Evan Hughes, VP of Growth at Refine Labs, sat down for the inaugural episode of Stacking Growth Snacks to chat through switching from a Lead Generation to Demand Generation marketing strategy. From defining basic terminologies to discussing the impact on business results, the discussion offers insights into the evolution of B2B buying behaviors and the strategic application of paid media.
What is Demand Generation?
“Demand Generation is a tactical marketing strategy focused on generating buzz for a specific brand or service through various channels”. Evan positions Demand Gen as a key philosophy for redefining how brands can move away from the way things have always been done, to reestablish and nurture their market presence for big results.
Unlike traditional marketing tactics that aggressively push for clicks and quick conversions, Demand Generation thrives on a holistic approach to put power in the hands of the buyers. Demand Gen is not about the instant rewards that result in high quantity and low quality leads. Instead, the goal is to establish brand authority and cultivate genuine brand interest through tactical strategy that delivers valuable content to a target audience, in the channels they are already scrolling.
Evan breaks the concept down further, categorizing the process into Demand Creation, Demand Capture, and Demand Conversion—each stage serving a specialized role in attracting, engaging, and transforming prospects into revenue-generating customers.
Demand Creation is the stage to get people excited about and aware of your product so that they ask, “what comes next?”. This is typically created in paid social channels like LinkedIn or Meta.
Demand Capture typically happens in direct response channels (search engines, review sites), and focuses on identifying and communicating with customers who have indicated readiness to have a conversation with sales.
Demand Conversion is the speed and velocity with which you can convert a hand raiser into revenue. Conversion is a motion that calls on all available enablement resources and asset creations for sales, marketing, and internal ops.
Differentiation in Practice: Demand Generation vs Lead Generation
Evan breaks down the key difference between Demand Generation and Lead Generation: “An analogy that has been working for me recently is thinking of push and pull.” Demand Gen pushes your message out to a target market by using content and education beyond paid media. Lead Gen, on the other hand, is focused on pulling people into your system by collecting information from gated content or registration links.
The Evolution of B2B Buying and the Independent Buyer Journey
B2B buyers no longer rely on enablement from sales teams to make their purchasing decisions. Buyers are on an independent journey, and are utilizing peer reviews, social proof, and case studies to inform their purchasing behavior. This shift, according to Evan, requires marketers to change their approach and meet buyers where they are, offering substantive content that educates without the expectation of immediate return. Evan explains, “Dark Social is an environment for social community and awareness, and making sure that people trust and value you”. The profound realization here is that in "dark social" - areas difficult to track or attribute to traditional analytics - lies an abundance of potential opportunities for customer engagement.
Evan notes the importance of your website in successful Demand Conversion. With the buyer journey becoming more and more independent, the website can be a key blocker or accelerator in getting the buyer further along in their journey. “If you don’t have the right website to convert interested buyers into customers, your strategy won’t succeed.”
Paid Media in Demand Generation: A Balancing Act
Evan recommends building a Paid Media strategy that focuses on valuing this evolution of the B2B buying journey. This reframe to a Paid Media strategy capitalizes on the power in Dark Social or word of mouth channels. Refine Labs anchors their paid media strategy in Demand Creation to generate excitement through word of mouth, by allocating the majority (60-70%) of a paid media budget here.
He also highlights the importance of evaluating the tendency to over invest in Demand Capture through paid search. This practice is common because it’s attributable and has last click attribution, and marketers can see direct and measurable ROI in this channel. However, when looking at the ROI of Demand Generation holistically, he recommends allocating a much smaller budget percentage (30%) with more precise targeting into Demand Capture. The Refine Labs paid media approach strives to be a balanced mix of content creation, platform selection, and audience engagement. Evan emphasizes that reaching out with authentic and creative content is the linchpin of success.
Recalibrating for Results: The Evidence of Transformation
The Demand Philosophy is the foundation of Refine Labs’ fractional marketing and creative services delivered to over 200 B2B customers in the past 5 years. Evan talked through results from customers who implemented the Refine Labs’ Demand Philosophy, like the customer who saw leads dip by 20%, yet the creation of actual revenue-generating opportunities surged significantly—indicating a higher quality of prospect engagement.
The trajectory of B2B marketing is veering away from the formulaic and into the realm of targeted, content-driven engagement. With Demand Generation, marketers are encouraged to think long-term, prioritize authenticity, and align with the evolving behavior of their buyers.
For more, watch the whole series on YouTube or listen on Spotify.