Lead Generation Vs. Demand Generation: The Breakdown

Lead Generation Vs. Demand Generation: The Breakdown

What are the differences between lead generation and demand generation? More importantly, how can you use both of those modes of marketing to grow your business?

That’s what we’re going to talk about in this guide!

Let’s start with lead generation…

What is Lead Generation?

In marketing, lead generation is the process of capturing the contact information (email address, phone number, name, physical address, etc) of people within your target market.

One of the most common forms of lead generation — and the one we’ll focus on here — is building an email list. Through various marketing tactics (discussed below), you collect email addresses for people who have indicated that they’re likely a part of your target market. Once these people are on your email list, you can follow up with them, build rapport, point them toward various sales funnels, and try to sell them your products or services.

In fact, most online business owners — including our founder, Russel Brunson — believe you can make about $1 per month for every address on your email list.

The lesson is that the more you grow your email list… the more you grow your business. So a consistent focus on lead generation is critical for a thriving, healthy business.

Below, we’ll show you 5 lead generation tactics that are proven to work (with examples).

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4 Lead Generation Tactics (With Examples)

1. Giveaway

Hosting a giveaway is a great way to generate leads for your business.

That’s why so many companies do it.

Consider this example from DaeWoo…

Or this one from Running Warehouse…

Why are those companies giving away free stuff? Isn’t that the opposite of what a business is supposed to do?

To generate leads, of course!

To enter those giveaways, the person has to provide their name and email address… which gets added to the company’s mailing list.

Hence, lead generation.

The biggest hurdle with hosting a giveaway, though, is making sure that you generate high-quality leads. Everyone wants free stuff, and so if you’re not offering something that is only appealing to your target market, you’ll end up generating low-quality leads.

So make sure your giveaway is only appealing to the people you want to attract.

2. Website Lead Magnets

When someone visits your website — maybe because they heard about your business from a friend, found an article about your business online, or discovered one of your social media profiles — how are you going to turn them into a lead?

For that, we recommend creating multiple “doorways” — places on your website where people will be prompted to give you their email address.

Consider our own website — the one you’re on right now.

On the sidebar at the top, you seem some stuff like this (all meant to capture your attention and generate leads)…

Website Lead Magnets, Clickfunnels example.

If it’s your first time visiting the blog and you hover your mouse over your web browser, then you’ll see our exit-intent popup…

Website Lead Magnets, exit- intent popup.

And in the upper right corner, you’ll see a button that prompts you to start your 14-day free trial with ClickFunnels…

Website Lead Magnets, recent posts doorway example.

Those are all doorways on our website to generate leads.

And your website should have various doorways, too. It’s impossibly difficult to control a visitor’s behavior on your website (sales funnels are much better for that), so the next best option is to create multiple places where people can opt in.

Click here to learn more about creating high-converting lead magnets. 

3. Social Advertising

Advertising on social media is another great way to generate leads (and create demand, for that matter).

That’s why so many companies do it — Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Tik Tok, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

Advertisements allow you to reach people who aren’t on your email list so that you can get them on your email list — once they are, you won’t have to pay to reach them anymore.

You can use advertisements to promote a giveaway…

Social Advertising, gym fitness example.

… promote lead magnets…

Social Advertising, lead magnet promotion.

… or even promote a free trial…

Social Advertising, Hootsuite free trial promotion example.

This will cost money.

But remember, you’re paying to reach people so that you don’t have to pay to reach them in the future.

Of course, social media advertising is a massive topic with many nuances. To learn more about Facebook marketing (a great starting place), check out our Facebook marketing guide.

4. Referral Program

What if the people on your email list convinced their friends to join your email list? And what if those friends convinced their friends?

Imagine how quickly your list could grow!

That’s the idea behind building a referral program. By way of example, MorningBrew, a daily newsletter, has used its referral program to grow to millions of subscribers…

Referral Program, Morning Brew example.

They reward subscribers for sharing the newsletter with their friends, and so they’re more likely to share.

This really only works if you have some sort of value-packed daily or weekly newsletter… but it’s a great lead-gen strategy if you do!

Free Sales Funnel For Lead Generation

At ClickFunnels, we help entrepreneurs build high-converting sales funnels — these funnels can be used to make sales, get registrants for an online event, and yes… generate leads.

(A sales funnel is just a hyper-focused series of pages that convert visitors into leads and leads into customers, one step at a time)

Here, for example, are two sales funnels you can use to generate leads.

The Squeeze Page Funnel, which can be placed anywhere on your website to grow your email list (you can also add a lead magnet to make this more enticing).

And the Application Funnel, which can be used when you want to gather more information about your leads.

Click one one of the links above to claim your free sales funnel. Or if that’s too soon and you want to learn more about sales funnels first, check out our complete sales funnel guide.

What is Demand Generation?

In marketing, demand generation is the process of creating demand for your products and services. That includes building brand awareness and capturing the attention of people who are problem-aware but not yet solution-aware. It often involves giving away free resources to solve your target market’s surface-level problem, so that you can introduce them to the bigger problem they’re facing and the possible solution (your products or services).

Generating demand is a critical part of building a healthy business. It’s not enough that your target market knows they have a problem… they must also be aware of your solution. Only then will they make the leap and buy from you.

Below, we’ll show you 5 demand generation tactics that proven to work (with examples).

4 Demand Generation Tactics (With Examples)

1. Free Book + Shipping

What we call the “free book + shipping offer” is one of our favorite ways at ClickFunnels to generate leads and create demands for our software.

The idea is that you give away physical copies of your book for free — a book that will only appeal to your target market — but you ask them to pay shipping and handling (this will cover most of your advertising costs).

