If you’re here, there might be three reasons:
- You are tasked with bringing in more leads through your demand gen campaigns but are unsure which tools to use.
- You have tried the free and expensive tools, but your pipeline still looks like a leaking faucet.
- You see your competitors revving up campaign after campaign, and you are still staring at your ICP spreadsheet from 2022.
Whichever the case, we’ve curated a list of the best demand generation tools to help you throughout the process of building, launching, and tracking demand generation campaigns.
Let’s get into it.
Building Your Demand Generation Toolstack: 22 Must-Have Software
The best demand generation campaigns encapsulate your audience and showcase your brand’s value proposition. They focus on generating demand by getting the word out using various inbound marketing efforts, such as content creation, paid campaigns, SEO, email marketing, and ABM.
Let's look at the best demand generation tools to understand your audience's interests, analyze competitor’s demand generation campaigns, and optimize your website.
Email Marketing Software
1. ZeroBounce: For monitoring email deliverability
Maintaining a good email deliverability rate is paramount to ensure your emails are landing in your subscriber’s inbox. And, that’s what ZeroBounce helps you with. The tool helps you validate your email lists by flagging spam or incorrect addresses, running authentication checks, and warming up any new domain.
ZeroBounce’s standout features
ZerounBounce’s features build upon each other by giving you a complete solution. Here’s how:
- Email list validation: Upload your email list, and the tool will weed out bad subscribers—spam, incorrect, or bounced addresses.
- Activity data: Once you validate the list, you can enable this feature to see each subscriber’s interaction history—opens, clicks, and conversions.
- Automated email placement: Set up an automated workflow to warm up new domains or IP addresses and monitor the inbox or spam placement rate.
Segment unengaged subscribers from the engaged ones. Then, create targeted email campaigns to pique the interest of dormant subscribers to boost engagement and generate leads.
2. Mailerlite: For managing email marketing campaigns
Mailerlite offers a complete email marketing solution that helps you build an audience and generate awareness about your brand and product. From campaign building to analyzing performance, you can do it all with Mailerlite.
Mailerlite’s standout features
- Newsletter editor: With its drag-and-drop editor, you can write, design, and send newsletters to engage your subscribers by sharing relevant and engaging brand-building content.
- Email automation: Build multi-step automated sequences, from promotional campaigns to re-engagement campaigns, to send targeted messaging.
- Personalization: Create and manage audience segments based on your subscribers' past interactions, conversion rate, and engagement level.
Run account-based marketing (ABM) campaigns by segmenting your subscribers to build personalized email campaigns addressing their pain points.
Lead Generation and Customer Engagement Tools
3. Supademo: For building interactive AI product demos
Supademo is an interactive product demo creation tool that helps you generate demand by showcasing your products' value proposition.
Try one of the interactive demos here. 👇🏼
Supademo’s standout features
- Dynamic variables: Quickly target specific audience segments with the viewer's name, email, or company name. You can add these variables to the demo's title, hotspots, and CTA buttons.
- AI voiceovers: Add synthetic voices powered by AI models like OpenAI and ElevenLabs to create realistic, life-like voices across tones, accents, and 15+ languages.
- Analytics: Use performance metrics like viewer counts, average engagement, and completion rates to gain in-depth insights into your demo's performance.
You can use Supademo for varying use cases, including:
1. Capture website visitors: Embed feature-specific interactive demos across product pages to give visitors a preview of each feature’s capability.
2. Personalize user journey: Using conditional branching, Target accounts based on their interaction and behavioral data.
3. Content repurposing: You can repurpose interactive walkthroughs into videos or GIFs to share in social media posts, email campaigns, or 1:1 communication.
Also read: 7 Ways to Generate Marketing Qualified Leads Using Interactive Product Demos.
4. Leadpages: For building landing pages
Leadpages helps you build compelling landing pages to host your brand assets like e-books, webinars, and product launches. The tool also lets you create forms and surveys that you can embed on landing pages for capturing potential lead data.
Leadpages standout features
- Landing pages: Drag-and-drop landing page builder to promote e-books, webinars, whitepapers, and other assets for demand generation.
- Team collaboration: Get feedback from your team with native commenting tools. You can invite teammates, contractors, and virtual assistants.
- Lead management: Collect, store, and manage leads from landing pages or signup forms.
Create a product launch landing page with a video showcase and a "Notify Me" button to gauge interest and build anticipation without explicitly collecting leads.
Also read: The Essential Metrics for Effective Demand Generation.
5. Wisepops: For creating website pop-ups
Wisepops is a pop-up building tool that lets you create interactive and engaging pop-ups, trigger push notifications, and launch surveys.
