State of Demand 2013

Demand generation—the practice of driving
awareness and interest in a brand’s products and
services—isn’t new, but modern techniques for demand
generation certainly are. Visionaries like Seth Godin have
taught us that personal engagement is the true marketing
best practice, but technology is changing and improving
faster than we could have ever imagined in the early days
of direct mail marketing or even email.
As the marketer’s toolset expands, so does our need to
better understand the consumer mindset. Thanks to the
speed of innovation, technology advances have vastly
outpaced marketing theory and practice. With that in mind,
I wanted to create a new study to help bring the paths of
theory and practice together.
My study surveyed the demand generation habits and
practices of 400 B2B buyers and 138 B2B companies.
As you read the study’s findings, you’ll find answers to the
following questions:
• Which best practices are best-of-breed
companies using?
• Which industry standards should become benchmarks?
• What types of content are consumers searching for?
• What are the future best practices for
demand generation?
While this research was designed to discover the best
practices for today’s environment, it’s important to
remember that better practices are evolving every day as
technology warrants. What works today may not work six
months from now.
So take what you can from this research, analyze both
your successes and your shortcomings, and refine your
tactics with each campaign.
To new ideas and future success,
Mathew Sweezey
Marketing Evangelist,
Pardot, an ExactTarget company
pardot.com
@MSweezey
The State of Demand Generation
©2013 ExactTarget + Pardot | 2pardot.com

3 | ©2013 ExactTarget + Pardot
pardot.com
This research contains two separate research studies: a survey of
business-to-business (B2B) customers and observational research of
B2B companies.
B2B Buyers Survey
For this part of the report, we surveyed 400 B2B buyers about their buying
habits and preferences—in other words, 400 consumers of B2B companies’
products. We focused on asking questions about what B2B buyers are
looking for when they start evaluating new solutions.
The survey began with 19 questions about how consumers engage
with content and how they research purchases. Here is some additional
information about these 400 respondents:
• 53% work for a small business
• 22% work for a mid-market company
• 25% work for an enterprise company
• 75% of survey respondents are not marketers
We designed this survey to be heavily skewed toward non-marketers,
as past research shows that non-marketers behave differently from how
we as marketers might predict (check out the SUBSCRIBERS, FANS,
FOLLOWERS research report Marketers from Mars for more on
this subject).
B2B Companies Survey
For the research on B2B companies, we researched (by observation) 138
companies in different segments of business: Fortune 500, mid-sized
business, small business, and software-as-a-service (SaaS). By breaking
companies down by these categories, you can identify with the companies
most similar to yours.
We defined Fortune 500 companies by the following guidelines:
• A company listed on the Fortune 500 list that is strictly
a B2B company.
• Any companies that were both B2B and business-to-customer
(B2C) were removed.
• Of the 500 companies listed, there were 33 in this category.
We defined mid-market companies by the following guidelines:
• A company with 1,000-10,000 employees, but not listed
on the Fortune 500.
• These companies were also strictly B2B, with a market
where modern demand generation was an accepted practice.
• In verticals where purchasers do not rely heavily on online
marketing (such as contracting companies or other similar
companies), we did not consider those companies.
• We researched 42 companies in this category.
We defined small businesses by the following guidelines:
• Companies with more than 10 and fewer than 1,000 employees.
• The same constraints were applied when selecting these
companies as well: only B2B companies with a marketplace
where online marketing is a significant source of generating new
prospects (i.e., lead generation).
• There were 46 companies researched in this section.
We defined SaaS companies by the following guidelines:
• Companies that deliver all of their technology over the internet.
• The other categories’ guidelines also applied.
• Only the top 17 largest SaaS companies in the US were included
in this section. This focused the research on the most
progressive companies.
Methodology

