What is Demand Generation?
Demand generation is the marketing function focused on creating awareness and interest in a product or service to drive qualified pipeline for the sales team.
Demand generation encompasses all marketing activities that create buyer interest — content marketing, events, paid advertising, ABM campaigns, and partner marketing. Unlike lead generation (which focuses on capturing contact info), demand gen focuses on creating genuine buying intent.
Demand Gen vs Lead Gen
Lead generation captures contact information (email, phone) through gated content and forms. Demand generation creates the awareness and intent that makes those leads valuable. A whitepaper download is lead gen. The brand awareness that made someone want the whitepaper is demand gen. CROs increasingly value demand gen over lead gen because it produces higher-quality pipeline.
CRO Ownership of Demand Gen
When a company has a CRO, demand generation typically reports through marketing, which reports to the CRO. This structure ensures marketing is held accountable for pipeline contribution and revenue outcomes, not just MQL volume.
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