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Demand generation is an increasingly popular marketing strategy. The approach is self-explanatory: the goal is to generate interest and demand for a product or service. How? You serve your ideal customers content that shows them they have a problem that needs to be solved, and you are the one to solve that problem. All this while keeping the ultimate goal in mind: to create inbound leads.
If you’re looking for a full guide on demand generation, make sure to check out our previous blog.
In case you are further along your demand generation journey and looking for an agency, you are in the right place. In Europe, several different agencies specialise in Demand Generation. An abundance of potential partners who can help you set up, execute or improve a demand generation strategy. To make your life a little bit easier we’ve listed the:
Top 10 Demand Generation Agencies in Europe:
1. Dapper - the Growth Agency
2. LeadFabric
3. Merkle
4. BabelQuest
5. Pearl Lemon
6. Gripped
7. Transmission Agency
8. Square 2 Marketing
9. The Marketing Practice
10. Fame
1. Dapper - the Growth Agency
- Best For: B2B companies
- Company Size: 25+
- Founded In: 2018
- Founders: Tycho Luijten & Yvo Wander
- Specialization: Dapper approaches company growth holistically through the lens of demand generation. They leverage high-quality content created and tailored for the needs of the ICP (ideal customer profile) to generate demand.
Dapper is a growth marketing agency that specialises in B2B Demand Generation for scale-ups. They work with B2B- SaaS and Service businesses. Dapper works with Demand Gen teams. They create a team compromised of the marketing specialists that you miss on your team led by a seasoned demand generation strategist. They integrate with your teams and treat the client's goals as their own.
Dapper is known for its unique Niche Famous Framework approach. Through this approach, they use marketing to make your company an authority within its niche using high-quality content and high-frequency distribution.
Dapper is composed of a specialised team of growth marketers with experience in all digital marketing channels ranging from paid ads, SEO, content creation, etc. This, coupled with an in-house creative department allows Dapper to cover all their clients’ needs. Dapper is a one-stop shop for all things demand generation.
If you are ready to create or optimise your ‘marketing machine’ Dapper can support you along all the steps on the way.
2. LeadFabric
- Best For: Marketing Automation
- Company Size: 11-50
- Founded In: 2008
- Founder: Koen de Witte
- Specialization: LeadFabric specializes in improving marketing and sales processes by leveraging marketing automation tools and technologies, such as sales/customer service chatbots.
One of the first three agencies in Europe that offer B2B marketing solutions. They help speed up the revenue growth of B2B companies through, amongst others, demand generation. Their head office is based in Brussels.
LeadFabric works at the crossroads of three functions: business consulting, systems integration and a creative agency. Through this approach, they are able to offer services tailored to as much or as little as their clients require.
3. Merkle
- Best For: Customer Experience
- Company Size: 12,000+
- Founded In: 1988
- Founder: David Williams
- Specialization: Merkle is a forerunner in the customer experience space, using a unique data-driven approach to help customers in a variety of industries such as: Health, Automotive, Financial Services, NGOs, High Tech, and more.
Originating from Columbia USA, this company now has many locations all over the world and all over Europe. Besides their customer experience consulting services, Merkle also offers demand generation services. They combine their data-driven approach with their award-winning creatives to build a digital-focused, paid media journey.
4. BabelQuest
- Best For: All things HubSpot
- Company Size: 33
- Founded in: 2010
- Founder: Eric Murphy
- Specialization: BabelQuest specializes in helping companies get the most out of their investment in HubSpot. They do this for SMEs and enterprises and are experts in both optimizing your current setup as well as helping you create your setup from scratch.
This agency, from the UK, is a HubSpot elite partner meaning they know the platform inside out. Within the company, they offer three areas of expertise: Technical (HubSpot experts), Marketing, and Website. Besides their specialisation in HubSpot, they also offer demand generation approaches. If your organization is looking to integrate a demand generation strategy through HubSpot, BabelQuest is the partner to choose.
5. Pearl Lemon
- Best For: SEO & PPC
- Company Size: 112
- Founded In: 2016
- Founders: Deepak Shukla
- Specialization: Pearl Lemon specializes in SEO and PPC services for a range of industries from e-commerce to healthcare and everything in between. Their approach to SEO is tailored per industry and they have even been awarded for their SEO efforts!
Pearl Lemon operates in both the UK and the US. They have a unique offering through which they can help companies double their organic traffic within 180 days and even generate 119 inbound leads per month. Besides this, they offer demand generation services where they combine strategic knowledge, creativity and marketing technology at each stage of the lead lifecycle.
6. Gripped
- Best For: SaaS & Tech Industry
- Company Size: 40
- Founded In: 2017
- Founder: Steve Eveleigh
- Specialization: Gripped is a B2B digital agency specializing in SaaS and tech. Using a combination of content marketing, SEO, automation, paid media and market understanding they help you transform your leads into paying customers.
