Sometimes when B2B marketers talk about lead generation, they mean demand generation. And sometimes people are trying to create demand using lead generation tactics. It’s time to set the record straight on the difference between these two marketing strategies.
What is Demand Generation?
The purpose of demand generation is to create awareness of, interest in, and a demand for your product or service, your company, and industry. This can be accomplished through a strategy of both inbound and outbound marketing and other factors as well, such as brand promotion or direct mail.
Your marketing function is responsible for demand generation. You can create brand awareness and position your company through whitepapers, blogs, infographics, short videos, booths at industry events, and other types of efforts that educate the marketplace.
What is Lead Generation?
Lead generation is focused solely on obtaining leads and proliferating your brand. Some of the same strategies used for demand generation can be applied to lead generation, like offering white papers in return for gathering an email address or phone number.
One example of lead generation includes a form on a pay-per-click landing page that gathers contact information. Another form of lead generation can offer content or something of value behind a “gate” that motivates leads to give up their valuable contact information. To get a relevant, useful white paper or case study, a prospect needs to enter in his name, company, and email address to gain access. A product video is much more likely to convert viewers compared to those who simply read an ad.
How They Differ
Demand generation information should be shared freely and frequently, so you don’t want to put anything in the way of a prospect obtaining your information. On the other hand, if you want to generate leads, you need something of great value for which your customers will offer up their pertinent information.
For example, Intelemark excels at generating leads for B2B companies through calling campaigns. These could be follow-up campaigns offering a free white paper, a demonstration, or a webinar. Intelemark helps clients generate demand for products or services through lead engagement involving customized content that demonstrates a company’s value proposition.
The Content Marketing Institute states the difference between the two types of generation quite succinctly:
Every interaction you want an individual to have with your content must be focused on either lead gen or demand gen.
One thing to keep in mind is how both demand generation and lead generation complement each other. Demand generation creates awareness of and interest in your product or service so that lead generation initiatives can capture those contacts who might be interested in how you can solve their business critical issues.
Intelemark excels at both lead generation and demand generation campaigns for our customers. Contact one of our experts today to see how we can help you explode your results and achieve an excellent ROI.