Buyer Beware: How Marketers Can Navigate More Complex B2B Buyer Journeys
The marketing funnel as we know it is dead. Or at least it is in the B2B world. In fact, it’s doubtful whether it was ever really a true representation of the buyer journey. The complex, non-linear process that has taken its place will require a new approach to demand generation. This matters more today than ever, as sales cycles lengthen, and budgets come under ever scrutiny.
The Game Is Changing
A number of forces are coming together to rewrite the rules for today’s B2B marketers. The first is economic. Our research reveals that less than a third (32 percent) of U.S. organizations describe their marketing budgets as “robust” today, while 41 percent cite economic uncertainty as their top concern. Many are letting staff go. Against this backdrop, sales and marketing teams are fragmenting. Alignment is a challenge for a third of US teams, creating bottom-of-the-funnel friction which is hurting lead nurture and conversions.
Compounding these challenges are issues with data effectiveness: over half of global teams admit that they need to improve their ability to collect, analyze and interpret data—in order to optimize strategy and better measure success. They also feel let down by the tech they’re using. Overwhelmed by too many tools that fail to deliver, just one in 10 U.S. marketing teams describe their martech as “optimized and impactful.”
How Is the Journey Evolving?
However, perhaps their biggest challenge comes from the changes they’re seeing in buyer behavior. Today’s buyer groups may feature as many as 20 individuals—many of whom have different roles and priorities. This is proving problematic. Over half (55 percent) of global marketers aren’t happy with their ability to target and engage key audiences and buying groups.
Achieving consensus between these disparate stakeholders can also drag out the sales process—especially when finance gets involved late in the cycle, which increasingly it is. Against an uncertain economic backdrop, ROI and risk aversion become powerful forces, holding back important decisions. Some 70 percent of U.S. B2B marketers tell us they’ve experienced longer sales cycles.
The journey itself is not just getting longer, it’s also less linear. Potential buyers might jump between touchpoints and different stages of the traditional sales funnel – visiting and revisiting what Gartner describes as “buying jobs” as they go. One day they may be selecting suppliers, the next looking at requirements, and another exploring solutions. With so much information at their disposal, many will have completed most of their journey before even reaching out to sales.
What this creates in practice is complexity, which in turn makes it more challenging—but also critically important—to identify, engage, and nurture buyers in the funnel.
What Must Change
There are no easy answers to these shifts in buying behavior. More sophisticated audience engagement is a good place to start, including AI-powered insight for more effective segmentation. Distinct plans should be developed for each of the highest value segments, with multichannel touchpoints throughout the buyer journey.
When it comes to nurturing those audiences, AI again can be a useful tool, helping to deliver personalized content at scale that resonates with different segments. A content syndication program will ensure you reach prospective buyers wherever they are. The focus must be on long-term engagement: nurture programs that use case studies, thought leadership, education content and more to build credibility and trust.
The process could take months, or potentially even years, before a prospect is ready to engage. This is where it pays to layer on display advertising alongside the content. The end goal is to keep your brand top of mind in a continuous cycle of brand awareness and demand generation.
In truth, the two activities have always been complementary. B2B decision makers need both an understanding of the solution and the company behind it from the start. This way, you’ll get higher quality leads that are brand-aware, and therefore more likely to convert once they’re finally ready to engage with sales.
As long as those sales and marketing teams are aligned and focused on the same goals, this kind of branded demand approach offers an unmissable opportunity. It’s time for U.S. marketers to take it.
Matt Hummel is chief marketing officer at Pipeline360. Hummel is a marketing innovator known for building high-impact strategies that drive growth and strengthen brands. He has led transformative initiatives at leading companies including Demandbase, RealPage, and Thomson Reuters, and is recognized for his expertise in demand generation, brand strategy, and data-informed decision making.