Written by Megan Bowen, CEO of Refine Labs, explore marketing strategies for demand creation and capture, inspired by success stories like Clari and NFP.
Megan Bowen
Let’s start at our ideal state and work backwards. Ideal state: we measure our success not by the quantity of leads generated, but by the quality of the conversations ignited.
Okay, that sounds great! So now what? How?
It’s easy to feel like just another marketing team on the MQL hamster wheel - trying to push for the right strategies but constantly being asked for MORE LEADS. Things feel murky, and campaign-by-consensus creates uninspiring results. Another gated ebook that’s at best a little pathetic, and at worst, pretty insulting? Doing what you’ve always done isn’t working, but doing something new is a gamble. You’ve got pressure to pick a metric and prove it’s going in the right direction, and you’re not incentivized to take risks.
Real marketing results don’t just appear like magic - it requires the right strategy, strong execution and time. So how do you get off the MQL hamster wheel for good and transform into an architect of a measurable demand gen strategy that personally resonates, transforming passive observers into active participants? How do you guide your team to do the same?
Imagine your prospects open their inbox and find a message that not only piques their curiosity but seems to speak directly to them, threading the needle between professional insight and personal intrigue. Buyers are more discerning than ever. Engaging them requires more than just traditional tactics. It demands a deep dive into the realm of dark social, podcasts, and the power of community (by the way, we’ve got the frameworks and playbooks to help you start exploring these topics).
Capturing demand is one piece of the puzzle. But demand creation is just as important. Ideally, demand flourishes naturally, and leads aren’t just numbers. They’re engaged participants in a shared journey. Every touchpoint is an opportunity to inspire. But you’ve got to be willing to leave behind the marketing tactics that don’t work anymore.
At Refine Labs, we’ve always kept it real with you about the secret sauce behind our digital marketing strategy. Businesses work with us because we’re strategically aligned to how customers actually buy.
So in the spirit of full transparency, our mission remains as clear and steadfast as ever. We’re doubling down on what makes us stand out: our relentless pursuit of changing the way all B2B companies measure and execute marketing. Part of that is helping you navigate the transition from lead gen to demand gen. Let’s get into the details.
Buyer behavior is undergoing a seismic shift. You have two choices: pivot with it, or fall behind. What exactly is shifting?
First off, innovation cycles are accelerating at dizzying speeds. That means the window to capture market interest before the next big thing arrives is tiny. Blink and it’s too late, the window has slammed shut.
Second, the balance of power has tipped towards the customer. Today's buyers seek information on their own terms. They do their own research and resist intrusive sales tactics. Can you bother someone into becoming a customer? No. Today’s buyers just ignore annoying sales plays.
Measuring marketing has also grown more complex. There’s more data, but it turns into a terrible burden. You can paint the picture a thousand different ways. Which picture illustrates the real problem areas and key growth levers? You don’t have to be a data scientist to discern meaningful insights from all the noise, but sometimes it feels like you do. If you want to gauge true impact on revenue and customer acquisition, it’s not a simple “dollars in to dollars out” equation.
Lastly, the pallor of risk-aversion has chilled what once felt like the Wild West of marketing innovation. Organizations don’t want to take big bets. More stakeholders are involved in purchasing decisions. There’s a fear of failure that stifles bold moves. So marketing teams plod onward, doing what they’ve always done.
But for teams who dare to make a change, the ROI is there. Take Clari, who was running a traditional approach with marketing. They believed they were pulling the appropriate levers for paid advertising. They expected buyers would see their ads, click the ads, and convert to buy their product. Full stop. But it wasn’t working. So Clari boldly revamped messaging and positioning, measurement alignment, and their mindset. They went from doing “what they were supposed to do” to looking at what actually worked. They optimized Google ads to focus on high-intent buyers only, among other measures. The result was a staggering 67% reduction in acquisition costs, and a 64% increase in win rates. They won big by prioritizing relevance, engagement, and education over the traditional sales funnel.
The age-old marketing pillars that seemingly uphold our industry are due for a fall. Once unshakeable beliefs about gated content and traditional lead gen are showing cracks. Marketers keep choosing to invest in these myths, because they’re comfortable. And because not investing in them means replacing them with something unknown. But the buyer behavior shift is here, whether we’d like it to be or not. So here’s what needs to go.
Some teams still believe that gated content is the golden ticket to lead generation. You’re standing at a door, and all you need to do is whisper the secret password (hint: it’s your email address), and you’ll get access to the VIP party.
But here’s the thing. The party has moved. It’s out in the open, in the vibrant, dynamic streets of dark social. Here, content flows freely, unencumbered by gates, directly into the hands of those eager to engage on their own terms. It’s where buyers are no longer occasional visitors at trade shows, but are perpetually mingling in the community, absorbing insights through social channels, podcasts, and beyond—without once hitting a "submit" button.
Refine Labs Tip: When shifting to a demand creation approach, your advertising budget allocation should change too. Refine Labs typically recommends a roughly 60-80% demand creation / 20-40% demand capture advertising split (most companies will have this reversed).
