Digital marketing strategies: Satisfying demand vs Generating demand

So this blog is important as there is often confusion when marketing teams are briefing agencies around the purpose of the campaigns. These two different types of outcome for your  marketing need to be interrogated and not confused as they are very different.

Satisfying demand via digital marketing is straightforward and is often the first place to start as it is a quick way to generate revenue for your business. This is the low hanging fruit and relies on providing the solution that is needed when somebody is looking for it.

Generating demand is focussed far more around long term success by exposing your audience to ideas, services, solutions etc. related to your brand (personal or corporate). By providing content that is entertaining or educational, you attempt to build trust; which can generate preference for your brand, products or services specifically.

What is satisfying demand with your marketing?

This is providing solutions that are being searched for by your clients. Techniques that can be used for this methodology include PPC (pay-per-click) & SEO (search engine optimisation). Basically prospects are looking for the solution that you are providing and you are providing what they need at the time they need it. In order to optimise this method you need to understand the language being used by your prospects (through keyword research). You also need to understand how to give them an experience that is easy and satisfying for them to complete a purchase through your webite.

What is demand generation through your marketing?

It involves the creation of content to educate and entertain your audience. Demand generation is most effective when you can immerse your audience in the world of your brand; meaning that videos and podcasts are especially effective ways to generate demand. The key is engagement and exposure, which over time can build trust for your brand and ultimately build preference for your brand as well. This is a long term strategy and requires consistency in your messaging and the volume of content that you are putting out

The evolving role of branding

The way traditional advertising works is that by showing enough people your logo and branded materials you can spread your message and people will become familiar with your message. This does not work in the same way digitally. When using a website people tend to shut out the noise and focus on what is important. To build your brand digitally you need to offer something that grabs the audience’s attention; something that, if engaged with, offers a memorable and valuable experience.

For example if you click on an advert that takes the user to a website there is more chance that your brand will be remembered due to the amount of branded content there. If using this kind of tactic it is so vital that once somebody clicks on your advert they are then taken to something specific and relevant to what was being advertised. You may see brands paying for advertisements that drive people to their home page; this is madness and you will be paying for a high bounce rate and low conversion rate. Be specific, no one is ever searching for something general.

People are looking for a valuable experience

People want the kinds of content that excite, educate and entertain. Providing immersive experiences such as videos and podcasts are becoming more popular and are a real opportunity for brands as the platforms enable you to have the attention of your audience over a long period of time.

The more valuable the experiences you can give the more your brand equity is built in people’s minds. However this positive brand equity does not last forever. There is a lot of competition with many brands trying to earn people’s trust. In order to sustain positive results over a long period of time you need repetition and consistency. It is a little like exercise. You don’t get fit by going to the gym once, it is all about repetition. Consistency and repetition over a long period of time is how you will see trust built, which will deliver the desired value from the activity.

Structured and strategic content

In order to be consistent you need to be well planned and strategic in the content that you are creating. Separate your content into the areas that you feel will be of most interest to your audience and provide content within those areas. This will keep you on track in what you are trying to do and your overall goals.

Experimentation and adjustment is vital within this strategy. This means that the success of your content needs to be measured over time. Whatever is delivering the most engagement and interaction needs to be noted and the successes should be repeated where possible.

Trust + Recommendation = Demand

Once you have built trust in your brand using content you will be in a far stronger position to sell your products. It is important not to become solely sales focussed as it may start to look inauthentic. Once a brand stops being authentic trust is completely lost. The 80 – 20% rule is the recommended split with no less than 80% of your content adding value and up to 20% sales based posts.

You don’t necessarily have to start creating sales focussed content. But it is important to let people know what your end goal is. You can merely decide to use your bio on social platforms to have a more sales focus with details of what you do and how to get in touch. You could also have a website that is more sales focussed and you could link back to this site once in a while.

This can tie in with your SEO strategy as producing “What is….” and “How to….” content is great for getting ranked higher on search engines. Within the copy of your “how to…” guidance it is worth inserting sales focussed calls to action in your content to push people towards making a purchase.

As I previously mentioned appearing authentic is what you are trying to achieve. Even though it isn’t the focus you should make people aware of what your end goal is. A great example of this is Neil Patel. He provides training and advice on digital marketing. I have watched numerous videos of his where at the end he always signs off by saying “…if you need help with your digital marketing speak to us at Neil Patel digital”. This is great as he informs people how to do it themselves but then mentions at the end “or we can do it for you?” Positioning himself as an expert and a service provider.

I hope that you have found this article useful. If you ever need any help with satisfying demand or generating demand for your business feel free to get in touch today! 😉