How to Skyrocket Your B2B Demand Generation in 2024

ByPaul Christiano Last Update on

If you run marketing or sales for a B2B company, demand generation is likely a top priority. After all, quality lead flow is the lifeblood of any growing business.

But with buyers more self-educated and competitors ramping up spending, simply generating more leads is no longer enough. To hit your numbers in 2024, you need higher quality prospects coming in at higher velocities.

The good news is that by taking a metrics-driven, integrated approach you can significantly escalate both the volume and quality of your B2B demand.

In this comprehensive guide, I‘ll walk you through the key steps to maximize your demand generation and accelerate pipeline, including:

  • Creating an aligned demand gen strategy
  • Producing compelling, educational content
  • Getting the most from marketing technologies
  • Implementing robust metrics and reporting
  • Overcoming common demand gen challenges

I‘ll also provide concrete examples, statistics, assessments, and templates so you can instantly level up your B2B demand machine.

Let‘s get started!

Why Should You Invest in Demand Generation?

Demand generation encompasses the strategies, tactics and platforms focused on driving interest in and pipeline for a company‘s offerings. This includes initiatives like:

  • Content marketing – blogs, ebooks, guides, case studies
  • Digital marketing – SEO, PPC, retargeting
  • Events – tradeshows, webinars, conferences
  • Account-based marketing (ABM)
  • Lead nurturing campaigns

And the results speak for themselves. B2B marketers rate demand gen as one of their most effective strategies:

60% say their pipeline would decrease significantly without demand generation programs.

76% of businesses prioritize demand over brand marketing and see better results.

No wonder over half of B2B marketing budgets are allocated to demand gen.

So what are the upsides?

Directly Contributes to Revenue

Demand gen identifies and engages high-potential accounts, fueling your sales pipeline. Studies show over 75% of deals originate from marketing-generated leads.

Shorter Sales Cycles

Your content educates prospects and moves them closer to a decision. Sales cycles for marketing leads convert 30% faster on average.

Improved Marketing and Sales Alignment

Shared metrics around pipeline and revenue foster collaboration between teams and a unified revenue engine.

Measurable ROI

Unlike brand advertising, demand investments can be directly tracked to pipeline and revenue generated to quantify impact and optimize spend.

Let‘s look at how to capitalize on these benefits and boost your B2B demand gen.

Developing an Integrated Demand Generation Strategy

The first step is to develop a comprehensive demand gen strategy tied to clear business goals and revenue targets.

Set Specific, Measurable Targets

Rather than vague goals like "increase leads", agree on quantifiable objectives aligned to revenue:

  • Grow marketing qualified leads (MQLs) by __%
  • Increase sales accepted leads (SALs) by __%
  • Grow pipeline value by $__M
  • Contribute __% of total company revenue

This focuses efforts and establishes clear ROI thresholds.

Map Content to the Buyer‘s Journey

Analyze your typical customer‘s journey from awareness through consideration to decision. Identify the key triggers, questions, and needs at each stage. Develop content tailored to guide prospects through each step.

For example, early stage content should focus on education, while later stage content provides product comparisons, demos, and case studies.

Take an Orchestrated Approach

Your prospects engage with marketing, sales, and customer success. Work cross-functionally to map an integrated process from lead to customer focused on engagement and conversion.

Address hand-off gaps, improve collaboration through shared systems, and align messaging for a streamlined experience.

Combine Broad-Based and Targeted Strategies

Balanced B2B demand gen leverages both broad-reach campaigns to increase awareness as well as targeted account-based approaches for one-to-one engagement with high-value prospects.

Use each strategy where it has the greatest impact.

Monitor Trends and Evolving Tactics

While proven strategies like content marketing remain staples, also continually evaluate emerging tactics like conversational marketing and intent data. Run regular tests to confirm effectiveness for your audience before scaling up investment.

Now let‘s look at best practices for creating compelling content at the core of your demand gen engine.

Creating Content That Converts

Relevant, educational content is what will attract and engage prospects to ultimately convert. Follow these leading practices:

Map Content Types to the Buyer‘s Journey

Develop different assets tailored to needs at each awareness, consideration and decision stage:

  • Blog posts – Short snippets on trends and tips for awareness
  • eBooks / Guides – Deeper dives to build knowledge during consideration
  • Comparisons – Side-by-side product comparisons to aid decisions
  • Demos – Interactive tools to showcase your offering
  • Case Studies – Social proof detailing client success

Educate – Don‘t Overly Promote

Focus on informing and teaching visitors. Position your company as a trusted advisor rather than constantly pitching your product.

Offer a Mix of Content Types

Combine various formats like blogs, videos, podcasts, and interactive tools to match different consumption preferences.

Gate Premium Content in Exchange for Contact Information

Offering exclusive research, guides and tools in exchange for contact information helps build your pipeline. Just be sure to deliver substantial value.

Optimize for Search Visibility

Conduct keyword research and craft content that targets terms prospects are searching. This expands discovery and inbound organic traffic to your content.