©2013 ExactTarget + Pardot | 4
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What the Numbers Say
The majority of product research begins, perhaps not surprisingly, on Google:
Research shows us two major findings about a
purchasing lifecycle: how long a research cycle
is, and what type of content someone wants
during that lifecycle.
Modern best practices in demand generation
will revolve around an understanding of where
your prospects are in the lifecycle and matching
your content offers to them at that point. But
what are the numbers saying now?
According to this survey, the combination of
Google and personal networks comprise the
largest majority of product research origins.
It’s no longer sufficient for brands to simply
dominate search and search ads; you must also
inspire your customers to share your brand’s
value through word of mouth.
Source: Customer Focused Content Survey 2013 | Answered: 398 respondents
71.67% Google
2.76% Bing
5.53% Yahoo
2.01% Social Networks
2.51% LinkedIn
15.58% Personal Networks
Where do you typically
start your research
for a future business
purchase?
72% of product
research for a future
business purchase
begins on Google.
The B2B Customer’s Initial Search

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I go back more than 3 times.
Do you agree with the following statement? “As my research
deepens on a subject, my search terms usually become more
refined as well.”
Our research indicates that 98% percent of surveyed customers agree
that their search terms become more refined as their research on a
product offering deepens.
No
Yes
98%
2%
How many times do you go back online to conduct further
research for a purchase that requires your boss’ approval?
After initial product research on Google, our research shows that
customers conduct further research two to three times before
seeking manager approval on a purchase.
I do it all in one sitting.
18%
70%
12%
I may go back 2-3 times doing research.
The B2B Customer’s Product Research

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No
Yes
89%
11%
Do you agree with the following statement? “I prefer different
content at each stage of my research process.”
From the content side of things, the majority of B2B buyers approve
of receiving different types of content along various stages of the
buying process.
No
Yes
76%
24%
Does the cost of the item you are purchasing affect the amount
of research you do before a purchase?
Overwhelmingly, B2B consumers say yes—the cost of the potential
purchase does affect the level of time and effort they’re willing to
invest in product research.
The B2B Customer’s Research Preferences

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I’d prefer over five pages.
How long do you think a written piece of content should be?
(Written content could be a whitepaper, case study, or other
asset, excluding eBooks.)
Interestingly, 70% of respondents say that they’d prefer content
under five pages (versus content over five pages or simply “as long
as it takes to inform me”).
As long as it takes to inform me.
28%
70%
2%
I’d prefer under five pages.
The B2B Customer’s Reading Habits
Modern best practices in demand generation will revolve around
an understanding of where your prospects are in the lifecycle and
matching your content offers to them at that point.

pardot.com
Forming Your Best Practices
Customers’ answers to the preceding questions provide some insight
into how to better execute a lifecycle marketing campaign. Be cognizant
of where prospects are within the lifecycle. The typical lead lifecycle has
three stages.
As evidenced by the results listed previously, 76% of prospects prefer
content tailored to each stage within the buying process, so tailor content
to these three stages.
Stage One
For customers in stage one, we recommend broadly focused content that
helps readers better understand a problem. You should limit your discussion
of products or services in these documents and make sure the content
provides real value to the reader—even if that reader never buys anything
from you. For even better stage one content, determine the words that your
prospects start searching for when they begin their research, and create
content to speak to those keywords.
Stage one content could include:
• Blog posts—either written by your brand or others within your industry.
Keep the discussion helpful and suited to your readers, and avoid being
overly promotional.
• Industry articles to build trust and your credibility—instead of pushing
your products.
• Infographics focused on helpful content that pertains directly to your
readers’ jobs. Once again, you don’t want to focus on pain points or
your company.
Stage Two
For stage two, we recommend nurturing potential customers with content
demonstrating social proof—that is, third party support and concrete
evidence of your products’ value. A person at this stage has figured out they
have a problem, but does not have the budget, authority, need, or timeline yet
to purchase. Remember that the researcher will likely have to convince
others of the need to purchase a service to solve this problem. Social proof of
how others solved it and what kind of results they earned are best shared at
this stage.
Examples of excellent stage two content include:
• Video testimonials sharing how other companies benefitted by
using your technology. The focus isn’t on why you’re better than your
competitors, but how you solved a problem.
• Analyst reports allow people to share trusted information with
executives to gain buy-in for evaluations.
• Webinars are a useful tool to share education on adapting
your product.
• ROI calculators are a nice way to provide black and white value
to stakeholders.
Knowing when someone has moved from stage two to stage three can
be easily determined based on behaviors. Use lead scoring and allow
prospects to choose their own content to move themselves ahead to the
next stage. Begin to allow people to move themselves from stage to stage
by leveraging secondary calls to action whenever you offer content. For
example, in a stage two nurturing email, your main offer is for a stage two
piece of content. However, lower in the email, offer a secondary call to
action for a piece of stage three content. This gives people the option to
move themselves ahead if they’re ready.
Modern Best Practices:
Content for the B2B Customer