The book itself provides a ton of free value to the reader but also explains how your products and services can help them.

It moves the reader from being problem-aware to being solution-aware, which is what demand generation is all about.

Here’s what our Traffic Secrets sales page looks like, for example…

Demand Generation Tactics, Clickfunnels sales page example.

The free book + shipping offer is a great way to engage with your target market, build brand awareness, and show them how valuable your products and services really are.

Check out this guide to learn more.

2. Free Masterclass

Another great way to create demand is by hosting a webinar or free masterclass.

This strategy is similar to the free book + shipping offer in that you’ll be providing a lot of free info for your target market, moving them from problem-aware to solution-aware, and then introducing your products and services.

Neil Patel does this…

Free Masterclass, Neil Patel example.

And so do we…

Free Masterclass, Clickfunnels example.

In fact, webinars have probably been our single best source of lead-gen and demand-gen at ClickFunnels.

Try it out for yourself!

Go here to learn more about building great webinar funnels.

3. SEO Branded Keywords

You’ve probably heard of SEO before.

(If not, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and the goal is to rank for relevant keywords in Google to drive website traffic)

But have you heard of branded SEO?

You might not realize this, but we look at some websites that drive a lot of traffic through Google rankings, the vast majority of that traffic comes from branded keywords.

Here, for example, is a list of ClickFunnels top keyword rankings organized by amount of traffic…

All of our top traffic-driving keywords are branded — various spellings of ClickFunnels as well as things like “ClickFunnels pricing” and “ClickFunnels affiliate”.

The term “ClickFunnels” alone gets 95,000 searches every month and brings us a whopping 82,000 website visits!

Crazy, right?

The same is true for most well-known businesses. Here’s HubSpot’s top rankings…

And Mailchimps…

That’s the power of demand generation in action.

When people know about your business, they search for your business. And ranking for your brand name is about as easy as having a website.

Question is… how do you get more people searching for your branded keywords?

Brand awareness, of course.

Check out the 4th tactic for how you can build massive brand awareness (it’s the same strategy Russell Brunson used to build ClickFunnels).

4. Dream 100

What Russell Brunson has famously dubbed the “Dream 100” is a process that resulted from him reverse engineering how he’s growth-hacked his successful businesses.

He didn’t know what he was doing at the time.

But then he realized there was a consistent pattern to how he was building brand awareness, generating demand, and making sales.

He called it the “Dream 100”.

Dream 100, diagram.

He’d make a list of 100 different places where he could reach his dream customers (influencers, blogs, podcasts, YouTube channels, forums, Facebook groups, etc) and then he’d make it his mission to get in front of those audiences as often as possible.

Because he knew that if he could get in front of those people with the right message, and introduce his products and service, he’d be able to get them on his email list and maybe even secure them as customers.

So he did that.

He engaged in forums, followed influencers, joined Facebook groups, contributed to blogs, went on podcasts, and did anything else he could.

Sure enough, his businesses skyrocketed.

The best part about the Dream 100 strategy, though, is that it’s available to literally anyone with a smartphone and internet connection. It just requires that you’re consistent and hard-working.

To learn more about building and “infiltrating” your dream 100, get your free copy of Traffic Secrets!

Free Sales Funnel For Demand Generation

At ClickFunnels, we help entrepreneurs build high-converting sales funnels — these funnels can be used to make sales, generate leads for an online event, and even create demand for your products and services.

(A sales funnel is just a hyper-focused series of pages that convert visitors into leads and leads into customers, one step at a time)

We recommend the following two sales funnels for demand generation…

The Product Launch Funnel, which is perfect for creating demand around one of your upcoming products or services.

And the Webinar Funnel, which is a great way to introduce your target market to the solution they might not be aware exists (i.e. your products or services).

Click one of the links above to claim your free sales funnel. Or if that’s too soon and you want to learn more about sales funnels first, check out our complete sales funnel guide.

Demand Generation Vs. Lead Generation: What’s the Difference?

The difference between demand generation and lead generation is exactly what it sounds like.

Lead generation is the process of capturing your target market’s contact information so that, down the road, you can try and turn them into paying customers. Demand generation, on the other hand, is the process of creating demand for your products and services, of making problem-aware people solution-aware.

If you’re thinking that it sounds like there’s some overlap between lead generation and demand generation, you’d be right.

It’s practically impossible to separate the two completely — you can’t generate leads and turn those leads into customers without creating demand for your products and services… and capturing contact information from your target market is often a part of the demand generation process.

The two are helplessly intertwined.

But for the sake of strategizing and growing your business, it’s useful to think of them separately, as two different marketing projects — somehow, you’ve got to create demand and you’ve got to generate leads.

How are you going to do it?

How To Use Demand Generation & Lead Generation Synergistically

The key to finding synergism between your lead generation and demand generation efforts is to answer some important questions…

  • Are you already selling to as many people as possible who want to buy your products and services? 
  • Is your email list growing? 
  • Is there demand for your products and services? Or is most of the market still only problem-aware?

Each business is unique. And so the balance you strike between lead gen and demand gen will also be unique.

As a rule of thumb, always be doing a bit of both… but focus primarily on what your business will need in 6 months or a year — will you need more direct demand for your products and services? Or will you need a large pool of leads to work toward turning into customers?

Final Thoughts

Lead generation and demand generation are different sides of the same coin.

Lead generation is all about getting contact information from your target market so you don’t have to pay for ads to reach them… and demand generation is about creating demand for your products and services.

And now you have the info you need to use those marketing modes to grow your business!

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