The demand generation process involves varied measures directed towards increasing consumer/prospect awareness about the brand and its offering. Demand generation is not a one-time step, but a critical, continuous process. More significantly, even though demand generation is primarily a marketing function, it is closely tied to sales. Hence there’s a need for marketing and sales to integrate to provide a holistic view of the customer/prospect. Automation of the demand generation process can play a vital role in increasing the effectiveness of the business’s demand generation strategies. This article provides an overview of the challenges faced in the demand generation process and discusses corresponding solutions.

1. DEMAND GENERATION—
CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS

2. Executive Summary
The demand generation process involves varied measures directed towards increasing consumer/prospect
awareness about the brand and its offering. Demand generation is not a one-time step, but a critical, continuous
process. More significantly, even though demand generation is primarily a marketing function, it is closely tied
to sales. Hence there’s a need for marketing and sales to integrate to provide a holistic view of the
customer/prospect. Automation of the demand generation process can play a vital role in increasing the
effectiveness of the business’s demand generation strategies.
This whitepaper provides an overview of the challenges faced in the demand generation process and
discusses corresponding solutions.
Challenges in Demand Generation
The Demand generation function today presents the following challenges:
INFORMED CUSTOMERS - Customers now have
access to a lot of information. Whether it is through
the web, peer reviews or even business
competitors, customers suffer no dearth of Every business has its
information when it comes to learning about a competitors delivering a
product or service. Generating revenue with such
well-informed customers means the business has similar message. The challenge
to be far more thorough and informed about is to ensure that the business’s
customer requirements and needs. voice is heard loud and clear
FOCUS SHIFT TOWARD THE CUSTOMERS - As
amidst all the noise created by
customers become more knowledgeable, its competitors.
businesses have to shift focus to the customer. It is
not about what the business has to offer, but about
what the customer expects. All facets of the business, from marketing and operations,
to finance and sales, have to be customer-oriented.
MULTIPLE CONTACT CHANNELS - Customers have the choice of reaching out to a
business through multiple channels. Sometimes, the business is not even aware of its
contact with a customer until the last few stages of the sales cycle. Customers often
check out the business and its offerings using different tools such as social networking
platforms, company websites, 3rd party websites providing reviews, other social media
tools like blogs, and book-marking sites. The business has to modify its demand
generation efforts in order to connect with its prospects at these newly emerging touch
points.
COMPETITION & CUSTOMER ATTENTION - With today’s business environment being
extremely dynamic, businesses are vying with one another for customer attention. Every
business has its competitors delivering a similar message. The challenge is to ensure

3. that the business’s voice is heard loud and clear amidst all the noise created by its
competitors. One solution is to engage the customer in a meaningful, value adding
conversation.
OTHER INTERNAL PRESSURES - Apart from the above mentioned challenges posed by
the external business environment, companies
also faces challenges that are a result of its
internal environment. Most commonly, these
include
Automation of the demand
o The pressure to provide ‘more generation process empowers
qualified leads’ - The sales team business by allowing it to
perennially accuses the marketing respond in real-time to
team of not providing them with
qualified leads. This is often cited prospect behavior, connect
by the sales team as one of the with prospects across various
reasons for not being able to close communication channels, and
leads.
use personalization to deliver
o The pressure to provide increased a superior customer
sales support - In most experience.
companies, there is a huge
disparity between the number of
people working in marketing and sales. The marketing team, often quite
understaffed, is under tremendous pressure to support the sales team
by delivering on their requirements while still adhering to short
timelines and high targets.
o Justification of marketing budget - The pressure is always on marketing
to justify its budgets and show a defensible return on marketing
investments.
Advantages of Automating the Demand Generation Process
Automation offers a structured, continuously interactive approach to the demand generation process. It
streamlines the process and provides marketing with valuable prospect/customer data, which can be
used to increase the overall effectiveness of the business’s demand generation strategy. Automating the
demand generation process typically offers the following advantages
COMPLETE CUSTOMER VIEW -Because of their ability to integrate a business’s
marketing and sales processes, demand generation software programs provide the
business with a holistic view of its customers/prospects. Once the marketing team has a
360⁰ view of its prospects, it can modify its demand generation campaigns to
complement prospect behavior. Consider a commercial Banking and Insurance Group
that has the capacity to create 360⁰ views of its customers. The marketing department

4. would know what
type of assets are
held by its clients and
use that to design
specific demand
generation campaigns
for various
appropriate financial
products. This yields
greater response than
mass-produced
promotions are able
to achieve
CUSTOMIZATION -
Automation lends a
greater degree of
personalization to the
demand generation
process. By automating demand generation campaigns, the marketing team can
lend a personal touch to its communication. As discussed earlier, one of the
major challenges faced by marketing teams in demand generation today is the
need to stand out from their competitors. Personalization attracts attention by
offering more individualized offerings within the target market
CONTENT SYNDICATION - As prospects/customers interact with the business on
various platforms, there’s a need for the business to utilize these numerous
channels to drive home its message. Advanced demand generation automation
software programs have built-in content syndication mechanisms that enable
the business to consistently deliver the same message across all communication
channels. For example, automation can help a business replicate a demand
generation campaign across various media, such as e-mails, brochures, flyers,
landing pages, blogs and more.
DECREASED TURNAROUND TIME - Automating the demand generation process
enables the business to respond to customer interest in real-time. For example,
when prospects click on an e-mail, they can be directed to the landing page. If
they request more information from the landing page, a FAQ sheet can be
automatically e-mailed to them. This reduced response time helps maintain
customer attention.
SUMMARY - Automation of the demand generation process empowers business by allowing it to
respond in real-time to prospect behavior, connect with prospects across various communication
channels, and use personalization to deliver a superior customer experience. Internally, it improves the
quality of leads and enables improved sales support by providing a holistic view of the prospects.
Ultimately, automating demand generation can help a business to improve the overall effectiveness of
its demand generation strategies and gain a competitive edge in the market.

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Our solutions bring about a seamless integration of the 2 functions helping
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Contact me today to know more about how MindMatrix solutions can help
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