The piece below in Forbes identifies a dangerous and incorrect assumption - that B2B buyers are less likely to read content online when researching a purchase. The article goes on to say that 70% of the B2B buying process is actually done before someone even gets in touch with your firm.
That is a long way through the buying process, and if you have not been influencing the potential new client during that first 70% of the buying process then your hopes of winning the business are not going to be very strong.
We see it with many of our clients. They are getting more of their experts to write and share their insights into the market on a regular basis, often focussing on the very niche fields in which they specialise in.
This means that when the potential new customer is doing their research, these experts are positioning themselves and as a result their firms as trusted advisors and the "go-to" experts. By providing these potential new clients with information and content that helps to educate them and indeed to allow them to do their jobs more effectively is a very powerful thing and will give the best possible chance of winning the new business.
New clients in the world of B2B, especially in professional services can mean very high deal sizes and so it really is time to take your content and insights process very seriously and invest properly in ensuring it is successful. Expert insights are no longer a nice to have, it's a must in today's online world.
B2B customers today progress more than 70% of the way through the decision-making process before ever engaging a sales representative. If you’re so focused on what happens in the latter 30% (pricing, discounts, and sales tactics), then you’ll miss the first 70% ... ... There’s a dangerous assumption out there that B2B buyers are less likely than the average consumer to engage digitally in their research process.