What does a winning B2B demand generation process look like?

B2B buyers are saturated with information at every click, swipe, and scroll. They’ve seen every downloadable guide, every “ultimate” whitepaper, and every case study on their feed—twice. So, how do you approach B2B demand generation in a world that’s drowning in content?

Start by taking a fresh approach to demand generation, focusing on intent, context, and timing instead of volume. This isn’t just about standing out; it’s about connecting with buyers in meaningful ways that cut through the noise and give them exactly what they need when needed.

This blog dives into creating smarter, sharper B2B demand gen strategies that break through the clutter.

What is B2B demand generation?

B2B demand generation is all about creating buzz and interest in your company’s products or services among potential buyers. It’s about creating demand not just from individuals but from entire organizations with complex purchasing needs.

Unlike B2C demand generation, which targets consumers making personal purchasing decisions, B2B demand generation focuses on reaching decision-makers, influencers, and stakeholders within businesses.

It’s a strategic approach involving a series of targeted marketing activities designed to attract, engage, and nurture prospects until they’re ready to purchase. The goal is to build a pipeline of qualified leads that the sales team can convert.

To do this effectively, you need to deeply understand your target audience, their pain points, and their buying journey, and create compelling content and messaging that resonates with them.

How is demand generation different from lead generation?

Demand and lead generation seem interchangeable, but they’re two distinct concepts in B2B marketing. Demand generation is all about creating awareness and interest in your company’s products or services, while lead generation focuses on converting that interest into tangible leads.

Think of it this way: Demand generation is like casting a wide net to attract potential customers, while lead generation is like using a fishing rod to reel them in.

For example, let’s say you’re a software company that offers project management tools. You might use demand-generation tactics like publishing educational blog posts and hosting industry events to build brand awareness and interest in your product. Once a prospect has engaged with your content and shown interest, you could use lead generation tactics like offering a free trial or a personalized demo to capture their contact information and move them further down the sales funnel.

What does a proper B2B demand generation strategy look like?

A successful demand generation strategy is about more than just the lead volume—it’s about creating a framework that attracts suitable leads and moves them effectively through the customer journey. A well-rounded marketing strategy not only captures interest but also sustains engagement and builds trust over time. Here are four hallmarks of an effective B2B demand generation marketing strategy.

1. It categorizes the target audience into micro-segments

Micro-segmentation divides your audience into small, particular segments based on their behavior, preferences, and attributes. By creating these granular segments, you can create highly targeted campaigns that resonate with each individual prospect and drive better results for your business. Here are the different types of segmentation you may consider:

Firmographic segmentation

Firmographic segmentation involves dividing your audience based on attributes of your target organizations, like company size, industry, revenue, and location. By creating segments based on these attributes, you can create targeted marketing campaigns that speak directly to the unique needs and challenges of each type of company.

Behavioral segmentation

This is one of the most powerful ways to micro-segment your audience based on their behavior. You can gain valuable insights into their interests, pain points, and buying stages by analyzing how your prospects interact with your website, content, and campaigns.

For example, you might create segments based on the pages they’ve visited on your website, the content they’ve downloaded, or the emails they’ve opened and clicked.

Intent-based segmentation

Intent-based segmentation breaks down your audience based on their intent and readiness to buy. By analyzing signals like search queries, content consumption, and engagement with competitors, you can identify which prospects are actively researching solutions like yours and create targeted campaigns that guide them through the buyer’s journey.

For instance, you can run separate campaigns for prospects who are just starting their research, actively evaluating solutions, and ready to make a purchase. As you group your target market into these micro-segments, you can create personalized campaigns with a better chance of conversions.

Psychographic segmentation

This type of segmenting sorts your audience based on their lifestyle, interests, values, and personality traits. By understanding the psychological attributes that influence consumer behavior, you can create more emotionally resonant campaigns that connect with your audience on a deeper level. These attributes include common interests like sustainability, innovation, or adventure.

2. It leverages audience triggers to create demand and nurture leads

B2B demand generation is all about building relationships with your prospects and guiding them through the buyer’s journey until they’re ready to make a purchase. However, with so many leads to manage and different paths to conversion, it can be challenging to create a lead-nurturing strategy that truly resonates with each prospect. That’s where the audience triggers come in.

Engagement and behavioral triggers are specific actions or events that indicate a prospect’s readiness to move to the next stage of the buyer’s journey. By identifying and leveraging these triggers in your nurturing campaigns, you can create hyper-personalized experiences that guide your prospects gently toward conversion more effectively.

