B2B Agency Improves the Buyer's Journey

By Artemus Bryant, Content Specialist

Today's buyers are busier and more informed than ever. Therefore, your marketing efforts and strategies must actively engage your prospects. Sales teams within B2B markets should nurture relationships with multiple stakeholders to drive conversions, which requires both the marketing and sales teams to work in alignment. The most effective way to navigate this field of ever-evolving trends and challenges is with a B2B digital agency's assistance.

The Stages of the Buyer's Journey

Within the B2B buyer's journey, there are three distinct stages: awareness, consideration, and decision.

• Awareness Stage: The potential buyer acknowledges that there is an issue.
• Consideration Stage: The prospect clarifies their issue and researches possible options.
• Decision Stage: A buyer makes their final buying decision.

Each of the three stages is equally important and builds upon each other to form one harmonious path or journey. Content marketers should accurately align their content to these specific stages and the prospect's particular challenges within these stages.

There are suggested content types for each of the stages of the buyer’s journey, but different content types can be used across every stage; it's the substance that makes it work at each point. Content that speaks directly to a buyer’s pain points, while also educating, and empowering them, is a strategy for success. This keeps the content focused and affords nurturing effectiveness throughout the buyer’s journey.

How a B2B Agency Improves the Buyer's Journey

An effective marketing plan centers around an effective marketing strategy and methodology. A B2B agency can increase a company’s conversions and revenue. A B2B agency that utilizes buyer personas, content marketing, contextual marketing, and inbound marketing strategies can provide a more focused approach to your marketing efforts.

The Buyer's Journey and Content

In marketing, everything centers around content. Content marketing within a B2B agency is a strategic marketing, and business practice focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content. These content offerings attract and retain a clearly-defined audience and ultimately drive profitable customer action.

Content marketing also delivers the message of your inbound marketing strategies. In a B2B growth agency, inbound marketing and content marketing focuses on three primary goals.

• MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads)
• SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads)
• Conversions

Your company requires both marketing strategies to ensure success, and a B2B Growth Agency is the best way to accomplish these goals consistently.

Buyer's Journey Statistics and Research

Take a look at the following B2B statistics and decide if your business has the right marketing plan in place to optimize your sales and marketing team's efforts.

• Most B2B buyers are already 57% of the way through the buying process before the first meeting with a representative. (Accenture)
• There may be 6-10 people involved in any given B2B purchasing decision. (Gartner)
• 70% of buyers fully define their needs on their own before engaging with a sales representative, and 44% identify specific solutions before reaching out to a seller. (CSO Insights)
• When B2B buyers are considering a purchase, the majority of that time is spent researching independently online. (Gartner)
• The B2B buying process is becoming longer and more complex because the majority of buyers (82%) are using more sources to research and evaluate products and services, and they are spending more time in the research phase itself. (Fronetics)

The above stats indicate that a business has very little room for error in their marketing approach if they are to remain relevant and successful. There is also an emphasis on the importance of connecting and nurturing your prospect throughout their buyer's journey. A B2B growth agency is well adept with the buyer's journey stages and what offerings are best suited for each. Furthermore, this will shorten the time a prospect spends within each stage and expedites them to perform a customer action.

B2B Growth Agency Strategies and Methodologies

A B2B growth agency focuses on MQLs, SQLs, and conversions. Through contextual marketing, these connections are more personalized and based on the context of who the visitor is and what they are looking for. Furthermore, contextual marketing provides more precise and accurate targeting for each individual. 

Through the Inbound Marketing Methodology, a B2B Growth Agency provides the ability to communicate with your prospects without the need to sell to them. The Inbound Methodology consists of three stages.

• Attract: (Strangers) Here, the marketing team attracts your buyer persona in the early stages of their buyer's journey before handing them off to the Sales Team.
• Engage: (Prospects) During this stage, the sales team engages with the qualified prospects.
• Delight: (Customers) Now that they are customers, the service team delights them to ensure they become repeat customers and evangelize their friends.

Utilizing a B2B Growth Agency improves the buyer's experience through empowerment, education, and individualized connections. This approach reduces the time a buyer spends on their buyer's journey and promotes increased ROI, customer satisfaction, and lead generation. 

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Sources

Protocol 80, 20 Buyer's Journey Statistics to Aid a Successful Marketing Strategy, 2020.

HubSpot, How to Create Content for Every Stage of the Buyer's Journey, 2020.

Demand Gen Report, The New Buyer's Journey, 2020.