Like all industries, there is an evolution of marketing strategies as well. As new technologies and tools emerge, companies continue to alter the ways they reach out to potential customers and engage with them.
The rise of television back in the 1950s, for example, allowed marketers to create exciting new visual experiences for their customers. It enabled them to connect with their audiences in uniquely emotional ways.
TV and other traditional mediums ushered in the era of brand building. Messaging was of the utmost importance. And, marketers looked to communications firms which had the skills to develop powerful, memorable creative that would set their brand apart.
Decades later came an equally game-changing innovation: The internet. Suddenly, companies had a whole new palette of communication tools — websites, email, social media, video, blogs — and, content became king.
As effective communication strategies have changed, so did the skill sets companies required from marketing partners. Branding expertise gave way to digital fluency. Creativity gave way to analytics. Content quality gave way to content quantity.
Today, the pendulum is swinging once again. Now, it’s not enough to just push out content and hope for the best. To engage customers and create demand generation campaigns for your product or service, it’s necessary to combine content and technology with proven brand-building practices.
So, what does that mean for you, the marketer? To thrive today, you must have a partner who can create deep insights into your buyer’s journey, focus the promise of the brand, and develop differentiated touch points by leveraging strategy, creative, engagement, technology and analytics. Creating an effective customer persona for your buyers will help keep them engaged from lead generation to closing the sale.
Which means, the time is right to take a new look at your demand generation agency partner, and find out whether or not they’re incorporating these fundamentals into every project.
Essential components of effective demand generation campaigns.
Demand generation strategies combine insights, content and technology to engage with your customer and grow your business. Here are the skill sets you’ll need to be successful in a particular campaign, or with a particular demand generation agency:
- Insight expertise. To create demand and preference for your product, it’s vital to understand your audience, their buying patterns, and their personalities. Successful marketing partners must have competency in audience and market research, analytics and the development of buyer personas.
- Strategic expertise. With so many communication platforms available— including brand-owned websites, social media, and third-party channels — it’s important to have a team that can put the pieces of the puzzle together effectively. Your partner must have the capability to coordinate a strategy that includes branding, content, social and media components.
- Engagement expertise. As mentioned, content for content’s sake isn’t enough. To effectively engage your audience, you will need to create messaging that connects with them on a personal level. This will require your marketing partner to think with both sides of their brain. Having a team with traditional advertising skills, like brand messaging, creative concepting, and graphic design, is just as critical as having experts in SEO, web analytics, and social media strategy.
- Technology expertise. Demand generation techniques start with technology. Your partner should have deep expertise in web design and development, analytics, CRM implementation, and marketing automation. In addition, make sure they understand the emerging technologies and how effectively they will connect you with your customers, generate demand for your product, and build loyalty for your brand.
Content and strategy. Insights and analytics. By bringing it all together, we can build a whole new level of engagement with your target audiences.
Looking for more background on Demand Generation, how it works, and how the best and brightest in the industry are realizing this technique? Contact Point to Point to start the discussion.