Lead generation vs demand generation: What’s the difference?

Lead generation and demand generation might sound similar, but, in fact, they each serve pretty distinct purposes. Whether you’re curious to understand more about the two, or you’re considering which is right for your business at this time, read on. We’ll give a break-down, guiding you through the nuances to help you decide: lead generation vs demand generation.

Demand generation: stimulating interest and awareness

With demand generation, creating awareness of your business, its products or its services is the name of the game. And it’s all about getting seen by a wider audience, made up of both potential leads and existing customers.

Demand generation involves educating your audience, creating curiosity as well as building credibility over time, with the goal of getting people excited about – and driving demand for – your product or service, bringing traffic to your website. It’s very high in the marketing funnel.

Demand generation strategies

If you’re thinking about trying demand generation to reach a broader audience, you’ll need to get a strong plan in place. So, to help you out, here are a few of the most common elements to a demand generation strategy.

Content syndication

A common part of a demand generation strategy is content syndication, i.e. where you distribute high-quality content across a range of channels – from third-party websites to industry publications – to reach a wider audience.

Event marketing

Hosting or participating in industry events, conferences, or webinars to showcase your products or services and engage with prospects is another popular element of demand generation.

Social media

Social media is a powerful tool for demand generation. Actively engaging with followers on social media platforms, responding to queries, sharing industry insights, and fostering a sense of community are all things you can be doing to drum up excitement about your product or service.

Public Relations (PR)

You can’t underestimate the power of PR when it comes to getting news out about your brand. Securing media coverage, press releases, and favourable mentions in relevant publications is a great way to drive brand visibility and credibility.

Brand awareness campaigns

There are other things you can do, too, such as brand awareness campaigns. You can do these by running targeted ad campaigns or sponsored site content to make your brand more visible to a wider audience. Using this tactic, you can raise awareness without a direct call to action (CTA).

Lead generation: fuelling your sales pipeline

While demand generation is about creating awareness and drumming up a buzz around your brand, lead generation is more about turning interest into actual paying customers.

Lead generation (sometimes simply referred to as lead gen) focuses on identifying and attracting potential customers (leads), who have expressed interest in your company’s products or services.

One way to think about lead generation is to consider a person who has a specific issue. They search for a solution and, in doing so, come across specific content that will help encourage them to take action and buy your product or service.

The main aim is to get your prospect’s contact information, which will allow you to get in touch with them and nurture them through your sales funnel. Generally, this means capturing their email address, phone number for you to reach out to them and turn into hot leads.

Strategies for lead generation

So, what if you’re considering lead generation as a key way to attract new customers? Let’s take a look at some common strategies that often work well within lead generation.

Content marketing

Content marketing plays a valuable part in lead generation. The goal is to provide valuable content, such as blog posts, e-books, or webinars to attract and engage potential leads. This is a great way to get people familiar with your brand and educate them on key topics related to your area of business.

Email marketing

Another tactic used within lead generation is email marketing – sending targeted email campaigns to prospects who have opted in to receive communication from the company. By doing this, you’re able to send content you know your target audience will be interested in.

Social media marketing

Social media marketing is another great way to engage with your audience. You can share valuable content, and capture leads through sign-ups or inquiries.

Search engine optimization (SEO)

It’s all well and good having great content, but your dream audience won’t just appear out of thin air. You need to optimise that content to ensure it ranks higher in search engine. This allows your target audience to find it and, as a result, for you to generate leads.

Lead generation vs demand generation: The key differences

By now, you hopefully have a good grasp of what leads generation and demand generation are, but how do you decide between lead generation vs demand generation for your marketing efforts? Here’s a summary of the key differences.

The first difference to notice is focus. While lead generation is about identifying and acquiring individual leads, demand generation is more concerned with getting in front of a larger audience to generate interest and garner awareness.

Another key difference when it comes to lead generation vs demand generation is audience. Lead generation targets prospects who are in the process of buying, or are showing interest in buying. On the other hand, demand generation is about drumming up demand for a product or service, both among potential leads and existing customers.

Finally, there’s metrics – another key differentiator between lead generation and demand generation. In lead generation, metrics are often centred around lead volume, conversion rates, and cost per lead. In demand generation, though, metrics are all about brand awareness, engagement, and overall market perception.

Lead generations vs demand generation: things to consider

Now you know the key differences, here are some important things to consider when deciding which one’s right for your business and its needs.

Goals

What are your immediate goals? Do they involve driving immediate conversions and fill your sales pipeline with qualified leads? If that’s the case, you might want to consider lead generation.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to build brand awareness, credibility and loyalty over time, demand generation is something to consider.

Audience

This is an important one. Who is it that you’re targeting? Carefully consider their preferences and behaviours. Are they actively seeking out solutions like yours? If so, this is a lead generation situation. Or do they need to be educated and nurtured over time? This may be a case of demand generation.

Buuuuuuuut, actually, while both lead generation and demand generation are each strong in their own ways, combining the two can give fantastic results that will keep both your audience and your sales team happy.

So, whether you’re looking to choose lead generation or demand generation, or you’re considering incorporating both into a comprehensive marketing strategy, you should now have a clearer idea of the two.

Fancy a bit more information on how to get found by potential customers? We’ve got a handy article that will help you figure out what you need to do.