitepaper will expand your company’s sphere of prospect contact and maximize conversions.
4. Continue to Retarget Prospects
The worst-case scenario for a business is to spend on demand generation only to connect with members of the target audience and subsequently lose their interest. A prospect who starts to move through the sales funnel, yet stagnates or reverts course, is a missed opportunity.
Retarget interested prospects who have visited your website, clicked a Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ad, or proactively expressed interest in your company and you’ll massage those leads all the more, potentially convincing them not only to return to the website but follow through with a purchase, rental, or referral.
Even something as simple as contributing a guest post to an industry blog your target prospects read has the potential to trigger conversions. It also makes good marketing and business sense to consider partnering with a relevant party for an educational webinar or other informative sessions. Proactively knock down customer education barriers and you’ll reinforce brand recognition, establish a rapport and help move target prospects to the bottom of your sales funnel.