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Stage Three
For excellent stage three content, let prospects know why your brand is the
best. This is finally the right time to talk about you. Talk about why you’re
better than your competition, whether that’s ease of use, customer service,
or any other differentiators. Customers at this stage are very knowledgeable
and will be almost ready to talk to a sales representative.
The following types of content are best suited to this stage:
• Buyer guides show prospects how to evaluate vendors, allow you to set
the bar for their evaluations.
• Sample RFPs help prospects prepare for the coming evaluations.
• Comparison documents show how you stack up against your
competition—and identify who your real competitors are. Build trust by
showing all competitors, remembering that they’ll already know who they
are if they’ve ever done a Google search.
Content Conclusions
Keep in mind the length of your content when designing your modern
demand generation campaigns. The length of content should vary based on
the purpose of your campaign. Typically, longer-form content works better
for paid search, and shorter-form content works better in lead nurturing.
According to our survey, most people prefer content under five pages;
however, many eBooks with more than five pages have a high download
rate. The purpose of your content will play a role in determining the right
length. If the goal of the document is to get someone in your funnel, then
longer documents are more likely to provide enough value to persuade
readers to share their email addresses. Once you have the potential
customer interested, you should keep your content shorter so it can easily
be consumed. Content that isn’t read does you no good.
For example, consider this document. It’s longer than five pages,
but it’s being published as a research report for the purpose of education,
not demand generation.
Your content is your brand’s chance to help your future and current
customers as you demonstrate your own expertise. Always keep your
content focused on the ultimate goal of helping your readers, and always
present them with appropriate calls to action that speak to where they are
currently in the customer lifecycle.
The length of content should vary
based on the purpose of your campaign.
Typically, longer-form content works
better for paid search, and shorter-form
content works better in lead nurturing.
Modern Best Practices:
Content for the B2B Customer

pardot.com
Demand generation is something every company must never stop working
to perfect. We’ll look at four verticals to determine which one is best at
demand generation: enterprise, mid-market, small businesses, and SaaS.
These cross sections will help you compare yourself to others and get a
glimpse at what’s going on outside your own vertical.
Within demand generation, we’ll consider how companies are using content
marketing, forms, and marketing automation.
Demand Generation: Adoption of Content Marketing
Content marketing was adopted at some level by all companies in this
research, and at a very high rate. Sometimes, the smallest businesses
with the fewest resources can produce the best content, because smaller
companies are often more nimble and timely with their content, with fewer
approval processes to go through.
Best Practice: Mid-sized and large companies can produce great content,
too. They just need to streamline production and approval processes.
In your content calendar, allow space and plan ahead for current event-
themed posts. Before the content is even created, designate who is going
to review it and get it launched quickly, so that you never fall victim to
irrelevancy due to a lagging approval process.
Most companies use some form of content in their marketing, but doing
content marketing well is still a differentiator among brands. Track the
results of various types of content and test the timing of new content to make
sure you get the maximum impact from your content marketing efforts.
Demand Generation: Adoption of Forms
The use of forms (yes, those blank boxes you hope your prospects will
fill out) for demand generation is key in any online marketing strategy.
Forms allow companies to collect email addresses, which are needed for
continued communication with a prospect. But forms, however, can both
help and hinder if they’re not used correctly.
Looking at the four verticals in this study, note that SaaS companies are the
best at using forms. They have the highest adoption rate, and we observed
that their forms were often the most sophisticated in terms of information-
gathering and design. Enterprise companies use very few on their sites—
typically only a “Contact Us” or email sign-up form.
Vertical Adoption
Enterprise 98%
Mid Market 98%
SMB 98%
SaaS Companies 100%
Vertical Adoption
Enterprise 25%
Mid Market 22%
SMB 48%
SaaS Companies 53%
Demand Generation:
Who’s Using Content Marketing Best?

