B2B Demand Generation
When it comes to B2B demand generation, the goal is straightforward: attract and convert potential prospects into paid customers. However, this is becoming harder than ever. The market is extremely crowded, budgets are tightening, and your buyers are being bombarded with messages. How do you make sure you stand out from the crowd and create an effective and efficient B2B demand generation engine? The answers may surprise you!
Identify and target your ideal customer
This point may be obvious, but most people in b2b marketing miss the mark. Without having a clear idea of your target, you are essentially throwing darts against the wall. The mistake that most demand-gen marketers make is not being specific enough. A broad ideal customer increases your competitive surface area and dilutes your messaging. For example, if you sell financial reporting software, a poor ideal customer is “CFOs”. Every company passed a certain size will have a CFO, so this is too broad for lead generation.
In order to get more specific, think about the product you’re selling and what pain points it will solve for customers along specific dimensions. Some of those dimensions could be:
- Company size: Is your product easy to set up and use? If your competitors’ software is clunky and takes a lot of onboarding to use, consider targeting smaller companies. Smaller companies typically have less red tape when it comes to evaluating new software. Also, people take on multiple roles in smaller companies, so they will tend to value software that they can try right away. Contact information can also be easier to find for smaller companies, since their executives may not be on everyone’s CRM.
- Industry: Specific industries have unique pain points that you can target. For example, highly regulated industries like financial services and medicine will have strict compliance requirements. This will let you speak to how your software can easily fulfill those requirements and gain quick adoption. Different industries may respond differently depending on the channel. For example, email marketing is likely to be more effective than LinkedIn in certain industries like hospitality. Keep this in mind when creating your marketing campaigns.
- Location: Different countries have various laws and ways of doing business. Even within the United States, there are different work cultures on the east and west coasts. Targeting specific locations will allow you to speak their language, both literally and figuratively. A recent founder I spoke with has a fintech company that helps low-income workers get payday loans through their employers. Their inbound marketing took off as soon as he moved his target customer from Spain to Colombia.
Getting a clear idea of your ideal customer will work wonders for your marketing team.
Create original content to drive conversions
Once you’ve narrowed in on your target customer, you’ll want to create original content. Content marketing is the backbone of every demand-generation strategy. Whether you are looking to increase your paid or organic traffic, original content is key. You can no longer get away with the same blog articles that people have read a million times. To stand out above the noise, you’ll need to be insightful and original. With the rise in AI-generated content, this is becoming harder than ever.
How do you do that? While different types of content exist, video is by far the best-performing. Many marketers have this misconception that video is difficult and expensive to produce. That is no longer true. Webinar platforms like Welcome allow you to host live discussions on topics of interest and automatically create short-form content. These short-form videos can be repurposed for blog articles, social media, and e-mail newsletters without the need for a dedicated video team.
In addition to higher conversion rates from video, live conversations specifically can create insights through moderated conversations. When you are engaged in a lively conversation, you can bounce ideas off of other people and generate insights more easily than you can by yourself.
This isn’t to say that traditional marketing content like white papers and case studies is not effective. But they need to be coupled with a solid SEO strategy in order to be effective. One of the best tools I’ve seen to help you create SEO-friendly content is Clearscope. In fact, I’m writing this article using that tool right now!
Use automation whenever possible
Over the past few years, there has been a Cambrian explosion of marketing automation tools. Hubspot, Marketo and Salesforce can all help automate demand generation campaigns. They can also help you track relevant metrics (like MQLs, qualified leads, intent data) to optimize your buyer’s journey. These tools can be indispensable in executing your demand-gen strategy.
One way we’ve leveraged automation at Welcome is to create a list of target accounts in Hubspot. These target accounts are divided into several tiers, depending on how confidently we believe they can be converted into potential customers. Within these accounts, we target individuals who match our buyer personas. Since our CRM and marketing automation systems are connected, we know exactly where someone is in the buying journey and can target them accordingly.
Learn and adjust quickly
The world is moving faster than ever, and your marketing strategy needs to adapt. To successfully generate demand, you’ll always need to be relevant to the challenges that your customers are facing. Not all of the content that you generate will be a hit. It’s important that you constantly refine and test your messaging. One of the best ways to do this is through A/B testing, which involves experimenting with different elements such as headlines, images, or calls to action. This can help you identify what’s working and what’s not, and make changes where needed. Your sales team can be a great source of feedback here, as content works really well for moving high-quality leads through the sales funnel.
One mistake I often see marketers make is using a “spray and pray” strategy. They’ll try ABM (account-based marketing) to target high-level decision-makers one moment, then focus on brand awareness the next moment. Then the next moment they’ll try influencer marketing. Digital marketing often takes a while to get going. It could take 3-6 months before you see the fruits of your marketing efforts really start to pay off.
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Conclusion
B2B demand generation marketing is a crucial aspect of any business looking to attract and convert potential buyers into new customers. By narrowing your target audience, creating compelling content, and learning and adjusting quickly, you can stand out from the crowd and thrive in this challenging environment.
