Demand Generation Consultants vs. Inbound Marketing Companies — Which is More Suitable for B2B SaaS Marketing?
Have you figured out your B2B strategies yet? Or are you trying out every DIY trick in the book to see what works and ending up losing potential customers?
According to research, 76% of B2B businesses have developed a formal plan. Surprisingly, 24% of the rest don’t have a formal plan.
Today, B2B companies cannot succeed without an effective . They must analyze their existing pipelines to determine which areas need improvements. B2B businesses can engage in-house teams or leverage the services of external agencies to improve their strategies and sales pipeline.
In this post, we will compare demand generation consultants vs. to find out the best strategy and relevant tactics to grow your B2B SaaS business. To do that, let’s start by defining demand generation. Then we’ll have a detailed discussion about who are demand generation consultants and how do they affect the landscape for B2B companies?
In the latter half, we’ll discuss and its various components and highlight how differ from demand generation consultants. Let’s dig right in!
What Is Demand Generation?
Demand generation has become a buzzword among B2B marketers. There are many different interpretations of demand generation. However, the core aspect of demand generation is to get people interested in your company’s products and services by employing various techniques. Modern B2B marketers track multiple data touch-points to evaluate their demand generation programs and improve existing pipelines and achieve B2B business goals.
One of the most accurate definitions of demand generation is given by Gartner, which states that:
“Demand generation is a data-driven focused on driving awareness and interest in an organization’s products and services, with the ultimate goal of developing long-term customer engagement.”
While Hubspot defines demand generation as:
“Demand generation is how your business reaches new markets and gets audiences excited about what you have to offer. The process helps you increase , educates audiences, and generates trust.”
Who Are Demand Generation Consultants?
A demand generation consultant is someone who helps B2B companies improve and interest through various and distribution channels. Larger organizations may employ them as part of their in-house team or be contractually outsourced to agencies. Moreover, demand generation consultants can work independently as freelancers.
A demand generation consultant’s job is to help businesses grow organically and develop long-term relationships with potential customers. They employ various to present a B2B company’s products and services in front of larger audiences. Their goal is to identify and inform the prospects about the problems they are facing and present a possible solution to their issues.
Demand generation consultants build trust among the audience and establish brand authority. Their job is to position the relevant B2B companies as thought leaders in their domain by educating potential customers using free resources.
In fact, 52% of B2B buyers are more confident in buying from a brand if they’ve read relevant published by the B2B company. They create and provide a constant source of free resources to answer questions that potential customers might have.
Demand generation consultants define buyer personas and develop personalized to target specific audiences. They distribute using omnichannel to deliver the same user experience across all platforms. They measure the performance of demand generation tactics using data-driven techniques to make an informed decision about improving the demand generation campaign.
Demand generation is often interchangeably used with generation. In the next section, we’ll try to differentiate the two.
Demand Generation vs. Generation
Demand generation and generation are two different strategies. They both have their purposes, but they complement each other and should be used together to maximize outcomes. Let’s see how they differ from one another.
Demand generation focuses on creating and interest, building relationships, and educating prospects about your company’s products and services. Demand generation techniques are meant to generate new sales opportunities by penetrating new audiences.
Relevant demand generation activities occur at the top of the B2B sales and funnel when the prospects become interested in exploring your product and services. In order to do that, demand generation teams create and distribute large amounts of across channels.
generation is often termed as a subset of demand generation. It is usually the next stage in the B2B sales and funnel, where the interested audience is converted into qualified leads with a focus on closing deals.
At this stage, the prospects share their personal contact information like phone numbers or email addresses to learn more about the company’s products and services which they believe can solve their problems, thanks to effective demand generation efforts. Here, the leads are nurtured by offering them trials, demos, and gated resources that help them make a purchase decision. generation activities highlight the benefits of your business offerings against competitors.
In conclusion, if a B2B company is not generating enough leads, it is probably because of its ineffective demand generation approach, resulting in cost-inefficient generation activities with low conversion rates. Moreover, an imbalanced demand generation and generation strategy misaligns the targets for sales and teams, resulting in unsatisfied customers.
10 Demand Generation Strategies Used By Demand Generation Consultants to Grow B2B SaaS Businesses
The global economy is in a state of flux. The current economic environment has led many B2B businesses to rethink their strategies and business models while others struggle to survive. In this turbulent time, it is important for companies to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to changes to succeed.
