糖心Vlog

If you ask 10 B2B marketers what “demand generation” means, you’ll get different 10 answers — and that’s not a bad thing. The landscape has changed so fast. Today, demand gen blends many elements of growth marketing, content, data, marketing technologies, and sales orchestration.

As a demand gen marketer, we’re no longer just “filling the top-of-the-funnel.” We’re earning attention before there’s intent and guiding buyers with value until they raise their hand for speaking with a rep.

Below is how I define demand gen in 2026, how it differs from lead gen, and how to build a durable, AI-enabled system that creates and captures demand across the full journey.

Table of Contents

• What is demand generation?
• Demand Gen vs. Lead Gen (Why aren’t they the same?)
• Why are most lead generation strategies unsuccessful?
• Gated Content: Bad Practices vs. Good Practices
• The Role of Inbound 糖心Vlog in B2B Demand Generation
• Partnering With Sales (ABM as the Glue)
• Metrics and KPIs for Measuring Success
• How I’d Start: Demand Generation Strategy

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What is demand generation?

Demand generation captures full funnel programs with an operating system that creates awareness, builds authority, and nurtures trust with your ideal customers, often before they’re in the market. It covers both demand creation (inspiring and earning attention) and demand capture (meeting buyers at high-intent moments and making it easy to select your product).

The ultimate goal of B2B demand generation is to remain top of mind while your potential customers are not in a buying cycle, and whenever the need arises (in market), your product or service is immediately considered for purchase.

In my experience, the best demand gen usually is:

• Value-led. Being a trusted partner first, a sales conversation later.
• Channel-fluid. Shows up where buyers actually spend time (including “dark social”) and trust.
• Revenue-driven. Measured by qualified sales leads and pipeline, velocity, and win rate, not just raw lead counts or marketing qualified leads (MQLs).

Demand Generation Examples

1. HubSpot’s Inbound Engine (Value First Play)

HubSpot pioneered inbound marketing as a demand generation strategy by creating high-value educational content (blog posts, guides, webinars, and free tools) that nurtures potential customers — before asking for anything.

HubSpot offers many free tools, my favorite being their , which introduces users to their ecosystem. These folks can then keep HubSpot top-of-mind when they need a paid solution.

This strategy builds trust and authority over time rather than pushing for immediate conversions, making it a textbook example of long-term demand creation. I also love when a product offers me genuine value upfront without pushing a product or sale immediately.

2. Notion’s Community-Led Growth (Bottom-Up Play)

Notion, a productivity and workspace tool, disrupted traditional B2B marketing by shifting the focus from lead capture to activating and empowering ambassadors (creators, consultants, etc.) to compound demand.

They created authentic word-of-mouth and team adoption that starts with enthusiastic individuals. I’ve seen this “users teach users” motion outperform because the community confers credibility brands can’t buy.

Notion’s approach aligns with modern buyers who prefer trusted and authentic user-generated content rather than filling out forms and waiting for follow-ups.

3. Gong’s Insights-Led Demand Generation (Insights-Lead Play)

Gong, a revenue intelligence platform, has built its demand generation strategy around original research and data insights, often using proprietary sales analytics to create compelling, shareable content.

Gong publishes exclusive, timely analysis that sales leaders actually reference. Their useful intelligence is the kind of thing that earns shares, bookmarks, and trust on LinkedIn, newsletters, blogs, etc.

When you teach the market something new that they don’t know yet (backed by data and insights), you generate demand far beyond a single campaign.

Gong’s demand generation success lies in leveraging data to educate and create authority — a winning formula for credibility and engagement.

4. Clay’s Product-Led Growth (Curiosity Play)

Clay removes friction to explore, then pairs enrichment and signals with easy “aha” moments. I often send Clay’s short demos to clients when they are ready to look for a go-to-market (GTM) intelligence solution. They spark curiosity immediately and make the experiment feel low-risk, which is exactly what you want in early-stage demand creation.

