In the world of B2B marketing, there are many terms and concepts that are loosely and vaguely used. Demand generation and lead generation are two such terms that are often used interchangeably, but truth be told, they are not the same and each have their own role and importance in the field of marketing.

In the world of B2B marketing, there are many terms and concepts that are loosely and vaguely used. Demand generation and lead generation are two such terms that are often used interchangeably, but truth be told, they are not the same and each have their own role and importance in the field of marketing. Paying attention to both these aspects and ensuring their presence is key to the success of marketing strategies.  In order to effectively churn out results from both these processes, it’s important that we understand their individual roles and how the two terms are different from each other.

While it’s true to say that both demand generation and lead generation share many end-goals, it is also crucial to understand that demand generation is a process that makes its entry to the buyer’s journey long before the process of lead generation does. 

What is Demand Generation?

Demand generation is used to create awareness among new people about a business. Or it could also be the means through which prospects are made aware of a problem, to which the business at hand could offer the perfect solution. Through this, a demand for the business is created, which in turn attracts new people to the business. The tactics used to create this demand are informative, elaborate and comprehensible, aimed to create a deeper understanding in the potential clients about the product/ service’s advantages and why they need it in their lives. Blog posts, email marketing, asset downloads-all the content created for demand generation is designed in such a way that they create maximum awareness in a large set of target audience. These tactics are often free and non-gated as the goal is to reach the maximum number of prospects.

What is Lead Generation?

It’s safe to assume that lead generation is a subset of demand generation as lead generation comes into play once the demand is generated. Lead generation qualifies the prospects into ‘leads’ and gets them ready for the next step in the sales process. This movement of a prospect down the marketing funnel towards a sale or signup is achieved with the help of gated/ exclusive content or free trials as opposed to demand generation. Placing the content behind a “gate” invokes interest in the prospects by building on the awareness created during demand generation. This also motivates the prospects to submit forms, the information from which provides the sales team with leads that are genuine and are of higher quality, and thereby better conversion rates and more sales. In simpler terms, lead generation converts the awareness and curiosity raised during demand generation first into interest and then to contact information of potential customers.

Though both demand generation and lead generation have their own roles to play in a marketing strategy, it would be wrong to assume that one is more important than the other. Here’s a simple analogy-for a fruit to grow on a tree, the richness of the soil and the strength of the tree are both important. Here, the fruit is the business, while the nutrient rich soil is demand generation and the strong tree is lead generation. They are all dependent on each other. An effective marketing strategy therefore understands the importance of both and is all encompassing.

Take your Demand Generation and Lead Generation to Next Level

If you are exploring options on how to boost your business, let our experts guide you on how your company can benefit from demand and finally get to convert ROI through lead generation. For more information on how infoAnalytica can help in generating high quality leads through an outreach campaign, please send an email to mittal.shah@infoanalytica.com