Then there’s the idea that you can trick people into becoming leads. This outdated belief is rooted in tactics that prioritize quantity over quality. But today, high-intent interactions —those moments when potential customers show real interest— are the gold standard. They far outstrip the value of leads captured through less forthright means.
Take NFP, who started creating sales enablement material that actually spoke to sales prospects. Working with Refine Labs, they analyzed opportunities to optimize marketing efforts like: programs, advertising, creative, and their website, and sales processes like: sales messaging, scheduling, lead conversion rate, and overall CRM cleanliness.
What happened? A 233% increase in ROI, a 75% reduction in sales cycle length, and a 20% higher ACV. Not too shabby.
It’s also time to retire the “spray and pray” approach. Not all leads were created equal, so you shouldn’t treat them equally.
The difference in funnel performance between high-intent and low-intent sources is staggering. High-intent leads aren’t just more likely to convert. They’re likely to do so more efficiently and effectively. Our research shows that while 500 high-intent leads (demo requests, “contact us” form submissions, other hand-raisers) might convert to 101 customers, 3,000 low-intent leads (gated content, events attendance, review sites) might only convert to 36.
Demand gen focuses on creating and nurturing genuine interest within targeted communities. It's about drawing in the hand-raisers, where every interaction is laden with potential. Traditional lead gen relies on casting a wide net in the hope of snagging a few interested parties, regardless of their readiness to buy or align with the offered solutions. And it just doesn’t work.
Refine Labs Tip: Each pipeline source should be correlated with the intent level of the buyer, how far they are in the process, and the motion that got them into the funnel, not the department or team who sourced the pipeline. However, pipeline sources can and should work together to create a halo effect. For example, your event pipeline source can create awareness for someone when they're early in their buying process, but come into your pipeline through your website.
“AI will replace content teams,” they said. “We will run our content strategy through AI writing tools alone,” they said. But in their current form, AI tools will not replace content teams. In fact, AI tools only increase the value of human-centric storytelling.
Resonant brand narratives—those that truly connect with an audience on an emotional level—cannot be manufactured by algorithms alone. AI might craft content, but it's the human touch that infuses stories with empathy and nuance. This is where genuine engagement is born. At Refine Labs, we’ve found that when we honestly share our experiences and challenges, we find a whole world of engagement and opportunity.
AI writing tools are but a means to an end; the brush, not the artist. You, the storyteller, are the artist.
Buying decisions don’t start and end with Sales. Give some credit to everyone else (and take a little pressure off your Sales teams, too). When you place the buyer decision squarely on your Sales team, you’re neglecting the nuanced way that buyers make purchasing decisions.
Refine Labs' insights reveal that only a small fraction of the buying process—merely 5%—involves direct interaction with Sales teams. So if you really think that Sales holds the reins throughout the buyer's journey, you’re mistaken.
Take LinkedIn, for example. Buyers naturally congregate and share information there. When an organization’s executives have a platform on LinkedIn, they share their expertise and provide their opinionated viewpoints on relevant matters. It becomes an organic and pressure-free channel to drum up trust. With organic content development, you respect your audience, and you give freely without the expectation of a transaction in return.
It’s time to leave the sales-centric view of the buyer’s journey behind. Today, peer voices resonate louder than sales pitches. A product or service’s value is validated through communal endorsement rather than persuasive selling. That shouldn’t diminish the importance of Sales. But it should help you think about Sales in the context of a broader, more integrated approach.
Refine Labs Tip: Aim for a hybrid-attribution model. Software-based attribution is heavily skewed toward demand capture (paid search, retargeting, SEO, CRO, direct mail). Meanwhile, demand creation(podcasts, events, organic social, word-of-mouth, PR) is significantly under-reported by current “best practices”, resulting in marketers not investing appropriately or not effectively executing demand creation strategies. By collecting, analyzing, and aggregating qualitative customer insights as an input, you can leverage self-reported and software-based attribution together. That’s hybrid-attribution.
It can feel next-to-impossible to accurately track marketing efforts. But far from being nebulous and hard to quantify, marketing today can be guided by clear metrics and precise measurement frameworks. The key lies in formulating the right balance between demand creation and demand capture.
Refine Labs customer Splash is one organization who flipped the script with their marketing measurement frameworks. Together, we focused primarily on a demand creation strategy. Over the year-long partnership, Refine Labs introduced new platforms, shut down low-performing platforms, and continued fine-tuning targeting and messaging. These efforts ultimately resulted in an 80% increase in qualified (HIRO - high intent revenue opportunity, deal stage that converts at 25% or greater for the last rolling 6 months) pipeline and a 32% decrease in cost per qualified HIRO opportunity.
It’s all well and good to complain about what’s not working. So what does work? What’s the playbook for getting to our ideal state?
From our perspective, you get to your ideal state through the right mix of creating demand, capturing demand, and converting demand. This tripartite approach recognizes the nuanced journey of the modern buyer. That journey begins with genuine engagement in organic spaces: useful podcasts, vibrant social media communities, and insightful peer discussions. Not only is this approach effective, it’s a lot more fun. It just requires a little bravery, and the willingness to move beyond outdated marketing tactics.
Let’s keep talking. If you’d like to work with us directly, book a strategy call today.
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