Demand generation
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The marketing function that creates awareness and interest in your product. Fills the top and middle of the funnel with qualified prospects.
Demand generation is everything marketing does to make prospects aware of your product and interested in buying it. Content marketing, paid ads, events, webinars, SEO, social media, partnerships, and PR all fall under demand gen.
Demand gen is not lead gen. Lead gen captures contact information. Demand gen creates the desire that makes someone willing to give their contact information. You can generate leads without generating demand (gated ebooks that people download and never read). You can generate demand without capturing leads (ungated content that builds reputation and trust).
The best demand gen teams measure pipeline contribution, not lead volume. How many dollars of qualified pipeline can marketing trace back to its programs? If marketing generates 1,000 leads that produce zero pipeline, that is activity, not demand.
Examples
A demand gen program that works.
A developer tools company publishes a weekly technical blog, runs monthly webinars with engineering leaders, sponsors three conferences per year, and maintains an active presence on developer forums. Result: 40% of qualified pipeline originates from marketing-sourced activities. Marketing costs $2M/year and generates $12M in pipeline.
Demand gen without lead capture.
The company publishes all content ungated. No forms. No email walls. Website traffic grows 300% in a year. Inbound demo requests triple. The CMO argues that demand was created without capturing a single lead. Pipeline proves her right.
A demand gen budget allocation.
Total demand gen budget: $1.5M. Content and SEO: $400k (27%). Paid media: $350k (23%). Events and conferences: $300k (20%). Webinars: $150k (10%). PR and analyst relations: $200k (13%). Tools and platforms: $100k (7%). Each channel is measured on pipeline contribution, not lead volume.
In practice
Read more on the blog
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between demand gen and lead gen?
Demand gen creates awareness and interest. Lead gen captures contact information. Demand gen is the reason someone wants to talk to you. Lead gen is the mechanism for starting the conversation. The best programs do both, but demand must come first.
How do you measure demand gen effectiveness?
Pipeline contribution is the primary metric: how many dollars of qualified pipeline originated from marketing activities? Secondary metrics: marketing-sourced revenue, cost per opportunity, and pipeline-to-spend ratio. Avoid vanity metrics like impressions or total leads.
Related terms
Marketing that attracts prospects to you through content, SEO, and value-first engagement. They come to you, not the other way around.
Marketing and sales that reaches out to prospects directly. Cold calls, cold emails, and targeted ads aimed at specific accounts.
Creating and distributing valuable content to attract, engage, and convert your target audience. Education as a marketing strategy.
The total dollar value of deals your sales team is actively working. The most important leading indicator in any sales organization.
A person or company that has shown interest in your product. The starting point of every sales pipeline.
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