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The B2B Buyer Cycle Part One: Research

Home » The B2B Buyer Cycle Part One: Research

In this 5-part series Digital Giants will walk you through the path the modern buyer follows from identification to purchase. Plus, we’ll help you understand the fundamental role marketing automation plays in your buyer’s journey.

 

It is an essential B2B marketing best practice to understand the B2B buyer decision-map, as well as the decision-stages customers go through as they decide to buy from you.

 

Creating and sharing the information your customers want at each stage of their decision process will dramatically improve the findability, relevance, and ultimately the value of your content; this will increase qualified traffic, visitor engagement, and conversions.

 

At the introductory stage, the prospect is committed to resolving their problem and focused on finding a solution. Research has shown us that the buyer has taken control of their own buying experience: 78% start the buying process with a web search, and 50% research through peer reviews, blogs, and news sites before engaging directly with companies themselves.

What does this mean for you?

The B2B Buyer Cycle Giantism

Play to your expertise!

While the buyer has a basic knowledge of the problem that they have, they’re unsure of what solutions are available.

For starters, your buyer will begin researching with general search terms. It can be extremely daunting and difficult for buyers to wade through the endless amounts of information provided online. So be sure to provide your buyer with lots of educational downloadable material, customer reviews and testimonials to help them in their decision process.  Expand their knowledge with how your expertise solves their pain points; when you solve their problem you’re helping them expand their knowledge in a strategic way.

Enter marketing automation.

 

A marketing automation tool will capture prospect information and track content downloads.  In addition, using a marketing automation tool will give you the opportunity to gradually send content to buyers who have provided their information (remember all those handy resources you have on your website) with a lead nurturing campaign. Educational content like white papers, analyst reports, and industry reports are going to be critical at this stage. Build out a few simple lead nurturing campaigns to gradually deliver this content to buyers. Remember to lay off the heavy sales pitch; this stage is all about building trust with the buyer and establishing your company as a credible source of information.

 

Are you interested in learning more? Reach out to our client success team today.

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