For any business to be successful, it has to work to amplify the relationship between its products and customers. So, in essence the more the demand for the goods produced by a company, the better the health of the said company. After all, it is demand that dictates supply, which in turn is a barometer for a company’s revenues.
This is where the concept of demand generation comes in. In the most basic sense, it is the raison d’être of the marketing arena. That is, the marketing department exists to generate demands for the goods or services of a company. So, demand generation can be simplified to a single phrase: creating customers for a company.
However, it is important to mention that different people use the terminology of demand generation in different contexts. For instance, it can be used as a by-word in the place of ‘lead generation’, which encompasses the things you do to create business leads at the top of your revenue funnel. While many people use this as a term for a marketing automation software that is being used viably. Still others, link the concept of demand generation to online Business to Business (B2B) marketing.
Clearing all the convoluted connotations, one of the simple ways to understand the traditional concept of demand generation is the acronym IMESIR (integrated, measurable, encouraging, sustained, interest, revenue) which basically tells us what demand generation is all about.
Integrated – Demand generation aids you in orchestrating and integrating your numerous sales and marketing activities, investments and processes in a way that adds more clarity to the whole exercise. This leads your company to be better aligned with your current and prospective customers.
Measurable – Demand generation allows you to analyze each lead activity, each marketing activity, each sales activity and all other related data at every step of your revenue funnel. This works to aid you in measuring the effectiveness of your current approach and making necessary adjustments if the results aren’t coming about as planned.
Encouraging – Both demand and interest cannot to be forced in your target market. Rather the aim of demand generation is to encourage your audience to change their perspective by making your marketing message correspond to their needs.
Sustained – All demand generation activities are engineered for the long run with emphasis on day-to-day metrics. Don’t ever think that demand generation can be utilized for a fleeting attention-spike. It is in place for viable results down the line not instant gratification.
Interest – This is the goal of demand generation, as previously mentioned. It aims to create enough consumer interest in your services or products so that it creates viable demand. Generating interest is by no means a simple task and doesn’t involve generic sales copy or messages. It constitutes user-centric messages that forces them to consider your product or service as a need.
Revenue – Increasing revenue is the core principle behind any form of marketing and demand generation is no different. Therefore the viability of your demand generation venture can be gauged from how much of an impact it has had on your company’s revenue. However, it warrants mentioning that demand generation can never be solely measured by revenue as there are a lot of variables involved in the revenue system, but it serves as a good starting point.