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Unlike traditional “throw any lead over” generation, demand generation is about quality prospects, nurturing qualified leads to engage with sales, collaborating marketing and sales efforts and measuring the results.  In theory, innovative generation strategy functions as a series rather than traditionally as a single action.

The ideas behind demand generation are universal including quality prospects, qualified leads and measured results, however the tactics and techniques used can vary.  As with any lead generation strategy, it’s important to stay creative and innovative to ensure your prospects aren’t leaving the revenue cycle too early.  Keeping this in mind, below are three techniques you’re not using but should to keep your efforts effective and buyer-centric.

1.  Content marketing helps you promote your products and services with prospects before they’re ready to speak with sales.  Thanks to the Internet, social media and other online influences, prospects are spending time researching products and services early-on, allowing you an opportunity to avoid pre-mature engagement with sales.  The B2B buying process has changed, and with that change comes a new B2B buyer and need for new demand generation techniques.

2.  Demand centers are central hubs of shared marketing services and processes.  These centers allow companies to promote B2B marketing programs by leveraging key corporate assets and best practices.  The demand center is a center-of-excellence model providing advice, assembly and execution resources to the generation process (Source: SiriusDecisions). Essentially as demand generation and B2B buyers continue to evolve, it’s going to be increasingly important to maintain an integrated, multi-dimensional process to generate prospects and foster qualified leads.  The demand center will function as the mitochondria of your demand generation process.

3.  Marketing automation software combines everything you need to manage demand generation campaigns.  Only 25% of organizations that have purchased this software are utilizing it to the fullest (Source: SiriusDecisions).  To fully utilize marketing automation allows you to generate, nurture and qualify more high quality leads with less effort.  Marketing automation software from Marketo allows you to automate and measure all aspects of demand generation campaigns, from lead nurturing to lead scoring.

Content marketing, demand centers and marketing automation software are all vital techniques to improve your demand generation campaigns and efforts.  If you’re not utilizing any techniques, all techniques, or these particular techniques to the fullest, consider that it may be time to reevaluate your campaign and implementing new ideas.  Organizations using these practices create twice as much revenue per marketing dollar compared to those which do not (Source: SiriusDecisions).  Certainly a strong statistic to consider.