Read time: 10 minutes
Have you heard of the 95:5 rule?
This concept teaches us that only 5% of businesses are in the market to buy your products or services at any one time. This means that the majority, the other 95%, aren’t currently in the buying cycle.
This concept is so important for demand generation marketers as it’s your job to engage the passive 95% who aren't looking to buy.
Unlike traditional marketing that may focus on one-off engagements, demand generation emphasises the need to foster long-term relationships and deliver value at every stage.
However, B2B consumers are all different; their needs, expectations and decision-making processes vary from company to company. So, demand generation is no longer about casting a wide net and using generic messages.
I believe customer experience will be the defining factor in cultivating long-term customer loyalty in 2025. As technology continues to evolve, maintaining a human touch in the campaigns we deliver will become increasingly essential.
Brands need to focus on building a strong rapport with each client, taking the time to truly understand their unique needs and delivering tailored solutions that drive impactful results with a warm welcoming touch.
Katerina Charalambous, Head of Campaigns
Instead, it’s about precision and personalisation to help build genuine connections. This is tricky when you’re targeting a whopping 95% of those passive businesses. But when they are ready to buy, you want your brand to be at the forefront of their mind.
So, what does this mean for demand generation in 2025, and how can marketers ensure a consistent pipeline of potential customers this year?
In this article:
- Demand generation trends for 2025
- How businesses can make the most of these trends
- The future of demand generation
Demand generation trends for 2025
Demand generation is about building brand awareness, driving engagement and supporting long-term growth.
By carefully integrating marketing and sales strategies, marketing professionals can guide prospects through the customer journey, fostering long-term relationships and delivering value at every stage.
Currently, demand generation involves leveraging data-driven insights, personalised content and multi-channel marketing to engage audiences.
Tools like marketing automation platforms, predictive analytics and intent-based targeting already make it possible for businesses to create tailored experiences that resonate with their customers.
But in 2025, there will be an increased focus on quality over quantity.
Keeping that in mind, we’re going to take a look at six demand generation strategies that will be trending in the next 12 months:
1. AI-powered account intelligence
We understand that B2B buying decisions are increasingly complex, with many tackling multiple stakeholders and long decision-making processes.
This is why, in 2025, AI-driven account intelligence will be an essential tool for demand generation and the cornerstone of successful marketing strategies. These tools will offer unprecedented insights and precision through:
- Predictive account scoring - Evaluating and ranking accounts based on their likelihood to convert
- Intent data mapping - Analysing subtle buying signals to pinpoint when accounts show interest, empowering marketers to engage at the optimal moment
- Machine learning - Revolutionising demand generation through machine learning platforms that can detect patterns in buyer behaviour that human analysis might miss
These AI-powered insights make it possible to create hyper-targeted content and offer tailored experiences to redefine customer engagement.
I expect we’ll see deeper penetration into high-intent accounts, more buying group-based intent, more bottom funnel campaigns. And we’ll be seeing fewer vendors too. I think that there will be more consolidation among ABM/demand gen vendors in 2025. After a down economy for 2 years, acquisitions and consolidation will see an uptick in 2025.
Frank Rukaj, VP of Global Sales
2. Advanced account-based marketing (ABM)
Mass marketing is a thing of the past. In 2025, success will lie in advanced account-based marketing (ABM) where highly personalised marketing strategies will be tailored to the unique needs of individual accounts.
ABM is like a precision tool for targeting. By leveraging intent data, you can focus on specific buyer personas and behaviour within an account, allowing for truly personalised outreach.
It’s clear that leveraging intent data effectively will separate top-performing companies from the rest. Every company says they have intent data, and some do, but few are having meaningful conversations with their clients about how they can use it to build all-encompassing, multi-stage lead programs where they are building awareness, driving leads from every stage of the funnel based on their target account's intent scores.
Hunter Silva, Senior Sales Director
Every communication should address the specific challenges and objectives of the account, showcasing the unique value your solution can offer. Intent data is key to driving this level of personalisation, serving as the engine behind effective ABM.
3. Post-purchase engagement
Over 50% of consumers value personalised experiences after they’ve made a purchase with a company.
As a result, businesses must shift their focus towards connecting post-purchase interactions with demand generation in 2025 to create a self-reinforcing growth cycle.
The more you can improve customer satisfaction at every stage of the journey, the more you can naturally boost loyalty, fuelling ongoing engagement.
4. Video ads and immersive experiences
Our attention spans decrease daily, largely as we are bombarded with more and more online content. As a result, video ads, particularly shorter stories, are likely to be the top marketing and advertising preference in 2025.
While all video formats are generally effective with today’s consumers, shorter ones, like clips, have proven to yield more results. For brand awareness, this can be just a few seconds, but for B2B marketing, videos that are up to 15 seconds receive the best engagement.
In addition to video, immersive experiences will also become superior in 2025, though these must be carefully crafted in the B2B space. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) will create memorable customer experiences, especially in industries like retail and real estate.
I think we're going to see a pretty intense fight for content difference. It will become an all-out war on who can provide the superior content experience. But the danger of this is that the core focus of content will get lost. Especially with the new AI tools bouncing around, we'll see two types of content emerge; AI-generated sub-par content vs highly enganging content experiences.
