12 Demand Generation Tools To Get More Leads

Companies looking to attract potential customers should use demand generation to build interest and nurture prospects until they're ready to take action. Using the right demand generation tools can help you get your brand in front of your target audience and convert them into leads.

1. WordPress
2. Wix
3. Canva
4. HubSpot Marketing Hub
5. Mailchimp
6. Buffer
7. Later
8. Hotjar
9. Google Search Console
10. AnswerThePublic
11. Google Forms
12. Make

1. WordPress

Creating a website is a crucial part of establishing an online presence for demand generation. Regular blog posts and articles help your company build more demand, generating 67% more leads than brands without blogs.

By sharing valuable information, you position your company as an expert in your field, which builds trust and encourages more visitors to become leads.

One of the main reasons people choose WordPress is its user-friendly content marketing and built-in SEO features. WordPress also makes it easy to add forms so you can collect email addresses and other lead data to grow your lead gen list. You can design custom landing pages as well to run targeted marketing campaigns.

Even with all its great features, new users may find it a bit challenging to learn how to use all the plugins and features. You also need to update the software and plugins regularly. This can take time and may require help from a professional if you are not very tech-savvy.

*Monthly and annual plans may increase with added features.

Small businesses can start with the Explorer plan, which comes with 24/7 support and customizable fonts and colors. It also allows you to process payments right on your site with a 4% transaction fee.

2. Wix

Wix is another website-building platform similar to WordPress. Its prominent feature is its drag-and-drop builder, which makes creating multiple landing pages easier.

You can add social media buttons or a form to collect contact information. Wix also has integrations that help you share demos or special offers quickly. However, there may be custom designs or features that Wix might not fully support.

The Business plan is suitable for small businesses because of its standard marketing suite and standard e-commerce features.

3. Canva

Once your website is ready, you need to create content. Incorporate images into your pages, especially blog posts. Articles with visuals get 94% more views than those made up of pure text.

Canva is one of the easiest tools for small businesses to create eye-catching designs. You can produce engaging blog and social media graphics, brochures, or website banners without needing pro design skills.

Plus, Canva integrates well with marketing automation services, such as HubSpot and Mailchimp, so you can understand what designs work best and adapt your demand generation strategies over time.

Of course, using Canva still has limitations, especially in creating deeply customized illustrations or high-end motion graphics. Still, it offers more than enough to support demand generation for most small teams.

For most small businesses, the Pro plan is enough to create professional-looking graphics and support their demand generation efforts.

4. HubSpot Marketing Hub

The HubSpot Marketing Hub stands out as a demand-generation tool because it offers a free version with a built-in CRM, landing page creator, and email marketing features. These tools help teams nurture leads and capture customer data, helping business owners move people through the buyer journey.

HubSpot's free CRM lets you manage contact details and monitor visitor behavior on your website. You can see which pages they visit, what content they engage with, and how long they spend on your site, so your team can respond to prospects quickly. It then lets you create and send targeted messages based on user preference.

While HubSpot Marketing Hub offers strong free features, some advanced functions, like AI workflows or deeper management modules, require a paid upgrade. Also, businesses with very large contact lists could find pricing climbs once they pass certain email or contact thresholds.

For small businesses with limited budgets, the Starter Customer plan lets you enjoy HubSpot's marketing features without significant investment. It also has sales features, which help you nurture leads more effectively.

5. Mailchimp

Mailchimp lets you send targeted emails and set up automated sequences in real time. Its free plan allows you to collect addresses from your website or landing pages and then split them into groups based on interests or buyer behavior.

Use its basic automation features for sending welcome emails or drip campaigns. This frees up time so your teams can focus on content marketing and social media promotions that bring in fresh visitors.

60% of customers prefer to get brand updates via email. By automating email campaigns, you keep in touch with leads at the right time, nurturing them until they're ready to buy and think of your brand first.

Mailchimp's free plan does limit the number of leads you can store or emails you can send each month. Moreover, if you need fully customized templates or intricate social ad scheduling, you might find the free plan too basic.

