Demand Generation Practices for Profitable Business
B2B Demand generation is a technique of B2B marketing
where certain strategies are implemented to create interest in some products
and services among potential customers. A good demand generation strategy is
one that ends in happy customers and profitable businesses. Previously, lead
quantity was the focus. However, recently there has been a shift and more and
more businesses are now considering the quality of leads as a primary focus. No
business wants a lead that doesn’t convert into sales leads. So generating just
the interest in not enough anymore.
Demand
generation, as understood today, is more about the generation of interest in
products and services as well as better brand authority and recognition. The
focus has to be on the entire sales funnel rather than just the top for the
success of a business. Therefore, the latest practices in demand generation are
about building better relationships, operational efficiency, and adopting the
latest technologies for enhancing the whole process. This article examines and
briefly explains eight demand generation practices that marketers can use to
make their businesses profitable.
The marketing
automation tools have led to the automation of the mid-funnel processes.
Research in this field suggests that automation is being used for
personalization of content, profiling of leads, and lead nurturing. While this
has led to more efficient processes, the top-funnel processes are still
ineffective and manual. Therefore, the need is to automate the top-funnel
processes so that marketers can centralize their leads and make the processes
like lead data validation, vendor management, standardization, and enhancement
more efficient.
2.
Adopting improved account-based
marketing techniques
Further, the
organizations have to switch to better account-based marketing (ABM) techniques
to increase the ROI. It is time to ditch the old ABM practices like cold contacts,
email blasts, etc. and adopt new and sophisticated ones.
3.
Generating high-quality data
This is being
stressed upon the most by the industry experts. Data quality has a huge effect
on all aspects of marketing. It is important to have high-quality content at
each stage. There are many effective tools in the market that ensure the data
quality and data match the MAP and CRM requirements.
4.
Frequent and improved
communication with clients
Traditionally,
marketers do not engage with the clients. However, communication with the
client has a huge impact on B2B demand generation. Marketers who are in frequent
touch with their customers have better knowledge of how to attract and retain
their clients.
5.
Better communication with sales
and customer service
A research has
revealed that better communication with sales and customer service department’s
leads to 38% higher sales win rate and 36% better customer retention rates.
This happens due to the fact that improved communication with these departments
gives you a better understanding of success metrics.
6.
Co-creating content and events
with other brands
A lot of stress
is now being given on partner marketing where two or more brands come together
for marketing efforts. This is done mostly between complementary and
non-competing products. Collaborative marketing allows better use of resources
as it focuses on sharing. The output is better content, wider exposure, and
higher engagement with the audiences. Some of the co-creation opportunities
include webinars, white papers, and research.
7.
Understand and prepare better
for privacy regulations
Data privacy
and B2B marketing are related more than you think, especially for the
organizations who are in some way doing business in the European Union. With
the coming of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR), this has become
more important. The impact is significant on B2B tech firms as not complying
with these may lead to regulatory risks.
With the rapidly
changing landscape of demand generation, it always hard to forecast the trends.
However, the organizations that are actively engaged in improving their
strategies will be performing the best. Adapting to changing trends and times
is the need of the hour. Therefore, the most successful demand generation
techniques are the ones that are in line with improving technologies, increased
demand for better content, and compliance requirements.
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