In the age of hyper-targeting and personalization, demand generation is a different way to connect and sell. Rather than focusing narrowly on buyers who are ready to invest (only around 5% of any given market), demand gen strategy is about appealing to all your potential buyers. The idea is to connect with buyers, despite their buying stage, so that when they do have funds and opportunities to buy, they think of you.

Get in the Heads of Staffing Buyers
Staffing firms are especially good at tapping into the businesses they know when it comes time to buy. According to the ClearlyRated Inside the Mind of a Staffing Buyer report, 65% of buyers start their search with a list of firms they already know, a “Day One” list. A whopping 93% of buyers end up partnering with a firm on their Day One list. 

How are staffing buyers building these well-formed lists from the get-go? From prior relationships, yes. From referrals, of course. And also from the impact of demand generation programs that build enough awareness and interest to get businesses on those powerful Day One lists.

Elements of Successful Demand Generation

The key to successful demand generation programs is blending strategy, creative, and data-driven capabilities to reach the right people and tell the best stories. That work can be done through all kinds of marketing channels and platforms, but none of them work without some fundamentals. 


These are the five fundamentals of successful demand generation as learned and lived by ClearEdge over the years.

Sales and Marketing Alignment

Building a good demand generation program is more than creating campaigns and creative. The strategic process of setting up teams for success is the first step in demand gen success, and that requires alignment between sales and marketing teams.  According to LinkedIn, 87% of sales and marketing leaders say collaboration between sales and marketing enables critical business growth.

Sales team members are primary brand ambassadors and company storytellers. Ensuring they are well integrated and aligned with marketing’s efforts (demand gen or otherwise) is critical to success. But no matter how important we know it is, sales and marketing alignment doesn’t just happen. To get to better alignment, this is what you need to do:

  • Align on your buyers, ICPs, and personas: Who truly needs the services or products you provide and will benefit the most? Those are the people you need to get in front of. Bring sales and marketing teams together to review (or build) your ideal client profile (ICP) and assess their buyer personas. Once both teams have the same target in mind, demand generation program development and activation gets much easier. Marketing learns to speak to the specific needs and pains of buyers, and sales is armed with marketing tools and messages that address those needs.
  • Agree on goals: What sort of goals and metrics are you focusing on to determine the success of any demand generation program? Consider metrics that align with sales targets, like qualified opportunities, meetings with potential buyers, actual pipeline growth, and revenue per channel. The gap between marketing and sales begins to close when teams are working toward shared targets.
  • Introduce campaigns and welcome feedback: No one likes to be presented with a done deal, which often happens in a siloed marketing and sales organization. Marketing produces a campaign and gives it to sales to execute. It’s not collaborative and rarely successful. To turn the tide, consider giving sales a voice. Identify a few key sales team members who can provide demand gen program and campaign feedback. Giving sales a voice will improve the program quality and increase adoption of sales team members who know the work includes sales input.
  • Work as a team: Have a marketing video that needs to get out? Salespeople make incredible on-air talent because they are in front of audiences every day. Leverage them. Does sales need to ensure a message is on brand and in the right tone? Be their sounding board. As teams learn to work together, they become a unified demand gen force that together can help build mindshare across the buyer market through program strength and consistency.

Omnichannel Marketing

You’ve probably heard the infamous statistic, “People need to see a brand at least 7 times before they remember it.” But the truth is that in the distracted world we live in today, the number is probably much higher.

Omnichannel marketing is fundamental to demand generation program success because it ensures a consistent experience for prospects across all touchpoints—whether they interact with your brand via email, social media, your website, events, or other channels. That consistency builds brand presence, so when prospects do have a buying need, they remember your brand and they reach out to your business. 

While the power of omnichannel marketing is in its consistent delivery of the brand, it’s also important that you adapt for variations. Variations in your customer journeys and variations needed to communicate across different platforms and channels. To help make omnichannel marketing your standard:

  • Map your customer journey: Document the journey your customers often go through and highlight gaps where you could strengthen the experience, and help marketers and sales adapt to the buyer mindset.
  • Personalize core messages by channel: Just because you want a brand experience to feel uniform doesn’t mean you have to say the exact same thing everywhere! Focus on the core values and messages you want to share across the brand, and then optimize them for each channel’s audience.