Demand generation consultants employ and adopt various strategies to achieve goals and ensure business success. If properly executed, the following demand generation strategies can help B2B businesses grow during these uncertain times.
1) Identify Buyer Intent
Buyers don’t always buy what you’re selling. They may need some convincing before they make a buying decision. This is why it is essential to understand buyer intent and identify the right buyers who will benefit most from your products and services.
To determine buyer intent, demand generation consultants try to figure out the following:
- Who are ideal customers for the relevant B2B products and services?
- What problems does the have?
- How can the relevant B2B company address consumer pain points?
- Why should the choose the relevant B2B company over other companies?
Once the demand generation consultants have identified buyer intent with relevant buyer personas, they can develop targeted messaging and that resonates with each one, giving marketers a competitive advantage. In fact, 97% of B2B marketers think that buyer intent data gives B2B companies a competitive advantage.
2) Publish High-Quality Informational
is key to successful demand generation. That includes text, audio, and video . When done correctly, helps attract new audiences through effective (SEO), , and influencer outreach campaigns.
For example, when publishing informational on blogs, eBooks, infographics, webinars, demand generation consultants focus on creating high-quality that answers questions and solves problems for potential buyers. To do so, they use data analytics tools to find the most popular topics among their target audiences, then create informative around those topics.
Moreover, demand generation consultants use video to publish informational . It is reported that 82.8 percent of internet users view digital videos at least once per month. So video-based is highly effective in attracting new audiences. In fact, 31 percent of marketers use video messaging to nurture . In the coming years, we can see this number increase as videos have become an important part of modern pipelines.
Additionally, the demand generation consultants prepare and distribute some free reports, whitepapers, e-books, and guides that attract attention. When you share some freebies, you will gain many followers, eventually generating more leads.
3) Use Syndication Techniques
syndication is another powerful way to attract potential customers. This technique involves republishing the same across multiple channels such as websites, email newsletters, blog posts, etc.
The objective of syndicating is to drive traffic to specific landing pages where potential buyers can contact the relevant B2B companies. For instance, if a website has published a blog post about a particular topic, demand generation consultants can share the same article via email or platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, to drive more traffic to the original blog post.
B2B marketers and demand generation consultants usually republish best-performing on bigger or high-domain authority third-party websites that allow syndication. syndication increases backlinks by adding canonical links to these third-party websites. Demand generation consultants work with big publishers and use the publishers’ syndication network to expand their reach, resulting in business growth.
4) Use Workflow Automation Software
B2B demand generation consultants use various workflow automation software and tools to streamline production and management. These tools allow them to automate repetitive tasks and save time. There are many workflow automation software available today. Some of these include Hubspot, Marketo, Salesforce, Zoho, Active Campaign.
Hubspot defines workflow automation as:
“Workflow automation is the process of using rule-based logic to launch a series of tasks that run on their own without any human intervention. After you establish the rules and logic, automated workflows can send emails, set up reminders, schedule tasks, trigger drip campaigns, and more — all without anyone in your team touching a single button.”
Some workflow automation examples include welcoming new users, sending reminders and notifications, assigning team tasks, scheduling posts and while also distributing . Workflow automation tools allow demand generation consultants to grow and scale strategies very quickly, given they’re scaling things that are working on a small scale.
5) Use Niche Targeting to Improve ROAS
When it comes to attracting the right audience, demand generation consultants must be able to reach out to potential buyers who fit into specific categories. The best way to do this is niche targeting.
Niche targeting allows demand generation consultants to segment potential buyers based on their industry, job title, company size, geographic location, demographic data, psychographic data, etc. Then, they can send targeted messages to each group separately.
Usually, niche market consumers have specific needs that are different from the general audience. For instance, a skincare niche market consumer would prefer a skincare product that is well suited for their skin type as opposed to using a general-purpose product. Once a niche audience is identified, it is easier to target them via personalized ad campaigns that result in optimal ad spending. Personalized gives your brand a human touch and can really elevate your to a new level. A report from Salesforce suggests that 52% of consumers may switch brands if they were not receiving custom messages and .
