12 Key Steps to Plan a Demand Generation Framework

Is it your end goal to attract and convert potential customers? Of course, it is! Then, it's crucial to have a strategic demand generation framework in place. A B2B demand generation plan delivers the following results:

• Creating interest in your products or services
• Generating MQLs in volume
• Nurturing your leads
• Ultimately driving revenue

In fact, having a well-designed demand generation framework can make all the difference. It helps you:

• Identify your target audience
• Develop buyer personas
• Map out the buyer's journey
• Segment your audience
• Create content strategies that speak to your ideal customers

In this article, we'll dive into everything you need to know about demand generation frameworks. You'll learn why they're so crucial for businesses, how to create one, and how to measure its success. So, let's get started!

How to Build a B2B Demand Generation Framework?

A demand generation framework combines tactics and processes to plan, execute and measure your marketing initiatives. 

Note that these initiatives specifically aim to generate interest and engagement from potential customers, not to create sales opportunities in one go.

Learn more about Demand Generation Vs. Lead Generation

To achieve this, a demand generation framework typically consists of various components. These elements are essential to creating a successful framework that drives revenue and helps your business grow. So, let’s look at each element:

1. Cross-functional Team Alignment

It is essential to align your cross-functional teams like sales, marketing, customer success, and operation teams while designing a demand generation framework. 

After all, these teams work together to achieve the common goal of generating revenue for your business.

When aligned, these teams can work more efficiently and effectively toward generating demand, nurturing leads, and closing deals. Here are a few reasons alignment is essential:

• Shared Goals: When teams are aligned, they have a shared understanding of your business objectives. It helps them work together towards achieving those goals.
• Better Communication: Alignment between teams leads to better collaboration. All of your departments can share information and insights, leading to better decision-making and more efficient workflows.
• Consistent Messaging: Team cohesiveness ensures consistent messaging across all touchpoints – from marketing campaigns to sales calls to customer support. As such, it creates a coherent customer experience that builds trust and credibility.
• Improved Customer Experience: When your teams work in tandem, they can better understand the customer journey and create a seamless experience. It leads to happier customers who are more likely to become repeat buyers and advocates for the brand.

2. Build Brand Awareness

You MUST stay ahead of your competitors in the contemporary and fiercely competitive sales and marketing landscape. 

As such, having a consistent flow of quality leads is vital. And this demands building brand awareness. 

However, it's not enough to merely capture a potential buyer's attention. A lasting brand awareness strategy should create a positive impression in their minds. 

As a result, it multiplies their probability of trusting your company to provide solutions to their challenges or needs.

One practical approach to improve your visibility and credibility with buyers is to prioritize authentic customer reviews. 

Genuine, recent reviews offer a brief, peer-provided summary of your product or service. Hence, they help buyers make informed decisions. 

Individual reviews provide candid consumer feedback based on real-world use, free from marketing hype. 

Collectively, customer reviews provide high-level insights that help buyers quickly filter through many available products.

3. Conduct Customer Research

To create a successful demand generation framework, understand your customers' actual needs. It requires thorough groundwork and research. 

Therefore, lay out the groundwork well. Fortunately, there are some easy steps you can take:

• Define Your ICPs: An ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) describes the customer type that best fits your product or service. Creating an ICP can help you focus on attracting and converting high-value customers.
• Create Buyer Personas: A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer based on research and data. As such, creating buyer personas allows you to tailor your messaging and content to speak directly to your target audience's needs and pain points.
• Evaluate Customer Reviews: Customer feedback can provide valuable insights into what customers like and dislike about your product or service. Analyzing this feedback can help you identify areas for improvement and inform your content strategy.
• Pinpoint Customer Segments: Segmentation divides your target audience into smaller groups based on common characteristics. You can create targeted messaging and content that resonates with each group by segmenting your audience. 
• Check Out Buying Patterns: Understanding your customers' buying patterns can help you anticipate their needs. Hence, you can provide relevant solutions at the right time. Plus, it can help you increase customer satisfaction and drive revenue.
• Design Solutions As Per Buyer Personas: Once you have developed your buyer personas, map your solutions to their specific needs and pain points. It helps you create customized communication that speaks directly to their challenges.
• Consider the Best Communication Modes: Knowing your customers' preferred communication channels can help you choose the most effective B2B demand generation tactics for reaching and engaging with them. It can include email marketing, social media, and content marketing.

