Welcome to the Dark Side: Understanding demand generation and dark social

Marketing has traditionally focused on lead generation and immediate return on investment, but the industry is increasingly embracing a more indirect approach known as demand generation. The goal is to provide educational content that creates value for your audience so you stay front of mind and ultimately develop demand for your product or service.

Demand generation

Traditionally, marketing and sales teams have used gated content like webinars or downloadable guides in return for email addresses as a way to get direct contact information for prospective customers. However, demand generation is about freely offering content for anyone to consume without any requirements. A great example of classic demand generation would be to tell your audience that you’re going live on Facebook and inviting people to tune in without having to sign up.

Demand generation is about creating and driving awareness and interest in a company's products or services with the goal of developing a sales pipeline by attracting potential buyers to their websites.

Dark social

The term "dark" does not refer to anything sinister or shady. Rather, it simply describes the fact that this type of content sharing occurs in private channels and is invisible to marketers. Dark social is another marketing concept that has been gaining traction in recent years. It refers to the sharing of content through channels such as email, messaging apps or even word of mouth. Unlike traditional social media, dark social is more difficult to track because it occurs outside of social networks.

Video in demand generation and dark social

Video is becoming an increasingly popular tool in the demand generation and dark social strategies. Video content allows marketers to offer educational information that creates value for their audience in a personal and engaging way that leaves a lasting impression.

It's important to create native video content specific to each social media platform in terms of format and length. As always, consider your target audience and how they will interact with the content. The goal is to create valuable content that people will want to share, even through their private channels.

Of course, dark social and demand generation are just two marketing tactics that should be part of a broader overall marketing strategy, just like blogs or post cards and other approaches to reaching a greater business goal. 

Learn more about demand generation and dark social in our podcast with Patrick and Vanessa Zangardi of Zangardi Studios.