Their onboarding gets you hands-on quickly. With prebuilt “recipes” (e.g., enriched ideal customer profile [ICP] list, spot buying triggers), you feel capable immediately, and the templates gallery invites you to remix rather than start from zero.

All these have helped them to prove their efficiency in driving speed-to-value, which is exactly what is needed for a successful product-led demand creation.

Demand Gen vs. Lead Gen (Why aren’t they the same?)

Demand gen builds awareness and trust over time. It educates and influences so that the right buyers raise their hands when they are ready.

Lead gen sits inside that motion to capture declared intent and initiate sales, and it works best when targeted to in-market buyers.

My short version: Demand gen plants and cultivates, then lead gen harvests. If you only harvest, you eventually run out of crops.

Why are most lead generation strategies unsuccessful?

The reality is that traditional lead generation is often associated with inefficiencies, outdated tactics, and a fundamental misunderstanding of today’s B2B buyers.

I audit a lot of funnels. These failure patterns repeat:

• Misaligned with how B2B buying actually happens. Gartner’s research reveals that B2B buyers only spend 17% of their time talking to sales, yet most lead generation efforts are geared toward ushering prospects into a sales conversation. According to Forrester, 82% of buyers viewed from the winning vendor. I’ve found the fix is simple but non-negotiable: Run multi-touch education (social, search, community, video, website, offline) and treat sales as a later-stage channel option, not the default outcome of a single outreach.

• Too many low-intent names → sales efficiency drag. When marketing optimizes for volume, sales development reps end up chasing research-stage leads. I’ve seen this kill alignment and pipeline hygiene. My suggestion is only to pass declared intent (e.g., pricing, trial/demo, competitive compare) and keep everything else in the marketing nurture/education stage until signals are declared.
• Brand damage with premature outreach. Research-stage buyers can remember the vendor who spam-called after a guide download. I gate less, typically follow up with value, and let buyers choose the next step.
• Gating everything throttles reach and SEO. I gate selectively for high-density assets (original benchmarks, calculators, deep technical packs) and pair with progressive profiling. Everything else stays ungated to build SEO and AEO.
• Over-confident scoring without real buying signals. Generic signals don’t equal sales readiness. Behaviors like repeated pricing views, product comparisons, and multi-persona engagement from the same accounts are more likely to be signals of true intent. Without , those generated leads will likely overwhelm the sales team.

If you’ve been struggling with lead generation, try HubSpot’s . Built-in analytics and reporting make it easy to learn which pages, offers, ads, and traffic sources are driving the most conversions.

An Introduction to Lead Generation

A starter guide to converting website visitors into leads for your business.

• Define and qualify a lead.
• Promote lead gen campaigns.
• Resources to get you started.
• Examples of great campaigns.

Get Your Free Guide

Download Free

All fields are required.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.

Gated Content: Bad Practices vs. Good Practices

When gating goes wrong, it’s usually because it targets the wrong intent; it works when the value is clear, and the timing is right.

My is simple: I default to ungated to build audience and authority, and I gate selectively when both the intent and the experience justify the ask.

I’d happily gate high-density assets, like original benchmarks, ROI, and total cost of ownership (TCO) calculators, architecture deep dives, etc., because buyers expect to trade an email for something they can actually use.

I would keep the experience frictionless: progressive profiling or AI shortened forms instead of long forms, and a first follow-up that offers a recap, related resources, with a clearly optional next step.

The Role of Inbound 糖心Vlog in B2B Demand Generation

is still the backbone of demand generation, but it has been evolving rapidly in the past years.

I treat inbound marketing as an intent system: It creates interest before a buyer is ready and then captures that interest the moment it turns into intent.

When it’s working, your best prospects feel guided in their buying journeys, they discover you in research, keep bumping into your ideas in the wild, and find it effortless to take the next step when they’re ready.

Let’s explore each component (demand creation, demand capturing) of inbound.

