12 Killer Demand Generation Campaigns Proven to Work

You’re not getting as many leads as you would like. So you develop a lead generation campaign. The only problem is you’re not getting enough attention from your target customers. So the leads are low-quality or non-existent.

What do you do to counter this?

One option is to incorporate a demand generation campaign. By focusing on demand gen, you can better control the visibility and attention your brand gets. Then as you get more eyes on your company from prospects, you’ll have an easier time turning them into leads.

That’s what we’re going to focus on today. Let’s dive into what demand generation is all about.

What is a Demand Generation Campaign?

A demand generation campaign is a data-driven marketing strategy companies use to build awareness and interest for their products or services. It focuses on delivering content and conversations throughout the customer journey. Every touchpoint should be accounted for in your demand generation campaign.

So how do you go about building a successful demand gen strategy? First, you have to understand the demand generation funnel.

What is the Demand Generation Funnel?

The demand generation funnel is your guide to developing messages and content for target prospects. It tells you what the prospective customer is looking for every step of the way, so you can build strategies and content around it.

The sole purpose of your campaign is to generate demand. So it’s all about getting attention — not converting. That’s for lead gen campaigns to do.

So within the demand generation funnel, you’re focusing on things like:

• Capturing attention by starting conversations on social media
• Sharing blog posts that answer questions
• Posting videos that are entertaining and informative
• Creating infographics that are fun and educational

Then from here, your audience researches your brand to learn more about it. That’s where lead generation kicks in with lead capture forms and email nurturing campaigns.

How to Build a Successful Demand Gen Campaign

The job of your demand generation campaign is to bridge the gap between sales and revenue. You do this by driving prospects into your lead gen funnel.

There are several components you want to focus on when developing your demand gen campaign. This includes figuring out:

• Your ideal prospects
• Their pain points
• Common questions they ask
• Their buying behaviors

With this information, you’ll better understand your audience’s needs and how to help them. You’ll be able to create a strategy that:

• Builds awareness
• Generates interest
• Provides consideration
• Fulfills intent
• Acknowledges evaluation
• Converts leads

You can do so using the following steps:

• Establishing goals: Without them, you won’t know if you’re succeeding or not.
• Identify your audience: It’s vital to know who you’re talking to so you can develop messaging that resonates.
• Build a need for your product or service: Your audience is unaware of their problems, so it’s up to you to create awareness of it.
• Create informative content: Now that your audience knows of their issue, they want to know how to resolve it — your content will guide them.
• Start conversations: Getting your audience to talk about their problems and what they’re doing to resolve them offers insights. And it enables you to build a strong social media presence and authority.
• Develop lead magnets: This is the drop-off point for demand gen campaigns. You built demand; now it’s time for lead generation campaigns to take over.
• Measure success: Watching the right metrics will tell you if your campaign is working or not. You’ll want to look at views, comments, likes, shares, and lead conversions (forms filled out).

Everything about your demand generation campaign should be data-driven. So measure it all and use the information to improve each step.

What Are Common Demand Generation Campaign Tactics?

The internet makes it easy to build demand and buzz for your brand. It just requires the right channels and tactics to make it happen. Now, the methods you use will depend on the audience and sector you’re targeting.

For example, you may find your audience takes to short videos better than joining one-hour webinars.

Here’s a look at some of the demand generation tactics you can use:

1. Collaborate with influencers and experts in your industry
2. Host a webinar and open up for Q&A at the end of the session
3. Use case studies to share stories (and start discussions)
4. Use data to develop a must-have industry report (or team up with another big name in your industry to create a joint report)
5. Show authenticity by not making every post and conversation business focused
6. Use look-alike audiences from social media to learn more about your prospects (and create ads geared towards them)
7. Develop emails that are story-driven to build interest
8. Share knowledge for free via videos and downloadable content

Next, let’s review how brands use these (and other) demand gen methods in the real world.

12 Real-World Demand Generation Campaign Examples

Alright, so it’s time to look at how you can apply various demand gen tactics in the real world. Here are 12 you can try today.

1. Develop Educational Content

Audiences within the B2B community are always looking to upgrade their knowledge. This may be to self-improve or advance their professional careers. If you have expertise, then show it by sharing free educational content as a download.

This will build interest, and it’ll entice prospects to buy. One study shows educational content makes consumers 131% more likely to buy.

2. Make Your Content Interactive

If you’re in an industry where your customers use formulas, then having a tool to calculate numbers is ideal. This will turn your website into a go-to resource. Consider making the tool a part of your site, so it continues driving traffic back. Who knows, maybe one of these visits they’ll decide to convert into a customer.

This works for real estate, finance, home remodeling, and various other industries. Learn what problems your audience is trying to resolve and develop a tool they can use to help.

And in doing so, it can boost your odds of getting more customers. According to one report, interactive content can increase engagement 2x better than static content. This is why 62% of B2B marketers use it.

3. Offer Free Trials and Services

There’s nothing that gains attention like the word “free.” So much so, people are willing to try just about anything once if it doesn’t cost them a dime. Consider offering a free service for your prospective customers to try. Or offer a free trial for 14 to 30 days. Then see if you can get them to provide feedback, so you understand why they did or didn’t become a paying customer.

