Have you fallen for any demand generation myths over the years, or have you heard of businesses that have made poor choices based on believing different myths? Unfortunately, many demand generation marketers fall prey to obsolete strategies and baseless myths, resulting in the collapse of an otherwise successful campaign. To avoid such unfortunate results, it is crucial to identify all major demand gen myths and eliminate them from your mind before they get a chance to cause any harm to B2B marketing campaigns.

Time is of the essence, especially for  B2B marketers. It’s important to plan for an effective demand generation strategy well in advance in order to gain maximum benefits within a limited period of time. The bottom line is this: if a strategy is based on false assumptions, one’s road to success is likely to be bumpy and challenging and positive business outcomes may be hindered.

ALSO READ: Top 6 Demand Generation Strategies to Increase Your Sales Pipeline 

Dangers of Believing Demand Gen Myths

Here’s one example that may paint a clear picture for you: if your intended destination is New York, wouldn’t it be pointless and unnecessary to follow a map to Seattle, Washington instead? This example applies to faulty demand generation strategies based on myths that can be detrimental to businesses.

To keep up with an increasing number of buyer needs and wants, a large majority of marketers have found it to be incredibly challenging to create demand for various products or services. The aim of effective demand generation is to identify potential prospects based on their online behavior and then channel them through a nurturing process so that both sales and marketing teams can have high-quality leads. The endgame here is to have better and stronger buyer engagement and higher conversion rates.

However,  achieving these results is not always as straightforward as one may think. Brands and marketers that get confused between myths and facts about demand generation can result in  the following issues:

• Inefficient content marketing and messaging maps
• Irrelevant resources that don’t match buyers’ interests
• Negligence in integrating top-of-the-funnel efforts with middle and bottom-of-the-funnel
• Waste of time and resources with unqualified leads
• Inadequate performance measurement
• Not assigning accurate key performance indicators (KPIs)
• Not generating excellent results from content like blog articles and videos
• High churn rate, poor buyer retention, and low conversions

Remove These 4 Demand Gen Myths From Your Mind

As we dive deeper into demand gen myths, it’s time to stop believing these top four in order to avoid facing B2B marketing pitfalls and other challenges:

1. Demand Gen Does Not Require Targeting Strategies

Think twice if you think demand generation is all about branding and not audience targeting. The aim of demand generation is to not only reach the maximum number of users, but also bring in new leads.

Brands are likely to notice positive results if they target the right audience segments at the right time. Targeting the right set of users who face a specific problem that a certain product can solve can result in marketing ROI improvements.

2. Demand Gen and Lead Gen Are Doppelgangers

Do you believe you can use demand generation and lead generation interchangeably? If your answer is yes, it’s time to get started. Demand generation is a broader term than lead generation. It’s an umbrella term that consists of brand awareness, buyer acquisition, funnel efforts, and generating interest in specific products or services.

Both new leads and existing customers can show potential interest in a certain product and/or service. Whereas, lead generation aims to gain contact information from users who show interest in a product. Two examples of this could be downloading a white paper or signing up for a newsletter.

3. Demand Gen Can Work With a Single Channel Approach

Focusing on a single channel to execute demand generation strategies is unlikely to provide the results brands seek. For instance, account-based marketing (ABM), paid social media, SEO, and different types of content are effective, but they might not serve as a well-rounded demand generation strategy. Instead, a combination of inbound and outbound marketing strategies and online and offline methods is usually the way to go. Emails, cross-channel campaigns, push notifications, in-app messages, webinars, and co-sponsored events are all effective demand generation strategies that can bring brands front and center.

4. Only Top-of-the-Funnel Matters

Last but not least, one of the most dangerous myths many marketers believe is that a buyers’ journey can be controlled and all that’s needed is to focus on the top-of-the-funnel. Overall, demand generation strategies should align with the stages of a buyers’ journey. Brands can profile their customers, set accurate buyer personas, and predict a buyer’s journey, but they can never control a buyer. A buyer can proceed in any way they choose, and it’s ideal for brands to have a positive influence on their buyers. By doing this, the likelihood of buyers reaching the final stage of conversion is quite high.

Also, it’s important to design a messaging map so that brands reach their buyers at every funnel stage with the addition of relevant resources and touchpoints in the sales cycle. Before going full speed ahead, remember to keep buyers’ problems and priorities in mind and maintain awareness, consideration, and creativity. 

Wouldn’t you say it’s about time you get rid of outdated demand generation approaches and stop believing common demand gen myths? To navigate around these myths, first identify any and all false notions, gauge how implementing faulty strategies might affect your business, and then pivot and employ accurate and effective techniques in order to reach your desired goals! 

Keep the educational train rolling by checking out these helpful demand gen articles.

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