The document
Two different jobs that get budgeted as one
Demand generation makes people want what you do. Lead generation captures the ones who already do. Both are necessary, they are measured on different clocks, and judged by each other’s numbers each one looks like a failure.
Which of the two you are short of decides everything about what to do next, and a business with no demand and a business with no capture both look identical from the outside: not enough enquiries.
What is inside
Three sections, and the third is the one that matters
The first two explain each discipline and how to tell it is working. The third is how to run both so they feed each other, which is where most of the value is.
Demand generation
The work that happens before anyone is looking for you. It asks for nothing, which is exactly why people will consume it voluntarily.
How to tell it is working
Branded search, direct arrivals and share of non-paid traffic, measured by the quarter. Judged on this week’s conversion rate it always looks like a failure.
Capture
The exchange: something genuinely useful for a way to continue the conversation. It only works on attention that already exists.
The three rates
Form start, form completion, and lead to enquiry. The last one is the only one that pays, and a list that grows while enquiries do not is capturing the wrong people.
Running both
Start with value, add the bridge, then nurture everything you capture. Each step is close to useless without the one before it.
Which metrics belong where
Most of the confusion between these two is a measurement problem. One page settles which numbers belong to which discipline.
How it works
Six questions tell you which half you are missing
The diagnostic at the front is worth the two minutes, because the two problems have opposite solutions and no amount of landing page work fixes the one caused by not enough demand.
By the numbers
What you are getting
Before you ask
Questions people send us about this one
Which one should a small business start with?
Usually demand, and it is usually the one that gets cut. Capture without demand means paying for every visitor and arguing about price on every call, because nobody arrives already knowing who you are.
How long before demand work shows anything?
Two quarters is a fair expectation, and the lag is the whole reason it is undersupplied. The document is specific about what to watch monthly, quarterly and annually so you are not judging it on the wrong clock.
What counts as a bridge?
A resource that extends what someone was just reading rather than changing the subject. A post about form abandonment leads to a form audit, not to a general newsletter. If a stranger would not see the connection in a second, it belongs on a different page.
Do I need particular software?
No, and the tools page is deliberately short. A website you control, any one of the common email platforms, and GA4 with Search Console. The constraint is almost never the software.