The key to success lies in identifying the most relevant triggers to your unique business, audience, and sales cycle. Here are some of the most common triggers for a B2B audience:

• Content engagement: Downloads of whitepapers, case studies, or industry reports
• Event participation: Attendance at webinars, trade shows, podcasts, or industry conferences
• Website behavior: Multiple visits to product pages, pricing information, or comparison guides
• Social media interaction: Engagement with thought-leadership content or industry discussions
• Email marketing response: Opens, clicks, and forwards of specific campaign emails

Once you’ve identified your key triggers, the next step is to create targeted nurturing campaigns initiated by those specific actions or events. Optimize these campaigns to deliver highly relevant, valuable content that will address your prospects’ specific needs and pain points at each stage of the buyer’s journey.

Here’s how you can design inbound marketing campaigns that respond to these specific actions:

• Content follow-up: If a prospect downloads a whitepaper, send a series of related content pieces that dive deeper into the topic, showcasing your expertise and solutions.
• Event-based outreach: After a webinar, send attendees additional resources and a personalized invitation to discuss their specific challenges.
• Website retargeting: For prospects who’ve visited key pages multiple times, create targeted ads or personalized landing pages addressing their apparent interests.
• Social media engagement: When prospects interact with your content on social platforms, invite them to exclusive online events or offer them gated, high-value content.
• Email response: Based on the opens and clicks, identify the type of products, services, or even content the prospect is interested in and provide more of it to build customer relationships.

The beauty of trigger-based nurturing campaigns is that they allow you to deliver the right message to the right prospect at the right time, based on their specific behaviors and interests. This level of personalization not only improves engagement and conversion rates but also creates a more seamless, enjoyable buyer’s journey for your prospects.

3. It enhances the buyer’s journey with multi-channel engagement

One essential part of a successful B2B demand generation strategy is connecting with prospects wherever they are. Using a multi-channel approach helps you reach prospects through different channels—like email, social media, content marketing, paid ads, and even connected TV (CTV)—so your messages hit them at various points during their buying journey.

Content marketing should be one of the pillars of this demand gen strategy. It provides educational, thought-provoking materials prospects encounter early on in different formats—like blog posts, whitepapers, gated content, infographics, or industry guides. You can address initial queries and interests by mapping your content to specific stages in the buyer’s journey, gradually progressing into deeper solution-oriented topics.

For example, if a prospect’s first touch point is a high-value download on industry trends, they might receive a case study via email or find a how-to guide tailored to their needs. This way, each content piece moves naturally along the marketing funnel, building momentum and interest.

Paid advertising further amplifies these marketing efforts, expanding your reach to high-intent audiences in targeted, strategic ways. Yelp Audiences, for instance, offers tools to engage users based on their behavior and intent outside of Yelp itself. Through CTV ads and other off-platform ads, you can reach these prospects even as they consume content on their favorite streaming services or browse the web.

The key is to keep things consistent and relevant. Each interaction should flow naturally from the last one, building on what the prospect is interested in and addressing their needs in a smooth and personalized way. This not only grabs attention but also builds trust and credibility, making your prospects feel understood and valued.

Imagine a prospect finding your brand through an engaging LinkedIn post. Curious, they visit your website and browse your content hub, where they find in-depth articles addressing their unique pain points. They submit an email address to download some content. From there, you can follow up with a well-timed, personalized email inviting them to a webinar on related topics.

Later, as they watch TV in the evening, a CTV ad reiterates how your solutions helped a similar business achieve its goals. By the time they see a retargeting ad with a case study on social media, they’re familiar with your expertise and well-aligned with your offerings.

Throughout this journey, the prospect engages with your brand across several channels, with each step building on the last. By the time they reach out to your sales team, they already have a good grasp of your expertise and how your solution aligns with their needs.

To make this multi-channel engagement work well, you should have a firm understanding of who your target audience is and what they like. Do your groundwork to find out what channels they frequent, what types of content they enjoy, and what messages resonate with them. Use these insights to create a tailored content strategy and engagement plan that maximizes the impact of each touch point.

4. It aligns demand generation metrics with business goals for measurable results

To create an effective B2B demand generation strategy, you need measurable metrics that align with your business goals. Start by defining key performance indicators (KPIs) and tracking them consistently. This helps you understand how well your marketing tactics work, find areas of improvement, and show the results to stakeholders.

The first step in aligning your demand generation metrics with your business goals is to clearly define what success looks like for your organization. This might include targets for revenue growth, market share, customer acquisition, or other high-level objectives. Starting with the end in mind, you can ensure that your B2B demand generation activities work towards a common purpose.

