When I audit most demand generation strategies, they tend to fall into two camps. The first is that they are far too complex, targeting too many ICPs, and are largely tactically driven. The second is companies that are pouring time and money into competing for the same 5% of buyers who are actively looking for a solution. The problem? That’s what everyone else is doing too. It’s a race to the bottom, and it’s why so many businesses struggle to scale demand generation in a sustainable way.
If you want to drive consistent, high-quality pipeline growth, you need to do more than just capture demand – you need to shape future demand. The best B2B marketers aren’t just chasing leads, they’re building trust with future buyers before they even realize they have a problem. That’s what a holistic demand generation approach is all about.
In this article, we’ll break down a proven 3-step demand generation strategy that will help you:
- Get in front of your ideal customers before they enter the market
- Build trust and brand familiarity so buyers choose you when the time is right
- Scale your demand generation efforts without burning out your sales team
This strategy has helped marketing teams go from just being ‘order takers’ for sales, to generating 70% of pipeline for the business.
Let’s get into it.
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The 95/5 Rule: Why Most Businesses Struggle to Scale Demand Generation
Before we share our 3 step plan, I think it’s important that we align on the shortcomings of most B2B demand generation plans.
Most B2B marketers are stuck in the same cycle – chasing leads, optimizing for conversions, and fighting for a tiny slice of the market that’s actively looking to buy. The issue? That’s only 3-5% of your total addressable market, and every competitor is going after them too. That means you have fierce competition competing for a limited pool of in-market buyers, which leads to sky-high customer acquisition costs, intense competition, and a pipeline that fluctuates unpredictably.
If you want to generate sustainable demand and scale, you need to stop focusing solely on capturing demand and start investing in shaping demand with future buyers. That means getting in front of the 95% of buyers who aren’t actively searching yet but will be in the future. And when they do start looking, you want your brand to be the first that comes to mind.
Research from The B2B Institute shows that on average just 5% of your addressable market is ‘in market’ looking to buy right now. The other 95% are not.
The challenge is that every business is fighting over the same small percentage of buyers, driving costs up and making growth unsustainable. “If you pour all of your resources into that 5%, guess what? So are your competitors.”
This means businesses focusing only on capturing demand struggle with increasing costs per lead, declining conversion rates, and an unpredictable pipeline.
The Pitfalls of Chasing Only In-Market Buyers
Further research from Bain & Co. suggests that the 5% of the market isn’t even available to you unless they’ve heard about your brand before they enter a buying cycle. In fact, the research shows that 80-90% of buyers have a set of vendors in mind before they do any research. And 90% of them will ultimately choose a vendor from the day one list.
That means that roughly 20% of in-market buyers will consider purchasing from you if they’ve never heard about you before. So that 5% of the market you thought was available very quickly becomes 1% (taking 20% of the 5%).
That’s why it can feel like trying to find a needle in a haystack that’s both looking for a product that you’re selling, and is willing to consider you. Because it is!
Tips to Overcome This Pitfall
- Stop fighting over the same small pool of leads.
- Invest in shaping future demand: Build relationships with future buyers before they’re ready to purchase.
- Create brand awareness early: Use content, thought leadership, and social proof to be top-of-mind when buyers enter the market.
Objectives For Your 2025 Demand Generation Strategy
Taking all this research into account on how buyers actually buy, your demand generation strategy for 2025 should help achieve the following objectives:
- Leads are better quality and more ready to buy, because they’re better educated and more familiar with your brand by the time you come in-market
- Your marketing and sales teams are better aligned, because you’re no longer just shovelling across low-intent MQLs that sales say waste their time
- You scale beyond the 5% of in-market buyers, and focus also on the 95% of future buyers
- You attract better-fit customers that are less price sensitive
- You shift your focus from quantity to quantity when it comes to leads for sales, which increases the efficiency of your go-to-market motion.
Overview of our 3 Step Demand Generation Plan
Our demand generation plan for 2025 is designed to both capture in-market buyers, looking for your product/service right now – and to shape demand and build trust with future buyers.
There’s a process to doing that:
- Step 1 – Deeply define and understand your ideal customers
- Step 2 – Build trust with your future buyers
- Step 3 – Distribute your content and messaging that builds trust to your buyers
Above is an image of a demand generation plan that you can follow to do this. We will go through ‘shaping demand with future buyers’ below, as this is where most businesses struggle.
Step 1 – Deeply Define & Understand Your Ideal Customers
Many businesses struggle with demand generation because they try to market to everyone. Not all potential customers are a good fit for your product or service. Spreading your efforts too thin means wasted resources, lower conversion rates, and messaging that doesn’t resonate. Instead, you need to narrow your focus to the buyers who are most likely to prioritize the pain you solve.
As mentioned in the podcast,
“Your dream customer is not your addressable market or your total addressable market. It’s a segment of this total addressable market that is more likely to prioritize the pain that you help solve.”
