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It's the age-old question for B2Bs: what do our buyers want?
Understanding the habits and preferences of your clients and prospects, as well as what they expect from you, is key to B2B marketing success; and no more is this true than in the marketing content you deliver.
Rather conveniently, the Customer Think website recently offered some valuable insights into B2B content marketing preferences. As the article notes, many B2B marketing surveys discuss the topic of content marketing from the marketer's perspective.
For example, the Content Marketing Institute published the results of their annual B2B content marketing survey towards the end of last year. The report focused on issues such as the effectiveness of content marketing and specific tactics used. This is hugely valuable reading for B2B marketers and I highly recommend checking it out.
Other reports, such as DemandGen Report's annual B2B buyer's survey and annual content preferences survey, explore the topic from the buyer's viewpoint - such as the type of content they prefer, and how they use it in their purchasing decisions.
In similar vein is an excellent recent study by Blue Nile Research : They spoke to 528 B2B and B2C buyers about their content marketing preferences and here are some findings from the B2B respondents:
Cold, hard facts hit the spot with B2Bs
According to Blue Nile, B2B buyers favour content that's based on data and statistics (see above chart) - a view held by nearly half (46%) the respondents when asked which is the single most effective type of content to most compel them to click on a link. This was followed by a blog post or video content, each with a respective 18%, and infographics with 10%.
B2B buyers are omni-channel (and you should be too)
More than three-quarters (76%) of B2B survey participants use three or more channels when researching or communicating with a brand during their purchasing decision, while more than a quarter (26%) use five or more! This means producing quality content isn't the only important thing - it also needs to be delivered via multiple channels.
B2B buyers use search and brand websites for research
When asked what channels they used during the research stages of a purchase, 80% of respondents stated online search or a brand's website and just over half (54%) looked at reviews and case studies.
Are you giving your buyers what they want from your content? If not, why not get in touch to see how we can help?