Promote and Repurpose Broadly

Amplify your content across all marketing channels – email, social media, paid ads, website, sales collateral and more. Expand reach and extend the content lifespan.

Make Content Interactive

Include assessments, calculators, configurators or other tools to engage visitors beyond passive reading. CGI‘s Digital Realty Savings Calculator is a great example.

Focus on Readability

Chunk content into short paragraphs, use descriptive headers and visuals, and avoid jargon. This readability guide has helpful tips.

Now let‘s explore the technologies to maximize your content‘s impact.

Marketing Technology Creates Efficiency and Scale

Marketing technology provides the infrastructure to operationalize your demand gen strategy for enhanced efficiency, segmentation and automation.

CRM and MAP Provide the Core Infrastructure

A CRM like Salesforce combined with a Marketing Automation Platform (MAP) like Marketo or HubSpot tie together your tech stack. Key capabilities include:

  • Centralized prospect database
  • Lead scoring to identify sales-ready prospects
  • Customized lead nurturing programs like drip campaigns and snippets tailored to profile attributes and engagement
  • Integration with sales teams for streamlined hand-off

Intent Monitoring Identifies High-Potential Prospects

Solutions like Bombora and Demandbase analyze online activity to identify accounts researching competitors, solutions or related topics.

This indicates high interest where your messages will resonate. Prioritize these high-intent accounts through targeted outreach and campaigns.

Digital Advertising Scales Outbound Efforts

Programmatic advertising through platforms like Google Ads and LinkedIn quickly expands your reach. Work with an agency or leverage a Demand Side Platform (DSP) for greater targeting scale and optimization.

Analytics Provides Insights to Optimize

Web analytics tools like Google Analytics allow you to analyze site behaviors. Use the insights to optimize content promotion strategies, on-page elements like CTAs and layouts, and conversion funnels.

Conversational Tools Increase Engagement

Given more conversations happen online, chatbots and live chats allow for real-time interaction to engage visitors and capture more leads.

Now let‘s look at implementing reporting to track performance and fine-tune efforts.

Robust Metrics and Reporting Optimize Impact

To optimize demand investments, you need executive-level reporting on key performance indicators (KPIs). Relevant metrics include:

Volume: Leads by source, MQLs, SQLs, opportunities

Efficiency: Cost per lead (CPL), sales and marketing qualified lead conversion rates, sales cycle length

Channel: Website traffic, email clickthrough rate, event attendance

Account-Based: Pipeline and opportunities from target account list

Revenue: Pipeline created, sales influenced, marketing sourced revenue

Analyze this data regularly to identify high-performing programs for additional investment and low performers to defund and optimize. Share reports across marketing and sales to align on outcomes.

For in-depth guidance, download our Demand Generation Metrics Cheat Sheet.

Overcoming Common B2B Demand Generation Challenges

While sound in theory, executing on an integrated demand approach poses very real challenges including:

Limited Buyer Insights – Difficulty identifying triggers and questions across the buying journey. Tip: Conduct buyer interviews and surveys.

Ineffective Content – Creating content that resonates with and moves buyers. Tip: Plot content to stages, test promotion strategies.

No Measurement – Lack of data tied to revenue makes reporting and optimization impossible. Tip: Build core reporting using the metrics above.

Audience Targeting – Difficulty reaching a complex B2B audience amidst proliferating channels. Tip: Layer on account-based strategies to supplement broader efforts.

Sales Alignment – Hand-off gaps between sales and marketing. Tip: Foster collaboration through account mapping, shared SLAs, and revenue goals.

For a full checklist on overcoming top demand gen obstacles, download our exclusive guide here.

Accelerate Your B2B Demand Generation in 2024

Demand generation only grows more crucial for B2B organizations seeking to hit their ever-rising revenue targets in the years ahead. While the tactics will continue to evolve, the fundamentals hold true:

  • Attract potential buyers by consistently creating content tailored to their needs
  • Engage prospects through personalized, omni-channel campaigns
  • Accelerate pipeline velocity and conversion rates through seamless sales enablement

Following the strategies and best practices outlined here will help you ramp up the volume, quality and velocity of your B2B demand.

Now I‘d love to hear from you:

  • What‘s your biggest demand generation challenge currently?
  • Are there any metrics or technologies you plan to implement for 2024?
  • What content formats resonate most with your audience?

Let me know in the comments. And if you found this guide helpful, please share it with other B2B marketers who want to elevate their demand generation.

I am Paul Christiano, a fervent explorer at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and their broader implications for society. Renowned as a leading figure in AI safety research, my passion lies in ensuring that the exponential powers of AI are harnessed for the greater good. Throughout my career, I've grappled with the challenges of aligning machine learning systems with human ethics and values. My work is driven by a belief that as AI becomes an even more integral part of our world, it's imperative to build systems that are transparent, trustworthy, and beneficial. I'm honored to be a part of the global effort to guide AI towards a future that prioritizes safety and the betterment of humanity.

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