6) Use (ABM) for B2B SaaS to understand and predict user intent
Account-based is a type of B2B demand generation strategy that focuses on identifying high-value prospects and engaging with them to convert them into high-paying customers. ABM is an effective strategy to improve ROI and generate more revenue.
HubSpot defines account-based as:
“Account-based (ABM) is a focused growth strategy in which and Sales collaborate to create personalized buying experiences for a mutually-identified set of high-value accounts.”
Running a successful ABM strategy involves many steps. This includes discovering high-value accounts, identifying key stakeholders, developing personalized touches, distributing via appropriate channels like targeted display or using tools, executing targeted search and display or non-digital campaigns, measuring and refining strategy based on your set KPIs. KPIs are not necessary metric based, but could be focused around moving accounts from one state to the next or engaging multiple contacts within one organization.
strategies and tactics would often be used by a savvy that uses to support your efforts. This is usually done as a critical part of your demand generation efforts to support ABM initiatives.
A savvy that understands how and ABM can work together would frequently use SEO, geo-targeted display ads to help you connect the dots between your and ABM. Once a solid demand generation strategy is in place, a can help you focus on sales and alignment to support your team in pursuing the best accounts with the highest engagement.
It is highly recommended that you use an from the highest rated or the on an agency marketplace. Check that their pricing fits your budget and that their or aligns with your business outcomes, instead of doing it yourself. Time and time again we hear from every that they wasted a lot of time and effort trying to get it off the ground, only to become overwhelmed and frustrated at the complexities involved in the overall . Using an that offers is a really good place to start, especially if your budget is on a smaller side, because it can help you build a long sustainable pipeline for your B2B SaaS.
7) Use Event or Trade Shows + ABM Effectively
Event is one of the most effective ways to engage with your audience in person. It’s also known as experiential because you give people something tangible (e.g., physical presence, panel discussion, live demos, Q&A session, free food, VIP giveaways, contests,) instead of just sending emails and text messages.
For instance, if a B2B business wants to attract new clients, the demand generation consultant would organize a networking event where B2B owners get to meet prospective clients face to face. B2B marketers fix a sizable budget for event activities. In fact, a Forrester report showed that CMOs allocate 24% of budget towards live events.
B2B companies can either attend or host events. A demand generation consultant would develop a comprehensive event and book all events beforehand. B2B companies generally participate by exhibiting (setting up a booth) at an event, hosting or attending VIP dinners, attending conferences, or hosting roadshows.
8) Develop a Comprehensive Strategy
By 2025 almost 4.41 billion people are expected to use , compared to over 3.6 billion people in 2021. Report suggests that 84% of B2B executives make purchasing decisions using . To build trust with the target markets, B2B companies must develop a strong presence.
Demand generation consultants can create strong professional profiles on popular sites like LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, on behalf of their B2B clients. They are responsible for maintaining accurate and up-to-date information about the company so that visitors can learn more about the business and its products.
Demand generation consultants can engage with the audience using comments and live streams to increase their interest. They can establish their B2B clients as thought leaders by promoting informational and business insights. Based on the sentiment about the company’s products and services, the consultants can help B2B owners make informed decisions.
9) Collaborate With Influencers
Influencers are those individuals who have large followings on . They are often considered opinion leaders who can endorse or recommend products to their followers. By the end of 2022, B2B influencer is expected to generate $11.7 billion in revenue, and a report suggests that 38% of B2B companies are exploring influencer to include it in their pipeline.
Demand generation consultants can find authentic and relevant influencers in their domain. They can ask them to review their B2B products or services. Influencer collaboration creates a targeted customer base for your product. Moreover, influencers can become brand ambassadors. Having a known face attached to your products can be an effective strategy to attract prospects.
10) Use
is still one of the best ways to reach customers. By 2027, the global ecosystem is expected to grow to $17.9 billion, compared to $7.5 billion in 2020. Marketers receive $42 for every $1 they spend on . So, it is highly effective in attracting prospects, generating leads, and increasing sales. In fact, emails have an open rate of 22.86 percent out of the 85 percent of people they reach, with a click-through rate of 3.71 percent.
