434 Marketing

How B2B Buyers Are Changing in 2023

We all know the internet is changing faster than ever, influencing all aspects of our lives, including how people make purchasing decisions. To say it’s not easy to keep up would be a massive understatement, but by asking the right questions, we can develop a clearer understanding of buying habits.

Here at 434 Marketing, we wanted to know exactly what has changed about buyers’ habits in recent years. Are the same people making the same choices for the same reasons? Absolutely not. 

Rather than wait for new research to be conducted and published, we decided to do it ourselves.

Our 2023 B2B Buyer’s Journey Market Report contains all the data we collected from more than 100 B2B buyers about how they come to a final decision, and what makes them move on to a different vendor. We wanted to provide a concise, actionable report that professionals like you can integrate into their marketing efforts and benefit from for years to come.

This isn’t our first rodeo, either. We are constantly conducting research on behalf of our clients to make sure their messages are expertly crafted and reaching the right people. This time, however, we wanted to produce data for our community to help businesses like ours navigate constantly changing market trends.

The proliferation of sales data aggregators and marketing outlets means marketing strategy is more competitive and more necessary than ever before. Self-guided research in the buying journey for even complex B2B offerings is becoming the standard, meaning buyers are becoming savvier about gathering information, and you may be coming into the conversation later than you even realize.

We focused our questions in this survey on B2B content marketing and the digital experiences that matter most to decision-makers. If your B2B content strategy needs a refresh, this report is a great place to start, as we cover content types, media channels, sales funnels, and avoidable pain points in the sales process.

First, we wanted to know exactly whose brains we were picking. We asked our survey respondents about their work and their businesses to get a better sense of their perspective and their buying power.

40.4%

of respondents worked in a company with more than 100 employees.

31%

of respondents identified as female.

34%

of respondents were between the ages of 35 and 44.

100%

of respondents were English-speakers.

We asked our respondents to choose three types of web content they find helpful while selecting a product or service to purchase. We then added up all selected media types across all responses to calculate which formats are considered most helpful by the most people.

What top three touch points were most helpful in your business buying decision?

 

We collected our data from primary sources — the buyers themselves — but we didn’t want to limit our research to just our survey respondents. We cross-studied similar reports from other B2B analysts to see if the trends we saw were consistent or representative of shifts in the market. Throughout our research, market research powerhouses like Gartner and Forrester provided supplementary data and confirmations of our findings.

Our findings aren’t exactly shocking, but they provide invaluable insights into where marketers and sales leaders should focus their efforts for the best results in 2023. Buyers want video, but what kinds of video? Do buyers care more about customer reviews or case studies? What challenges stop interested buyers from making a purchase?

All these questions and more are answered in our 2023 B2B Buyer’s Journey Report.

Make sure your marketing content is reaching your target audience and contains the right information in the most impactful format. If you’d like to learn more about digital marketing trends and our work here at 434, we would love to share what we are learning with you.

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