Demand Generation : The B2B marketing strategy guide

In B2B, attracting the attention of your prospects is no longer enough: you need to create real demand around your brand and your solutions. This is exactly what demand generation is all about.✨

Unlike short-term campaigns, demand gen builds awareness, educates your market and feeds your sales teams with prospects who are already interested. A more sustainable approach to generating qualified opportunities 🚀.

What is Demand Generation?

Rather than chasing cold leads, we sow seeds upstream. Your audience discovers you, learns to trust you, then comes naturally to you when they’re ready to buy.💸

Its main objectives 👇🏻 :

• Feed a sustainable funnel: Instead of a one-off spike, demand gen creates a steady stream of already-qualified leads.😉
• Reinforce brand awareness: Make your brand a benchmark in your sector.⭐️
• Educate your market: Demonstrate your expertise by helping your prospects to better understand their problems and possible solutions.🤓

Demand generation can therefore be seen as a long-term investment: it requires more patience than classic lead generation , but its impact is much more solid over time.

Demand Generation campaign vs. Lead Generation: what are the differences?

These two concepts are often confused… and yet they don’t play the same role in your B2B marketing strategy 👇🏻:

• Lead Generation, on the other hand, seeks to collect contacts (e-mails, registrations, demos…) to pass on to sales teams.👀
• Demand Generation aims to create interest and make your solution unavoidable in the minds of your prospects.🤩

➡️ Here’s a quick comparison chart:

	Demand Generation 🧲	Lead Generation 🎯
Objective	Create demand, educate and build awareness.	Collect identified leads to feed the sales pipeline.
Approach	Long-term, relational, educational.	Short/medium-term, conversion-oriented.
Examples	SEO content, webinars, influence, social media campaigns, ABM.	Forms, white papers, cold emailing, landing pages.
Key KPIs	Qualified traffic, engagement, share of voice.	Conversion rate, number of leads, cost per lead.
Benefits	Creates a sustainable flow of leads already “hot”.	Rapidly fills the contact database.
Limitations	Takes longer to activate, less immediate ROI .	Risk of obtaining unqualified leads.

Demand gen prepares the ground, lead gen harvests. One doesn’t replace the other: they complement each other in a B2B strategy. 🎯

Types of demand generation strategies

There are several approaches to demand generation in B2B. The secret? Combine them intelligently according to your targets and resources 💡.

1. Inbound marketing

Inbound marketing is all about attracting your prospects with useful, relevant content. Rather than fetching customers, they come to you.🏃🏻‍♀️ You create useful, relevant content that attracts them like a magnet. 🧲

➡️ Here are some possible formats:

• SEO-optimized blog posts. 📝
• Educational YouTube videos. 🎥
• Webinars and practical guides. 🎤
• Downloadable resources such as white papers and checklists. 📘

2. Outbound Marketing

Here, we’re more proactive: we go looking for prospects where they are. Outbound marketing often gets a bad rap (spam, cold calls…), but when used properly, it’s a formidable weapon.

➡️ For example:

• Targeted email campaigns. 📩
• Social selling on LinkedIn.🛍️
• Paid advertising (Google Ads, LinkedIn Ads).💶
• Retargeting.⌛️

3. Account-Based Marketing (ABM)

ABM involves tailoring your marketing actions to a small number of strategic accounts. Instead of targeting “everyone”, you tailor your content and campaigns to key companies. The goal? It’s to create an ultra-personalized relationship with these companies to maximize your chances of converting them.👀

You can set up 👇🏻 :

• Creation of personalized landing pages by account.🤩
• Organization of small VIP events.⭐️
• Sending target-specific premium content.🎯

4. Social Media & Communities

Today, your prospects spend an enormous amount of time on LinkedIn, X (ex-Twitter) or in Slack/Discord communities. So why not go where they’re already chatting? 🗣️

Social media marketing and communities enable you to create a more human and interactive relationship with your prospects. The idea is not to bombard with ads, but to engage in conversations and build a real closeness with your audience.🎯

➡️ You can do :

• High value-added threads.💬
• Lives or audio rooms(LinkedIn Live, X Spaces). 📹
• Creation of private Slack/Discord communities. 📲

