A stunningly simple method to understand B2B buyer needs
In her excellent book, Digital Relevance: Developing Marketing Content and Strategies that Drive Results, author Ardath Albee does a masterful job of explaining how typical B2B buyer’s journey works from the customer’s perspective. The biggest challenge, she says, is addressing it in a continuous, consistent and relevant manner.
It’s a big opportunity for B2B marketers. But it can also be a daunting problem if you don’t understand how to approach it.
Fortunately, Albee provides a simple framework for understanding this complex buying process. I have reproduced her table of buyer experiences, buying stages and buyer questions from the book, but I have added a new twist to it: I have added a column that contains content types that are likely to be relevant to the information needs of buyers at each stage of their journey. This will help you understand how you can build up a library of content that is relevant to prospective buyers at each step.
| Buyer Experience | Buying Stages | Buyer Questions | Relevant Content Types |
| Interest: I'm curious enough to take a look | Status quo: Problem not yet recognized as painful enough to fix | Why should I care? | Trend articles Articles that suggest the reader may be overlooking important opportunities or ignoring potential problems 101 level resources that help the reader understand basic concepts and terms Research reports Infographics Brief "explainer" videos |
| Attention: I like what I see so far | Priority: Problem recognized but unsure how to proceed | What should I know? | Articles that answer common questions Thought leadership content that establishes your company as a valuable source for information and advice. Webinars and events |
| Value: this can really help me achieve goals? | Research: Actively engaged in learning what they need to know to take action | What are best practices? | Overviews of best practices, strategies and business models that the prospect ought to be aware of. E-learning materials focused on best practices |
| Engagement: I need to find out more about how they deliver what they promise | Options: Identifying solution sets that can provide the most value for now and future | Who has the expertise? | Worksheets Product configurators Content that covers lifecycle issues, from acquisition through maintenance and disposition |
| Buying committee involvement: Everyone needs to get on board | Step backs: Prospect stops to verify beliefs or find answers to new questions | What if…? | Content targeted to each of the major roles on the buying committee, including the economic decision-maker, the researcher, the influencer and the user |
| Conversations: I want to make sure I can work with you – trust you | Validation: Exploring evidence that supports vendor promises | Why should I believe you? | Case histories and testimonials Customer videos |
| Purchase | Choice: deciding to buy | You'll bring the most value | Content designed to help new customers get up to speed quickly and avoid buyer's remorse. |
The biggest overlooked step: The buying committee
Albee points out that marketers are so deeply scripted in the idea of the marketing lead funnel that they overlook the way in which most B2B organizations actually make purchasing decisions. Here’s a typical scenario:
- A champion who believes in the potential of adopting a content-based approach builds the case for it.
- A lower-level person conducts research into prospective vendors and solutions that may meet the company’s needs.
- The marketing team builds a set of recommendations and an estimated budget for their execution
- A buying committee composed of senior-level executives reviews these recommendations and determines if the organization should proceed with a purchase.
To be successful with B2B content marketing, you really need to have a good idea of who is represented on this committee, and what their roles are. For example, the financial decision-maker will be very concerned about return on investment. Managers will be focused on productivity, uptime, cost of operations and maintenance. Users want ease of operation.
In order to keep the momentum going through this stage, your body of content must include resources to address the needs of each of these stakeholders. Otherwise, prospects may decide that your product or service isn’t as good a fit for their needs as a competing supplier that provides a more cohesive and informative buying experience.