Gripped is a digital agency with headquarters in London and they offer a threefold service. They help founders execute their go-to-market strategy, they help marketing leaders fill skill gaps in their teams and they help venture capitalists grow their SaaS investments.
7. Transmission Agency
- Best For: Tech Industry
- Company Size: 372
- Founded In: 2013
- Founders: Chris Bagnall & Pauline Bohl
- Specialization: Transmission Agency specializes in demand gen services for the tech industry, with a focus on unifying the efforts of the sales and marketing departments.
Transmission Agency is headquartered in London and is a B2B demand gen agency that has a holistic full-funnel approach. They can assist on a range of issues such as improving lead quality, identifying intent-driven leads or increasing AMB-specific leads. Transmission Agency structures its service in four pillars: strategy, creative & content, activation and marketing technology.
8. Square 2 Marketing
- Best For: Personalized Support
- Company Size: 21
- Founded In: 2006
- Founders: Mike Lieberman & Eric Keiles
- Specialization: Square 2 Marketing specialises through its unique revenue-generation system (RGS). They provide an easy-to-use system that prioritizes revenue throughout the overarching strategy that they develop for clients.
Square 2 is a full-service B2B marketing agency with its headquarters in Pennsylvania. They are HubSpot partners and are committed to driving demand for tech businesses. They offer services related to strategy, tactics, campaigns and technology.
9. The Marketing Practice
- Best For: B2B Tech Companies
- Company Size: 470
- Founded In: 2002
- Founder: Clive McNamara
- Specialization: The Marketing Practice specialises in a range of services, combining a mix of brand, demand generation, media, data, positioning and ABM. Their unique combination of services allows B2B tech companies to reach their objectives.
The Marketing Practice is a London-based marketing agency offering demand generation services. Within their demand generation service, they split their approach across lead generation, pipeline generation, integrated demand generation and deal-based marketing.
10. Fame
- Best For: B2B Podcasts
- Company Size: 110
- Founded In: 2019
- Founder: Tom Hunt
- Specialization: Fame specializes in B2B podcasts. They define strategy, find and book guests, train your host, produce the audio, promote the show, and much more!
Fame is a unique agency on this list as they have doubled down on their niche and focus on B2B podcasts. They stand by the demand generation philosophy and they help their clients produce high-quality content with the aim of becoming famous in their niche. Besides podcast marketing, Fame also offers services to improve social media presence and email marketing.
Why choose demand generation in the first place?
It's tempting to seek quick fixes for immediate results, but a long-term strategy is key for sustainable growth. Integrating demand generation into your marketing plan is a wise move for lasting success. However, this does not have to mean that you have to disregard the fast short-term hacks completely. A balanced strategy is the best way to go.
To help you maintain this balance, we suggest that you balance long and short-term initiatives in the following way:
Why would you hire an agency?
Why hire an agency? Incorporating demand generation into a long-term strategy can feel daunting, especially for internal marketing teams. It's a specialized field, and seeking expert assistance can streamline the process. Before making a decision, consider the following:
Before making a decision, consider the following:
- Ensure the agency's pricing aligns with your budget. Ensure that you have weighed the benefits and costs of the service you are interested in.
- Assess whether a smaller or larger agency suits your needs and budget.
- Spend the necessary time needed to define a strategy that fully aligns with your overall marketing and growth goals.
- Choose an agency that will provide regular communication and clear reporting.
- Make adjustments early to avoid wasting time and resources.
By taking these factors into account, you can ensure that cooperation between your company and the demand generation agency will go as smoothly as possible, which will save you a lot of effort, time, and money in the long run.
Conclusion
Do keep in mind the best demand generation agency for your business depends on your specific needs, goals and budget. That is why we recommend conducting research and planning introduction calls with agencies that appeal to you.
- Objectives: Always define your demand generation goals as specifically as possible. Once the goals are in place, decide which agency suits your needs, budget, company culture, etc.
- Budget: Do not be ambiguous about your budget for your projects. It is essential for you to precisely define how much you are willing/able to spend and to communicate this number with the demand generation agency. This ensures that both you and the agency are on the same page.
- Communication: Stay in direct and frequent contact with your agency. Establish a clear timeline for meetings and updates from the start of your collaboration.
- Expertise & Services: Choose an agency that is an expert in their respective field. For example, if your goal is lead generation, choose an agency specializing in this (even if they are specialised in other fields as well). As a rule of thumb, focus only on the services relevant to your business goals and ignore all the rest.
- Cultural Fit: Lastly, there should be a good cultural fit between your company and the hired agency. If your company cultures do not harmonise, it can be tricky to keep communication at the desired level, resulting in problems down the line. This can be easily avoided when working with an agency whose culture is similar to your own.