4. Build Your Database

To kickstart building a database for your outbound demand generation framework, you can check out our tried-and-tested methods:

Compile a List of Prospects

The first step is identifying and compiling a list of prospects matching your ICP. This list can be created based on various factors such as demographics, industry, location, job title, company size, and more.

Use Various Tools and Techniques

There are several tools and techniques to build your database:

• You can leverage social media platforms like LinkedIn to find potential customers and connect with them. 
• Another technique is email scraping, which involves extracting email addresses from different sources like websites, online directories, and more. 
• Data enrichment tools can help you fill in missing information about your prospects and enrich your database.

Ensure Data Accuracy and Compliance

Ensure your database is clean, accurate, and compliant with privacy regulations. It involves regularly updating and verifying the information in your database to ensure its accuracy. 

You should also comply with data privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA to protect your prospects' personal information.

Use Predictive Analytics

To maximize the effectiveness of your outreach efforts, you can use predictive analytics to identify high-quality leads and prioritize your outreach efforts. 

Predictive analytics uses machine learning algorithms to analyze large amounts of data and predict which prospects will most likely convert into customers.

As such, it can help you focus your resources on the most promising leads and improve your conversion rates.

5. Choose the Right Parameters

Now, the next rational step toward creating a high-impact demand generation framework is to plan the specific details of your campaign. Depending on your intended campaign’s nature, these details could include several small steps. 

To help you, here are some specifics that you must address:

• Choose Outbound Marketing Channels: Outbound marketing typically includes tactics like cold calling, email marketing, and advertising. Choose the channels that will be most effective for your specific target audience.
• Determine the Length of the Campaign: Decide how long your campaign will run and specify the details such as:

• Start and end dates
• Frequency of marketing communications
• Duration of any promotions or discounts

Having a set timeline will help you stay on track and measure the effectiveness of your campaign.

• Decide Content Types That Resonate With Your Audience: Choose the content format that best resonates with your target audience. It could be anything. Some examples include:

• Blog posts
• Social media posts
• Webinars
• Whitepapers
• Videos
• Case studies

Ensure your content provides value to your audience and aligns with their interests and needs.

• Allocate Marketing Budget: Determine how much you will spend on your demand generation campaign. Then, allocate your budget across your marketing channels and content formats to achieve the desired outcome.
• Set KPIs (Key Performance Indicators): KPIs help you measure the success of your campaign. Your KPIs could include:

• The number of leads generated
• Brand awareness
• Website traffic
• CTRs (Click-Through Rates)
• Conversions

Set specific targets for each KPI and track progress throughout the campaign.

Each step unfurls the path ahead for your demand generation framework by giving you the next actionable item.

6. Develop Thought Leadership

You should build industry thought leadership expertise alongside brand awareness to establish a reliable demand generation. Industry expertise means your brand is perceived as a leader in its field right from the first interaction with a potential customer.

This expertise creates a sense of trust with clients and sets the stage for meaningful conversations about customer pain points and their respective solutions. Here’s where a well-planned content marketing strategy comes in. 

It delivers valuable insights at every stage of the customer's buying journey. It’s pretty effective in establishing your expertise. How do you get started?

• Create a content strategy that aligns with your goals and buyer personas. It will help you create content that resonates with your audience and drives engagement.
• Use a variety of content formats to engage your audience, such as blog posts, infographics, and videos.
• Grow your audience by connecting with them directly through email newsletters, WhatsApp/Telegram channels, or your community. It allows you to communicate with your audience independently of social algorithms, Google updates, or traffic costs.
• Borrow your audience by partnering with non-competitive companies selling to your audience. Then run co-marketing campaigns with them. This can include: 
• Hosting educational webinars
• Practicing mentions and link exchanges
• Featuring each other on podcasts
• Publishing guest posts on industry-known media
• Leverage social media and industry communities to engage with your target audience. In fact, joining B2B associations can help you reach and engage with your audience.
• Involve sales by optimizing your content for search engines and social media platforms. Then, use B2B content syndication to get your content in front of thousands of prospective customers.
• Use paid promotion to amplify your messaging and content to a broader audience. It can include social media advertising, sponsored content, and other forms of paid advertisement.

