Earlier this year, B2B Marketing and Base One published Buyersphere, a survey into changing buyer behaviour that analysed the various information channels used by B2B buyers when researching purchases. Additional data now compares the original figures with similar research conducted among marketers. These recent figures paint a fascinating picture of how our view of the changing marketing landscape differs from that of our target audience’s – and shows how much (or how little) we know about how they work.
A key finding is that marketers underestimate the influence of newer information channels, e.g. blogs, Twitter and Facebook (page 19 of the report). Note that this does not mean that buyers are universally enthusiastic about social media. In fact, while the proportion of buyers using such channels is growing, it remains lower than traditional channels. But those who do use them, consider them far more influential than marketers believe. For example, in the early stages of the buying process, 45 per cent who used blogs rated them as ‘very influential’. Only nine per cent of marketers gave them the same rating. Are we failing to make information available through the right channels?
Website habits
The report is not all about social media. Another interesting discovery was supplier websites are a more important part of the mix at early stages of the buying process than we might think (see page 20). But this research shows that we do not appreciate the extent to which buyers expect supplier websites to be an information source at the ‘needs identification’ stage. Fifty two per cent of buyers considered supplier websites to be ‘very influential’ at this stage; only 27 per cent of marketers agreed. Are we missing a trick? Looks like it.
Buyersphere showed marketers consistently assume word-of-mouth was more influential than the buyers themselves (see page 20). Perhaps this is because buyers have separated physical word-of-mouth from online recommendation – after all, more buyers rated Facebook and Twitter as ‘very influential’ than marketers expected. Or maybe it’s because it has been drummed into us that word-of-mouth is the ultimate marketing tool. Either way, we cannot leap to conclusions.
As well as asking marketers to second-guess buyer attitudes to information gathering, the survey compared the amount of time marketers and buyers spent using certain channels when sourcing information for their own work (see page 11). Marketers appeared generally more hungry for information, spending over eight hours longer a month sourcing information. However, this trend was not uniform across all information channels.
Marketers spent on average 2.3 hours longer on LinkedIn alone – a trend justified by the fact that it can be used as a business generation tool – yet 0.7 hours less on Facebook when compared to buyers. Again, the reason could be that Facebook helps buyers select possible suppliers, but less useful in identifying new business. Marketers are more likely to go to places that help them market themselves; buyers go where it is easier to buy.
What of social media?
It’s interesting to compare responses from the buyers and marketers when it comes to the strengths and weaknesses of social media as a business information channel (see page 12). Whereas marketers found the key benefit to be its low cost, buyers appreciated the way it gave access to other people’s experiences. The biggest failing for buyers was that information could not always be verified because the original source was not always known. Perhaps marketers are concerned with how things work, buyers with what they get out of it.
Testing times
A final interesting observation is the extent to which marketers confessed ignorance, especially about newer information channels (see page 7). Forty-two per cent said they didn’t know what use their customers made of Facebook as a research tool. This uncertainty is one of the reasons that so few marketers are willing to commit wholeheartedly to new marketing channels – and probably with good reason until the picture becomes clearer.
Overall, marketers have a good idea of which information channels buyers are using. But Buyersphere has highlighted that we are perhaps underestimating how quickly the marketing stage is changing. The message is not to leap in with both feet; every market is different, and we need to carefully experiment and test, so we are in a position, as soon as possible, to use each channel for maximum effectiveness.
