If you’ve ever been as hungry as a bear while stuck in rush hour traffic before hearing an ad for a triple cheeseburger taunting you from the speakers… you already understand what Demand Generation Marketing is—and how effective it can be as you hop the median for drive-thru.
What is Demand Marketing?
Demand marketing is an umbrella of programs to help drive awareness and excitement for your brand and results in different advantages for different industries. No matter which direction your business faces, more excitement means more demand.
If you are selling products or services, demand is great news! The more visibility, traffic, and engagement your brand can accrue, the better rate of return you will have for your marketing budget.
If you are a B2B or consultation service, demand comprises the first pieces of your sales funnel—bringing in the most amount of prospects you can get so that they can be vetted and turned into leads.
In both cases, this type of marketing plays into a relatively recent concept in the field known as a Blue Ocean Strategy, which we will go into below.
A Blue Ocean Strategy is a marketing concept that involves generating demand where it wasn’t previously. This contrasts with the much longer-lived tradition of competing in overcrowded market spaces, otherwise known as a Red Ocean Strategy. These are run on economies of scale with exceedingly high costs.
A Blue Ocean Strategy works for the digital age by leveraging all of the free social tools available to makers and entrepreneurs. It is also especially apt for software, as home developers can create their devices at a much faster pace and in more innovative fields (AI, haptics, biohacking) through consumer access to better at-home technologies like VR or cloud services.
For small businesses looking to scale, demand generation is a relatively simple way to grow that does not tie you into costly contracts or demanding procedures. It takes some creative marketing, some personality, and an ear out for new market demand.
Some strategies for building demand generation would be:
Social Media Campaigns
Co-Branding
Community Engagement
Reaching Niche Market Leaders
Developing Novel Products or Services
Building Copywriting Around Your New Market
Creation of Exciting Content
Creative Hashtagging
These function as buoys in the new market space you are marketing in. The deeper you make the pool, the deeper your potential customers can dive!
Demand Generation offers an opportunity for your customers to reach out to you and engage with your content. Through differentiation, low costs, and capturing new imaginations, your demand will grow where you may have previously seen stagnant results.
Demand generation is only one aspect of your pipeline, complemented by your cold outreach and other existing strategies.
Are you hoping to grow more or scale faster? My services will help make sense of your marketing strategies and craft new ones to reach a bigger audience than ever before. Contact me today to get started!