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Demand Generation: Adoption of Short Forms
Notice that only 28% of enterprise companies are using forms of ten fields
or less, while small businesses and SaaS companies are at 88-89% for
short forms.
Best Practice: Use forms on your website to hide valuable content (in
exchange for an email address or other contact info), offer enrollment
in loyalty programs, and offer subscriptions to different types of
communications (including email, but also mobile services and more niche-
specific options, if applicable). Ideally, forms should only request two fields
of information: first name and email address. Try not to fall victim to the
mistaken belief that more questions will better qualify a lead for sales. A
shorter form will help improve your completion rate and won’t spook those
beginning to enter the form.
For an additional tweak to improve your existing forms, implement
progressive profiling. Each time a prospect sees your form, ask two
questions—but make sure they’re two different questions each time so all
the information you require is eventually acquired.
Here are a few fields you can eliminate today to shorten your forms:
• Last name: You only need a first name to send emails. You can ask for
last name later.
• Phone number: Forrester reports that 65% of people lie when asked
for their phone number. You can ask for this later when you have a more
established relationship with the customer.
• How did you find out about us? With marketing automation’s prospect
tracking features, you know exactly where your relationship with each
prospect started.
• Custom questions: Forrester also reports that 68% of people lie when
asked any type of custom question outside of name, email address, etc.
• Purchasing timeline: If they are downloading content, they are in
a timeline. If your content is crafted correctly to correspond with their
purchase stage, you’ll know where they are by what they are reading.
Demand Generation: Adoption of Marketing Automation
Marketing automation is a new technology that businesses of any size
can use. Its abilities to track leads, remove IT from form creation and
management, and allow marketing to engage in better lead nurturing have
made it widely accepted as a marketing best practice.
Vertical Adoption
Enterprise 28%
Mid Market 43%
SMB 89%
SaaS Companies 88%
Vertical Adoption
Enterprise 25%
Mid Market 59%
SMB 66%
SaaS Companies 76%
Demand Generation:
Who’s Using Forms Best?

pardot.com
Interestingly, enterprise companies—those with the largest budgets—have
been slowest to adopt marketing automation, while companies with smaller
budgets have been quicker to adopt.
Best Practice: Marketing automation is an expensive tool, but your brand
can’t afford to neglect it. Invest in a high-quality marketing automation
tool, and begin to experiment with which customer touchpoints can be
automated and improved, thanks to better targeting and more personalized
communications. With the time saved from marketing automation,
you can turn your thoughts to other pursuits, like overall strategy,
A/B testing, and segmentation.
One use for marketing automation is a more modern approach to lead
nurturing. Lead nurturing emails can improve your odds of getting
engagement with a new lead. Try these tactics for improved lead
nurturing emails:
• Place your call to action as high as possible in the email copy,
and have it match your subject line.
• Write like you’re writing to a friend. Keep your emails short,
and consider using rich text as opposed to HTML. It appears to be
written by a friend, rather than by a marketer.
• Use secondary calls to action to allow readers to choose their
own adventure. This allows them to pull themselves through the lead
funnel at their own pace, letting them be the driver, with you as
the guide.
• Use content that can be consumed in five minutes or less,
and make this clear in your copy. Otherwise, people are likely to save
your email for when they have more time, and forget about it.
Overall, SaaS companies scored the highest throughout the study in
terms of demand generation best practices. By adding content marketing,
appropriate forms, and marketing automation to your marketing plan,
you can join the ranks of these companies among the top of the heap
when it comes to marketing capabilities—no matter your vertical or
product line.
Shorten your forms, ask for only what you need, and tailor your content
to each stage in the customer’s lifecycle, and you’ll be a leader in
demand generation’s future. Your journey to inspired marketing begins
at exacttarget.com.
Request a personalized demo to see how ExactTarget landing pages and
forms, along with Pardot’s marketing automation, can power your demand
generation efforts.
With the time saved from marketing
automation, you can turn your thoughts
to other pursuits, like overall strategy,
A/B testing, and segmentation.
Demand Generation:
Who’s Using Marketing Automation Best?

Your journey to inspired marketing begins at exacttarget.com
There’s marketing.
And then there’s Inspired Marketing.
With billions of hyper-connected consumers on the planet, there’s never been a better time to be a digital marketer.
You have an incredible opportunity to use data and technology to drive relevant messages, to connect, to inspire.

State of Demand 2013

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