Account-Based Marketing

Account-based marketing, or ABM, is a marketing strategy that directs the focus on a few specific target accounts or people within organizations. Traditionally, strategies like ABM, which are focused on narrowing your audience down to only the most high-value prospects,  have been considered separate from demand generation efforts that often want to get your brand in front of as many people as possible.

But what if we brought them together? What if demand gen efforts could also fuel ABM programs, increasing the amount of contact and outreach these strategic accounts get?

ABM efforts can benefit from demand gen marketing by:

  • Mapping demand gen content to targeted buyer needs. Even if the content is broad, you can identify which pieces are most relevant to each account or buying group and focus on that by personalizing the delivery and context of the content. Instead of sending generic emails or sharing content on social media, tailor your outreach.
  • Create custom landing pages. Microsites can be created by account and ABM programs that add personalized introductions or commentary.
  • Support sales in the customization process. Collaborate with sales to ensure they have the context and tools to use demand gen content in their ABM outreach. Equip them with talking points, email templates, and snippets that connect the content to the account’s unique situation.

Advertising

Advertising sounds so old school: “We’ll buy some ads.” But it’s a demand generation tool that has stood the test of time and the test of today’s changing media channels. Advertising lives in every space – the digital space, the social space, the media space, the event space, the outdoor space, the newsletter space, and every space you can imagine. Ensuring your program is leveraging advertising, not only to reach a bigger audience but also to target buyers, is fundamental to demand gen success.

Why is advertising fundamental to demand generation success? Because it…

  • Expands your reach and builds awareness,
  • Targets specific audiences beyond what organic channels can achieve,
  • Can accelerate lead generation with immediate, compelling offers, 
  • Builds the brand through consistent exposure, 
  • Reinforces the value proposition across channels.

Advertising also sounds expensive, but it does not have to be. You can do it on a budget! Our Director of Digital Marketing, Jordan Blommer, recently shared how to make advertising deliver no matter your budget.

Social Media

Social media is one of the greatest demand generation channels out there. Yes, even in 2025. Why? Because social media is relationship-centric and people-driven. Yes, algorithms play a big role, but it’s personal engagement and stories that generate the real traction and magic for brands. Demand generation programs can enhance those efforts by boosting the content and cadence of social media.

Through social media platforms, like LinkedIn, you and your teams can share expertise, grow a community, and expand brand awareness. In the past quarter on LinkedIn alone, we’ve seen clients:

  • Achieve a LinkedIn Social Selling Index Score of 1%, putting them ahead of 99% of their peers when it comes to personal branding, engagement, and relationship-building.
  • Reach an engagement rate of 22%, 11x over their benchmark.
  • Increase clicks by over 1,000%.
  • Gain over 1,000 new followers alongside a 247% increase in clicks.
  • Get an average of nearly 10,000 impressions per post, 25x the benchmark for an account of their size.

But you need to invest in doing the right things on social media to see results like these. That includes:

  • Posting consistently: Whether it’s once a week or multiple times a week, posting consistently is key for making sure you continue to show up in your audience’s feeds. Demand gen programs produce strong content and can support the consistent cadence that makes social work. 
  • Prioritizing community: People remember the people who engage with them, so leave a comment when a post comes across your feed that speaks to the messages of your demand gen engine. 
  • Focusing on your niche: People want to engage with experts. Look at your demand gen materials and identify those that thoughtfully demonstrate expertise (case studies, client stories, testimonials). Work those into social posts to generate opportunities to connect through expertise. 

And if you want even more tips, check out this one-hour LinkedIn crash course from our Director of Social Media and Content Strategy, Melissa Thwing.

Getting demand generation right can feel complex, but focusing on these five fundamentals will set you up for success. If you’re ready to take your demand gen strategy to the next level, ClearEdge is here to help. Reach out to us and we’ll work with you to build a custom program that drives real results for your business.