Blog Post

Demand Generation

7 Misconceptions about Demand Generation

Demand generation is a full-funnel approach that’s designed to provide information at the moment of need.

Demand gen is critical to success today in B2B marketing. It’s a strategy that builds brand awareness and demand for your products and services. Today, demand generation uses multiple channels and approaches with decentralized information used across platforms.

Despite the power and efficacy of demand generation, there are many persistent misconceptions. Here’s a look at 7 myths about demand generation and why they’re inaccurate.

Misconception #1: Demand Generation and Lead Generation Are the Same Things

People incorrectly believe lead generation and demand generation are one in the same. However, they are very different in scope and practice.

Lead generation is a much more basic sales strategy that’s focused on a singular goal: obtaining more leads. It’s a basic approach that’s designed to collect contact information from customers who might be interested in your product or service.

Lead generation takes a blanket approach to market to the masses. One example: using blogs or webinars to entice readers to leave contact information on a web form.

This is not to diminish lead generation. There are effective ways to garner more leads. Many businesses, impatient with the time needed to deploy demand generation, turn to lead generation instead.

Demand generation is a more comprehensive approach to sales and marketing. With demand gen, you will attract, convert and keep customers.

Demand generation is about nurturing relationships at each stage, as opposed to lead generation, which is more transactional. Instead of passing leads on to a sales team for follow-up, demand gen looks to meet prospects and customers where they are.

With demand generation, you identify what a customers’ needs are and provide solutions, whether it’s content, free tools, or product guides. These solutions are dependent on where a customer is in their journey. They can be personalized using data gleaned from the customer relationship.

Misconception #2: Demand Gen Is a Top-of-the-Funnel Activity

It’s a common misconception that demand generation focuses exclusively on the top of the funnel. Generating demand, however, is not just about acquisition. It’s about engaging and re-engaging customers.

Demand generation takes the long view. It’s about obtaining new prospects and converting those prospects. It’s also about reinforcing your brand and continuing to provide value throughout the lifetime of a customer’s relationship.

Misconception #3: You Can Control the Buyer Journey

Demand generation marketing is not about controlling the buyer. In fact, today, the buyer has more control over the customer journey than ever before.

Why? First, the expectations are different. Customers want relationships with the brands they use. They expect brands to know the extent of the engagements, their preferences, and their needs.

In addition, buyers today have lots of information available, including independent product reviews, message boards, and social media channels. These forums give buyers far more insights into your products and services and the ability to do their own research.

With buyers having information and freedom, demand generation is the right choice. You cannot control the buyer but you can be prepared to meet them where they are.

Demand marketing focuses on having high-value information available at every stage of the buyer’s journey. Creating great content and using your CRM to manage buyer engagements results in better outcomes for buyers and your brand.

Misconception #4: Demand Generation Is a Singular Approach

Demand generation is not a singular strategy to use for your marketing. Instead, it’s the collection of multiple marketing initiatives, across multiple channels.

These activities are coordinated, integrated, and driven by shared data. They also are evolutionary and iterative. If one approach is not working, such as search engine display ads, demand gen allows for rapid pivots. You can shift out of one strategy and try another.

The key is to develop a strategy that engages prospects and customers across channels. Social media, web, SEO, email, video, and other channels all factor into engaging your target audience.

The reason for this approach is evident. Your buyers do not operate on one channel only. Your marketing should not, either.

Misconception #5: There Are No Targets in Demand Generation

With its multi-channel approach, demand generation sometimes suffers from an assumption that targets are not necessary.

The opposite is true. You should use targets for each challenge used. Targeting likely buyers on the right channel at the time of need is the smart move. It leads to higher levels of engagement and higher conversion rates.

Setting these targets requires some work. You need to know who your ideal customers are. You need to understand when they will be looking for solutions and where.

Misconception #6: Content Format Is Irrelevant

Not true: Walls of copy rich in information and stuffed with keywords is the way to go with content.

Remember, the buyer is in control of the relationship. And your brand will not be the only one creating content.

You need to cut through the clutter and noise. That means creating content in the format that your customers want. Increasingly, customers are interested in content in different formats – infographics, videos, and podcasts.

The good news is that often you can repurpose content. A Q&A video with a product manager can be converted into a blog post. A new product announcement can be used to create a graphic that explains key features and enhancements.

Misconception #7: You Need Channel Specialists to be Successful at Demand Generation

Channel specialists are certainly valuable. They know how to effectively manage one channel and bring expertise and experience to your business,

However, they are just that – a specialist who knows one channel, albeit well.

Demand gen requires the use of multiple experts who understand the big picture. You need a team that can work together on strategy messaging, execution, and measurement.

Matter Made helps B2B SaaS businesses grow. Our demand generation, go-to-market, growth marketing, and paid media services help brands attract more customers and convert more sales.