5. Relationship & Events

There’s no substitute for human contact. Relationship-building and events remain ultra-powerful levers in B2B, because they build trust and strengthen bonds. 🤝

The idea is simple: offer your prospects a moment where they can learn, exchange and ask their questions live. This gives your expertise much more weight than any PDF or LinkedIn post.😉

Here are some formats that work:

• Interactive webinars. 🎤
• Physical or virtual conferences.💻
• Business breakfasts.🥐
• Strategic partnerships with other brands by co-organizing an event. 👫

Demand Generation with and without Google Ads

Ads and retargeting give your content a powerful boost 🚀. They’re especially useful when you want to:

• ⚡ Test new messages quickly
• 🎯 Reach a hyper-targeted audience (by job title, industry, company size)
• 🆕 Support a product launch or major campaign

But here’s the catch: Ads perform best when they deliver real value think reports, webinars or guides—not when they only push a hard commercial offer 🤓.

✅ Benefits of Ads :

• Instant visibility and fast results.
• Precise audience targeting (job role, industry, geography).
• Ability to A/B test messages at scale.

❌ Drawback :

• Results stop the moment you pause your ad spend.

➡️ My selection of essential tools :

Ads tools	Main use
Google Ads	Capture intent via search.
LinkedIn Ads	Precise targeting by position, sector, company.
GA4 (Google Analytics)	Track conversions and performance.

By contrast, demand generation without Ads relies on organic, long-term levers 🌱:

• SEO strategy: attract qualified traffic by ranking on the questions your prospects are already asking.🧐
• Educational content: blogs, guides, eBooks and webinars that position you as a trusted resource.📚
• B2B influence & thought leadership: amplify your message through industry experts and employee advocacy.👩🏻‍💻
• Communities & events: build trust and engagement through LinkedIn groups, Slack communities, webinars or conferences.🕺🏻

👉 These channels take longer to show results, but they create a lasting marketing asset. Your content continues to generate traffic and trust months, or even years, after it’s published.

✨ The winning formula? Mix both approaches:

• Use Ads as a growth accelerator to drive immediate visibility and test campaigns.👀
• Invest in organic channels to build a sustainable demand engine that keeps delivering over time.⏳

With this hybrid model, you get the speed of paid campaigns combined with the stability of organic marketing. That’s how you build a demand generation strategy that actually scales in B2B 🚀.

4 other levers of successful Demand Gen

A successful demand generation strategy isn’t just about content creation. The key is to create value at every stage of your prospects’ journey: informing them, educating them, inspiring them, and guiding them until they’re ready to take action.😎

Here are the 5 main levers you can rely on! 👇

1. SEO: To attract qualified traffic over the long term

The SEO is an essential pillar for generating demand organically 🌱.
Your aim is not to “force the sale”, but to answer your prospects’ questions, help them to better understand their problems and give them hints of solutions. You gain their trust long before they’re ready to buy.

How do you set it up? 🧐

SEO tools	Main use
Semrush / Ahrefs	Keyword research, competitive analysis.
NeuronWriter	Semantic optimization and copywriting assistance.
WordPress (or equivalent CMS )	Structure and publish your content.

2. Nurturing & Marketing Automation: educating your prospects

Once interest has been created, it’s time to nurture the relationship. Automation allows you to script your e-mails, LinkedIn messages and content to move your prospects along the funnel. Lead nurturing allows you to guide your prospects with the right content at the right time (an e-book, a webinar, then a case study). You respect their rhythm, rather than forcing them to buy.🫣

Here are some tools to help you: 👇🏻

Nurturing tools	Main use
Waalaxy	Automated workflows with multi-channel LinkedIn + e-mail sequences.
Brevo (ex-Sendinblue)	Email marketing and segmentation.

How does it work?🧐 After downloading an e-book, your prospect automatically receives a series of educational e-mails plus an invitation to a complementary webinar.

4. Influence & Thought Leadership B2B: Gaining credibility

In B2B, your prospects trust experts and recognized voices in their sector. Working with LinkedIn influencers or highlighting your own internal leaders helps you gain credibility and extend your reach 👩‍💼👨‍💼.

