B2B demand generation is a long-term game. Quick wins and temporary surges in leads, pipeline, and even revenue can be rewarding; and deceiving. If the fundamentals are shaky, the risks of declining demand are real.

Take great ad campaigns, for example. They can work really, really well. For young companies, they are probably the fastest way to turn things around. But an equally great number of businesses are burning a good chunk of their budget on underperforming campaigns, and they don’t know why.

Even with early successes, tactics often run their course quickly. Metrics drop off a cliff, yet costs stay high.

So, what is the reason why certain demand generation initiatives are not working as well as they used to. Or never took off in the first place?

B2B businesses, in particular, suffer from a lack of direction when it comes to brand, messaging, and content. But, how can a company market itself and its services if it doesn’t know exactly what it is advertising?

The "what" in this case is a stand-in for the question: "What does the business actually stand for?" Which problem does it really solve, and what value does it really provide? Too many businesses don't have a good answer to that question.

And herein lies one of the single biggest issues B2B businesses often fail to address: They haven’t built their fundamentals. Demand generation, in itself the ability to influence buyers to raise their hand and willingly spend their money on a specific product or service, is not an island. It’s connected to a web of hundreds of other factors and categories. Brand signals, reputation, content and storytelling, and the alignment of outbound and inbound motions are just a handful of examples.

Quick wins can and should be achieved whenever possible. But to truly build a reliable revenue engine, a B2B demand generation agency has to build the fundamentals.

Here is a little checklist of the things they should be addressing:

• • • • Brand Story: Is there a defined brand story for the business?
      • Message Alignment: Are its brand messages aligned with prospect pain?
      • Consistency: Are brand values and messages well presented across all platforms, including websites, social media, business listings, etc.?
      • Sales & Marketing Alignment: Are sales and marketing exchanging information regularly? And how is marketing supporting the sales team with content and collateral?
      • Content Strategy: Does the business have a long-term content strategy that goes beyond a simple blog?
      • Authority Building: How are internal subject matter experts being leveraged to build market trust?
      • Ad Relevancy: Is ad copy directly tied to brand messages and pain points?
      • And many more ...