Forrester Helps Organizations Thrive Through Volatility

A business might start with 80% demand gen and 20% lead gen, then slowly shift the ratio as brand awareness grows and interest increases. These tools help you turn curious visitors into qualified leads, and then guide them further down the funnel. A good lead generation strategy includes tactics like gated content, retargeting ads, well-optimized landing pages, and strong calls to action. If you already have decent traffic but very few people are filling out forms or reaching out, it’s time to focus on lead generation. Essentially, you’re building the foundation so your audience knows who you are and what problem you solve.

• The purpose here is to attract users who already know about your offering and have engaged with you during the demand generation stage.
• Your sales funnel efficiency depends on intelligent routing.
• Still have questions about how demand generation and lead generation work?
• They track account engagement, buying group penetration, and opportunity progression rather than individual lead counts.
• If the ungated content didn't earn trust first, the gated asset won't convert — and the nurture won't get opened.
• This type of training establishes your authority and value before users ever have to make a purchase.

This lead magnet not only promises valuable insights but also addresses a pain point specific to your target audience. This approach proved transformative, as it not only attracted over 10,000 industry professionals but also nurtured strong connections. The systematic process of generating interest in a product or a service is known as demand creation. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and learn how we can help grow your business.

Gated content is a fabulous way to capture some very important information about the people visiting your web properties. They may include gated content marketing with optimized landing pages such as webinars or white papers. Executive thought leadership like this is a simple, yet effective way to connect with prospective customers on a deeper level.

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Ungate educational content (blogs, videos, thought leadership) that builds brand awareness and attracts broad audiences. Start your free trial today and see how integrated data powers both demand creation and lead capture. I’ve seen nurture sequences where no two recipients see identical content despite thousands enrolled in the same sales funnel pathway. Demand creation vs lead generation The email drip campaigns I built in 2018 look primitive compared to modern nurture capabilities. I’ve built retargeting audiences exclusively from engaged content consumers.

They often include gated content to capture more contact information and push product-focused messages to drive quick results. Demand generation webinars are also more likely to be freely accessible across various platforms, prioritising audience reach and engagement over immediate lead capture. They tend to be more product-focused and sales-oriented, with aggressive follow-up strategies including email nurtures and sales outreach. In a demand generation approach, you understand that your audience is at the event, but don't need to be captured in that moment and nurtured afterwards, so the focus is more on quality over quantity.

In a lead generation approach, the focus will be on using that event to acquire as many contact details and leads as possible that will then be nurtured and followed up with afterwards. Marketing's role generally ends here, with little emphasis on tracking how these leads ultimately convert into opportunities and customers, as that is considered a sales responsibility. Once acquired, these leads are typically nurtured and scored in an attempt to convert them into marketing qualified leads (MQLs), at which point they're often passed from marketing to sales.

What You’ll Get From This Guide

Let us help you get started on the road to demand generation success with a consultation. Now you know what the end goal of your marketing is, it’s time to start planning and executing your demand generation strategy. Be sure that you have complete clarity on your data so that you can have confidence in what you're tracking. Once you’ve got buy-in from the business, the next step is to align on the demand generation metrics that you will be tracking. What you’re likely to see is that leads who submit your high-intent form convert into opportunities and customers at a much higher rate.