Demand Generation
Strategy Playbook

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What we’re covering:
• Why is demand generation important?
• How to set up a demand generation strategy for success
• Planning and budgeting for paid campaigns
• Optimizing demand generation strategies over time

PART 1:
What is demand
generation marketing?

A simple definition:
Demand generation marketing creates need for
a product or service with the goal of passing qualified
leads to the sales team.

What sets it apart?
1. The marketing and sales funnels are connected.
2. Focus on sending only the most qualified, valuable leads to sales.
3. Use automation tools to move people through the funnel.
Demand generation isn’t lead generation or inbound marketing.
Learn more about that here →

PART 2:
Creating demand
generation strategies

1. Defined target audience
2. Clearly stated goals
3. Structured funnel
4. Tactics
Every successful demand
generation strategy has
four components:

1. Defined
target audience
You need to know who you’re talking to
before diving into a demand generation
strategy.
Do you have an existing customer base
or are you starting from scratch?

Using past customers and sales
• Who has bought from you in the past and what do they
have in common?
• Will your current customers still be your target audience
in 2-3 years?
• If not, who is that audience?

How to learn more about
current customers
Sales team
• Ask them for insights and advice
• Is there a reason why customers
choose your product over others?
Google Analytics
• Demographics and interests reports
• Location report
• Referrals report
Facebook
• Audience Insights tool
• Search bar - “Pages liked by people
who like [X]”
Twitter
• Twitter analytics reports
• Affinio’s free discovery tool

Creating a new target audience
• Don’t go too big with target audiences.
• Easier to reach smaller audience and explain product value.
• Don’t go too small, though. Would a conference exist for this group?

How to learn more
about new audiences
Publishers
• What news organizations,
blogs, podcasts, and
websites do they follow?
• Read these resources and
find recurring themes and
issues.
Actually… Talk to them.
• First-hand information is
the holy grail of persona
development.
• Ask sales team for intros,
or send cold email to
consultants/influencers.
Social Media
• Twitter advanced search
• Facebook search and
Audience Insights tool
• Instagram hashtags

Putting it all together
• Create personas based on audience subgroups with
different pain points, backgrounds, job titles, and more.
• Goal here is to create a hypothetical person you can
plan marketing activities around.
• Buffer’s guide is a great resource for this.

2. Creating goals
What do you actually want to accomplish
with this demand generation strategy?
Which KPIs will quantify failure or success
of that goal?

Different goals require different
approaches and different metrics.
For example:
• Improve lead quality » SQL to customer conversion rate,
improved accuracy of lead quality scores
• Grow sales » Increased customer lifetime value, number
of sales made
• Raise awareness of a product » Increased sales percentage,
gain certain number of inbound sales inquiries

Keep goals SMART: specific,
measurable, achievable,
realistic, and timed.
Example:
• Grow leads by 20% every quarter, beginning by
referring 20 leads to sales in Q1.
• KPIs would be number of leads, lead quality score,
and conversion rate from SQL to customer.

3. Structuring
the funnel
Demand generation links
the marketing and sales
funnels, so your strategy
should cover everything
from first impression to
signing on the dotted line.
PROSPECT
SUBSCRIBER
LEAD
MQL
SQL
OPPORTUNITY
CUSTOMER
5,000
5%=250
15%=37
25%=9
50%=4-5
GOAL:
Visit website and
subscribe to remote
management newsletter
MARKETING ACTIVITIES:
Blog posts
Social media
Advertising on remote
and developer communities
Weekly newsletterwith links
to remote management
resources and articles
Case studies with similarly
sized tech sompanies
Exclusive Q&A Webinars
FAQ sheets
Testimonials
Booklets on standard retreats
Referral bonus for
new customers
Planned team-wide surveys
after event to collect data
for customer
Drip email campaign (weekly)
linking to blog posts on remote
management best practices
Download free “Making
the Most out of Team
Retreats” E-book
Open all emails and
spend at least 1 minute
on website for each visit
View retreat package
page and click on 2 trips
or complete sales contact
form on website