Demand Creation: Education Channels and Content Types

Before intent shows up, your brand has to earn attention. I typically use LinkedIn and “dark social” to share clear points of view, podcasts, and live streaming to show how problems actually get solved, and communities to build trust that compounds demand over time.

Your executive team and subject domain experts should be the faces of the story, because .

I’ve had great results with live-streaming events and roundtables, then repurpose the best moments into content (clips, posts, guides) for social and emails.

Done well, this creates value-led touchpoints so that when a true need appears, buyers already know who to talk to.

Here are some practical approaches:

• Thought-leadership guide (craft a proof of value [POV] that earns attention).
• Content repurposing workflow (turn live sessions into clips/posts/email).
• Community playbook (participate without pitching).
• Founder/SME social checklist.

Demand Capturing: Intent Channels and Content Examples

When buyers are narrowing their options, I make it frictionless to choose us.

That means several things in practice:

• Bottom of funnel (BOFU) SEO pages should answer real buyer questions. For example, pricing, ROI/TCO, implementation/migration guide, and side-by-side competitor comparisons. Use clear CTAs (demo/trial), FAQs, and proof so a ready buyer can act in one visit.
• Run clean pay-per-click (PPC) on high-intent queries (e.g., “{category} pricing,” “best {tool} for {use case},” “{your brand} vs {competitor}”). I usually layer in audiences (remarketing, in-market, customer look-alike lists), intent signals (Bombora, DemandBase, etc.), and adjust bidding strategies where conversion intent is highest.
• Credible review profiles (G2, TrustRadius), which increasingly matter for visibility in AI chatbots and AI search results.
• Intent data to prioritize accounts and personas already warming up.

Pro tip: Check out this guide on conversion rate optimization (CRO), a practice by which marketers run testing programs to increase conversion rates against high-intent website traffic.

Partnering With Sales (ABM as the Glue)

In the past, “demand gen” often meant marketing acting like junior sales with automation.

And that’s because marketing used to be a service organization to sales, until B2B executives realized that marketing should be a strategic partner.

Today, the best revenue teams co-own outcomes and run account-based motions. Here’s how to do that:

• Map the buying group (deciders, champions/influencers, developers, etc.).
• Orchestrate multi-channel plays tailored to a persona’s (exec POV, technical proof, business impact) pain points and use cases.
• Use dynamic signals to time the multi-channel engagements.

Think of account-based marketing (ABM) as bottom-up demand gen: Instead of waiting for MQLs, you warm the right accounts and let sales enter at the right time with the right narrative, engage with high-quality leads, and target accounts during complex B2B sales cycles.

I find the most successful companies recognize that sales and marketing must work together to educate, engage, and build relationships with potential buyers long before a purchase decision is made.

Revenue teams have learned that full-funnel marketing with a hybrid mix of inbound, outbound, and lifecycle marketing is the right balance for a high-performing demand generation program.

Metrics and KPIs for Measuring Success

Your demand generation north star is lead quality and its downstream impact on pipeline and revenue.

Below are the metrics I track in every demand gen program, what they mean, and how I use them to make decisions.

Lead Quality (North Star)

A composite view of whether the people engaging with you are truly ICP and in a realistic buying window.

Pipeline Contribution

The amount and percentage of new pipeline sourced/influenced by marketing, broken down by channel, segment, and campaign. I’m looking for diversification, scalability, and repeatability (same motions creating pipeline quarter after quarter).

Visitor → Declared-Intent Conversion Rate

The rate at which web visitors take high-intent actions (Request a demo, Start trial, Pricing contact, Talk to sales). This is my demand-capture barometer. If this dips, I would audit: BOFU SEO, messaging/value on pricing/product pages, forms, and page speed.

Contact Sales/Demo Request → Sales-Qualified Opportunities

The percentage of demos/trials that sales accepts and advances to a real opportunity. Low demo → sales qualified opportunity (SQO) means we’re attracting the wrong traffic, mis-setting expectations, or booking demos too early.

Win Rate & Average Deal Size

Close-won ÷ qualified opportunities, and the median/mean contract value.

