Carrying out a Demand Generation strategy involves keeping our company and its offer in the mind of our prospects in order to open conversations. Therefore, it is extremely important, before generating demand, to know well how to distribute the budget available. In this article, you will be able to find out the answer.
Demand Generation: Where to Start?
To begin with, before talking about budget, we must understand the sub-processes that converge in demand generation:
Content generation process
Distribution of content through advertising
Lead generation and cultivation (Lead Management)
Business opportunity management
Now, for each of them, it is necessary to carry out demand generation marketing activities. This includes: a strategy, ideation, communication, writing, design and other actions that, in turn, will require marketing software technology, lead management, CRM, blogging and content generation tools, etc.
In addition, to give visibility to these contents in the digital channels that feed the generation of demand, it is necessary to invest in advertising, that is, the three legs of demand generation are: technology, content and advertising. To complete the chair, a fourth leg could be added, which is the comprehensive strategic coordination of all these actions.
Scope and objectives
When considering a demand generation budget, the first thing we must take into account is the scope and magnitude of the objectives we are setting.
Here it is worth considering whether the generation of demand is limited to just one country, for example, Argentina, or whether we are seeking to generate demand in several countries, whether in Latin America or even Europe.
Once this first scope has been defined, the next step is to define what the objective of the demand generation plan is in terms of lead generation:
We must discriminate whether our objective is to generate a relatively low number of leads (let's say between 10 and 20 leads per month to feed a small sales team), or on the contrary we are looking to generate hundreds of leads for a larger sales team.
On the other hand, it is necessary to define whether the objective is to generate leads that are qualified for commercial conversations (Sales Qualify Leads – SQL) or to generate leads that are in earlier stages and are not yet ready to speak with sales (Marketing Qualify Leads – MQL), but that can enter into marketing cultivation processes.
What technology should I use?
In terms of technology, if the focus is simply on getting meetings for the sales team and in low numbers, a sales CRM that allows opportunities to be managed on a Kanban board will suffice, ideally with some automation features, for example, of the sales opportunity follow-up message.
If, on the other hand, the goal is to generate a large number of immature leads and cultivate them through marketing automation tools, then you will need a Marketing CRM software, with a Lead Generation, Lead Nurturing, Lead Scoring module, integrated with Landing Pages, Blogs, Social Networks and WhatsApp. These are functionalities that can be found in tools such as malaysian numbers HubSpot or Marketo, to name just a few of the most recognized.
Conclusion
We said that the demand generation budget is made up of four pillars: content, advertising, technology and coordination. Therefore, when thinking about the budget, it should be considered that content and advertising are the two pillars that generate the greatest impact on results.
In this way, the budget distribution could be estimated as follows:
Contents 30%
Advertising 40%
Technology 20%
Coordination 10%
Demand generation helps you connect with your prospects. How are you generating demand? If you need help, we can help.