How can you effectively engage B2B buyers at every stage of their journey?

If you have never built a buyer persona before, here is the easiest way to approach things. Arrange calls with seven of your best-fit customers (who recently closed) and have them walk through how the journey started and every step in between until they bought the solution. You will start to see trends and themes appear at a different stage. You can use these insights to engage buyers and future buyers at various stages. I've audited hundreds of buying journeys and the key to success is being relevant and credible with a target market. This helps you stay top of mind, so when buyers are ready to buy - you are first on their short list of options.

Very true, but this is easier said than done. To truly create buyer personas and their customer journeys, we have to understand the potential customers, and the journey they go through. So it’s important to talk to them, understand them, and then build out how to reach them and how to stay relevant in their minds.

We know that every buyer is different. So, you have to know what buyers need. So, intent data and some research. Then, have some triggers along the journey that go off when a buyer continues to get nurtured through the pipeline and engages (or doesn't engage) with certain steps. Perhaps most importantly, give your sales AND marketing teams access to the same view of a buyer's journey through the pipeline so that you can unify messaging and trigger sales outreach when necessary. All that work marketing did shouldn't end with the sales team. It's a continued combined effort to engage them, and how you get those insights is vital. How you segment is generally unique to every company.

One common shortcoming in B2B marketing planning processes: we often forget that people make decisions. No matter how elaborately we design a presentation about the buyer's journey, if our customers make decisions in a completely different way, it's in vain. Even if we create 13 different buyer personas, they may not align with the actual needs of our customers. I believe that in the B2B world, companies contract with each other, but it's always people who sign the contract. Sometimes, having individual conversations with our existing customers can be more beneficial than an 87-slide buyer journey presentation.

Budgets, goals and pain points are all great and important insights that need to be in a buyer's persona. But here a key thing many B2B teams don't add. The business process your solution helps to improve, how that process works, other ways your best-fit customers try to improve it and how yours is different. To some this may seem like overkill - but remember that buyers evaluate solutions in the context of their business model and process. So if you don't have a deep understanding of how this works, you are going to struggle to influence them at each stage of the journey with relevant and credible information. You won't collect that data through CRMs and dashboards. You need to do deep primary research with buyers

In addition to the demographic, firmographic, psychographic, and behavioural characteristics, it's imperative to consider webographic behaviour of your buyers. Webographics refer to the online behaviour of individuals, which sums up how they interact with digital platforms, what devices they use, which social media channels they prefer, how they respond to online advertising, and how they navigate through websites. This information can be crucial in determining how to engage with buyers at different stages of their journey in a digital environment.

Building awareness is not all about blogs and whitepapers! Sometimes it's simply about leaving a positive impression. Think about attending an industry conference. Who do you remember from the conference? The person who handed you a flyer? Or the person who you truly connected with over a conversation. The reality is, we all crave connection (often more than we crave "solutions to our pain points"). If we focus on simply building real human connection with our audience, then we'll be top of mind when they start looking for a solution. In my opinion, the best way to build awareness in today's digital landscape is to build relationships at scale with your target audience through the personal LinkedIn profiles of your thought leaders.

I like to follow Gartner's framework of Explore, Evaluate, Engage. In the exploration phase, you need to be answering questions that prospects are asking such as "why should I consider a new way of doing things? What's wrong with the status quo?" In the Evaluate phase you need to be answering questions such as "what requirements should I be considering? How do those requirements tie out to business needs?" In the Engage phase you should be answering questions such as "why your product over your competitor?"

PandaDocs until they sign. Done stop can’t stop. Send it to their spouse, parents, kids. Eventually someone will sign. Lawsuit? Good luck getting any money after you’ve spent it on a Rolex and BMW. 🚬

Consideration stage buyers know they have a problem and are actively looking for solutions. Your content should focus on: – Providing multiple viable solutions (including yours) that can solve their problem – Highlighting the benefits and limitations of each option – Using data and case studies to highlight what makes your solution the ideal fit for them

Consideration is where you can use pushed ads and paid traffic. Targeting people who showed awareness is presenting your company as powerful in the real world - the ads should include success stories, exciting facts about the product and prices.

At this pivotal point, buyers have recognized their need and are actively seeking solutions. They are comparing different options and evaluating which one best aligns with their requirements. Buyers are asking questions like, 'Which solution is the most suitable for my needs?' and 'What are the key features and benefits of each option?' They are also interested in understanding the potential return on investment and the long-term value a product or service can offer. Moreover, personalized communication is key during this stage. Understand the specific pain points and preferences of individual buyers and tailor your content and interactions accordingly.

Now - Buyers are typically asking questions like, 'Why should I choose this specific product or service over others?' and 'What benefits will I gain immediately and in the long term?' They are also concerned about the purchasing process itself, including terms, pricing, and support options. Personalization remains important at this stage as well. Understand the specific preferences and needs of individual buyers, and tailor your interactions to their requirements. The decision stage is all about making it easy for buyers to say 'yes' to your product or service. Be responsive to their inquiries, provide a seamless transaction process, and maintain open lines of communication for any last-minute questions or uncertainties.

One of my secret weapons in the final stage are the right SDR partners (sales development reps). Whether this is in-house or agency partners, enabling the muscle for having dedicated resources call your SQLs (sales qualified leads) is key. This muscle within your organization is vital to moving buyers to the final stage in the journey. I've found great success in agencies who provide resources across the world in native languages for relatively inexpensive. This enables you to focus internal resources on the hot SQLs ready for your sales team to convert into a demo/sale.

I've audited a few hundred buying journeys. This is the info buyers tell me they want at the decision stage: - A vendor that understands their business model and processes - Transparent pricing - Demonstration of tangible business outcomes - Discovery calls that feel like discussions, not sales pitches - Interactive demos or the ability to try before you buy The five things are a must-have if you want to create any level of credibility with buyers. For many B2B buyers this is the first time they are purchasing a solution like yours, and they are looking to make the most informed decision possible with a trustworthy partner. These are four of the

In practice, it’s almost impossible to know precisely where a prospective customer is on their buying journey. If they attend a Webinar, are they in consideration stage? Maybe, maybe not. The key to reaching prospects at ALL stages of the sales cycle is to have a mix of content in market that appeals to different stages. For example, a thought leadership white paper likely appeals best to early-stage buyers. A case study or analyst report to mid-stage buyers, and so on. By having a variety of content in market – and not just late stage offers (demos, trials) designed to capture those “ready to buy” – you’ll be able to capture prospects earlier in the buying process and increase your chances of being the preferred solution.

Measuring and optimizing your engagement strategies to ensure ongoing success. By monitoring key metrics like conversion rates, engagement levels, and customer satisfaction, you can identify areas for improvement and refine your approach. This data-driven approach allows you to make informed decisions and maximize the impact of your efforts. Continuously testing and iterating on your strategies based on these metrics ensures that you are always improving and staying ahead of the competition.

The overarching question of the article is how can we effectively engage B2B buyers at every stage of the journey. As a former DTC marketer turned B2B marketer I think B2B marketers should lean in on their DTC marketers' playbook on how to engage buyers through every stage of the decision process. This is something we addressed decades ago. For this reason, I always stacked my teams with DTC marketers. Here's what I've found helpful on the B2B side: 1. Knowing the difference between content creation vs content marketing 2. Knowing the difference between segments vs. personas 3. Test your marketing ideas and data insights in social channels not your website. 4. Buyer journey mapping. 5. Channel preferences throughout the buyer journey.