Wisepops’s standout features
- No-code pop-up builder: Build pop-ups, bars, and embeds based on targeted segmentation and embedding interactive elements like quizzes, spin the wheel, and videos.
- Analytics: Track onsite performance metrics, such as engagement rate throughout the funnel. You can generate reports based on visitors’ pop-up or push notification interactions.
- Onsite notifications: Trigger timely, relevant, personalized notifications to engage on-site visitors.
Create a time-sensitive pop-up promoting a free webinar on industry trends, increasing brand visibility and thought leadership without directly collecting leads.
6. Chili Piper: For tracking and managing inbound leads
Chili Piper is a comprehensive demand generation and conversion platform that automates the process of connecting potential leads with sales teams.
Chili Piper’s standout features
- ChiliCal: Let potential leads book calls with you without much friction. The tool also helps with rescheduling, adjusting time zones, and fetching available schedules from your calendar.
- Chat: AI-powered chatbot to answer visitor’s queries in real-time by sharing the right resources, fetching demo booking links, and routing to the right sales rep.
- Lead routing: Automatically route leads to the right reps based on the data filled in the forms.
Implement a "Book a Demo" button on high-traffic pages. This will allow interested visitors to instantly schedule product demonstrations, reducing friction in the buyer's journey.
Content Marketing Tools
7. Ghost: For managing website’s content
Ghost is an open-source content publishing platform that lets you build custom web pages to showcase content to your audience.
Ghost’s standout features
- Rich media and dynamic cards: Add 20+ widgets within your content, such as video embeds, callouts, dropdowns, collapsible texts, quotes, and sign-up forms.
- Content preview: See how your content will look on mobile, desktop, tablet, and social platforms, and make necessary changes before you hit publish.
- Content management: Organize pages by assigning tags, authors, and publishing dates.
Publishing and distributing long-form blog content optimized for SEO to drive organic traffic and capture leads through email newsletter signups.
8. Descript: For editing videos and podcasts
Descript in one of the most intuitive video and podcast editing tools that offers AI-powered editing, transcription, and repurposing capabilities.
Descript’s standout features
- Video editing: Edit video transcript like you edit a document while previewing changes in real-time. AI-powered editing expedites this process by helping you remove awkward pauses and phrases.
- Clips: The tool picks clips from a long video with high engagement potential, which you can refine by adding transitions, changing aspect ratios, or adding sound effects.
- Transcription: Generates near-accurate transcripts from videos and podcasts in 20+ languages and assigns speaker labels.
Edit and repurpose podcast episodes or video content into short, shareable clips for social media to expand reach and attract new audiences.
9. Canva: For designing brand assets
Canva is an intuitive, creative platform for designing social media posts, ad campaigns, workflows, and web pages. The tool has thousands of templates, font styles, and design tools to help you create eye-catching, scroll-stopping designs.
Canva’s standout features
- Brand kit: Create custom guidelines highlighting fonts, color palettes, logos, headings, templates, and more.
- Content planner: Plan your design assets posting schedules with built-in calendars.
- Team collaboration: Invite your team to get feedback via comments, offer edit access to make changes, and see design approvals by sharing the designs with stakeholders.
Design eye-catching infographics summarizing industry reports or trends, sharing them on social media to increase brand visibility and demonstrate expertise.
SEO tools
10. Ahrefs: For conducting keyword and competitor research
Ahrefs is a package of SEO tools for managing your website's overall authority and health. It makes this possible by helping you conduct in-depth keyword research, review your competitors, identify linking opportunities, and run site audits.
Ahrefs standout features
- Keyword explorer: Generate and analyze keywords, including traffic potential, volume, and ranking difficulty, and target them to bring traffic to your website and other marketing channels.
- Site audit: Run a complete analysis of your website to uncover technical and on-page SEO to boost your SEO health score and appear for more search queries.
- Rank tracker: Track the site’s pages' desktop and mobile rankings on Google over a selected time frame.
Use ‘Keyword Explorer’ to identify topics related to free tool in your niche by using keyword modifier like checker, calculator, and generator.
11. Positional: For optimizing content pages
Positional is the new kid on the block that helps you with content optimization, keyword research, site audits, and content performance.
Positonal’s standout features
- Optimize: Improve new and existing content pages with smart recommendations related to structure, topic coverage, information gaps, readability, and visual elements.
- Content analytics: Monitor and flag underperforming pages by understanding scroll depth, bounce rate, and on-page time with heat maps, click maps, and roadmaps.
- Editorial calendar: Store and manage all content pages by tracking their status and SEO score with the built-in calendar view.
Use the ‘Unanswered question’ tab to identify gaps in new and existing content pages to boost search visibility.