George Coudounaris – The B2B Playbook
By honing in on this smallest viable audience, you can tailor your messaging, content, and outreach efforts to deeply resonate with them. This not only improves your marketing efficiency but also increases the likelihood of winning higher-value deals. Companies that take this approach consistently see lower customer acquisition costs and stronger long-term retention.
We broke down our guide to segmentation with Adem Manderovic here.
The 80/20 Rule in Demand Generation
You need to dedicate your resources in a clever way to have an outsized impact on your market. So knowing which segments to focus on is crucial. A great starting point here is to remember that not all customers are created equal. The 80/20 rule (also known as the Pareto Principle) suggests that 20% of your customers generate 80% of your revenue. If you can identify who those high-value customers are, you can focus your marketing efforts on attracting more of them instead of wasting time and resources on less valuable opportunities.
As discussed in the episode of The B2B Playbook,
“The 80/20 analysis helps you narrow down your focus to the 20% of your customer base who bring in 80% of the revenue. They’re easier to serve, they benefit most from your product, and they should be your focus.”
George Coudounaris – The B2B Playbook
By doubling down on the customers who drive the most revenue and retention, you can optimize your marketing spend, craft messaging that speaks directly to their needs, and ultimately create a stronger foundation for sustainable demand generation.
Build Your Demand Gen Strategy On Insights From the Customer
The best way to align your demand generation strategy with the right customers is to go straight to the source – your existing customers. Data and analytics can tell you a lot, but nothing replaces real conversations with the people who have already bought from you.
“You have to talk to your dream customers. Sales conversations can give you some insights, but there’s no substitute for speaking to them yourself.”
George Coudounaris – The B2B Playbook
Customer interviews help you uncover the real reasons why buyers chose you, the objections they had before purchasing, and the messaging that resonated with them the most. These insights allow you to refine your positioning, address gaps in your content strategy, and build trust with future buyers.
By incorporating this approach, you ensure that your demand generation efforts are based on actual customer needs, not assumptions. This leads to more effective messaging, stronger engagement, and a higher likelihood of attracting and converting the right prospects.
Update Your Positioning and Messaging Based On Your Target Segments
Once you’ve identified your ideal customer, the next step is to ensure your positioning and messaging align with their specific needs, priorities, and pain points. Too many companies fall into the trap of keeping their messaging broad, hoping to appeal to a wider audience. But in reality, broad messaging fails to resonate deeply with anyone.
If you want to be the obvious choice for your customers, you need to update your positioning and messaging to reflect their exact pain points and priorities.
One of the most effective ways to refine your positioning is to analyze real customer feedback from sales calls, customer interviews, and win/loss analysis. This gives you insight into what truly matters to your audience and helps you craft messaging that stands out. Businesses that try to appeal to everyone end up resonating with no one. The best demand gen strategies are laser-focused on a specific audience.
By adjusting your messaging to be more specific and targeted, you increase the chances of attracting the right customers and reducing friction in the sales process. A well-positioned company makes it obvious why they are the best solution for a specific type of buyer.
Document Your ICP
Once you’ve identified your ideal customer, it’s crucial to document everything about them in an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Without a clear ICP, marketing and sales teams end up wasting time on the wrong leads, leading to inefficiencies and lower conversion rates.
A well-documented ICP includes details such as:
- Who your best customers are (industry, company size, job titles)
- Their biggest pain points and challenges
- The messaging that resonates most with them
- Where they go to find information (social media, conferences, industry blogs, etc.)
- What triggers them to start looking for a solution
- Why they choose you over the competition
- What business problem your product/service helps solve
Having this information written down ensures consistency across teams and allows you to continuously refine your targeting. It helps align content, sales efforts, and customer engagement, making scaling demand generation far more effective.
Map the Buying Journey
Understanding your customer’s buying journey is essential to effective demand generation. Buyers don’t move linearly from discovery to purchase – there are multiple touchpoints, objections, and research phases along the way. To successfully guide potential customers toward a purchase decision, you need to align your strategy with the 5 Stages of Awareness.
Customer interviews tell you what educational gaps exist between someone being a prospect and a paying customer. Find out: what did they need to know at each stage of their buying journey?
The 5 Stages of Awareness are:
- Unaware – The prospect doesn’t know they have a problem.
- Problem Aware – They recognize the problem but don’t know the solutions.
- Solution Aware – They know solutions exist but aren’t sure which is right for them.
- Product Aware – They know about your product but need convincing.
- Most Aware – They are ready to buy but may need final validation.
Each stage requires different messaging and content. If your demand generation strategy doesn’t account for this, you risk losing potential buyers before they even consider your solution.
By mapping your customer’s journey against these awareness stages, you can ensure that your content, messaging, and engagement tactics meet buyers where they are. This approach leads to higher trust, improved conversion rates, and a stronger demand generation strategy.
Step 2 – Build Trust With Your Future Buyers
Step 2 of your demand generation plan for 2025 should be building trust with your future buyers, and ensuring that you can answer every questions they’ll have on their non-linear buying journey.
