7 B2B Demand Gen Trends for 2025

Hello Marketers.

Happy New Year and welcome to 2025. As we plan to thrive this year, my goal for the newsletter is to provide weekly proven resources that are applicable.

Here is this week’s Product Weekly.

Kindly share the newsletter to your Marketer colleagues.

𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘢 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘉2𝘉 𝘚𝘢𝘢𝘚 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘪𝘯 2025 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘷𝘦𝘥 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘶𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘺𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘴. 𝘞𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘰𝘦𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘥𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴, 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵 𝘮𝘰𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥, 𝘦𝘵𝘤. 𝘗𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘣𝘭𝘰𝘨 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴, 𝘴𝘰𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘮𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘢 𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴, 𝘸𝘩𝘪𝘵𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴, 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺 𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘳𝘺.

I’ve been running a lot of tests, and this version has outperformed all previous ones:

✅ Open rate: 81% (Total opens divided by sends)
✅ Click to open rate: 17% (Clicks divided by opens)

Here’s what I think made it work so well:

1️⃣ My face is already familiar to this audience - This one’s a given, right? I’ve been showing up for this audience for a while before my head pops into their inbox.

2️⃣ A provocative headline - What’s the easiest way to get someone to take action? Tell them they won’t. 😅

3️⃣ Copy that ties directly to the product - This works especially well for Fibbler since people can run ads like this and activate the data in our platform.

4️⃣ Clear and valuable CTA - Don’t skip this. You need an offer that makes the next step feel easy. This tweak alone doubled our CTR.

So Clay just hit unicorn status with a $40M raise at $1.25B valuation.

During their early stages, their co-founder Varun Anand recognized that the traditional B2B sales demo process was broken. What they've achieved with reverse demos is a MASTERCLASS in assisted PLG.

Here's how it worked:

☑ Before every demo, they'd ask prospects to bring a specific data enrichment problem they wanted to solve.

☑ When the call began, prospects would share their screen while Clay's team used Zoom annotations to guide them through the solution. Their goal was audaciously simple: solve the customer's problem within 30 minutes.

☑ For example, they helped a PE firm built lists for an example portfolio company, combining Google Maps and Yelp as sources to find business owner emails for recently opened local businesses.

This was value creation in real-time.

After running over 100 reverse demos, Clay discovered something powerful.

Not only were prospects converting after experiencing these immediate wins, but each demo served as a real-time product feedback loop. When they noticed users struggling with certain interfaces, their engineering team would ship UX improvements immediately.

You can use this data to make your product even more self-serve by addressing common friction points.

Most founders assume that PLG means completely removing humans from the equation.

In fact, that kind of approach can actually backfire if your product is in a new category or has a relatively complex use case.

Case-in-point: When Keap (a past client) noticed free users weren’t getting value from their product, they decided to offer free audits for small businesses.

Their team would analyze the business's processes and help automate one key workflow. This not only showcased the value of the software but also empowered users to take the next step.

As a result, their net revenue retention went from 58% to 106%.

PLG was never about eliminating humans.

Clay just proved it at scale.