12. Google Trends: For identifying trending content topics
Google Trends is a free tool that helps you search for popular terms in real-time. The tool fetches data from Google’s database and helps you evaluate a topic’s interest levels in a particular region, language, and over a specific time frame.
Google Trends standout features
- Group analysis: Analyze up to five terms simultaneously and compare their search volume to identify peak search duration and time.
- Advanced filtering: Monitor search popularity using location, time, category, and search type filters.
- Trending now: A separate section that shows terms getting traction in a particular region. You can customize the results by using filters.
Analyze seasonal search patterns for key products or topics related to your business. Identify peak periods of interest and use this insight to plan your content calendar.
Paid Marketing Campaign Tools
13. Adroll: For running cross-channel ad campaigns
Adroll is an all-in-one digital advertising platform that helps you create, run, and advertise across channels, including Display, native, video, social media ads (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, TikTok), and email marketing.
Adroll’s standout features
- Retargeting: Optimize retargeting ads (display, native, and/or video) bidding amount and timings ads with BidIQ, a machine learning-powered bidding system.
- Analytics: Track and monitor your ads' performance across channels, campaigns, and journeys, and build custom reports that showcase key metrics.
- Automation: Build cross-channel automated sequences to trigger ads to the right viewer at the right time.
Create a brand awareness campaign targeting audience interested in specific product features and introduce them to your unique value proposition through display ads.
14. Google Ads Transparency Center: For understanding competitor’s advertising strategies
Google Ads Transparency Center offers a comprehensive database of ads on Google across channels, formats, and regions. The tool lets you analyze and understand competitor’s advertising strategies to feed your demand generation strategies.
Google Ads Transparency Center’s standout features
- Ad format selection: The tool gives access to ads in three formats—images, texts, and video—based on Google searches, YouTube, Maps, Play, and Shopping.
- Region and time-based filters: Check ads that ran during a specific time frame and in a specific region.
- URL-specific ad research: Enter your competitor’s URL and get access to all their ads across Google platforms.
Enter competitor URLs and analyze their ad campaigns during a specific period, e.g., the holiday season. Understand the type of copy they write, visuals used, or techniques used to capture visitor’s attention.
Also read: Stay Ahead of the Competition with These 5 Pipeline Generation Strategies
Social Media Tools
15. Hootsuite: For managing social media posts
Hootsuite is a complete social media management package. It allows you to generate social posts, schedule them, and view performance data to build better social strategies.
Hootsuite’s standout features
- Social media analytics: Monitor your social posts’s performance with detailed metrics like engagement, impressions, and shares. The tool also recommends the best time to post based on historical data.
- OwlyWriter: AI-powered tool that helps you generate content ideas, captions, hashtags, and edit social copy.
- Inbox and messaging: Manage and respond to comments, messages, and queries across social channels in a single place.
Create a coordinated social media campaign across multiple platforms to promote a new product feature, increasing brand visibility and engagement without direct lead capture.
16. Brandwatch: For keeping an eye over brand mention
Brandwatch is a social listening tool for tracking brand mentions, upcoming trends, and influencers in your niche.
Brandwatch’s standout features
- Consumer Intelligence: Monitor what people talk about on social platforms and generate detailed reports on trends and related topics.
- Influencer marketing: Discover influencers from a database of 24m+ global creators, initiate conversations and manage partnerships with them.
Monitor industry conversations and trending topics to create timely, relevant content that positions your brand as a thought leader and increases organic reach.
Analytics and Tracking Tools
17. Google Analytics: For tracking website traffic
Google Analytics is indispensable for overseeing your site’s traffic, assessing engagement levels, and monitoring conversions.
Google Analytics standout features
- Real-time performance dashboard: Track performance and incoming traffic as it happens. The tool also offers personalized insights based on historical and real-time data on the same dashboard.
- Custom reports: Besides pre-built reports (engagement, acquisition, and user journey reports), you can build custom reports by configuring the data sources and other variables.
- Integrations: GA4 integrates across the Google suite (Google Search Console, Google Ads, Google Cloud, etc.) and almost with all the tools mentioned in this article.
Analyze user engagement patterns to identify high-performing content topics and formats, informing your content strategy to create more materials that resonate with potential customers.
18. Hotjar: For understanding on-page user behavior
Hotjar is a heat mapping tool that allows you to track a visitor's journey and understand their on-site behavior. Based on real-time visitor behavior analysis, the tool helps you identify optimization opportunities.
Hotjar standout features
- Heatmaps: Understand how users interact with your website through detailed analytics into scroll-depth, clicks, and drop-off points.
- Recordings: Gives a detailed capture of the journey from each scroll to keyboard strokes.