Once you have your high-level goals in place, the next step is to identify the specific demand generation metrics that will help you measure progress towards those goals. Here are some common KPIs:

• Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs): The number of leads that have met a certain threshold of engagement or qualification, like downloading a whitepaper or attending a webinar
• Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs): The number of leads that have been further qualified by the sales team and are deemed ready for active outreach and follow-up
• Conversion rates: The percentage of leads that convert to the next stage of the funnel, such as from MQL to SQL or SQL to closed-won
• Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): The revenue you can expect from a customer
• Cost per lead: The total cost of generating a new lead, including all marketing and advertising expenses
• Lead velocity rate: The growth rate of qualified leads generated over a given period of time
• Revenue attribution: The amount of revenue that can be directly attributed to specific demand-generation campaigns or tactics

To accurately track these metrics, having the right tools in place is crucial. Yelp, for example, offers a range of measurement solutions that can help B2B marketers gain a more comprehensive view of their demand generation performance. Yelp Store Visits shows you how many store visits were driven by your ads on the platform, providing valuable insight into the offline impact of your campaigns. This can be particularly useful for businesses with physical locations looking to drive foot traffic and in-store sales.

For businesses focused on driving online conversions, Yelp Pixel allows you to track key actions that customers take on your website after engaging with your campaign on Yelp. This can help you understand how your ads are influencing customer behavior and driving measurable results.

By tracking these and other relevant metrics on a regular basis, you can gain a better picture of how your B2B demand generation efforts are performing and where there may be opportunities for improvement. For example, if you notice that your conversion rates from MQL to SQL are lower than industry benchmarks, you might examine your lead qualification criteria or nurturing processes to identify potential bottlenecks or gaps.

It’s also essential to have a clear system in place for regularly tracking and reporting on your metrics. You may need marketing automation and CRM tools like Hubspot and Semrush to capture lead and engagement data, as well as create customized dashboards and reports that provide real-time visibility into performance.

4 best practices to follow when implementing demand gen campaigns

Implementing a B2B demand generation strategy requires more than just posting content or running ads. To make a real impact, you need a thoughtful, precise approach that aligns with your audience’s needs and decision-making journey. But where do you start?

While many focus on high-level concepts, the real success often lies in the details—practical, action-oriented steps that turn prospects into leads and loyal customers. Here are four best practices.

1. Leverage smart drip campaigns based on lead-scoring triggers

Traditional drip campaigns often operate on a rigid schedule, but a smart drip campaign leverages lead scoring to share relevant content based on specific engagement levels.

For instance, if a lead’s engagement score hits a certain threshold—due to a series of actions like downloading a whitepaper, using an interactive tool, attending a webinar, or revisiting your pricing page—trigger a sequence that nudges them toward a sales conversation. Conversely, if a lead has a low score, route them to educational content that might spark further interest.

2. Implement a “dark social” strategy to capture untraceable shares

A significant portion of sharing happens via private channels like email, messaging apps, and text messages—a phenomenon known as “dark social.”

To capture this untraceable traffic, consider creating dedicated landing pages for your most shareable content and using UTM parameters. UTM (Urchin Tracking Module) are tags added to URLs that help track the source, medium, and campaign name of traffic, giving you insight into where your visitors are coming from.

Use tools like this free UTM generator to track how your content is shared. You can also encourage visitors to share your content via dark social channels by providing easy-to-use sharing buttons or click-to-copy links.

3. Develop an interactive resource hub for self-education

Today’s B2B buyers prefer self-directed research, which makes an interactive resource hub a powerful tool for demand generation. This isn’t just a collection of downloadable PDFs or blog posts—it’s a dynamic space where prospects can engage in personalized learning paths, find interactive tools, or even take short assessments that guide them through relevant resources.

ROI calculators, self-assessment quizzes, or other benchmarking tools can help them gauge their current status against the industry standard. Whatever it is, design a tool your target audience absolutely needs that will help you harness a strong lead gen and nurturing sequence.

4. Set up feedback loops with sales (and act on them)

Getting sales and marketing on the same page isn’t a new idea, but setting up live feedback loops between the teams can make a difference. Instead of just getting together every few months, try having quick catch-ups every week or every other week to chat about specific leads, review closed deals, and figure out why some accounts aren’t progressing.

During these short meetings, dive into why prospects act a certain way and adjust your strategies based on what you learn. For instance, if sales reps notice that specific prospects often mention budget issues, marketing can tweak their messaging to highlight cost-effectiveness or ROI. By making these real-time adjustments, you can better meet prospects’ changing needs, which ultimately helps improve your demand gen strategy.

Meet B2B buyers everywhere they go

Today’s demand gen is a deeply personalized journey built on insights beyond clicks and opens. It’s about mapping buyer intent to highly relevant content, creating seamless, value-driven experiences, and anticipating what’s next for each unique lead. By integrating data from multiple channels, enterprises can effectively connect with prospects at every touch point, building trust and demonstrating expertise throughout the journey.

While there are many impactful ways to capture the interest and attention of high-quality leads, here are some specific, advanced strategies for enterprises looking to increase their inquiries and bookings.