Demand Capture vs. Demand Creation: One Content System That’ll Get You Leads Now AND Build Your Reputation Forever

If you’re an agency founder with an empty pipeline, you probably don’t have a “conversion” problem as much as a “reality” problem. Most B2B services leaders obsess over capturing demand from cold audiences, hoping every visitor is in a rush to sign tomorrow. When that doesn’t pay the bills fast enough, they try a new tactic. They fire an agency or consultant, change their messaging, and stop spending altogether, blaming the channel, not the system.

You need to break the cycle by building a two-speed content operating system. Instead of jamming 100% of your traffic into a single funnel, you need two engines driving demand at the same time: demand capture (harvest what exists) and demand creation (build what doesn’t yet exist).

Below, you’ll find the exact formulas for separating these workflows, why you should use the 60/40 rule to allocate your resources, and why you need different metrics for tracking them so you don’t kill your long-term growth for short-term visibility.

The Problem: You’re Only Talking to 5% of the Room

The fundamental problem of agency marketing is the math you’re letting influence your content. You’re likely building 100% of your content to speak to buyers who are ready to buy today—but they only represent a tiny fraction of your economic theory of total addressable market calculation.

The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute says 95% of B2B buyers are not in-market for your services right now. They’re not looking for a new agency, they haven’t allocated budget, and they’re not searching for answers. Only 5% of buyers are actively “in-market” at any time.

This creates a “Dark Funnel” where most future revenue is invisible to intent tracking. 6sense buying stages research confirms that early buying stages (the “Target” and “Awareness” phases) happen well before a buyer fills out a form. If you’re only marketing to the “Decision” phase (the 5%), you are invisible to the 95% who will actually become your customers next quarter or next year.

This means you need to bifurcate your efforts into two definitions:

• Demand capture (5%) — harvest what already exists. These buyers know they have a problem and are actively shopping for solutions. You just need to show up.
• Demand creation (95%) — shape how the market thinks. These buyers don’t yet know they have a problem. Your job is to educate them on the problem and build scientific explanation of brand memory structures Ehrenberg-Bass so your agency is the only logical solution when they do enter the market.

Concept Definitions: The 95/5 Rule vs. The Buying Stages

The Solution: Use the 60/40 Rule on Your Resource Map

If you accept the need for two engines, the immediate question is how to allocate resources. How much time and budget should be devoted to immediate sales versus long-term brand building? Founders often default to 100% activation (sales) because it feels “productive,” but this creates a plateau in growth once the low-hanging fruit is exhausted.

The most robust framework for this decision comes from Les Binet and Peter Field’s research, The Long and the Short of It. Their analysis suggests an optimal effectiveness ratio:

• 60% of your resources should be dedicated to brand building (demand creation).
• 40% of your resources should be dedicated to sales activation (demand capture).

It’s not coincidental that brand building is a force multiplier for activation and demand capture. Recast data highlights that brand spend is heavily incremental—you can see this in their technical documentation for marketing incrementality testing. It makes every dollar you spend on activation (pay-per-click (PPC), search engine optimization (SEO), outbound) work significantly harder by reducing sensitivity and increasing click-through rates. Without the “long” (brand/creation), the “short” (activation/capture) becomes exponentially more costly and less effective.

You can use this immediately as a call to action: audit your current funnel resource map and rebalance it. This doesn’t mean you’re no longer selling, but rather that you stop expecting brand work to generate sales now and ensure you have a balanced resource diet.

Resource Allocation Strategy

Anchor 1: Build the Demand Capture Engine (the 5%)

The demand capture goal is to be uncreative. You’re not trying to change anyone’s mind; you’re trying to intercept the people who already know what they want and search for it. Because capture is at the decision stage, they are judging you on trust, price, and fit.

Don’t get “creative” with capture ads or content. Be creative and generate new content for the other 60%. The more “creative” capture is, the more friction you add. Instead, look for high-intent channels where the user intent is obvious. According to FirstPageSage, organic channels like SEO have significantly higher conversion rates than social because people searching are actively trying to solve this problem. You also get fewer tire kickers.

Focus your 40% capture allocation on these four actions:

1. The Directory Strategy (Clutch/G2)

The low-hanging fruit for service agencies is third-party profile directories. These platforms show up organically to “Best [Service] Agency” searches, bringing highly engaged, high-intent customers to you. According to Belkins, just having a profile isn’t enough. Optimize as follows:

• Review volume matters more than review age. Have a review plan in place.
• Upload detailed portfolio services to the site.
• If your budget allows, sponsor the directory. You gain efficiency because searchers already intend to find a service.