Natasha Vickery-Orme, Creative Content Director
5. SMS marketing
Offering a level of immediacy and personalisation that other channels struggle to match, SMS marketing is emerging as a valuable tool in B2B. While traditionally seen as a B2C tactic, SMS is now carving a space in B2B strategies, particularly for its ability to cut through inbox overload and connect with prospects and customers directly.
Source: Textline
My prediction for 2025 is that we're going to see a lot more SMS marketing. It's already a big deal in B2C, and we’re starting to see a little more of it in B2B too. Definitely one to watch! In terms of demand generation, SMS could be really valuable for many reasons such as re-engaging leads that have been inactive for a while, meeting reminders, sending out webinar invites and announcing new products.
Holly Jones, Marketing Manager
As this trend develops, SMS marketing will become an essential part of a multi-channel strategy, providing businesses with yet another way to stay top of mind and drive more meaningful connections with their audience.
6. Financially responsible marketing
The average marketing budget dropped by 15% in 2024 compared to 2023 spending, having already dropped by 4.2% from 2022. These decreasing budgets look set to continue in 2025 as costs rise.
The focus on fiscally responsible marketing is becoming paramount, and businesses must carefully balance profitability with delivering effective, personalised customer experiences.
Demand generation marketers will increasingly rely on advanced tools to measure their campaign performance and fine-tune tailored content and incentives. This strategic shift enables more efficient marketing investments and the ability to evaluate the true impact of each initiative.
By embracing data-driven approaches, marketers can boost customer engagement while ensuring every penny spent is driving measurable results.
I believe demand generation will continue evolving towards a model where marketers aim to achieve more (or the same) with less budget, placing greater emphasis on highly qualified leads.
While they are still searching for the right product to accomplish this, there's a shift from simply filling the top of the funnel to making a meaningful impact with their budgets (although some will still do this).
This shift also means that marketers are seeking creativity in how intent data is used, with a preference for smarter, more innovative approaches to reach and engage their audience more than they have seen before.
Will Smibert, CEO
How businesses can make the most of these trends
It’s clear that the demand generation landscape is evolving, influenced by technology, customer behaviour and market trends. Here’s how businesses can harness its potential through their demand generation marketing strategies.
Prioritising B2C experiences in the B2B world
B2B companies should increasingly adopt B2C-inspired approaches, focusing on personalised and visually engaging experiences.
I anticipate B2B spaces leaning more into personalized, B2C-style engagement. Additionally, the use of AI for trend prediction and simulations will continue to grow.
Daniel Donator, Campaign Manager
This can be done by leveraging AI-powered account intelligence and machine learning to deliver hyper-relevant interactions to B2B buyers. For example, offering intuitive websites or tailored product recommendations.
Navigating non-linear customer paths
The customer journey isn’t straightforward, especially in the B2B space and in 2025, businesses need to embrace the reality of non-linear customer paths.
Source: Gartner
As buyers move back and forth between stages in the decision-making process, demand generation strategies must offer omnichannel engagement, real-time targeting and adaptive content to stay relevant.
This should range from blogs and long-form articles to engaging and immersive content like videos and tutorials.
Plus, using ABM and intent data, marketing teams can target B2B buyers on the platforms where they spend most of their time to increase visibility.
Grow and utilise add-on services to foster loyalty
As we’ve said, post-purchase engagement is crucial, and in order to retain customers and enhance lifetime value, businesses should offer add-on services that complement core products.
As cross-platform lead nurturing becomes more common practice, we will likely see lead gen providers adding more services to their offerings. If a business can enlist one provider to imagine and execute the nurture process across all touchpoints (versus hiring multiple vendors), it will result in a more cohesive outreach strategy and ultimately higher conversions.
Gina Kirkwood, Senior Campaign Manager
These supplementary offerings, whether they’re premium support packages, in-depth analytics, or educational resources, enhance the customer experience by addressing specific needs that go beyond your core product or service. When strategically aligned with customer goals, add-ons not only deepen engagement but also strengthen the perception of your brand as a trusted partner invested in their success.
Experiment with standalone projects over constant campaigns
2025 is all about quality over quantity, and that is why demand generation marketers should consider more standalone projects.
We’re not suggesting that sustained campaigns are no longer relevant. However, targeted initiatives designed to address specific goals or audiences are more likely to foster genuine relationships.
These projects could range from limited-time product launches to high-impact webinars. This approach will allow companies to experiment with marketing and content ideas, gather insights and quickly pivot strategies based on the response.
Again, AI and intent data will be key to gathering and providing data-driven insights that make this possible.
The future of demand generation
In 2025, demand generation will be more agile, personalised and trust-oriented than ever before. It will continue to evolve, embracing new technologies to generate meaningful content at every stage of the buyer journey.
Brand trust in the lead generation industry will determine the overall success of that company. In a market with countless choices, trust simplifies decision-making, as clients feel confident in the quality and reliability of trusted brands. You build that trust by consistently delivering a quality product, being open about challenges, pricing, values etc. and prioritising customer needs.
Josh Dietert, Senior Account Director
By embracing innovative tools and tactics, businesses can build genuine and meaningful relationships with their customers, remain top-of-mind for buyers, and ensure a consistent pipeline of opportunities in the ever-changing B2B landscape.
