Ask-Reddit (DG Edition #1): Demand Gen vs Lead Gen
A response to reddit submission about the difference between demand gen & lead gen.
This question seems to have been a hot topic the past couple of years, more than likely due to thought leaders like Chris Walker.
To preface this, when I first got into demand gen, I thought it was cool to say “lead gen doesn’t work”, and yet it’s the basis for a ton of e-commerce brands.
I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s kind of hack to say that unless you have a good reason for it.
Source: Cognism
To put it simply:
Demand generation is an inbound strategy that aims to educate the market and is typically characterized by ungated, in-feed content.
Lead generation is an inbound strategy that aims to collect high volumes of leads through content and is typically characterized by gated content.
Where demand gen goes wrong
Lack of focus on the target audience
Lack of investment in creative/content
More difficult to get internal buy-in, which causes misalignment
Where lead gen goes wrong
Automatically push leads into the sales cycle
Not enough segmentation and qualification
Lack of focus on quality
A healthy mix of the two is fine, but I lean towards doing demand generation. I have found more success and more qualitative data shows that your audience respects your brand more this way. Lead gen is fine when we are ensuring that we don’t harass the inbound leads.
Budget split?
70% DG
Brand advertising, content, et cetera
30% LG
This encompasses going to events (which generates lists of leads)
What encompasses demand gen?
Brand ads
Ungated content
Community building & Podcast
Brand-focused
What encompasses lead gen?
Lead Gen ads
Gated content
eBooks and whitepapers
Sales focused