But where to look for influencers?

Influence tools	Main use
Reech	Platform for identifying and managing influencer campaigns.
Kolsquare	Database of B2B influencers.
LinkedIn Creator Mode	Expand your personal reach.

5. Webinars & online events: Creating interaction

Webinars remain an excellent way to educate the market and generate qualified demand. Webinars enable your prospects to ask their questions live, and get answers tailored to their specific issues. It’s one of the most engaging formats for educating while creating a real bond 🤝.

To do this, you can use :

Webinar tools	Main use
Livestorm	Interactive webinars and live engagement.
Zoom Webinars	Simple format, easy to deploy.
Hopin	Organization of more complex virtual events.

5 examples of companies that shine in Demand Generation

1. Gong: creating demand via exclusive data

At Gong, the demand generation strategy is based on high-value content. The company regularly publishes concrete insights derived from the analysis of thousands of sales calls: how long should a call last to convert? Which words trigger trust, which drive a prospect away?😖

👉 This content, directly usable by sales teams, makes them want to come back and learn more. But Gong doesn ‘t stop there: the company also relies on its employees to spread its messages. When a blog article is published, it is first shared on LinkedIn by employees with their own comments. It’s only after a few days that Gong officially publishes it on its channels.

In this way, the reach of the content is multiplied, the message becomes more human, and employees position themselves as true opinion leaders within their community. A great way to turn every employee into a brand ambassador 🚀.

2. Zendesk: building trust through rich, educational content

Zendesk, meanwhile, doesn’t just sell the merits of its software. Their strategy relies on a constant stream of educational and strategic content: articles, webinars, annual reports that are benchmarks.📚

Their famous “Customer Experience Trends Report” is a perfect example. This document offers decision-makers a comprehensive benchmark to compare their performance with that of the market. It’s a free resource, but one with very high added value. ⭐️

3. Notion: growing demand through a committed community

Notion has adopted a different approach: to rely heavily on its community. Rather than centralizing all content production in-house, they have encouraged their users toshare their own templates, tips and best practices. The result is a gigantic, lively library of resources, enriched daily by the members themselves.😍

When a new prospect discovers Notion, they don’t just see a tool: they come across a collaborative ecosystem where they can download ready-to-use templates, exchange ideas in forums or even take part in events organized by other users.🌍

This “community-led” approach turns customers into true ambassadors. 👀

4. Slack: creating demand through community-driven storytelling

Slack didn’t explode by blasting cold outbound campaigns. Instead, it leaned heavily on community-driven storytelling. From the start, Slack encouraged users to share how they worked with the tool, publishing authentic case studies and testimonials.📨

Instead of shouting “buy Slack,” they highlighted real-life workflows: how marketing teams cut down on endless emails, how developers collaborate faster, or how startups streamline communication. These stories spread organically on social media and through word-of-mouth.👥

Slack also built a sense of belonging with a community-first approach: useful onboarding guides, integrations that made life easier, and events where users could swap tips and best practices.🤩

The impact? Prospects didn’t just see “a chat app.” They saw an ecosystem where teams like theirs were already thriving—which made adoption a no-brainer 🌟.

5. Adobe: creating demand with personalized ABM campaigns

Adobe is a master of Account-Based Marketing (ABM). Rather than casting a wide net, the brand focuses on industry-specific campaigns that feel tailor-made for sectors like retail, finance or healthcare.🥼

Instead of generic whitepapers, Adobe delivers customized reports and microsites that speak directly to a prospect’s industry challenges. A retail CMO, for example, doesn’t just get “marketing automation tips.” They get insights into customer journeys in retail, backed by Adobe’s data and tools. 🛠️

To amplify this, Adobe runs major events like Adobe Summit, where it showcases innovations and customer success stories. These touchpoints position the brand as an authority while continuously generating demand.👀

Integrating Demand Generation into your B2B strategy

Implementing an effective demand gen strategy isn’t just about publishing a few LinkedIn posts or launching a webinar from time to time. It’s a real process that helps you attract, engage and convert your prospects in a sustainable way. Here are the main steps. 👇

1. Audit your current situation

Before moving forward, take a step back. Where are you today?