The Free and Essentials plans work best for startups and solopreneurs looking to build initial email lists. Growing businesses might find the Standard plan more suitable since it provides deeper insights into what your audience likes.

6. Buffer

Creating a content plan and sticking to it makes for consistent posting, which is what we aim for rather than frequency. Buffer specializes in scheduling posts across multiple social media channels so that your target audience can see two fresh posts every 24 hours.

Buffer's free plan lets you queue posts in advance, so your content goes live right when prospects are online. With its built-in analytics, you can review performance data, like clicks and shares, to see which posts resonate with buyers and help you refine your demand generation strategies.

There's a limit to how many posts you can queue in the free tier, which restricts how many updates you can schedule each day. More advanced features, such as a robust calendar view or advanced audience segmentation, also sit behind a higher price tier.

The Essentials plan is ideal for small businesses, offering more features and flexibility than the free plan. The affordable pricing makes it accessible for growing businesses that are doing demand generation themselves.

7. Later

Later stands out as one of the easiest tools for small teams to manage Instagram and visual content marketing. It provides a visual content calendar specifically designed for Instagram, allowing businesses to preview and schedule posts before they go live.

Its drag-and-drop calendar helps you plan images, videos, and even short reels, so your content always looks on-brand. Meanwhile, basic analytics lets you see which posts resonate best, allowing you to focus on high-performing ideas. Over time, these insights can shape better strategies that lead to more conversions.

Later doesn't have a free plan but offers a 14-day free trial. Its Starter plan offers only 30 posts per social profile per month, which might limit content-heavy brands.

*Later also has plans for social media agencies and large enterprises.

For businesses needing more comprehensive Instagram scheduling, the Growth plan provides unlimited posts and advanced features like hashtag suggestions and competitor tracking.

8. Hotjar

The average time on page for most users across industries is 52 seconds. Knowing where these web visitors abandon your site can help you create better marketing campaigns.

Hotjar's heatmap is a visual tool that reveals which parts of your site get the most attention by tracking mouse movements and clicks. Session recordings, on the other hand, show a real replay of users scrolling, clicking, or leaving.

Lastly, surveys let you gather direct feedback from customers to confirm demand generation metrics gathered from the heatmap and session recordings. Doing so also gives you an idea of why visitors might be struggling with your site's user experience.

Hotjar has a forever-free plan, but it's limited to only 35 daily sessions. If your company sees a lot of traffic, you may quickly hit a limit.

The Plus plan can give you enough insights into user behavior even with a sample of 3,000 sessions per month. It's a smart choice for small to medium-sized businesses that want to understand their website visitors without spending too much on analytics.

9. Google Search Console

Google Search Console (GSC) is one of the best free tools small teams can use for demand generation. It provides detailed data about how visitors find your site, which keywords drive traffic, and how your pages rank over time.

You can check the exact queries people use to arrive at your site, then build high-value content marketing around those terms to capture buyer intent. GSC also flags site-level issues, like broken links or poor mobile responsiveness, which affect user experience and can cause friction in the lead generation funnel.

While you get essential analytics with GSC, you may need additional marketing or management software if you want deeper funnel tracking. Plus, Search Console data isn't updated in real-time, so decisions must rely on signals that are a few hours old.

GSC is free for site owners and administrators to use.

10. AnswerThePublic

If you're looking for content ideas, AnswerThePublic can give you insights into the exact questions people type into search engines. It gathers data from search autocomplete and then shows you those queries in easy-to-read clusters.

It's a great way to inform content marketing and shape future demand generation strategies because it pinpoints the phrases users actively seek. As a result, your blog posts, landing pages, and other materials can answer those needs directly.

The free version limits how many daily searches you can conduct, so heavy usage or large-scale management might require a paid tier. Another disadvantage is that the tool's data can become repetitive over time, especially with similar query clusters.