How I use it: I compare by channel/persona/segment. Channels that drive higher win rate and larger deals stay funded — even if their top-of-funnel volume is smaller.

Pipeline Velocity

How fast qualified opportunities move stage-to-stage. If velocity slows, I look for content or proof gaps at specific stages and add targeted enablement (case studies, TCO/ROI, architecture deep dives).

LTV:CAC (by Segment & Channel)

Customer lifetime value divided by cost to acquire. I always segment this (business size, new vs. expansion). If a channel’s LTV:CAC < 3:1 for too long, I redesign the motion or shift budget.

Multi-Persona Account Engagement

Signals that a buying group is forming at an account (e.g., multiple roles from the same company engaging within a short window). When this spikes, I trigger account-based experience (ABX) plays and a coordinated human touch. It’s one of the strongest leading indicators for enterprise deals.

Channel Efficiency (Cost per Qualified Action)

Cost per declared-intent action (e.g., demo request) that meets ICP criteria. I continue monitoring the channel ROI and deprioritize anything with acceptable cost per acquisition (CPA) but poor downstream performance.

Leading Indicators (Metrics that signal momentum before pipeline is created)

Examples: direct traffic to high-intent pages, repeat visits within 7–14 days, multi-persona sessions per account, newsletter growth/replies, review-site traffic, search share on category and comparison terms.

Lagging Indicators (Outcome Signals)

Examples: qualified pipeline created, lead → SQO rate, win rate, deal size, sales cycle length, pipeline velocity, etc. I track and compare them by channel/segment/region to decide where to scale, pause, or redesign.

Declared Intent vs. Assumed Intent

There are differences between explicit buying signals and general engagement.

• Declared intent: Demo/trial requests, pricing contact, deep comparison workflows, partner/integration activations. I treat them as a signal of sales readiness.
• Assumed intent (keep nurturing): Ebook downloads, top-funnel webinar sign-ups, single pageviews, newsletter sign-ups, etc. You can run a “” to check if assumed intent leads are being treated as declared intent.

I typically start every quarter with lead quality, pipeline impact, and declared-intent signals as my demand generation cockpit. If early signals are strong but lagging metrics stall, I fix capture and handoff. If capture is fine but pipeline quality is weak, I refine who we attract and what we are offering.

How I’d Start: Demand Generation Strategy

I begin with a win/loss analysis and listen to call recordings, especially those closed-lost deals. I’m looking for jobs-to-be-done, the triggers that start a search, the anxieties that stall or lose deals, and the moments when value actually lands. From there, I further tighten the ICP, map the buying group, and align messages and proof points to each persona.

Next, I ship ungated, genuinely useful assets for every key persona. If you need guidance, a solid starting point is the free ebook below, “.” I like it because it offers practical guidance on lead gen essentials: SEO to attract the right traffic, lead scoring, and nurture techniques, without overwhelming a reader who’s early in the journey.

In parallel, I stand up demand capture: BOFU SEO pages that answer pricing, integration, and comparison questions; tightly matched PPC on high-intent queries; and conversion fixes on product and pricing pages so a ready buyer can act in one visit.

I then layer in AI where it lifts. That may include prioritization (better signals), personalization (next-best content by stage/persona), and pacing (triggers that time the next touch), while keeping humans in the moments that build trust.

Demand Engines That Actually Work

Modern demand generation should be designed around how people actually buy, with AI amplifying your strategy. When you pair that mindset with consistent execution and disciplined data management, tracking, and measurement, you create a flywheel: market pull that turns into pipeline, faster cycles, and customers who advocate for you.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in January 2014 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

An Introduction to Lead Generation

A starter guide to converting website visitors into leads for your business.

• Define and qualify a lead.
• Promote lead gen campaigns.
• Resources to get you started.
• Examples of great campaigns.

Get Your Free Guide

Download Free

All fields are required.

You're all set!

Click this link to access this resource at any time.