• Your current channels (website, SEO, social networks, ads campaigns).📋
• The quality and volume of your content.✨
• Your KPIs (traffic, leads, conversion rate, cost of acquisition).📉
• Marketing and sales alignment.⚖️

2. Choose the right channels

You don’t need to be everywhere. The most important thing is to focus on the channels your prospects actually use. 😇

• Inbound (SEO, blog, e-books): ideal for capturing those already searching for answers on Google.👀
• Social media: to engage in conversation and create proximity, especially on LinkedIn.🤓
• Outbound marketing + ABM: if you’re targeting a few strategic accounts with ultra-personalized messages.💬

3. Produce content that educates and attracts

Content marketing is the fuel of your demand generation strategy. Without it, your channels remain empty. But beware: the idea is not to produce for the sake of producing. Each piece of content must bring real value to your prospects.🕺🏻

👉 Always ask yourself: “What will my audience learn or understand from this?”

You can make how-to guides, articles, educational videos, webinars, case studies, infographics Linkedin carousels…📹

4. Activate and distribute

Content that sits in a corner of your blog is like a great product left in a closed garage: no one will see it. 🥲

So distribution is just as important as creation. You need to get your content in front of your prospects’ eyes, in the right place and at the right time. 🤓

➡️ Here are some levers you can use:

• Automated e-mail campaigns to nurture prospects.📨
• Retargeting advertising to stay top of mind.🔁
• Relay by sales teams and internal ambassadors.👩🏻‍💻

5. Measure, learn, adjust

Test, measure, improve. It’s this cycle that turns an average strategy into a real engine of growth.📈

Some performance indicators to keep a close eye on 👇🏻:

• Impact: how much do your demand gen actions actually contribute to the sales pipeline?💰
• Engagement with your content: views, time spent, interactions on LinkedIn…📊
• Share of voice versus your competitors: are you more visible than them on key topics?👀
• Lead progression: how many are moving from MQL (Marketing Qualified Leads) to SQL (Sales Qualified Leads)?🔄

The tool to activate your Demand Generation

You’ve defined your channels, created content and set up your first workflows… but how do you move from generated interest to concrete opportunities for your sales teams?

The strength of demand generation lies in preparing the ground: your prospects already know you, they’re curious, they’ve interacted with your content. But to turn this into business, you need to know 👇🏻 :

• Identify the right profiles.💃🏻
• Make contact at the right time.☎️
• Track their engagement.🔎
• Automate everything without spamming.👾

➡️ And that’s exactly what Waalaxy does: it transforms interest into concrete conversations.

What Waalaxy lets you do 👀:

• Automate LinkedIn and e-mail prospecting : no need to spend your days sending connection requests one by one.☝️
• Qualify your leads: thanks to interaction tracking (email opens, clicks, replies), you know who’s really interested and therefore generate leads.🔥
• Personalize at scale: Waalaxy lets you use multi-channel sequences (LinkedIn + e-mail) that remain human and targeted.🎨
• Track engagement: you have a clear view of where each prospect is in their journey.🕵🏻

How about a recap?

Demand generation is not an isolated tactic, but a strategic approach that transforms the way you do B2B marketing.
👉 It doesn’t just collect contacts: it creates a market that’s educated, interested and already engaged with your brand.

By combining SEO, nurturing, ads, influence, events and marketing automation, you build a sustainable funnel that feeds your sales teams with truly qualified leads. 🤩

And to move from “simple interest” to concrete opportunities, tools like Waalaxy are indispensable: they automate prospecting, qualify your leads and allow you to scale your efforts without losing the human.😍

Frequently asked questions

What is a lead?

A lead is an identified contact who has expressed an explicit or implicit interest in your company, products or services.

In B2B,lead acquisition can be 👇🏻:

• 📘 A person who has downloaded a white paper.
• 🎤 Someone who signed up for a webinar.
• 📝 A prospect who filled in a form to test your solution.
• 💬 Someone who interacted with your LinkedIn campaigns or emails.

👉 Each action is a sign of interest, more or less strong, enabling your marketing and sales teams to adapt their approach.

Now you know all about demand generation marketing.🚀