The changing face of B2B buyer behaviour

Attribution: Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg, Fotograf: Willy Pragher

4 differences in buyer behaviour - and how you need

to respond to stay ahead

There have been some key shifts in B2B

buyer behaviour...

...from who the buyers

are to what they do

before they buy

Source: Google,: The Changing B2B Buyer

Who's buying?

Millennials

are

under-35 digital natives

They've never known a world

without the internet

– and that affects everything they

do...

... blurring the line

between professional and personal lives.

As marketers, we need to make sure we're

taking this into account when engaging with

these buyers.

Even if millennials don't

make the final purchase

decision, they influence it – from

initial research and

shortlists through to the

final outcome. 81% of non-C-suite researchers influence purchase decisions

Think with Google, 2015

...And it's no longer a solitary

figure that makes the decision –

it's made by teams.

So how are these buyers

different? And how can we adapt to that?

Difference 1

Millennials are tech-savvy and mobile

They look for meaningful

data and expect

to find it instantly and

easily.

And they're always online.

So how do we reach them?

1. With online

interaction and a

24/7 digital

presence to

provide the

answers they're

looking for.

How do we reach

them?

2. By offering different levels of insight

for their decision-making process.

How do we reach them?

3. And by making

all our assets

mobile-friendly

and easy to

access.

How do we reach them?

Difference 2

Millennials do lots ofonline research

At the

beginning,

they aren't searching by

brand...

B2B buyers conduct 12 internet searches

before engaging with a brand.

Think with Google, 2015

Image: booksandbeverages.org

... so we should offer different assets to

match their appetite: in a variety of

formats

with varying levels

of detail

Be visible on sites where

they spend time regularly.

Talk to your customers and your

sales people to find out your

prospects' online watering holes.

Conduct 'social listening' by

monitoring forums and social

media.

Publish articles about topics that

interest them on sites they

visit frequently.

Difference 3

Millennials don'tlike spin

They form opinions after contact with real people online.

"They see social sharing as a way to gather input and learn from

others"

Harvard Business

Review, 2015

85% use social media to research products and services for their companies.

Sacunas, B2B Report:

Millennials

They use forums, social media and reviews to

do this.

So how should we respond?

Image: blogtrepreneur.com/smi

By sharing our

stories through

demos, videos,

and panels –

followed up with

engagement on

social media.

How should we

respond?

Difference 4

Millennials don'tclock off

They multi-task

while

online.

Image: Richard Giles

They have:

decreasing

attention spans...

... a need for instant gratification.

... a need to be entertained

So how can we get their attention?

87% have phones by their sides every second of the day Mitek and Zogby Analytics

70% watch videos during the research stages

Short ones for credibility

and overviews

Long ones for detail

Image: University of Haifa Younes & Soraya Nazarian Library

Does your content reflect

how your buyers buy?

Image: Bowie15, Dreamstime

Talk to us today about

creating B2B content that

fuels profitable sales

conversations.

info@hn-marketing.co.uk

+44 1628 622187

LinkedIn.com/company/

hn-marketing-ltd

@hnmarketing

hn-marketing.co.uk/contact-us