Demand generation has been crucial for B2B marketing to create interest and brand awareness in your solutions and services. It helps to build a high-quality leads pipeline that can be used by marketing and sales teams to proceed with conversions.
Earlier B2B marketers used to execute demand generation solutions for filling the sales funnel; however, over a period, it evolved to integrating new techniques and channels. Despite the advantages and well-curated execution strategies, B2B demand generation in marketing strategy is often poorly executed, which lands the marketing efforts in vain with no considerable results.
This happens because of the commonly practiced B2B demand generation myths and misconceptions in B2B marketing.
Most prevalent of these are discussed and assessed in the blog to pop the surrounding bubble and deliver a clear vision to adopt and practice the correct tactics and strategies.
Demand generation marketers have a lot of misconceptions and presumptions to dispel. It might be challenging to distinguish between a good approach and a myth in the context of shifting marketing trends. After navigating through the following myths, it’ll be clear what to adopt and what needs to be discarded.
Most Common B2B Demand Generation Myths
Demand generation marketers have a lot of misconceptions and presumptions to dispel. It might be challenging to distinguish between a good approach and a myth in the context of shifting marketing trends. After navigating through the following myths, it’ll be clear what to adopt and what needs to be discarded.
1) Single-channel approach is enough for efficient demand generation
The single-channel way of generating demand was considered sufficient during the pre-digital era. However, with the emergence of digitalization, B2B marketers started seeking the sync of multi-channel marketing to develop a more effective demand generation strategy and harness corresponding results.
Research revealed that engagement levels tend to increase fourfold for businesses that use a two-or-more-channel approach for customer engagement. Besides, the statistics showed that multi-channel B2B demand generation campaigns and metrics surge sales and augment prospect engagement throughout the sales process.
2) Demand and Lead Generation are the same
Despite sharing similar traits, the way of approaching is different. Technically B2B lead generation is a subset of demand generation.
The former is only feasible with the latter, but demand generation alone can be executed. Demand generation aims to trigger more interest in products & services, while lead generation is the process of contacting & converting the prospect.
3) B2B Demand Generation can function without precise targeting
With the multi-channel approach that B2B marketers adhere to, the sales process becomes more target specific. Targeting the right prospects at the right time can help your business with higher engagement and conversions.
The prospects awaiting solutions must be targeted and reached to address their problems and offer them valuable services.
4) Demand Generation is only done at the top of the funnel
It is a widespread notion among the generally heard b2b demand generation myths that the demand is to be generated only for the prospects yet to be part of the funnel.
However, it must not be forgotten that the customer journey and sales funnel are pretty flexible and dynamic. Sometimes, the buyers standing at any stage of the funnel can terminate the journey and wind down the process.
Also Read: 7 Pillars of Successful Demand Generation
Hence, the constant demand for B2B demand generation solutions must be kept alive among the customers down the funnel. A persistent demand generation can reinforce the brand value and help convert prospects into leads and reliable customers. The key here is precise targeting.
5) It’s okay to work with a misallocated budget
For several reasons, most companies operate with their regular marketing and demand generation channels. As a result, they overspend in these areas while neglecting other potential market channels.
Consumers in the B2B space are flexible in seeking solutions and services; this often creates a necessity for a multi-channel outreach strategy. To ensure success in demand generation, it becomes essential to interact with prospects through all the channels and thus allocate a budget for these platforms.
6) Demand generation and content teams function without coordination
Although content and demand generation teams are often allowed to work as silos, their combined efforts are observed to fetch unparalleled results by most organizations.
Content offers an incredible platform to engage prospects and addresses their concerns and pain points. Many B2B marketers confirmed that social media helps create a successful campaign, and most digital strategies require content.
Suitably crafted content can drive more traffic, uphold brand awareness, affirm engagement, retain a concrete bond with customers, and generate demand among existing and new potential customers.
7) Sales and marketing teams do not need skill diversity
The marketing team must acquire a diverse skill set, as B2B demand generation strategies involve multiple marketing tactics, channels, and approaches.
Although several marketing platforms are available that marketers are well-equipped with, it often becomes uncertain that certain companies can opt for a demand generation approach that requires varying expertise to execute the strategies.
For instance, a company that uses content marketing to highlight concerns and potential resolution of products and services requires a dedicated team to acknowledge the significance, application, and utility of an effective keyword search strategy.
8) Teams can shift focus toward associated tasks
Sometimes, these dedicated teams are entrusted with additional functions and tasks by the companies, particularly if the task is undervalued. Even if your team fetches desired results and revenues, it becomes common for the companies to deploy more functions, such as corporate communications, events, and others, along with the teams’ core function (demand generation).
Although these additional tasks can be managed with expertise to gain benefits, the teams shouldn’t take the focus off the core demand generation strategies and business.
9) Companies can control the purchaser’s journey
B2B marketers know that most modern consumers begin their buying journey with independent, autonomous research before directly consulting with sales teams. Estimations reveal that the maximum buying process in the coming years will happen without human intervention.
Consumers have now turned autonomous and voluntary in terms of their buying journey. However, most companies keep updating their sales funnel as if they can control buyers’ decisions. After conducting thorough individual research, marketers have observed that prospects start contacting them for further specific insights.
Even after potential prospects have a word with the team, they can still opt to seek other options online. It has been observed that consumers can proceed or interrupt deals at a particular stage, while businesses cannot control any of their decisions. All you can do is try retaining the leads with optimum efforts; however, the consumer’s ultimate decision is free of your area of control.
10) Static approaches are enough to enhance engagement
The sales funnel, purchase process, and customer journey are not static. Even the content you use to help customers throughout the journey shouldn’t be fixed. The flexible and dynamic approach always works better than static actions.
B2B marketers understand that a huge pool of content and numerous sources are available to customers. However, such static content format is not garnering as much engagement as it used to.
This created a need for more dynamic and sparking content such as videos, events, podcasts, and other flexibly engaging content. After the survey, many B2B consumers revealed that they seek podcasts at the top of the B2B demand generation funnel and webinars later in the journey. This indicates that the content that reciprocates as per the user input is the one that can retain the consumer’s attention.
11) Demand Generation is only useful in attracting new customers
As demand generation involves creating awareness about your products and services, it is associated with commencing the sales cycle. It is the moment when you let prospects know about you for the first time.
Also Read: Sales Enablement – Key to the Lock of Marketing
However, that’s not the only application to which demand generation is confined. It can remain active throughout the sales funnel to retain acquainted customers. The efforts for creating intermediate-stage funnel content that can be helpful for demand generation include events, webinars, and other campaigns.
12) Any marketer can do demand generation
A broad skillset of a legitimate demand generation marketer includes handling marketing data, evaluating the latest marketing tools and techniques, a calculative approach, and sound knowledge of Excel, google analytics, and other tools.
Any other professional with weak analytical skills might fail to function correctly. A person occupied with demand generation must be flexible and well-versed in market dynamics and data analysis. Some personnel (apart from demand generation marketers) manage to handle the responsibilities of generating demand, while others can barely pull it off.
Conclusion
Such B2B demand generation myths must be eliminated and replaced with better implementation strategies. These myths exist due to poor management, obsolete approach, and inconvenient marketing expectations. They impact the success of sales and largely influence demand generation.
After a thorough assessment, it becomes necessary to bust these myths to learn what practices to retain and continue and what needs to be discarded.
With the demand generation services from Binary Demand, you can rest assured of the success ratio and increased ROI.