2. Bottom-Funnel SEO Strategy

Control your keyword strategy to focus on buying keywords—not educational or exploratory terms. For example, keywords including “Agency,” “Services,” “Company,” or “Consultants.” Low volume but higher intent. FirstPageSage data indicates B2B SEO conversion rates can number around 2.4%, much higher than social channels. Create “Top X Agencies” or “X vs Y Service” pages instead of “What Is X” posts.

3. High-Intent Paid Search Strategy (PPC)

Paid search is expensive, but if you don’t bid on these terms, someone else will. Check in with AgencyAnalytics prior to launching campaigns to measure your performance against others in your industry. Budgets must be focused on “buying” keywords, not “learning” or “exploring.” To ensure maximum efficiency, consult an advanced technical guide for PPC negative keyword optimization to avoid wasting spend on irrelevant queries.

4. Retargeting Strategy (Closing the Loop)

95% of your web visitors won’t convert the first time they come, so retargeting is a great opportunity to hold a prospect’s tentative interest. This is not a reminder about awareness but a reminder of the last “book a call” they began to complete.

Anchor 2: Build the Demand Creation Engine (the 95%)

Creation is engineering, not farming. Creation is what changes the perception of companies and entrepreneurs who think they don’t need your services right now. Your job is not to convince them to buy today, but to build a brand that occupies their imagination.

You can’t just publish “educational” content that reads like Wikipedia. You need to use a strategic framework for category design in B2B markets and sharpen your positioning, both of which you can learn about in Play Bigger. The best companies don’t sell a product—they sell categories. They make the status quo the enemy faction and their product the new way.

A Point of View (POV) is necessary for this kind of marketing because it’s your wedge. Your wedge is the POV no competitor can use or replicate. Here’s a step-by-step guide to building your creation content:

Step 1: Find the Enemy (the Problem)

Creation starts by creating tension. You must tell the buyer what they are afraid to think better than they can. Sometimes, the enemy is something other than the competition.

• Action: Identify the industry consensus broken by this problem and opportunity.

Step 2: Positioning Matters (the Context)

Obviously Awesome shows us that context matters. A product or idea isn’t “good” or “bad;” simply, it’s good or bad for a given context.

• Action: Define who you are for and who you’re not for. Everyone can’t be your market.

Step 3: Name the Game (the Category Name)

Play Bigger identifies the key step of giving your new approach a name. The example they give is the difference between an “email marketing agency” and a “retention revenue partner.” The latter tells us where to focus: on outcomes rather than practices.

Step 4: Zero-Click Distribution

The 95% aren’t searching for you, so you have to go to them. This means publishing on social platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter that require users to click through to access your primary content. Providing the actual content on social platforms builds brand trust and authority without the need for capture.

Invest in this narrative. According to Pavilion, you should invest in narrative because it protects your prices from competitors undercutting your services.

Measure It: Separate Signals or Risk Killing Growth

The easiest way to kill a demand creation engine is to measure it with demand capture metrics. If you measure your “Play Bigger” podcast in terms of direct listeners within week one, you second-guess your strategy by week two. This is a classic case of time lag; you can find more on this in a statistical analysis of marketing conversion time lag.

Dreamdata proves that B2B marketing happens over a long period of time. It may take 192 days from initial contact to contract. You need a hybrid dashboard to respect this reality.

Hybrid Dashboard: Metric Mapping

Don’t mix and match metrics. You may even need to discuss them at different times of the week. To better understand the invisible parts of the journey, implement a methodology for self-reported attribution in dark social research.

For demand creation, you can use a technical formula for calculating share of search as a brand proxy to measure how your market influence is growing relative to competitors.

Take Action: The 90-Day Cycle

You can’t create both engines simultaneously in 90 days. The most effective approach is to secure cash flow before reaching for the stars.

1. The Capture Audit
   • Focus: Fix the leaky bucket.
   • Actions: Ask for new Clutch or G2 reviews from current clients. Ensure bottom-funnel landing pages get you on the surface. Set up retargeting ads on Facebook/LinkedIn.
2. The Narrative Sprint
   • Focus: Define the message.
   • Actions: Positioning Workshop. Complete the POV Framework. Openly discuss the problem with the audience.
3. The Creation Launch
   • Focus: Turn on the 60%.
   • Actions: Publish POV posts three times per week on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Set up Share of Search as the baseline.

Create a Plan: Next Steps

Make these moves first thing Monday morning and move towards leads now and leads forever.

• Step 1: Do the 95-5 Audit on your past ten pieces of content. If they all say “Book a demo,” no one is ready. Change your tactic.
• Step 2: Pick a directory profile—Clutch or G2—to install this week. Upload two case studies and ask for three reviews from current clients.
• Step 3: Schedule a Positioning Sprint with your team to complete the Enemy -> Context -> Solution narrative.