Creating a Demand Generation Strategy: Get More Qualified Leads in the Business to Business Funnel

Creating a demand gen funnel is a central part of the business-to-business marketing world. Driving demand is essential for businesses and can be difficult to navigate. This article will cover the stages of a demand gen strategy that will help improve your B2B funnel. In turn, it will drive more qualified leads to sales. We’ll discuss what to look for at each stage in the funnel, KPIs, and analytics you should use to guide future decisions.

There are three stages in the demand gen funnel: top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, and bottom. To create demand that will help improve your business B2B marketing efforts, marketers need to understand what they need at each stage in this process.

Step 1: Top-of-Funnel Demand

The first step into creating demand generation strategies is to do some research on what demand gen means. According to Demand Gen Report, demand generation can be defined as “the process of creating demand for your solution via the exchange of information with prospects.” This process continues once a lead gets into the funnel up until they’re ready to buy. The more demand you create in B2B marketing, the more demand you’ll see at the bottom of your funnel.

The TOFU of demand generation is about creating awareness and driving traffic to your website or blog posts that will help educate prospects on their needs. You should provide valuable content, like ebooks or research reports that are relevant to potential customers’ current challenges they’re facing. You can also use demand gen to create content that will make your company stand out from the competition, but be sure it’s relevant.


You’ll need to have a good analytics strategy at this stage to measure traffic and leads coming into the demand generation funnel. The top part of the demand generation funnel is all about awareness, so social media demand gen is proper. Keeping an eye on your demand generation funnel will show you which channels are best for demand creation and how much demand it’s creating at each stage of the process.

For example, if Facebook demand generation isn’t bringing in many leads or sales to your company, try using LinkedIn demand gen instead since that platform has higher demand generation potential.

Stage 2: Keep on Driving to MOFU Demand

The next stage in the demand gen funnel is to build your list of leads who are interested in learning more about what you have to offer. At this point yet, they don’t know enough about their needs and challenges, so it’s up to marketers to help them out by providing relevant content at each phase of demand generation to get them there.

Content demand gen is the most crucial part of demand generation strategies and should be used in each stage. This content could include blog posts, ebooks, research reports, infographics (which can also help with demand creation), videos, or webinars.

Analytics are vital for demand generation — not only to measure demand creation but also demand conversion. Data will help you understand which platforms are most effective for demand generation, what type of content creates the best demand, and at what stage leads are converting into sales or contacts.

Step 3: Building up the Middle of the Funnel

The next part of demand gen happens when leads convert from being on your list to becoming a lead with a bit more information. They’re now in a position where they know their challenges and how your product or service can help them get there, but you’ll need to show demand creation before any sales conversations happen so it’s time for demos.

This part of the demand gen funnel is crucial since this is when conversions will occur.
The demand generation funnel continues with the ability to close deals. This is when you’ll have demand conversion conversations where your demand gen efforts are combined with sales, so upselling and cross-selling will be necessary for growth within B2B marketing.

Analytics at this stage of demand generation will help marketers know which platforms work best for demand conversion. For example, suppose your demand gen strategies bring in a few sales opportunities. You might want to look into the driving channels and campaigns to see what is best used for the top-of-the-funnel Vs. Opportunity creation. From there, you can test and move around as needed.

The bottom part of the B2B marketing funnel is where you’ll see conversions and revenue generated, so it’s important for marketers not to lose sight of demand generation during this stage.

Step 4: Close and Turn to Advocate

The final part of demand gen happens when a lead becomes a customer, and it’s essential to keep the demand going by turning them into brand advocates who will create demand for your company outside of your marketing strategies. It’s not enough to get leads — marketers need to follow up with customers at all stages of demand generation to ensure revenue goals are being met.

Analytics at the final stage will show how demand is growing both inside and outside your marketing funnel so you can determine which demand gen strategies work best for customer retention.

The demand gen funnel is an essential part of B2B marketing, but it’s not something that marketers can check off their list. Keeping your eye on the analytics at each stage will help you know which strategies work best for growth and whether another platform might be more effective than what you’re currently using.

In the End

Demand generation goals are to build a list of leads and turn them into revenue-generating customers, so analytics is critical for measuring the success of each step in the process.

An excellent way to measure demand gen strategies is by using key performance indicators (KPI’s). This will help marketers know whether or not they’re meeting their goals at each stage of the demand generation funnel and whether or not they’re on track to achieve revenue goals.
Good luck with creating a demand generation strategy that works!