“Uncertainty,” “turbulence,” and “tight economic times” are among the top terms impacting decision making for both B2B marketers and buyers. How is B2B buyer behavior changing in response this difficult environment? How is marketing measurement changing in response to these challenges?
The B2B Buyer’s Survey looks at how the buying process is changing and which marketing formats have the most impact. Demand Gen’s Marketing Measurement & Attribution Survey examines changes being made to increase the precision of marketing activities, noting the increased responsibility of marketing to drive revenue reported here previously.
Here are a dozen key findings from these two enlightening reports.
How B2B Buyer Behavior is Changing
The buyers survey report helpfully outlines the key steps in today’s typical B2B buying process; generational differences among buyers; insights into the most impactful marketing content formats and channels; and the average decision making timeline. Among the key findings from this report:
- The top tasks B2B buyers are adding to their decision making process are conducting a more detailed ROI analysis (38%) and spending more time researching decisions (31%).
- Buyers are more open to upselling and cross-selling from vendors they know and trust: the priority placed on prior experience with the vendor jumped from 25% in 2022 to 40% in 2023.
- Online ads are having more of an impact. Per the report, “44% of respondents in 2023 said advertisements positively impacted their view of a company, compared to just 33% in 2022.”
- However, perceptions of ad formats and placement vary by generation. 54% of younger buyers (Millennials and Gen Z) are influenced by social media ads, compared to just 40% of older buyers (boomers and Gen X). But…
- …banner ads on digital publications and websites impact just 14% of younger generations, compared to 26% for older buyers.
- LinkedIn is the top social media platform for B2B buyers regardless of age, not surprisingly. Younger and older buyers alike ranked Facebook and Instagram among their top channels, and both groups ranked Twitter at #5. However, 18% of older buyers viewed YouTube as an important channels, while 13% of younger buyers rated TikTok (which no one should ever use) among their top five.
- The top three types of information buyers look for on vendor websites are pricing (79%), features and functionality (76%), and competitive comparisons (66%).
There’s much more in this study from Demand Gen Report, sponsored by Vidyard. Download the full B2B Buyer’s Survey report to get all the details.
How B2B Marketing Measurement and Priorities are Changing
Like buyers, b2b marketers are being asked to do more with less (once again) this year. Given the increasing amount of data available, marketing leaders and their teams are increasingly being asked to demonstrate their contribution to revenue generation and show the ROI of their programs. Among the insights from the Demand Gen report on B2B marketing measurement:
- As marketers are asked to prove contribution to revenue and campaign ROI, they continue to struggle with the ability to measure and track activity between funnel stages (63%); measure cross-channel and cross-campaign impact (60%); deal with a lack of resources (53%); and make sense of messy data (46%).
- The most important operational metrics tracked by B2B marketers include website traffic (71%); email click and open rates (67%); form completion and demo requests (52%); and paid search results (51%).
- Less than half of respondents said they tracked pipeline activity metrics, but pluralities do measure closed-won business (48%), lead-to-opportunity conversion (48%), and MQLs generated (45%).
- Though 43% B2B marketers say that multitouch attribution is important, they struggle to measure it. The most common attribution methods employed after multi-touch are single touch — last touch (33%) and single touch — first touch (29%).
- Looking ahead, the top metrics marketers say they want to incorporate over the next 12-18 months are benchmark performance against competitors (68%), by channel (65%), and against industry averages (55%); ROI by channel (55%); and customer acquisition cost (50%).
As with the buyers survey, there is much more valuable detail in the marketing measurement report from Demand Gen Report. Download the Marketing Measurement & Attribution Survey to read all of the insights.
These uncertain and challenging economic times are impacting the priorities and behavior of both B2B buyers and marketers. Buyers are most focused on efficiency than growth, are even more risk-averse than usual.
Marketers are being asked to show more direct value in terms of real sales opportunities (not just raw “leads”) and revenue – though they still lack direct control over many facets of the sales process, and, as the Demand Gen marketing report acknowledges, “there’s still a large disconnect between sales and marketing teams.”
These two reports provide actionable guidance to help B2B marketers focus their efforts and achieve measurable results in these arduous and demanding times.