Defining the stages
Looking at your funnel, outline:
1. What makes someone qualified for a lead status
2. What actions graduate that person to the next
stage of the funnel
3. What actions remove someone from the funnel
4. Target conversion rate for each stage
PROSPECT
SUBSCRIBER
LEAD
MQL
SQL
OPPORTUNITY
CUSTOMER
5,000
5%=250
15%=37
25%=9
50%=4-5

Defining the stages
Looking at your funnel, outline:
1. What makes someone qualified for a lead status
2. What actions graduate that person to the next
stage of the funnel
3. What actions remove someone from the funnel
4. Target conversion rate for each stage
Lead scoring is your friend here.
Check out popular frameworks →
PROSPECT
SUBSCRIBER
LEAD
MQL
SQL
OPPORTUNITY
CUSTOMER
5,000
5%=250
15%=37
25%=9
50%=4-5

4. Picking the right tactics
Finally, it’s time to think about which channels
you’ll use to nurture leads towards a sale

Top funnel tactics
Goal: explain what problem your product solves and get contact information.
Advertising Giveaways Free online tools Social media
Blog posts Reports and research Press coverage Webinars
See creative examples of top-funnel demand generation on our blog →

Mid funnel tactics
Goal: build trust and educate about your product.
Email campaigns Newsletters Blog posts
Large content pieces Case studies Webinars

Bottom funnel tactics
Goal: give sales the resources they need to close deals and land future ones.
Surveys Referral programsCase studies

PART 3:
Launching
paid campaigns

Getting qualified leads
to sales starts with traffic
at the top of the funnel.
Most companies use paid and organic
channels to create this traffic.

Search engine marketing
• Help you reach people who are actively
seeking solutions to a problem.
• Can get expensive fast if you’re in
a crowded market.
• Smart keyword strategies can help you
mitigate against that.

Communities and
publisher marketing
• Where does your audience naturally
go online?
• Can be forums, subreddits, and websites
with narrow topics.
• Unlocks bunch of different types of ads
and brand safe placements.

Social media
• Popular for prospecting, but costs can
rise unexpectedly.
• Facebook lookalike audience based on
high-value sales, or remarketing campaigns.
• Keep mid-funnel campaigns minimal or
risk annoying people.

How much should you spend on advertising?
Easiest to start with the ideal result and work backwards to calculate costs.
Use the target conversion rates from your funnel to help calculate this.
Required visits
Subscriber
conversion rate
LEAD
MQL SQL
Lead conversion rate
MQL conversion rate SQL conversion rate Number of leads

PART 4:
Optimizing for success

1. Return to the original goals
• Take a look at your original KPIs and goals.
• Calculate how each channel contributed to the
KPIs and impacted customer acquisition costs
• Did any other metrics unexpectedly change?

2. Look at lead scoring
• Lead scoring formula should be reviewed
every few weeks.
• Does your scoring align with high-value
customers?
•Are people being churned out because
they don’t fit unnecessary rules?

3. Focus on efficiency
• Optimize parts of the funnel with
the highest drop offs.
• Look at your landing pages, these
are easy wins.
• Analyze drip campaign and create better,
more relevant content.

4. Talk to your customers
• Reach out to high-value customers for
insight into your marketing process and
their challenges.
• In these interviews, ask open ended
questions and let the conversation take
you in unexpected directions.

Demand generation is never really over—goals
change and audiences shift.
Match your marketing strategy to these pivots
and keep sales happy along the way.
Optimizing your demand generation machine will
lead to major rewards down the line.
Always keep improving

You have the foundation.
Now become an expert.
Get bonus examples, additional chapters, and even more
advice in the Demand Generation Strategy Playbook.
It’s 50 pages long and packed with actionable tips and tricks
on creating strategies, optimizing paid campaigns, choosing
the right marketing tools, and finding opportunities to keep
picking up wins.
Best of all, it’s completely free.
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