The traditional lead generation model
is broken.

Stop chasing the 5% and unlock the potential of the 95%.

In today’s B2B landscape, lead generation can often feel like an uphill battle for marketers. You pour resources into campaigns, hitting your MQL targets, yet revenue goals remain out of reach. The reason? The traditional lead generation model is flawed.

In a recent survey by Brands2Life we found 54% of CMOs and CCOs reported being consistently urged to prioritise lead generation over brand awareness. This pressure is especially pronounced in the UK, where 64% of CMOs view it as a significant challenge.

This is despite, and perhaps because, of the dwindling returns from most lead-gen programmes. Most marketing teams are citing lead quality as an increasing issue and concern.

Our approach to demand creation can help Marketers resolve the tension between the two priorities. It’s no longer Brand or Demand. 

Marketers need to deeply understand their ideal customer profile and then mobilise their brand to show that audience how they solve their problems and meet their needs. This approach will return improvement in brand metrics and business effects.

In short, a better, stronger pipeline.

It’s time to stop talking about generating poor quality leads and to start talking about creating demand for your brand.

Why the traditional lead generation model isn’t working

The numbers speak for themselves. Research by LinkedIn’s B2B Institute reveals that a staggering 95% of your audience is not in the market at any given time. Yet, traditional lead generation strategies focus on the 5% who are.

This flawed approach creates three core challenges:

1. Rising customer acquisition costs: As competition for the same small pool of ready-to-buy customers intensifies, your costs skyrocket.
2. Longer payback times: Significant resources are spent acquiring leads that may take months to convert, if at all.
3. Low-quality leads: Prioritising quantity over quality often results in unqualified leads that clog up your sales funnel.

The consequence? Frustration. Marketers hit lead volume goals, but these leads don’t translate into revenue. You’re no doubt experiencing this yourself, with the evident decline in quality and number of leads your gated content is receiving.

Unlocking the power of the 95%

The solution? Stop chasing after the 5% and start nurturing the 95% of your audience who are out of market right now. This isn’t just about playing the long game; it’s about establishing trust, authority, and engagement with the future buyers who will drive your growth.

The 95% aren’t a homogenous group either. They can be broken down into segments:

• 45% are unaware of your brand—they haven’t yet identified the problem you solve.
• 25% know they have a problem but have no idea you offer the solution.
• 15% are aware of your brand but haven’t connected you with their problem.
• 10% are actively researching solutions but aren’t ready to buy.

Each segment requires a unique strategy to move them closer to being in-market. If your marketing efforts focus solely on conversion, you’re missing out on fostering long-term relationships with the vast majority of your future customers.

Understand your ideal customer and then meet them where they are — not where you want them to be

You need to get to know your ideal customers. What are their pain points and problems? Where do they look for information on how to solve these problems? Who do they trust to give them advice and who inspires them to try new strategies and approaches to grow their businesses?

Understanding your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is so fundamental to the success of any marketing activity that we at Brands2Life have baked it into our approach to demand creation. Yet understanding the audience and engaging with data still feels difficult for many marketeers and communications professionals.  Helping our customers understand their ICP and then mobilizing the brand and story to reach them is the central tenet to our approach to Demand Creation.

1. Map and understand your audience: First things first. Before you can craft targeted messages, you need a granular understanding of your audience’s pain points, challenges, and aspirations. Identify the types of business and account that can buy your solutions. Blend the first party data you have in hand with data from third party tools to create detailed buyer personas. These can contain, amongst other things; emotional and rational drivers, insights on strategic challenges and problems thy will face in the coming year, their media consumption habits and channels of choice. Using these tools you can also map their journey through their solution discovery process. Though doing this you can begin to anticipate their needs and prepare to deliver the right content at the right time.

2. Invest in visibility: Go beyond direct sales tactics. Remove the gates. Ensure your brand is visible where your potential customers are—before they’re ready to buy. When you have done your research you’ll know where to place your brand;

• Which industry publications to advertise create content with, from content syndication to specific and focused events custom built for your audiences issues and problems
• which influencers to partner alongside to add an authentic voice to solution case studies and testimonials
• how and when to target the social channels they frequent
• Importantly in a B2B world where the independent voice of a trusted expert or analyst is king, you need to make sure you’re ready to amplify any earned media you’re achieving.

We help businesses place their brand in front of their ICP using these methods every day, across the globe. With proven success.

3. Diversify your marketing channels: Don’t just rely on a single tactic from the list in step 2. Your audience is everywhere. All at once. So you need to utilise a multi-pronged approach—you need to ensure that all of the channels your audience favours feature on the plan you’ve sketched out in step one and that you’re producing content for all of them.

The future of lead generation is relationship-driven

This isn’t a call to abandon lead generation altogether, but rather to rethink it. Success in today’s market comes from balancing a wide reach with a deep understanding of your audience’s needs — both now and in the future.

Are you ready to stop chasing the 5% and start nurturing the 95%? Contact us today to discuss how we can help you transform your lead generation strategy into a demand creation machine that works for the long haul.