Originally sent to our clients on September the 6th, 2023. Subscriber here.
We are here to give you tools and tangible information (oxymoron alert) that will help you make your very next decision. This is why for our very 2nd issue we’re summarizing 15 consumer studies and giving you
What Delays the B2B Buying Process?
GoodFirm, a research and software rating platform, published a survey that looks into why the purchasing timeline is getting longer for B2B buyers.
- 29.3% of respondents say price disagreements as the main reason the buying process takes longer to close
- Product and service package comes as the next culprit at 24.4%, followed by lack of information at 19.5%
- 40.5% of B2B buyers said the vendor’s knowledge of the company was the top influencer of their buying decision. The vendor’s knowledge of the solution provided and the business landscape followed as a close second and third
- 26.2% of the buyers surveyed said they use the vendor’s website to check for product features. Close behind, 23.8% of surveyors said they check the website to explore a company’s services and offerings, while pricing came third at 21.4%
- 54.8% of buyers agree that finding genuine reviews of B2B services is a difficult task, as most reviews are inauthentic and unverified
- 52.4% of B2B buyers prefer to transact online than offline. This was followed by 39.5% preferring face-to-face interactions
Who sees your B2B content?
- 86% of B2B content consumption is done by others outside the C-Suite, the majority of which are middle-management and juniors, according to Netline, a marketing company.
- When targeting companies with less than 1,000 employees, your message has a better chance of reaching C-level execs.
- Information Technology is king when it comes to B2B, with 38.8% of all consumed B2B content. Finance follows next with 10.6% and HR at 9.6%
- B2B content consumption tends to be evenly spread across Monday (18.3%), Tuesday (18.6%), Wednesday (18.3%), and Thursday (18.23%)
- 53.2% of B2B content is consumed between 8 am and 1 pm. Side note, always check your individual stats, your peak time takes into consideration the average between the time zone and activity levels of all your audience
When do they buy?
- The 95-5 Rule: 95% of your potential buyers aren’t ready to buy today, but are likely to buy your product sometime in the future. Tyrona Heath, director at the B2B Institute at LinkedIn shared their research which shows 96% of B2B marketers expect to see the main effect of their ad campaigns within 2 weeks.
- According to the institute, 80% of companies change banks every five years, 75% of surveyed businesses upgrade their computers once every four years, and even on a B2C level, 90% of consumers buy cars once every 10 years.
- 31% of B2B buyers expect to make purchases within the 12 months following initial exposure to relevant content, according to Netline, a marketing company.
Which content type is most effective for B2Bs?
- 47% of B2B buyers consume three to five pieces of content before engaging with a salesperson and 90% of buyers won’t take a cold call, as per the Content Marketing Institute
- 70% of B2B markets say their customers rely on industry-expert advice, according to Top Rank
- 68% of B2B customers prefer to research independently online, according to the Content Marketing Institute. Professionals registering for a webinar are 29% more likely to make a purchasing decision in the following six months, Netline’s report added
- 95% of B2B buyers said videos had a pivotal role in their buying decisions, according to Brightcove, a video solution provider.
- 58% of buyers—all types—believe videos are helpful when learning about a given product or a service. Furthermore, 40% said they use videos to learn how to solve a problem, and about 36% noted they watch videos to better understand a problem they’re experiencing, as per Marketing Charts, a quantitative research company.
- Podcasts are gaining traction as a marketing tool. 25% are already using it to advertise their products, while 40% are exploring it as a potential solution, according to a paper by Gartner, an information services company.
What types of videos do B2B buyers respond to?
- Product review 39%
- Demos 39%
- Tutorials 33%
- Live videos 31%
- Brand story 24%
- Industry trends 22%
- Customer testimonials 21%
- Leadership interviews 20%
- Ads 17%
- 62% of marketers believe SEO algorithm changes are a pivotal issue to address, while only 44% are concerned with shifts in social media algorithms, as per a report by the Content Marketing Institute.
- Only 4% of surveyed companies view their content marketing as extremely successful, while 55% said not at all successful
- Only 42% of surveyees rely on content marketing to generate sales, the percentage increases to 57% in companies ranked as successful and drops to only 22% in companies that are ranked as least successful (ranking is based on financial performance)
- The majority of respondents will invest in video and events, with confirmation rates of 69% and 61%, respectively
- 51% agreed that over the last year, it had become increasingly difficult to capture audiences’ attention. To combat that, many adjusted the tone of their marketing
- 75% of large companies outsource their content marketing, with the average dropping to about 50%
- 74% attribute the success of their content marketing to the value of information, while 59% believe it was the improvements they made to their website
- 56% of organizations report that they receive the most value from content marketing when it comes to generating awareness, with an average of 46% of all content creation directed at this stage, as per the Content Marketing Institute.
- 57% of consumers report social media as their preferred method for discovering new products, according to HubSpot, a marketing platform
- Facebook is the most popular social site for purchasing products, with 36% of consumers reporting they have purchased a product directly from the platform.
- For Instagram, the research showed that 26% of consumers prefer to discover new products via short-form videos like Instagram Reels.
Global average advertisement click-through rate by sector, according to WordStream, a global SEO SaaS company:
- Tech: 0.84%
- Travel: 0.47%
- Automotive: 0.41%
- Finance: 0.33%
- Real Estate 0.24%
How are 2023 Trends Changing B2B Marketing Budgets?
A survey of 500 B2B marketers by Integrate, a business insights provider, looked into how companies with over $50 million in annual revenue are planning for next year’s budget.
- Only 42% expect to increase their marketing budget next year
- The area of investment most targeted for an increase next year is customer marketing. Some 54% expect they will spend more on customer marketing next year
- 54% anticipate a hike in budgets for content creation, despite the common reduction in marketing budgets
- 47% expect an increase in spending on marketing operations, specifically, the technology used, while 35% plan to shrink their spending in this area
- 42% of all the marketing technology tools available, according to a paper by Gartner, an information services company.