What's the difference between demand generation, lead management and marketing automation?

Steve, a good question and you are right in that these terms are used interchangeably which only adds to the confusion. Here is how we at Annuitas define the three terms.

- Demand Generation is the practice of creating demand or leads and is in essence the top of the funnel activity which gets the inquiries into the dialogue stage with an organization. There are many components to making demand generation successful for an organization and as seen in many studies many companies still struggle with it, but it should be a key discipline for any B2B organization.

- Despite what many have stated, lead management is not a software or a solution. Lead Management is a defined set of processes that manage the lead from creation through to close and into the customer lifecycle. A solid lead management process framework is a set of seven individual yet holistic processes including:

- Data Management
- Lead Planning
- Lead Routing
- Lead Qualification (including definitions and scoring)
- Lead Nurturing
- Content Development Process
- Metrics

Looking at any one of these process areas apart from the other will not provide the solid end-to-end process that will enable an organization to engage and manage their buyer dialogues.

- Marketing Automation is an enabling technology that will power both demand generation and lead management. Automation allows for the a consistent and repeatable communications to your buyers, tracks their behavior, allows for lead qualification, data segmentation, metrics and other features.

While marketing automation can be a great addition to any companies marketing department, it should not be looked at as being able to deliver or improve your demand generation strategies or lead management process.

Carlos Hidalgo
The Annuitas Group
@cahidalgo