Just like every other sector of advertising, and every other industry, the B2B landscape is always evolving. As a result, marketers sometimes have trouble allocating their resources. It can be difficult to determine which tactics don’t really work anymore, and which have potential for long-term staying power. Similarly, it’s tough to judge which newer techniques will turn out to be passing fads, and which will produce the most enduring results.

For dependable insight into the most impactful trends, it is important to consult the wisdom of the most innovative marketers out there. They consistently report that outbound marketing, or demand generation, is as reliable as ever. This term refers to a collection of tactics to create opportunities for sales, and includes the attraction of new customers and markets, the promotion of new products and services, generating buzz, and nurturing existing customer relationships.

When developing a demand generation program, ask yourself and your team the following questions:

• How should we generate our list of prospects?: First, you must define your niche, or target audience. Then develop a list of vendors with the biggest potential for conversion. You may want to provide your team with a set of criteria to assist them as they identify prospects.A LinkedIn Premium account will come in handy here.
• How should we get contact information?: Email addresses are the most important types of contact information when it comes to demand generation. Direct phone numbers are also nice, but not required. If it becomes necessary to guess email addresses, there are number of useful tools, such as HubSpot’s Sidekick, Salesforce, and Prospector by Salesloft.
• How do we develop a reliable outreach mechanism?: This is where the actual prospecting begins. Salesforce is also helpful in this cases, as is Salesloft’s Cadence. As its name suggests, Cadence provides a series of activities (emails, phone calls, and social media) that assist users with outreach.This helps both systemize the process and increase the likelihood of making contact with each prospect.
• What language and approaches to communication will be most effective?: Research your prospects to understand the language they use to articulate their problems. Use that same language when you present your solutions.Always focus on your prospects, including their problems, priorities, and interests – not on what you are trying to sell.
• How will we measure our results?: If you don’t pay attention to what’s happening, you won’t know where you should improve. Some type of dashboard – perhaps something by Guiding Metrics – will prove worthwhile in this case. You can measure revenue, for example, and sales summaries for each team member,

What Other Professionals Are Doing

One survey of approximately 200 B2B marketing professionals illustrated the most popular offers, technologies, content types, and channels of communication. The results indicated that 79% of respondents utilize no less than 11 different promotional software applications, with 97% using email marketing technologies. Referrals, trade shows, and email marketing are believed to be the best means of generating the most high-quality leads, and videos were discovered to be the most frequently used type of content – at 92%. Their popularity is attributed to evidence that they produce a remarkably high volume of demand.

Marketers hoping to understand how best to engage in demand generation would be well-served to use the guidelines above to analyze their own efforts, and to glean insights from other leaders in the industry. You will undoubtedly gain a greater understanding of the most sophisticated outreach and analytical tactics.