The New B2B Buyer Journey – Pre Purchase

B2B technology buyers are more empowered than ever before. They can access a wealth of information and research products and services at their own pace, often without reaching out to suppliers. This means that marketers need to be more strategic in their approach to lead generation.

In this article, you will learn how to generate more leads with your content marketing at the pre-purchase stage of the buyer journey.

How has the buyer journey changed for the B2B tech sector?

“The B2B buyer journey is changing. Buyers are more informed and empowered than ever before. They are doing their own research and making decisions on their own time.” – Mark Roberge, former CRO of HubSpot.

The buyer journey for B2B businesses has changed significantly in recent years, driven by several factors, including:

• Buyers today have more access to information than ever before, and they are increasingly using digital channels to research and purchase technology products and services with a mindset similar to how they’d buy a product as a consumer.
  
  80% of B2B sales interactions will occur on digital channels by 2025. (Gartner)
• Technology is becoming increasingly complex, and buyers typically need to involve multiple stakeholders in the purchase process, especially for tech solutions.
• Buyers have high expectations for customer experience and are looking for technology providers to meet those expectations.
  
  77% of B2B buyers say that customer experience is essential to their purchase decision. (Demand Gen Report)

As a result of these changes, the buyer journey has become increasingly complex and non-linear. Buyers are now spending more time in the research and evaluation stages of the journey before they reach out to vendors. As Lori Richardson, VP of Marketing at Salesforce, said, “The buyer journey is no longer a linear process. Buyers are moving back and forth between stages, and they are interacting with multiple vendors at the same time.”

Technology businesses must adapt their sales and marketing strategies to reflect the changing buyer journey. This means focusing on creating high-quality content that educates and informs buyers and making it easy for buyers to engage with your company at every stage of the journey.

Why do marketers need to consider the pre- and post-purchase stages of the buyer journey?

Marketers have long understood that the customer journey is no longer linear and that a new way of thinking about the path to purchase is required. This new MarTech buyer’s journey reflects the importance of the post-purchase experience in influencing how potential buyers and their stakeholders discover and buy your products or services. It’s not uncommon for buyers. Whether reading reviews on G2.com or Gartner Peer Insights or speaking to one of their peers about their experiences procuring similar technologies for their business. Those post-purchase conversations can also impact buyers across their whole journey.

Let’s look at each stage of the pre-purchase buyer journey in more detail and identify some solutions that will help optimize your lead generation activity.

Why Is the Awareness Stage Crucial, Even If People Aren’t Ready To Buy?

Buyers can be 70% through their journey before they speak to sales; they may have even shortlisted the solutions they plan to consider before they reach out. And you might not be shortlisted.” Hubspot

The first stage of the buyer journey is not connected to a specific need or problem. This is about providing helpful content to nurture an audience who may become customers by making you a go-to place for valuable information.

The objective is to help them improve their knowledge, skills, and understanding of a specific topic. Alternatively, it might provide actionable tips, frameworks, or playbooks that help them optimize their marketing activity.

Solutions

• Identify search queries highlighting challenges businesses face to provide topics for your content.
• Measure brand awareness to track the success of your content.
• Content should be educational, not sales-orientated

A Trigger Is the Event That Prompts Potential Customers to Buy

“Competition is like a treadmill. If you stop running, you fall off.” – Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft.

The trigger may relate to a business’s specific challenge or a desire to improve business outcomes and get ahead of the competition. It’s also worth noting that 74% of B2B buyers say they are willing to pay more for a product or service that helps them stay ahead of their competition. (Forrester) For others, the trigger can be as simple as a contract for part of the tech stack is up for renewal.

Solutions

• Create benchmark reports and research guides that identify opportunities to optimize business processes.
• Create content that acts as a trigger – a whitepaper that outlines ‘5 ways to use AI to improve enterprise resource planning’ may prompt buyers to start their journey.

How Can You Influence the Consideration Stage of The Buyer Journey?

At the beginning of the consideration phase, the focus is on researching the available solutions rather than exploring specific products.

Once the buyer has identified the right solution for their business, their focus will turn to evaluating the different products on offer.

Solutions

• Identify search queries around this journey stage and create content that helps buyers compare solutions and suppliers, such as buyer guides.
• Feature matrices, comparison tools, benchmarking reports, and case studies show how you line up against your competitors and help you make the buyer’s shortlist.
  

What Content Do Buyers Need at the Purchase Stage Of The Journey?

At this stage of the journey, buyers seek content that helps them develop a watertight business case, which is critical to ensuring stakeholder buy-in and a successful sale.

Independently, the different stakeholders and influencers within the business may also search for content, such as testimonials or reviews, to help validate (or repudiate) the business case.

Solutions

• Create content that provides buyers with a final checklist and risk assessment for their choices.
• Provide tools, such as business case and hiring guides, case studies, and testimonials that can be used to

In the next article on the new buyer journey, we’ll explore the post-purchase journey and explain the influence loop’s importance.