- Funnels: Track user’s behavior with custom funnel reports to understand how visitors move from one step to another.
Use heatmaps to optimize the placement of key product information and calls to action on your website. This will enhance the user experience and increase engagement with your brand message.
19. VWO: For running A/B test campaigns
VWO is a complete website optimization software that analyzes user behavior and helps you run A/B testing across web pages.
VWO’s standout features
- We and mobile testing: Track and test every aspect of your website—UI elements, search results, web copy, and algorithms—no matter the device.
- Advanced audience segmentation: Create segments based on 1000+ variables, including traffic source, device type, visitor type, operating system, browser, behavioral data, custom user events, and even data from third-party sources such as Tag Manager, Segment, and Marketo.
- On-page surveys: Create and embed surveys across website pages based on visitor interaction.
Test different value propositions on your homepage to identify messaging that resonates best with your target audience, improving overall brand perception and engagement
Marketing Automation Platforms
20. Ortto: For creating multi-channel automation
Ortto is a comprehensive marketing automation and customer data platform that offers omnichannel workflow management.
Ortto’s standout features
- Journeys: Build automated sequences based on customer data to trigger the right message across channels, such as emails, SMS, and push notifications.
- Checkmate tracking: Ortto’s proprietary tracking script that collects first-party data and isn’t blocked by ad servers, email servers, and browsers.
- Lead scoring: Build custom scores based on demographic, firmographic, and behavioral data to set up scores.
Create a multi-touch brand awareness campaign across email, social media, and display ads, tailoring content based on user interactions to nurture interest without explicit lead capture.
21. Zapier: For automating repetitive tasks across platforms
Zapier is one of the easiest automation tools to automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks such as data entry or status updates. Its blank canvas allows you to build any imaginable workflow—from basics to advanced.
Zapier’s standout features
- Zaps: Drag-and-drop workflow builder to create and publish automated sequences.
- Integrations: Connects with over 7,000 apps, letting you trigger actions from your existing toolstack.
- Tables: Store contact database in built-in table view and trigger actions based on this database.
Automate the process of sharing new blog posts across multiple platforms, increasing content reach and brand visibility without manual effort.
Account-Based Marketing (ABM) Tools
22. Demandbase: For tracking customers journey
Demandbase is an account-based GTM platform that unifies marketing and sales campaigns. It uses AI and advanced targeting capabilities to identify high-value accounts, engage decision-makers with personalized content, and accelerate pipeline velocity, driving more conversation and revenue growth.
Demandbase’s standout features
- Data enrichment and cleaning: It fills gaps in existing data, enriches accounts and leads, and appends data to make it holistic. It integrates with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamic 365, Hubspot, Marketo, etc.
- Account identification and scoring: Identifies and scores accounts that match your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
- Analytics: Collect and analyze vast amounts of intent data from various sources, including B2B content consumption, public business registries, and visitor engagement on your website.
Identify accounts visiting money pages frequently, such as pricing pages for your CRM tool. Based on this, you can develop targeted ad campaigns and alert the right rep to engage with them
Start Building Your Demand Generation Toolkit
The tools we've covered can be invaluable for marketing and sales teams aiming to develop or expand their demand generation strategy.
Below, we have summarized all the tools and free and paid pricing plans. From website performance optimization to lead generation, start picking your demand gen tools.
FAQs
What is a demand generation tool?
A demand generation tool helps you create and capture interest in your products or services among your target audience. With these tools, you can develop mix of demand generation strategies including content marketing, email marketing, social media, SEO, and paid advertising.
Which are the best free demand generation tools?
Google Trends, Google Analytics, and Google Ads Transparency Centre are some of the top free demand gen tools. Many other software, such as Canva, Supademo, Chili Piper, Ahrefs, and Mailerlite, offer a forever free plan with limited access to features.
How do demand gen tools help with building an effective demand generation strategy?
Demand generation tools help you attract, engage, and convert leads through automated campaigns, audience segmentation, customer relationship management, and performance analytics. These tools simplify content distribution, personalize interactions, and provide insights into the customer journey, making it easier to target the right audience with relevant content.
How lead generation is different from demand generation?
Demand generation is a broader strategy that aims to educate, engage, and build trust with your target audience to maintain their interest in your brand, product, or service. Lead generation, on the other hand, is a specific component within demand generation. It focuses on the stage where interested individuals transition into leads by providing their contact information or demonstrating a clear interest in your offering.
What are the best lead generation tools?
- Supademo for engaging website visitors by showcasing an interactive self-paced demo of your product's features.
- Leadpages for building landing pages to attract potential leads
- Chili Piper to schedule meetings with qualified leads and route them to the sales team
- Demandbase for building account-based marketing strategy
