The term "demand generation" is often a misnomer. You cannot make people want something they don't fundamentally need. Effective marketing identifies an existing "river of demand" for a category and creates a small canal to divert some of that flow to a specific product or service.
To be memorable, avoid brand assets with a direct, logical connection to your industry (e.g., a pen logo for a copywriter). Instead, choose distinctive, "meaning-free" assets (like Gong's bulldog). These unique elements prevent confusion with competitors and create stronger memory associations.
Pain points alone don't create sales; customers can tolerate pain for long periods. The key is to identify the "trigger events" that compel action, such as a company acquisition, a new factory move, or a key leadership change. Marketing should align with these moments of change, not just the underlying problem.
Most companies claiming to create new categories are actually creating sub-categories. They anchor their concept to something familiar, like Drift positioning as "live chat, but for sales" or the first cars being called "horseless carriages." This is more realistic as it doesn't require educating the market from zero.
Many marketers mistakenly believe a point of view (POV) must be controversial. Its true purpose is to act as a "bat signal," signaling to your ideal customer segment that you understand their struggles, you're on their side, and you're there to protect them. This builds trust and coherence, not just notoriety.
Marketers often fail by trying to educate the market on their grand vision. A better "Trojan Horse" approach is to attract customers with a solution they already seek (e.g., Facebook ads). Once trust is earned, you can introduce them to the more strategic solution you ultimately offer (e.g., marketing strategy).
Marketers often fear boring their audience and constantly seek new messages. A more effective strategy is to identify your single most important point of view and repeat it relentlessly in numerous formats and contexts. This builds memory and association, like using different Lego bricks to build the same core structure.
Instead of promoting its full suite of tools, analytics company Hotjar focused its content and SEO on "heat maps." This single, high-demand feature acted as a wedge to attract a large user base. Once customers were in the ecosystem, Hotjar could introduce them to its other offerings like surveys and recordings.
Getting approval for creative marketing is tough. Two effective tactics are: 1) Ask for forgiveness, not permission by running a small-budget campaign to prove its effectiveness with data. 2) Appeal to leadership's ego by proposing an A/B test: "You try it your way, I'll try it my way, and we'll compare results."