The state of the economy is increasing B2B marketers’ interest in the much-hyped subject of demand generation. This is the key finding of a recent survey conducted by B2B Marketing, in association with eMarket2, aimed at gauging practitioners’ understanding and focus on this emerging approach to marketing. Three hundred B2B marketers responded to the survey, which was sent out by email in mid-August.
According to the results, two thirds of respondents agreed that the economy made the case for demand generation more compelling, whilst only two per cent said it made it less compelling (see Fig 3 the remainder either stating ‘no change’ or ‘don’t know’). However, respondents did not agree that the economy was the primary reason for the increase in interest in this subject. The largest group said the growing focus of the CEO on ROI was the primary reason (27 per cent) whilst ‘general acceptance as best practice’ was cited as the second most popular reason (24 per cent). ‘The economy’ came a close third on 22 per cent.
Awareness of demand generation was shown to be generally high, although with a significant minority of respondents unsure of precise definitions or its requirements for utilisation. Almost seventy per cent of respondents to the survey have some significant level of awareness on this subject (see Fig 1) although only 28 per cent describe themselves as fully conversant. Meanwhile, one in five respondents have ‘never heard of demand generation’, confirming that it’s still very much an emerging area.
Yet, whilst awareness is high, action in terms of migration or adoption of demand generation appears to be thinner on the ground (see Fig 2) with 60 per cent of companies either suggesting that it’s ‘not on their agenda’ or that ‘we’ve taken little action to date’. It is interesting to note that whilst the majority of companies are aware of demand generation, only a minority have acted on it, or are working towards implementing it.
In terms of the vendors, the survey showed that by far the best known is Eloqua, which one third of respondents were aware of. This is double the awareness of the next best-known vendor, ExactTarget.
In terms of being prepared for demand generation and with regard to how their marketing and sales departments function respondents presented a mixed picture. Just over half described co-operation between marketing and sales to be either ‘good’ or ‘excellent’. However, more worryingly, only 37 per cent said their organisation had an agreed definition of a ‘sales-ready lead’, and only 23 per cent have a process in place to pass leads back to marketing for further nurturing.
Looking ahead, the prospects for further companies migrating towards demand generation appear to be good, with only three per cent of respondents expecting that it will be a ‘short-lived fad’, whilst a quarter believe it ‘will become recognised as crucial’. However, the largest group (43 per cent) believe it will become seen as important, but not critical and will ‘become part of the background language of marketing, like CRM’; whilst a further 27 per cent were undecided. How the attitudes of this last group develops would seem to be crucial to the future prospects and role of demand generation.
If this group can be convinced that it is something worthy and significant, they may tip the balance in favour of widespread and long-term adoption. The challenge for the vendors and other demand generation stakeholders, therefore, is to communicate the benefits and opportunities in such a compelling fashion that it becomes the standard for B2B marketing. This will not be easy, but it is achievable.