Demand generation consultants can set up an pipeline to reach a broader audience. For instance, they can send bulk emails to the list of potential customers automatically. This usually involves sending a weekly or monthly newsletter. In fact, 81% of B2B marketers consider newsletters necessary for effective . Or they can send personalized emails based on user interest. They can also collect product feedback and get the consumers to fill out surveys.
Bonus Strategy – Use Webinars, Demos, and Podcasts to Engage Prospects
People love to listen and watch what they are interested in. Podcasts and webinars are another great way to connect with your audience. People can listen to podcasts while commuting, working out, cooking. In fact, about 71.1% of internet users listen to audio at least once a month. This can be a great tool to generate awareness and share thought leadership across the web.
Demand generation consultants can take advantage of this trend and create a podcast to help the B2B company grow. Similarly, webinars are used in 48% of nurture campaigns. B2B consultants can organize webinars with company experts where the audience can interact with them and familiarize themselves with the company’s offerings. Additionally, the team can develop product demos, and the demand generation consultants can distribute them to the audience.
What is ?
builds meaningful and lasting relationships with the audience and tries to convert them into loyal customers. It’s an approach to that emphasizes the quality of your over quantity. This means that the business creates valuable information for people.
Forbes formally defines as:
“ is a that guides consumers to your company when they are looking for solutions to a problem. It refers to a technique of drawing customers to a product through a balance of , , , and branding.“
aims to attract, engage, and delight the audience. First, the people are drawn in by valuable . Then, the audience is presented with solutions that directly align with their pain points. Finally, when the company has built enough trust with the audience, the audience is compelled to buy products from the company and become loyal customers.
is effective because the goal is not to sell company products. It is to educate and entertain the audience so that they feel welcome and explore products further. During the entire cycle, the customers are in the driver’s seat, and the car stops right at your company’s doorstep.
What are ?
Now that we understand what demand generation consultants do, let’s talk about what offer.
focus more on generating leads by putting in front of prospects. They put resources into improving the user experience so that prospects end up converting into valuable leads and, eventually, customers. have well-trained and experienced resources specializing in implementing strategies.
An ‘s main concern is increasing the overall traffic to the B2B company’s products and services. It can quickly scale activities as per the B2B company’s requirements.
As a result of successful , can increase loyalty and trust between the company and the customer.
What is the Relationship Between and Demand Generation?
As mentioned above, demand generation lives at the top of the funnel, where the goal is to increase and interest. Demand generation converts the audience into prospects. comes next in the funnel, where the goal is to convert prospects into leads.
helps generate leads for B2B SaaS companies by engaging with prospects developed as a result of demand generation activities. Once the B2B business has built trust among the prospects, they can start selling them products and services. If you are looking to improve your B2B pipeline, both and demand generation must work simultaneously. The more prospects developed during demand generation, the more chances there are to convert them into leads during .
Demand generation encompasses the entire buyer journey, and is a part of that journey. In demand generation, the goal is to approach people who might not be looking for your solution and get them interested by appealing to their pain points. However, an is more -centric, where the audience is already interested in exploring your solution further.
In the next section, we’ll briefly talk about the difference between and because these terms are often used together, and it is important to highlight the differences in both strategies.
vs.
“” and “ ” are terms that have been thrown around the internet for years now. They refer to two different ways of attracting customers, but they also represent a fundamental shift in how businesses market themselves.
is all about getting people to find you. It’s about creating that naturally attracts customers. And it’s about using and other channels to get your message in front of the right audience at the right time.
is the practice of sending a message to an audience with the purpose of influencing them to take some kind of action. It can be done through traditional media such as newspapers, magazines, and radio, or it can be done online using websites.
Choosing a specific type of can be difficult, especially when you have a limited budget and time frame to focus on your business. However, it is always better to develop a balanced that involves all components while improving and optimizing it frequently.
8 Proven Strategies Used By The Best Agencies to Grow B2B SaaS Businesses
If you’re a business owner, you know how important it is to have an effective . One thing that many B2B businesses overlook when they develop their is the fact that not all companies are created equal. Many strategies are also overlapping with demand generation activities. Overall, it is not necessary that what works for one company may work for another.
Many B2B businesses end up creating generic landing pages and hoping to get lucky with SEO. However, if you want to see real results from your efforts, you can follow these strategies.