AnswerThePublic offers a one-time payment option for lifetime access to its features. Before committing, consider the long-term value against potential topic redundancy.

11. Google Forms

Google Forms is another free tool for small teams that want a no-cost solution to gather customer data. It supports demand generation by letting you embed forms on your website, send them via email, or share them on social media.

You can create simple text fields to collect names, emails, and phone numbers. You can also add custom queries and multiple-choice questions to understand customer preferences.

The form has built-in analytics so you can see instant visualizations of responses. Moreover, because Google Forms works with Google Sheets, you can sync responses with other marketing automation or CRM software.

Google Forms is a great free tool, but it has limited customization capabilities. If you need advanced survey features like conditional logic, skip patterns, or complex branching, you might need a more robust form-building platform.

Google Forms is free to use.

12. Make

Make makes demand generation easier through no-code automation. It connects over 2,000 apps to coordinate social media campaigns, capture leads from your website, and distribute content for better customer engagement.

You can have the platform automatically collect leads from site visits, webinar signups, or social channels and route them to your CRM. Make also lets you set up dynamic marketing flows that tailor messages based on user actions or buyer demographics.

For instance, if visitors watch a product demo, you can schedule targeted marketing campaigns or add them to a specialized email sequence. As such, you generate demand by following up at the right time.

One downside, though, is that although Make offers a drag-and-drop interface, some features can be complex for first-time users. Its free tier also allows just 1,000 operations per month. Large-scale lead generation might exceed that cap if you handle a high volume of tasks.

The Core plan is perfect for small teams that want to leverage automation for demand generation. This way, you can work more efficiently and focus on strategic marketing efforts.

Take the guesswork out of leads with demand generation tools

Demand generation tools make the process of finding leads and nurturing them with the right content easier. With the right strategies, you can transform cold prospects into loyal customers through analytics, automation, and targeted content.

Managing multiple tools can feel overwhelming, especially for small business owners. Let Learo handle the gruntwork of lead generation so you can focus on growing your business and serving your customers. Book a free consultation today!

FAQs

Why is it important to increase demand for your company?

Using demand generation tools helps businesses find the right audience and nurture leads efficiently. By automating marketing tasks, you can save time and improve results by targeting potential customers at the right time.

How do you track demand?

You can track demand by monitoring website traffic, lead conversions, and engagement using tools like Google Search Console, HubSpot, and Hotjar.

These give you an idea of how many people visit your website, which pages they view, and how they interact with your content. Email marketing tools like Mailchimp and social media platforms also track engagement to measure audience interest.

What demand generation tools are best for startups?

Budget is a big consideration for startups, so they need cost-effective tools that are easy to use and offer automation. WordPress or Wix help you build a website easily to establish an online presence, while Canva lets you create eye-catching marketing graphics.

Meanwhile, HubSpot Marketing Hub and Mailchimp offer CRM and automated email marketing to nurture leads. For tracking SEO performance, Google Search Console is a free and powerful option. These tools provide essential features without requiring a large budget, making them ideal for startups looking to grow.

What main sources of demand should I focus on?

Businesses should focus on different demand sources, including organic search (SEO), paid advertising (Google and social media ads), email marketing, social media engagement, referrals, and webinars.

Ranking higher on search engines attracts long-term visitors, while ads provide instant visibility. Email campaigns then nurture leads, and social media builds brand awareness. Additionally, word-of-mouth and industry events help establish credibility, paving the way for a well-rounded strategy to generate consistent demand.

Can I use an AI tool for demand generation?

Yes, you can use AI for demand generation to automate repetitive tasks or get inspiration for content. However, remember that AI should be used to support your demand generation campaign, not lead it. It cannot replace human creativity and critical thinking.

While AI-powered tools like ChatGPT and Jasper can create content, from blog posts to email copies, human oversight is still needed to make sure their output is accurate and relevant to your target audience's needs.

Additionally, AI chatbots like Chatfuel can handle customer inquiries and qualify leads, but they may not always understand complex queries like a human would.