One report shows B2B companies that use free trials see an average of 66% in conversions. This is refreshing news if you’re worried that giving away free things is counterproductive.

4. Send Corporate Gifts

Sending gifts to prospects is a powerful way to drive demand for your product or service. When done effectively, it can potentially drive a over 200% return on investment. You can send an assortment of gifts, including wine, cookies, fruit baskets, candle kits, company swag, and more. When you send gifts to prospective customers, it entices them to reach out. So consider using this method as a way to book calls and meetings.

It also creates a good first impression, which increases the odds of them remembering your brand. Look for clues on which gifts would appeal to a prospect. You can learn this through conversations on social media or the phone.

There are gift-sending platforms available to track your corporate gifting campaigns. Use this to monitor who converts and who doesn’t.

5. Generate Business Opportunities

It’s not easy getting attention for content when it’s published on your own website. Especially if it isn’t well-known. To counter this, you can leverage the audience of blogs that already have a generous-sized audience. Find an influencer in your industry to write a guest blog post for. Then their audience will see it and potentially find interest in your brand.

You’ll also get potential traffic from the influencer’s following on social media. They’ll likely share your guest post on their profile to garner attention from those who may not regularly visit the blog.

According to reports from brands, guest posting can increase new visitors and convert them into leads. For example, Okdork.com received 73% more views from new visitors (in just two days!). And BufferApp used guest blogging to acquire 100,000 customers in only nine months.

6. Use Personalized Email Campaigns

Personalization isn’t just a buzzword (although you’ve likely heard the term a lot lately). It’s a proven method B2B marketers are using to connect with their target audience. People today want relevant content (and even marketing messages) from brands.

One way of implementing personalization is through email campaigns. Nike does an excellent job with this. The brand uses email marketing to maintain its reputation and build personal connections with engaged customers. When you sign up for their newsletter, they ask your gender to send relevant content.

For example, they’ll showcase and offer promotions for products you like. According to Oberlo, personalizing email subject lines can increase open rates by 50%.

7. Create Fun Quizzes

No, quizzes aren’t just for B2C audiences. You can also use them to attract B2B buyers. For instance, you can develop quizzes like “How to tell if you need new PM software” or “How much do you know about X?”

Now, aside from being fun, quizzes can do two things:

Help your audience figure out a problem (or solution), all the while entertaining them. And it gives you insights into your audience.

Then as a bonus, it helps build awareness for your brand. Outgrow used a quiz about whisky to help one of its clients gain 53,000 leads.

8. Encourage User Generated Content

You don’t always have to do the heavy lifting to get demand from your audience. Sometimes, you can get them involved to create buzz around your brand. Social media is the perfect platform for inciting this.

For example, you can ask your followers to send photos of their office or favorite software tools. Then to get more engagement, you can offer an incentive like a coupon or chance to win a prize. If you can get them to share their experience with your product or service, then even better.

This will serve as social proof for your brand.

9. Create a Scoring Model for Leads

There’s a lot you can learn about your audience via lead scoring. This is a point system that identifies how well your demand gen is doing. If the visitors you’re driving in aren’t converting into leads, then it’s time to reevaluate. Maybe you should target a different channel or implement new tactics. The goal is to find out why your target audience isn’t biting.

So how do you build a scoring model? You assign points to behaviors. For instance, reading a blog post is five points, while downloading a whitepaper is worth 10 points.

10. Host a Webinar

Virtual events are pretty popular right now. And why wouldn’t they be? The lockdowns have turned us into hermits, so any form of interaction we can get, we’ll take. Webinars are a great resource B2B brands can use for demand generation.

They’ve always worked well and even more so now that more people are operating remotely. According to Outgrow, 73% of B2B marketers say webinars are the best way to get high-quality leads. And one study shows 20% to 40% of webinar attendees turn into qualified leads.

11. Send Out Interactive Emails

We already discussed how well interactive content works. But you can take it a step further by making your emails interactive. One way to do this is to put a quiz or tool in your emails. The idea is to add value so subscribers are more likely to engage.

In fact, stats show interactive emails have a 73% higher click-to-open rate. So if you’re going this route, then make sure your subject line announces the tool or quiz inside.

12. Engage Your Audience On LinkedIn

LinkedIn is a platform for professionals to connect with one another. And over the years, it’s grown into a community where business people can interact with one another. So it makes sense to use LinkedIn as your platform to engage your audience.

Data shows LinkedIn posts get the highest engagement when shared on:

• Wednesdays between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., and at noon
• Thursdays at 9 a.m. and between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.
• Fridays at 9 a.m.

Of course, this isn’t set in stone. Play around with different days and times to see when your audience engages the most.

Generate the Demand Your Company Deserves

Building a demand generation campaign isn’t rocket science. With the right tactics, you can generate sales-qualified leads for your organization. Hopefully, this short guide gives you ideas to get your creative juices flowing.

And if you’re thirsty to learn more, then check out how Siteimprove yielded $15 for every one dollar spent.