About two-thirds (67%) of B2B buyers surveyed recently by DemandGen Report (DemandGenReport.com) say they are relying more on content now to support purchase decisions than they did a year ago. At the same time, almost three-quarters (74%) of the respondents said they have less time to view content now than they did a year ago, forcing them to be more selective about what they consume.
Buyers are broadening the channels through which they consume and share content. They increasingly rely on peer recommendations and social networks for their content.
DemandGen Report, a monitor of B2B marketing trends, recently published the findings of its 2015 Content Preferences Survey, which it has conducted annually since 2012. Among the insights:
· White papers, webinars, e-books, and case studies remain the most widely-consumed types of B2B content.
· Forty-five percent of the survey respondents said they typically view three to five pieces of content before they talk with a salesperson, and another 22% said they consume five to seven pieces of content before they engage with a sales rep.
· An overwhelming majority of survey respondents want their prospective vendors to use more research and insights from industry thought leaders and analysts in their content, package related pieces of content together, and curb the sales messages in their content.
Respondents gave the most credence to peer reviews and user-generated content, with 94% noting that they give this type of content the most weight, which is a few points down from the previous year. Content authored by a third-party publication or analyst ranked second, with 90% saying that they give credence to this type of asset. Vendor-branded content did not fare as well, with 74% giving it credence, compared to 79% in the previous survey.
The explosive proliferation of marketing content makes it more difficult for B2B marketers to create content that will rise above the clutter. The DemandGen Report and Demand Metric surveys show that one way to address this challenge is to make your content more interactive. A 2014 survey by Demand Metric found that interactive content outperforms passive content at three critical marketing functions — producing prospect conversions, educating the buyer and creating differentiation from competitors.
In the Demand Metric survey, 70% of interactive content users said their content was moderately or very effective at converting prospects, while only 36% of passive content users gave such ratings to their content. Eighty-eight percent of interactive content users said that interactive content is somewhat or very effective at creating differentiation, while only 55% of passive content users gave such ratings to their content.
As in previous surveys, buyers want content that is trustworthy and that keeps the sales message to a minimum. The content they trust the most comes from their peers.
A link to the full results from the DemandGen Report survey can be found in our Additional Web Resources.
