The B2B buying journey: What marketing leaders need to know

Only if the accounts meet the engagement threshold and pass qualification criteria, you can add them to your ABM programs, to try to proactively activate them. Note, not every engagement represents a buying intent, nor is every account a good fit. Demand generation activities in the earlier stages create a pool of engaged accounts interested in your solution. For example, while educating our buyers about the Account-Based Marketing (ABM) approach, we’ll point out things that are often missed in ABM programs (such as warm-up programs, account research, pilot abm campaigns…).

But individual salespeople often create many of their own new opportunities. Sure, Marketing might have created an environment for success, and in some businesses, they might even be the source of many opportunities. In consumer marketing (B2C), you can make an amazing and provocative piece of creative, make people laugh, slap the logo on the end, and you’re done. While true, this is a sure sign of someone who’s not had a lot of experience marketing to businesses. Marketers who are more familiar with consumer marketing than business to business marketing will tell us, “Businesses don’t buy, people do”.

Complementing this, Google Analytics lets us understand traffic sources, time spent on our site, and other key metrics. Knowing the typical paths on your site is one thing, but it’s another to understand when and why customers use different channels before buying. For instance, your blog or story pages are often perfect jumping-off points to educate users. You’ll get heat maps and also be able to see user behavior as they move from page to page.

Buyers who make purchases through digital self-service channels are 1.65 times more likely to experience regret compared to those who buy through traditional, rep-led interactions. When buyers experience strong alignment between a supplier’s website and their conversations with sales representatives, they’re 2.8 times more likely to close a high-quality deal. For example, executives who made substantial initial purchases were more likely to double down and commit even more resources by the third decision point — despite earlier setbacks.

Make The Most Of Buyer Insights Data

” into an AI tool—do something about it because you’re not in the race. In-person events can still outperform most online channels for pipeline generation. Think real expert-led webinars, insight-rich guides or reports, and evergreen content you can recycle across campaigns.

• Top-of-funnel content engagement is 3x higher for companies with a documented buyer journey
• The various buyer’s journey stages describe the path along which people move towards making a purchase.
• For B2B teams, this means short-form video should be a standard asset in every product or service launch.
• When asked about their preference, 63% said an omnichannel approach would be ideal, compared to 28% who want “all online.”
• It’s answering the questions they’re already asking, showing them what’s possible, and making it easy for them to see your product or service as the clear choice.

A customer touchpoint is any point in which your customer engages with your brand. “Perhaps it’s a cumbersome checkout process, lack of clear product information, or slower delivery times,” she says. Then it’s your job to serve them the content, products, and offers in line with their desires.

The engagement and reach of these posts is extremely low, and impact even lower. The vast majority of B2B brands use social to drop links to their website, promote events, and publish company news that delivers 0 value to buyers. They start buying when the issues or opportunities become a strategic priority, ask their trusted network for recommendations, and buy from people they know, like and trust. This detailed map takes a different visual approach that allows for a comparison between touchpoints.

Final editorial decision

That means conducting market research to develop personas and using historical operational data to find out how each buyer persona can best be served. Buyers in the awareness stage are more receptive to brand messaging and brand identity content, than “here’s a product you’ll love” messaging. In social, that might also mean performing social listening to find people Tweeting or posting about their issue, and responding with links to helpful information – not necessarily that your business owns. In the awareness stage, the buyer’s journey last thing people want is a pitch from sales reps or advertisement-heavy content. And if the buyer is asking questions – consciously or subconsciously – it’s your job as a business to be able to provide answers at every step of the journey. Being able to provide that collateral is what will edge your business out ahead of your competitors.

I can also customize the date range to focus on the specific period that I want to analyze and base my decisions on. This exercise can reveal key insights into their behaviors, pain points, and priorities. Regularly check in with customers to ensure they’re finding value.

What all these approaches have in common

They should also be mindful of how prospects perceive both their business and the marketplace as a whole. Businesses should continue to provide helpful content to educate prospects and highlight how their solution is different or better than the competition. Doing so creates a well-oiled machine that turns prospects into customers time after time. The buyer journey is important because it enables you to examine your prospects’ choices at each stage, thereby improving your customer acquisition process. Successful businesses know the first purchase is merely the beginning of the relationship, so this process prioritizes retention.