It’s not always easy to understand the buyer and customer, especially for B2B Marketers. “Why is someone (not) interested in my product or service? How to I engage with my target audience? How do I align my marketing strategy with the buyer? And how do I provide an optimal yield and engagement with my marketing choices?
The spotONvision and TNS NIPO ‘Business Buyer Insights 2013’ report focuses on these questions. The results were presented at the B2B Marketing Forum 2013 on 14th March in Amsterdam.
The subject of this report is an excellent addition to the main theme of the event: ‘The Great Journey: from lead to customer’. The Forum gives insights into buying behavior, the buyer journey, lead nurturing, the lead management process and the collaboration between sales and marketing. Business Buyer Insights is pleasant alternation of the B2B Marketing Barometer, which was published in the years before. This study mainly focuses on the B2B Marketer and trends in marketing strategy. In 2013 however, the buyer is the main focus.
From salescycle to buyingcycle
It’s not very uncommon to see marketing being driven by insights from the salescycle. This makes us forget the basic principles of marketing, right? We forget that it’s not about us, but about the buyer or customer. Back to the survey; we wanted to map the buying behavior of business buyers. To do so, we focused our attention on mainly 18 categories. We researched the steps buyers take in the buyersproces, their considerations and choices.
Business Buyers appreciate personal information the most
Surprising isn’t it? We estimate the use of information sources as ‘too high’, the report shows. We should place everything in context and perspective. What does stand out, are the three most undervalued sources of information; telemarketing, adverts and DM. This means there is work to be done! Because believe me when I say that these three forms of providing information, are still used to full effect today.
Speaking about loyal customers
We also researched the amount of loyalty customers have, when it comes to the purchase of products or services. In some categories, like telecommunication, staff training and mobile, buyers tend to compare providers. This apparently does not explain the loyalty factor. In the end customers will stick to their current provider.
The full report can be downloaded here.