According to Google’s research on the Changing face of Marketing B2B marketing is getting younger with the whole profile of the average B2B buyer changing massively over the last two years – in fact nearly half of people involved in the B2B buying research process are Millennials under 35 (and for anyone of that generation get your mind off Robbie Williams crooning MILLENNIUM in moody greyscale!).So what? Well, if the research stacks up then not only are most of your key instigators more savvy, content hungry and self-informing than ever but they’re also poles apart from the traditional C-Suite of buyers you may be targeting…
To help your team decipher what this really means for B2B Marketers we’ve been looking at the trends, habits and more importantly how to reach them effectively.
Google’s own research suggests around 90% of buying journeys start online – it’s hardly surprising that this is heavily influenced by the Millennials and their increased participation in B2B buying decisions. The Millennials, defined as “born after 1980” have grown up in a world where email and the internet have always been a part of their work life – so whilst Google research shows that 89% of buyers use the internet to inform their decisions - for Millennials it’s likely to be closer to 100%.
The familiarity of these new buyers with technology is reflected in the type of content they like to consume and how they consume it. The majority of buyers, up to 70%, are using videos to help them make their buying decisions and nearly half of them are using their mobiles to find it – maybe more important is that on average buyers will make 12 searches before even reaching out to a provider of any sort.
So, we have a group of information hungry, self-informing potential buyers flicking between multiple content streams that don’t fit into the traditional sales, C-Suite profile…Erm Help? Back to our original question on how these changes affect us as B2B marketers – well for starters they want engaging content delivered at the ZMOT therefore we all need to tailor our approach and guide them into the sales funnel to stand any chance of being on the contact list after search 12.
Digital Marketing is, of course, key to attracting prospects into the sales funnel, strategies such as SEO, SEM, Social and Pay Per Click will help guide people to your website which should serve as your shop front. When they have found the website you need to be able feed them informative, valuable content to capture their details and begin to engage with them directly.
Once you’ve started the relationship Engagement should be your key goal – after all buyers only buy when they’re ready to buy – your job is to ensure your brand is front of mind. There are a number of different engagement methods you can use such as social media, blogs and email. In order to maintain influence and engagement a personalised drip feed of content running over a number of weeks via a combination of methods proves most effective. This allows the prospect to continue their own research at their own pace but also by continually feeding informative content to them it will keep your brand at the front their mind.
To ensure you work with the prospect at their pace a good marketing automation solution is by far the easiest way to tailor not only when and how they receive content but also what mixture of content they receive based on their behaviours.
It is also worth remembering that this method can be used with your existing client and prospect database providing it is properly profiled and segmented, to re-energies old relationships or start new conversations. Not only that but by understanding your prospects profile you can either build or purchase a segmented list of new prospects to feed into your engagement program.
The whole purpose of any engagement program is to nurture a prospect to the point where they are ready to engage with the sales team. This could be left to the prospect to decide when they are ready to pick up the phone however there is no harm in reaching out to them directly providing this is done as part of nurture program and doesn't come over as a telesales call.
B2B marketing is still changing at a remarkable rate with more and more decisions being taken by the more tech savvy professional Millennials – remember they’re not just researching you either! They (as we all do in our buying habits) inform themselves around solutions before looking at brand or products – looking wider at multiple solutions as well as comparing competitors and the alternatives.
In deciphering the trends, habits and effective B2B Marketing solutions it seems that good content, information and intelligence is King. We all need to engage with prospects earlier and give them the information they need to make their own buying decisions. These days it is hard to hide behind tricks and gimmicks as quality will always win through however having a combination of intelligent content coupled with a real understanding of what drives your buyers and when to engage will help you shine out from the competition.
