What is 3rd-Party Demand Generation?
Third-party demand generation—including content syndication—refers to programs that leverage third-party channels or sources to create demand in the form of leads, contacts, and inquiries, as opposed to demand generated via your own website, landing pages, or social profiles.
An effective way to bridge the gap between inbound marketing results and sales-pipeline goals, third-party demand gen has rebounded in popularity over the last year—for several reasons:
-
Third-party demand gen services are far more sophisticated today than they were just a few years ago. Between the ability to generate leads among specified target accounts and the near universal use of lead-data governance technology, marketers are seeing more value in such programs.
-
B2B marketing teams (and their sales colleagues) have become much better at nurturing leads generated by third-party programs. This is typically a prerequisite for success. These prospects are typically far earlier in their journey and should be nurtured with relevant content before handing off to sales-development reps.
-
Third-party demand gen is great for ABM strategies. Demand gen partners (often referred to as publishers or media partners) usually have established relationships with specific personas at particular companies–enabling you to customize a program that only targets decision-makers at named accounts using your organization’s branded content.
-
Lastly, marketing organizations have learned how to amplify the impact of third-party demand programs by leveraging intent data to identify which target-accounts are in an active buy-cycle. Further intent data also highlights the messaging and content most likely to resonate with those accounts, boosting program performance.
The benefits? Better prospects experiences, increased conversion rates, and consistent pipeline growth.
Launching Your Third-Party Demand Gen Initiative
There are many important decisions that go behind launching an effective third-party demand generation program, from selecting firmographic targeting criteria and setting target-persona parameters to assigning content assets and lead follow-up processes. This checklist should serve as a guide for what you want to have in place before you launch your campaign.
