B2B Marketing 101: The Difference Between Lead Generation and Demand Generation

Lead generation and demand generation are both vastly essential to B2B Marketing strategies. For instance, companies can’t generate leads effectively if they aren’t also generating demands – and generating demand loses a great value if businesses can’t covert that demand into leads. While lead generation and demand generation share the same end-objectives, it doesn’t mean that they are significantly the same.

The Difference Between Lead Generation and Demand Generation

Mixing up these two B2B marketing ideas can mean missing out on leads and wasting time and effort on poor demand generation strategies. Learning the difference between lead generation and demand generation can help startup companies and SMEs drive more leads that are more likely to be accepted by sales and convert to revenue.

What Is Lead Generation?

Lead generation is the process of converting potential consumers into qualified leads. It is also a way to funnel-in eventual purchasers of your products or services down the path of buying. Business-to-business lead generation services typically involve creating “gated” content and then asking for prospects information in order for them to receive that content. Although specific lead generation strategies vary from different companies, they typically include:

• Whitepaper – is considered one of the most effective lead generation strategies and can have a powerful effect on the ROI of a company’s marketing strategy. It can also engage prospects and build brand awareness, as well as fill an organization’s sales funnel with warm qualified prospects. A research study from Marketing Sherpa has found out that 69% of prospective clients who download and liked a company’s Whitepaper will surely pass it along to their colleagues.

• Content Upgrade – is used to entice people to give their email and/or other information in exchange for a content upgrade. It increases the conversation rate of signups since the content is significantly related to the blog post the person is currently reading. In fact, James Scherrer from Wishpond stated that content upgrades convert their visitors 575% better compared to the blogs that don’t provide one.

• Hosting a webinar – with experts in a specific industry can be another way to gather contact information from a target audience by letting them sign up in advance for the webinar. GoToWebinar reported that 73% of B2B marketers say a webinar is an excellent way to generate high-quality leads.

What Is Demand Generation?

Demand generation is the method of creating brand awareness and demand for a company’s product or service. It also aims to engage prospective clients and introduce them to the organization. Demand generation supports the whole marketing and sales cycle – from the initial prospect attention and lead generation to lead nurturing and sales transaction. Here are the top demand generation tools that many companies apply to their marketing strategies.

• Email marketing – is the highly effective demand generation strategy of sending emails to prospects and existing customers. Effective marketing emails convert prospects into customers and one-time buyers into loyal consumers. According to Wishpond.com, 61% of customers are happy to receive promotional emails weekly provided that those emails actually deliver valuable content.

• Social media marketing – is the use of social media platforms (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) to connect with a target audience to build the brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic. Many companies are riding the trend of social media marketing. In fact, 73% of marketers think that their actions through social media marketing have been somewhat effective or very effective for their organization, according to a report from Buffer.

• Content marketing – is a type of demand generation tool that involves the creation and sharing of blogs, articles, and other online materials that are intended to stimulate interest in a company’s product or service. A recent study from the Content Marketing Institute has shown that 91% of B2B marketers utilize content marketing to reach prospective customers.

Now that you know the difference between lead generation and demand generation, it’s time to look for a reliable B2B lead generation services provider who can help you boost your lead generation strategies and even your demand generation tactics.

Markable Solutions offers end-to-end B2B lead generation services – ensuring a consistent flow of sales-ready leads for your Salesforce using an integrated, effective marketing approach.