To learn more about how Matter Made can optimize your demand generation strategy, contact us today.

Blog Post

Demand Generation

Growth

How to Track the ROI on Your Growth Marketing Campaign

The Next&Co Digital Media Wastage Report shows that 41% of the average company's marketing budget is wasted, with wastage being the highest among ecommerce, retail, and finance companies. 

Calculating your Return On Investment (ROI) is perhaps the most important thing you can do to keep your growth marketing spending on track. Knowing your ROI will help you:

  • Make value-conscious choices
  • Prove the value of your marketing to leadership
  • Justify your marketing budget for next year 
  • Choose which marketing channels to invest in 

This article will show you how to calculate your growth marketing ROI step-by-step.

Step #1. Set Up Ways To Track Your Marketing Success

You can't calculate marketing ROI without knowing what "return" you are getting. So the first step is to set up ways to track your marketing successes. 

Common ways to monitor your digital marketing campaigns include:

  • Google Search Console. Google Search Console helps you monitor your website's performance in search results. 
  • UTM links. You can use UTM codes to track how your website visitors browse on Google Analytics. 
  • Facebook Pixel. Facebook Pixel will help you track conversions from Facebook ads.
  • Social media marketing analytics platforms. Platforms like Buffer Analyze, Sprout Social, Hootsuite, and Zoho Social can help you analyze your social media marketing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). 
  • Ecommerce analytics tools. Platforms like Hotjar, Kissmetrics, and Optimizely can help you analyze ecommerce KPIs. 
  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools. CRM tools like HubSpot, Salesforce CRM, SAP CRM, and ZOHO CRM can help you analyze customer interactions.

It's best to set up these tools before you start publishing your marketing efforts.

Step #2. Gather Data

Next, sit back and start gathering data. It's best to monitor your marketing for several weeks or months if possible, as a longer data collection period will ensure your results aren't skewed by outliers.

Step #3. Calculate Your Marketing Costs

Then, calculate your costs. 

You'll need to take two types of costs into account:

  1. Direct costs

Direct costs are expenses that have a clear price tag and can be directly tied to your marketing and sales funnel. Marketing software, Paid-Per-Click (PPC) ad spending, equipment, marketing staff salaries, and freelancers are all direct costs. 

  1. Indirect costs

Indirect costs are expenses that aren't directly tied to your marketing but are still essential to make running the marketing department possible. Rent, electricity, and salaries from non-marketing staff (like receptionists or administrators) are all indirect costs. 

You may need to consult your accounting department to figure out your indirect costs. Once you have your figure, add it to your direct cost figure to get your total marketing spend. 

Step #4. Calculate Your Marking Returns

Now it's time to calculate your marketing returns, and there are several approaches you could take here. 

If you want to simplify things, you could take your entire net income figure for a given period and attribute 100% of it to marketing. 

Or, if you want to be more precise, you can go through your marketing channels one-by-one and calculate how much revenue your company earned as a result of it. This is easier with some channels than others. Some ad analytics, paid media, and referral marketing tools, for example, will help you calculate how much revenue your brand earned from ads. Sales from search engine marketing, social media marketing and content marketing, on the other hand, are harder to attribute. 

Whatever method you choose, you should finish this stage with a clear figure.

Step #5. Execute the ROI Formula 

The final step in measuring digital marketing ROI is executing the following ROI formula:

ROI = (marketing revenue - cost of marketing) / cost of marketing

For example, if your total revenue figure was $45,400 and your total marketing costs were $12,300, your ROI would be 2.69.

If your ROI figure doesn't look right, make sure you have only included marketing returns and costs from a single, clearly defined period (like quarter one or 2022, for example). A common mistake marketers make is including a year's worth of an expense rather than just the cost in a set period. 

Other KPIs to Watch with Growth Marketing 

  • Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) = average order value x purchase frequency rate x average customer lifetime
  • Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) = (cost of sales - cost of marketing) / number of new customers acquired
  • Conversion rate = (total conversions / total visitors) x 100
  • Cost-Per-Click (CPC) = total amount spent / total clicks
  • Open Rate  = (number of emails opened / number of messages sent) x 100
  • Average Transaction Value (ALV) = total sales / number of transactions

Tracking other KPIs and presenting them alongside your marketing ROI can give the ROI figure more context. It can also help you explain fluctuations in your ROI across multiple periods. 

Calculating Marketing ROI, Growth Marketing, and Matter Made

Measuring marketing ROI will help you quantify your growth marketing efforts, build a strong PLG funnel, and analyze your digital marketing campaign efficiently. Naturally, knowing your marketing ROI can help your growth marketing strategy succeed long-term.

Want to embrace growth marketing but don't know where to start? Let's talk. 

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