Marketers Seeing a Shift in Buyers’ Decision-Making Journey

Marketers reach out to buyers during various stages of the decision-making process, but which times are most effective when it comes to closing the deal? Furthermore, which tactics have the biggest payoff?

RAIN Group recently conducted the “5 Sales Prospecting Myths Debunked” to gain insight into which marketing tactics are most efficient. Most customers (80 percent) stated that they prefer to be contacted via email during the buying process. This was compared to just 49 percent who said they preferred cold calls, and 36 percent who said direct mail.

customer experience, digital marketing

Note: In the above graphic, the green bar represents responses from buyers and the navy bar is responses from sellers.

In terms of timing, most buyers (71 percent) stated that they prefer to hear from sellers when they’re in the process of looking for new ideas to improve their business. Sixty-two percent said they want to hear from them when they’re actively looking for a solution to a problem.

When it comes to closing the deal, the majority of buyers (96 percent) claim that their purchase decision is “moderately/very/extremely” influenced by marketers who focus on the value they can deliver. Ninety-three percent are influenced by a willingness to collaborate, while 92 percent like to be educated on new ideas and perspectives.

B2B Marketing Toward Customer Preferences

B2B marketers, in particular, have needed to change the way they reach out to customers with content during the buying process as well.

The “2017 Content Preferences Survey Report” from Demand Gen Report discovered that 46 percent of B2B buyers have moved toward shorter forms of content in the past. One-third claim that they now have less time to devote toward research during the buying process than they did in the past.

Approximately 71 percent of buyers say they want marketing content to be easier to access. Nearly 67 percent want to see more data and research supporting marketing content.

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