7. Prioritize Demand Gen Campaigns

Next up! Map out your potential demand gen campaigns by:

• Brainstorming with your team
• Analyzing market trends
• Researching successful campaigns within your industry

Then, prioritize your campaigns based on several factors:

• Scope of the campaign, referring to the size and complexity of the project
• Available budget and resources, including money, personnel, and technology requirements
• Easiness of launching - Focus on those campaigns that are simpler to execute to get quick wins and build momentum for more complex campaigns
• Potential impact on the target audience, measured by setting specific KPIs for each campaign and tracking them over time

By prioritizing your demand gen initiatives based on these factors, you can ensure you are investing your resources in the most effective way possible, building an effective B2B demand generation funnel.

8. Develop and Refine Demand Capturing

Designing and polishing demand capture is essential to any demand generation campaign. Before launching a pilot campaign, reduce friction points. Examples of friction points include long forms and unavailable pricing.

To capture demand effectively, it's essential to define one demand generation strategy. This strategy could include factors such as:

• Retargeting engaged accounts
• Using intent data
• Creating content hubs

To capture demand, set up an engagement threshold. Next, start tracking account engagement across multiple channels and your website. It allows you to identify accounts that demonstrate high interest in your product.

Another effective strategy is to implement a buyer enablement program. It involves creating solution-based content hubs to capture demand from warm prospects. 

For example, an ABM (Account-based Marketing) content hub can attract potential customers who have already shown interest in your product.

9. Launch a Pilot Campaign

Pilot campaigns are essential before launching a full-fledged campaign because they allow you to test and refine your approach before investing significant resources. 

Plus, you can evaluate the effectiveness of your B2B demand gen strategies. Hence, you can make any necessary adjustments before launching a larger-scale campaign.

Define Your Goals and Align Them with Sales and Execs

Before launching your pilot campaign, you must define your goals and ensure they align with your sales and marketing teams. It will ensure everyone is on the same page and working towards the same objectives.

Define a Small Pilot Team

To keep your pilot campaign manageable, define a small team of no more than two people. It will help you reduce KPIs and reallocate revenue targets so that you can focus on achieving your goals.

Select Only One Channel and One Program

Focusing on one channel and program is essential when launching a pilot campaign. However, only try to do one thing in parallel, or you risk spreading your resources too thin and not getting accurate results.

Create a Clear Timeline and Leading Metrics

To track the progress of your pilot campaign, create a clear timeline and leading metrics. It will allow you to monitor your campaign's success and adjust as needed. 

By setting specific goals and tracking your progress, you can refine your strategy and improve your chances of success.

10. Set Up Full-fledged Campaigns

Document the process once your pilot has been successfully launched and gained traction. Then, create a system for maintaining and optimizing the campaign over the long term.

First, analyze the pilot campaign results and identify improvement areas. This may involve:

• Tweaking messaging
• Adjusting targeting criteria
• Optimizing specific campaign elements such as landing pages or ad creatives

By carefully tracking and analyzing campaign data, you can refine the campaign and improve its performance over time.

Next, it's time to document the process and create a system for maintaining the campaign. It can include:

• Creating an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) that outlines the steps involved in launching and managing the campaign
• Defining roles and responsibilities for team members involved in the campaign

In addition to documenting the process, onboard a team member who can manage the campaign on an ongoing basis. You can have the following:

• A dedicated demand-generation specialist
  Or 
• An existing team member with interest and insights about demand-gen

The key is to ensure someone is responsible for monitoring the campaign, making ongoing improvements, and keeping the campaign on track to meet its goals.

11. Analyze Demand Gen Reports

One critical component of a demand-gen report is attribution. It helps you understand how much credit each marketing touchpoint should receive for a sale or conversion.

To build effective demand-gen reports, include a mix of self and digital attribution methods. Digital attribution involves using analytics tools to track a customer's journey across different digital channels, such as:

• Social media
• Email
• Website visits

This method lets you see which touchpoints drive the most conversions and revenue.

Self-attribution, on the other hand, involves asking customers how they heard about your product or service. This method can help understand how offline touchpoints, such as events or word-of-mouth referrals, impact your marketing efforts.