1) Create Target to reach a
Target personas are a way to understand your customers’ needs and how you can best meet those needs. They help you identify who is buying what, where they are in their decision process and why they buy from you. It’ll also help you create that will resonate with your . Remember is at the heart of your so be sure to align it with your perfect ICP or .
Just like in demand generation, can identify user intent and build personas for potential prospects. In , we can create target personas for leads that can be converted into paying customers with an effective targeted approach.
2) Survey Your Roaster &
can survey prospects and existing customers to incorporate their feedback in future and help B2B companies improve their products based on their feedback.
For instance, customers may report that the existing customer support journey can be improved, which is important because 86 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for a better customer experience. can report this feedback to the customer support team to help them improve their processes, eventually increasing business ROI.
3) Conduct Interviews
can conduct interviews with various prospects and existing customers to understand the buyer journey and related issues. Once they understand the buyer journey, they can identify any loopholes in it and refine their strategies, resulting in converting more leads.
4) Create and Share With a More Visual Appeal
High-quality and publishing is the most important activity in the pipeline. Here, the idea is to develop that convinces the prospects about the advantages of using the particular B2B product. To do that, can spend extra effort on generating visually appealing , attracting more prospects, and converting more leads.
5) Use Guest Posting Services
Guest posting is one of the most effective ways to get B2B products noticed by search engines, eventually the audience. It’s also an excellent way to build relationships with other bloggers and website owners, leading to more traffic and sales for your B2B company.
have experienced writers who can write compelling and publish them as guest posts on external websites which link back to your company’s products. For instance, many B2B CEOs (or inbound marketing companies on their behalf) write thought leadership articles on Forbes which links back to their company.
6) SEO for B2B SaaS
(SEO) for B2B SaaS is the process of improving a website’s visibility in search engines. SEO aims to make sure that your site appears on the first page of Google, Bing, and other major search engines. According to a report, 70% of participants stated that SEO is more effective in generating sales than PPC. And, 71% of marketers report that using strategic keywords was their top priority for an effective SEO strategy.
have SEO experts who can perform comprehensive keyword research and optimize B2B on all platforms, such as web and mobile.
7) Build Backlinks
It’s no secret that backlinks are the lifeblood of any website. They’re what makes your site rank on Google, and it’s also how you can get traffic to your site. But while it’s true that building links is essential for ranking well on search engines, there’s a lot more to link building than just creating lots of links.
Good will always be better at getting you quality links, but if you don’t have great , you won’t see much success with link building. develop high-quality which automatically attracts backlinks.
8) Test and Refine Your B2B Pipeline
The best long-term are those that can help you build a solid relationship with your customers. This is the most effective way to get them to buy from you again and again. To do that, must perform extensive A/B testing to refine their campaigns.
For instance, can help B2B companies set up . They have expert resources who can write email copy that attracts customers. They can develop a long-term plan and automate pipelines to reduce costs. They can analyze the performance of their campaigns to figure out what works and align future campaigns accordingly.
How Can B2B Companies Hire The Best Demand Generation Consultants or ?
If you want to hire a demand generation consultant or an , there are a few things that you should consider before making any decision. These steps will keep you away from making mistakes during the hiring process.
- Check out reviews about them online like on
- Get references from previous clients
- Look at their portfolio, skills, and experience and make sure that it aligns with your business requirements
- Look at their pricing structure and make sure that you are comfortable with it
- Make sure that they follow what’s outlined in the contract when negotiating contracts
The Collective Benefits of Using Demand Generation and Generation
The B2B SaaS market has changed rapidly over the past few years. It’s a lot more competitive than ever before. A report suggests that 35 percent of marketers struggle to keep their brand relevant, and the same percentage find it difficult to manage their brand globally. To succeed in this environment, B2B SaaS companies must adapt quickly. One of the best B2B approaches is to develop a balanced demand generation and generation pipeline that leads to desired business results. It presents the following benefits:
1) Increases overall efficiency
2) Increases customer engagement and targets the right customers to deliver personalized experiences
3) Improves brand authority, recognition, and awareness
4) Aligns sales and
5) Reduces customer acquisition cost and increases ROI
If you are still unsure about developing your B2B SaaS , reach out to Algocentric Digital Consultancy. Our team offers AI-powered and value-driven to accelerate your B2B SaaS business progress faster.
