Demand generation strategy: ICP, buying groups and buyer behaviour
The strategy foundation of demand generation: defining the ICP and buying group, why the old B2B model broke, and how AI now sits in the buying journey.
Demand generation starts with a targeting decision, not a campaign: who to reach, who to exclude and how those buyers actually buy now. Settle those questions before committing budget. For the framework overview, see the demand generation guide.
Build the strategy foundation
- Defining the ICP, the buying group, and the anti-target: which accounts to pursue (the ideal customer profile, or ICP), which people inside them decide and which segments to exclude on purpose. Start here.
- What changed in B2B buying: the structural shifts that broke the lead-based model.
- AI search and AI agents in B2B buying: how buyers now research inside AI tools and what that means for being found and cited rather than just ranked.
Why strategy comes before the system
A demand engine built on a weak targeting decision runs efficiently in the wrong direction. The strategy foundation avoids three expensive mistakes: spending on accounts that will never buy, addressing one contact when a buying group makes the B2B purchase decision, and designing campaigns around an outdated picture of the buying process.
Buying-group behaviour has shifted faster than most demand programmes have.
Once targeting and buying behaviour are understood, the system foundations establish the quality, data and governance that turn the strategy into clean pipeline. The core concepts provide the shared definitions used across both.
Where to go next
The Demand Generation Framework: A Guide for B2B and B2C Revenue Teams
A practical guide to demand generation as one framework: creation, influence and capture, and where to go deep on quality, signals and measurement.
Demand Generation Concepts: Definitions and First Principles
The core concepts of demand generation in one place: how the components work together, unit economics, market contexts and how it differs from adjacent disciplines.
Demand Generation System Foundations: Quality, Data, Signals, and Governance
The system foundations of demand generation: lead quality, qualification, data truth, signals, measurement and the governance that keeps them honest.
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