By combining both self and digital attribution methods, you can gain a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of your marketing efforts on revenue. 

As such, you can make data-driven decisions about where to allocate your marketing budget and resources for maximum impact.

12. Grow Demand Generation Efforts Consistently

Launching and documenting new campaigns gradually is essential to consistently growing your demand generation efforts. This approach allows you to test and refine your strategies before scaling them up. 

Here are some steps you can take:

• Analyze Your Demand Generation Efforts: Before launching new campaigns, closely examine your current strategies. Identify what’s working and not, and use that information to inform your new campaigns.
• Develop a Roadmap: Develop a roadmap for new campaigns based on your analysis. It should include a timeline for when each campaign will launch, the channels you will use, and the goals for each campaign.
• Test and Refine: Before scaling up new campaigns, start small and test them. Use A/B testing and other strategies to measure the effectiveness of your campaigns and refine them as needed.
• Document Your Campaigns: Document your processes and results as you launch and test new campaigns. It will help you identify what works and doesn’t and improve your strategies.
• Scale Up Successful Campaigns: Once you have identified successful campaigns, scale them up gradually. Use the data and insights you have gathered to inform your scaling strategies.

How to Measure KPIs of A Demand Generation Framework?

If your demand generation framework doesn’t help you reach your goals, it could damage your business. 

Without a brand awareness plan or buyer persona, you may struggle to attract visitors to your website or understand your audience. A poorly performing demand-gen framework can lead to:

• Decreased lead conversion
• Reduced client retention
• Inaccurate data reporting

You need to track key metrics to assess the effectiveness of your demand-generation campaigns. By measuring the metrics below, you can determine what is working, what is not, and where you need to make improvements:

• Website Visitors
• Social Media Engagement
• Number of Meetings
• Average Deal Scope
• Number of Opportunities
• Cost Per Lead (CPL)
• Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
• Mean Sales Cycle Length
• Revenue Generated vs. Investment

These metrics will help you:

• Gauge the interest and quality of your leads
• Calculate the dollar value of each customer
• Assess the cost of acquiring new customers
• Estimate the total budget needed for the entire funnel
• Calculate the profitability of your campaign
• Identify opportunities for improving engagement tactics
• Streamline the conversion process
• Explore different sales channels

Best Demand Generation Tools

You must have the right tools in place to achieve the best results from your demand-gen campaigns. Here are some essential tools you MUST possess in your arsenal:

1. Lead Scoring and Nurturing

You must identify sales leads rather than collect leads to convert them into customers. Automation tools such as Autopilot can model, score, and nurture leads. Email marketing tools like Mailchimp can also help you nurture your leads.

2. Interactive Content

While static content can effectively convert visitors, interactive content can further boost engagement. 

Examples of interactive content include calculators, chatbots, quizzes, and surveys. In addition, interactive content via tools like Outgrow can generate more conversions than static content.

3. Contests and Giveaways

Running different types of giveaways, sweepstakes, and photo contests can drive engagement and demand generation for your brand. Platforms like Wishpond enable you to create contests on social media, blogs, websites, and mobile apps.

4. Events and Webinars

Hosting webinars and other online events can help build demand for your products and services. In addition, you can use tools like Akkroo to track leads and data across physical and digital channels.

5. Corporate Gifting

Sending gift baskets, eGifts, and swag bags to leads can differentiate your brand and drive leads to your company. Sendoso simplifies this through its gifting platform and services, which have been found to generate a significant return on campaign investment.

Generate Demand with Revnew

Generating demand for your business is essential for its growth and success. Demand generation provides a structure to attract, convert, and track your target audience throughout the purchase cycle. This approach helps you understand what and who is required to achieve your objectives and identify relevant performance metrics.

Revnew offers a centralized platform for managing your demand generation efforts. Its comprehensive channel enables you to create a pipeline that engages, acquires, and retains customers. With Revnew’s B2B demand generation best practices, you can measure ROI quickly and use the data for internal evaluations and stakeholder presentations.

If you are looking for an excellent agency that provides demand generation services to enhance your demand strategy, Revnew is an ideal solution. To learn more, request a demo with us today.

Read More: How to Choose a Demand Generation Agency?