What is a B2B demand center and why do you need one?

Maximising marketing resources and responding to the challenge of generating demand and managing leads are long-standing issues for marketers. The larger and more complex your business, the greater the need for coordinating and controlling strategy, technology and people effectively. Enter the demand center.

A B2B demand center is a centralised resource bringing shared marketing services, expertise and resources together in one location. While a demand center may be a relatively new concept, its fast adoption by large-scale global companies shows it as a principal organisational driver for repeatable, consistent and scalable demand generation.

Why do I need a demand center?

The need for more data and the necessary technology, and expertise to manage it, is a typical factor in deciding to create a bespoke demand centre. With a central marketing and expert hub in place, businesses can implement marketing best practices across the board and roll out coordinated campaigns on a global scale with greater ease than ever before. Key corporate assets can be leveraged and implemented efficiently, while capability is increased. In addition, standardisation of processes and technology allows for the introduction of automation with all of its associated time-saving efficiencies and improved ROI.

Organisations who leverage demand centres are:

What are the other benefits?

Some of the rewards in adopting a demand center strategy include both financial and strategic gains:

• Acquiring and nurturing leads. Improved capability enabling companies to reach new and existing customers earlier in the buying journey.
• ROI reporting. Investing in demand center infrastructure and standardising lead generation processes leads to faster and more efficient tracking and reporting.
• Centralised decision-making. Allowing businesses to quickly pivot to new strategies and changing buying behaviours, while ensuring brand consistency across all communications.
• Reduced average cost per lead. Demand center–enabled organisations report a 38% increase in marketing ROI over the ROI reported by peers without a demand center [Forresters].
• Moving to MAP. With the infrastructure of a demand center in place, the next step for many companies is the adoption of a marketing automation platform (MAP) to increase efficiency in creating, executing, reporting on and testing marketing programmes.
• Investing in tele-prospecting. In a similar way, companies with a demand center can more easily accommodate a tele prospecting team to follow up on leads and conduct contact profiling.

Adopting a demand center strategy for your organisation can have a significant impact on marketing outcomes, helping your marketing to become not only more efficient, consistent, and effective on the path towards short and long-term growth, but also unlocking new opportunities on a global scale.

Are you considering deploying a Demand Center for the first time, or maybe it’s time to scale your resources and take them to the next level? Why not contact us for a no obligation discussion on how MarketOne’s tried and tested frameworks have helped businesses scale at speed and drive measurable impact.