With the spread of the Internet and SNS, customer purchasing behavior has changed, making it difficult to close new business deals in the short term using traditional sales activities. In recent years, many companies have been working on demand generation from a medium- to long-term perspective in order to acquire customers.
This time, we will explain what demand generation means, how to approach it, and examples.
What is demand generation?
Demand generation refers to all activities performed to acquire customers. Leads (prospective customers) acquired through various
channels
are followed up with e-mail newsletters, seminars, etc., and nurtured and discovered into leads with a high desire to purchase. We will do a series of activities.
Behind the spread of demand generation is a change in customer purchasing behavior. Due to the spread of the Internet and SNS, the amount of information online has increased explosively, and as a result, customers now collect information on their own before speaking to a salesperson, and make inquiries after making comparisons. .
In order to win business deals, it is necessary to have contact with customers even before they make an inquiry, and to gain awareness of their companies and services, and many companies have started working on demand generation. The goal is to have regular contact with potential customers through
white papers
, email newsletters, etc., and to be remembered as a point of contact in order to create opportunities for business negotiations.
Three steps to advance demand generation
Demand generation is divided into three processes: lead generation, lead nurturing, and lead qualification.
lead generation
Lead generation
is the activity of acquiring new leads (prospective customers) through various measures such as websites, advertising, exhibitions, tele-appointments, etc.
lead nurturing
The activity of converting acquired leads into purchasing products or services is called
lead nurturing
. We will follow up with emails, seminars, etc. according to the lead’s consideration status, increasing the possibility of closing the deal.
lead qualification
Lead qualification is the activity of narrowing down and extracting leads that have a higher chance of closing a business deal through nurturing. For example, if the deal closing rate is high for leads who have downloaded case studies, data on customers who have taken similar actions will be extracted and passed to sales.
Examples of demand generation efforts
Tanabe Management Co., Ltd., a pioneer in Japanese management consulting, responds to 10% of leads acquired through the media at the sales site, and targets 20% through nurturing.
We follow up on leads that are tailored to the customer and situation. We introduce recommended content, discuss issues, and connect clients with consultants.
Case study:
What preparations, systems, and tools are needed to put it into practice?
Demand generation spans multiple departments, so it is necessary to establish a flow, prepare an internal system, and introduce the necessary tools.
Building a flow
Acquired leads and cultivated leads are transferred across departments to the sales department. Therefore, we will construct a flow that maximizes the effectiveness by considering the resources of each department. At that time, you can create a more efficient flow by utilizing the functions included in
MA (marketing automation)
tools.
Establishment of internal structure
In demand generation, the marketing department plays a central role in preparing content according to the target group and phase. Content is related to multiple departments, such as online content for nurturing used by the inside sales department, and negotiation materials for the sales department.
It is important to have an internal system in place because coordinating each department will unify the customer experience and prevent leads from falling through the cracks.
Consider tools
By introducing an MA tool, you can not only manage leads but also analyze data, achieving efficient demand generation. Consider implementing tools that allow you to improve your policies based on the results of data analysis.
Swich Plus is a marketing tool that combines
CMS
and MA. You can easily create HTML emails with an intuitive operation screen. In addition, a dedicated person in charge will support your web marketing, so we recommend it to those who want to start building an effective demand generation system at a low cost.
summary
This time, we introduced details about demand generation and how to approach it. Demand generation is a method of acquiring new customers that allows you to approach potential customers. The first step to success is for each department to work together to improve internal systems and introduce tools.