Trust is incredibly important, as the research indicated earlier in this article – buyers are far more likely to engage with brands they are familiar with than those they are encountering for the first time.
But trust isn’t built overnight. It’s developed over time through consistent engagement, valuable content, and repeated brand exposure.
How To Build Trust Before Buyers Are Ready
Most businesses make the mistake of focusing only on buyers who are already solution-aware or product-aware – the ones ready to buy. If you really want to scale, you need to build trust with the 95% of future buyers before they enter the market.
A great example of this approach is HubSpot’s free marketing certifications. HubSpot lets marketers take free certifications that help them improve their skills and careers well before they ever buy HubSpot software. By providing free, high-value education, HubSpot ensures that when these marketers eventually need a CRM or automation tool, HubSpot is already their go-to choice.
To follow this approach:
- Offer valuable, non-sales-driven content that solves real problems for your audience.
- Educate first, sell later – buyers will remember who helped them, not who pitched them.
- Build brand familiarity by consistently showing up where your audience spends time.
It really helps to make sure your content is mapped to The 5 Stages of Awareness (as outlined earlier). This framework ensures that you’re nurturing the prospect at every stage and answering all of their questions.
There is a set process to building content that builds trust with your audience that we go into in detail in our 12 week demand generation course.
Consistently Deliver Value with Content Repurposing
Once you’ve mapped your buyer’s journey to the 5 Stages of Awareness, you need to consistently create and distribute high quality content that answers questions at each stage. That’s where content repurposing comes in.
We repurpose a single podcast episode into LinkedIn posts, YouTube videos, newsletters, and more, making sure we stay in front of our audience again and again. This approach ensures that a single piece of content works multiple times in multiple ways, keeping your brand visible without requiring constant new content creation.
To effectively repurpose content:
- Break down long-form content (e.g., webinars, podcasts, blog posts) into bite-sized LinkedIn posts, Twitter threads, and email snippets.
- Use video and audio clips from podcasts or webinars to create engaging social media posts.
- Turn insights from one content piece into multiple assets—for example, a blog post can become an infographic, an email newsletter, and a YouTube short.
By repurposing content effectively, you increase your brand visibility, efficiency, and consistency, ensuring that your audience engages with your message across multiple touchpoints.
Step 3 – Consistently Distribute Your Content
If you’ve done the hard work in steps 1 and 2, you make your life so much easier in step 3. Step 3 is all about distributing your content so it gets in front of your target customers. You should know where they are, and you should know what to say to them if you did steps 1 and 2 properly.
So how do you distribute your content to your Dream Customers? You can do this 3 ways:
- 1:Many (e.g. paid ads, organic social, YouTube, forums, newsletters)
- 1:Few (e.g. webinars, industry events)
- 1:1 (e.g. email, call, text)
Marketing is best equipped to handle 1:Many and 1:Few interactions. Sales is normally best equipped to handle 1:1.
The complete list of steps in step 3 are:
- Use paid media to target buying committee of key accounts
- Push educational content mapped to 5 Stages of Awareness
- Push product education content highlighting key benefits and features
- Focus on target accounts with low budget, high touch Account Based Marketing (ABM) pilot program
Marketers can also accelerate demand for accounts expressing intent, that haven’t explicitly raised their hand and said that they want to work with you. A great way to do this is with a pilot Account Based Marketing program. This is where you select a handful of accounts based on your ICP, and orchestrate actions between sales and marketing to turn them into paying customers. It’s much higher touch, so generally you want the ACV to be high enough for it to be worth it.
Kevin and I ran a mini-ABM series on The B2B Playbook. Catch our introductory episode here.
By the way, you give you the strategy, templates and tools to execute all of these steps in our 12 week Demand Gen Course – The B2B Incubator.
Get Started with Your Demand Gen Strategy
If you take one thing away from this, let it be this—demand generation isn’t about short-term lead capture. It’s about playing the long game and building trust with future buyers so that when they enter the market, your brand is already the obvious choice.
Most businesses are stuck fighting over the same 5% of in-market buyers, making demand gen expensive and unsustainable. But the ones that win in the long run are those that create demand, not just capture it. They build relationships before buyers are ready, they educate instead of hard-selling, and they distribute their content consistently across the right channels.
How to Put This Into Action
If you want to build a sustainable demand generation engine, here’s what to focus on:
- Step 1: Identify your best customers and align your messaging with their real needs.
- Step 2: Build trust by creating genuinely valuable content long before buyers are ready to purchase.
- Step 3: Distribute your content consistently and repurpose it across multiple channels to maximize reach.
By following this 3-step demand generation strategy, you’ll create a pipeline of warm, engaged buyers who are already primed to choose your brand when the time is right.
What’s Next?
Most B2B marketing teams don’t have the time or resources to figure this out on their own, which is why we built The B2B Incubator. If you want a step-by-step demand gen playbook, complete with strategy, templates, and expert coaching, check it out here: The B2B Incubator.
The best time to start building demand was yesterday. The next best time is now.
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