Deeply understand your prospects’ wants, wishes, and worries at each stage of the buyer journey. It helps to refine an ICP
Create a high-quality content journey that directly responds to these
Consult data and content analytics to improve your prospect knowledge and optimize content

Ideal types of content for demand and inbound marketing

Thought leadership for lead gen (and for demand)
Immersive case studies
Interactive white papers
Free online ebooks, interactive guides and reports

So, what are the key differences between these two marketing terms?

Difference: Active vs. passive pursuit of leads

Demand generation involves a mix of active and passive ways of bringing prospects through the buyer journey. In contrast, inbound marketing relies on leads moving from the top to the bottom of the funnel more or less on their own. In a demand generation strategy, outbound methods are usually reserved for coaxing leads through consideration and decision stages.

Difference: Cross-functional collaboration

While insights from other teams are vital for inbound marketing, these teams have minimal influence on activities and output. By contrast, demand generation relies on several teams synchronizing – namely marketing and sales, and, at times, customer success – to triumph. By joining forces, these teams can pique prospects’ interest, build strong relationships, and close them at the perfect moment.

Difference: Responsibility for lead conversion

Inbound lead generation is responsible for attracting leads, and, when that’s achieved, its job is done. Demand generation is a more robust view of marketing’s role in lead conversion – drumming up interest and awareness is just the start. Once the top of the funnel is filled with a large pool of potential leads, demand gen is used to nurture leads, and nudge them in the right direction.

So, where do demand generation and inbound marketing overlap? Here are the most notable.

Similarities: Content creation

High-quality, engaging content is central to both inbound marketing and demand generation. Inbound marketing content is specifically tailored to speak to the ICP, whereas demand generation content appeals to a wider audience – and uses personalized content as leads progress. The best content format for both is interactive and visual, like Turtl’s format.

Similarities: Data and analytics

Using data to drive decisions is common practice for both camps. Track performance, measure engagement, and report the results for recognition-rocketing content. Data findings inform optimization efforts, like A/B testing, landing page design, and messaging improvements. Turtl Analytics gives high-level insights about your content’s performance – so you figure out what’s grabbing attention (and what isn’t).

Similarities: Buyer journey alignment

With both approaches, relevancy powers performance. At each touchpoint on the prospect’s path to purchase, make sure the relevant question is being answered or the relevant problem is being solved. Responsive content and outreach at every step build the lead’s trust and buy-in – priming them to pick your company when decision time rolls around.

content for the flywheel

Similarities: SEO and keywords

Search engine optimization (SEO) and keyword research underpin all content efforts. With inbound marketing, SEO and keyword-focused content help it rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Demand generation benefits from SEO and keywords in content too, particularly for outbound methods like advertising or PPC.

If you’re just getting started here’s our simple SEO guide for content marketers.

Using demand gen and inbound marketing together

With 91% of marketers saying that lead generation is their most important goal, competition to attract prospects is tough.

Any marketing strategy you choose needs to include lead-generating tactics to outperform the rest – and demand generation is no exception. For best results, don’t think of it as demand generation vs inbound marketing, think of it as demand generation and inbound marketing.

By integrating inbound marketing with demand gen, you’ll attract, engage, and convert leads much more effectively. This union maximizes your marketing efforts and fosters long-term loyalty.

To get started, you’ll first need to familiarize yourself deeply with your target audience. Use intent data, internal teams’ insight, and a customer feedback strategy to develop this knowledge.

When you’re confident you know them better than your own family (just kidding…or are we?), you’re ready to create content to guide them through the funnel. Think educational, industry-leading, SEO-optimized content to grab attention and generate demand.

Don’t forget to promote your content in the right places. Use the channels where your target audience is most active (e.g. LinkedIn), as well as outbound tactics to increase your influence.

You’ll catch more leads with the right content for your funnel. Then, make the most of the demand you generate by nurturing leads with personalized nurture campaigns. Email marketing, paid social, and retargeting will help cultivate them into customers.

Finally, close the loop by using data and insights from your inbound marketing and wider demand generation efforts to innovate and iterate.

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Turtl takeaway: Modern demand gen guide

Inbound marketing is a powerful lead-gen tool that, when used with other techniques, will make sure your demand-generation strategy gets all eyes on your company – and leaves them wanting in on the action.

Want to learn how to dominate with demand generation? We’ve got just the guide for you.

Click to read Modern Demand Marketing for your company | Turtl Guide