媒体买家报告.pdf

Inside the Head of a Marketing Leader: The Buyers Journey REPORT & RESULTS03 Introduction 4 Methodology 05 Respondent breakdown5 Title/Role 5 Number of Reports 5 Company Size 06 Key findings 9 The Buying Committee 10 The beginning of the buyers journey 11 Vocalizing Challenges 12 Initiating the Process 12 Personal Involvement 14 Leading the Charge 15 Other Means of Initiating the Buyers Journey 16 Determining to Pursue 17 The role of content Issues with Content 18 Relevance Is Lacking 18 Other Challenges 19 Engaging with Content 20 Content Delivery 21 Content Formats 22 Content Sources 23 Content Channels 24 The Content Challenge 25 26 The end of the buyers journey Personal Involvement 27 Validation 28 The Buying Committee 29 Meeting Frequency 30 Delegation 31 Confidence in Their Peers 32 Conclusion 33 Summary Infographic 34 Table of contentsIntroduction Its a question thats on the mind of many of todays B2B marketing leaders and for good reason. The role of the marketing leader is evolving, expanding to focus on more strategic purchase decisions that span the entire customer lifecycle. And with this expansion comes the greater potential that your decisions more broadly impact the success of your company as well as the other functions across your organization. Which brings us back to the question at hand, “How do my “How do my peers make buying decisions?” peers make buying decisions?” Or more importantly, whats their involvement like throughout the purchasing process? What drives their ability to make better buying decisions? How do they play a more value-added role within their organization? And, of course, where do you stand compared to them? For B2B marketing leaders, knowledge is power. And understanding what your peers are doing gives you the ability to change, improve, and, ultimately, raise the bar not only for your organization, but for the industry at-large. How do your peers make buying decisions? Its time to find out. Along the way, you might also discover areas for improvement in your own marketing and the way you enable your buyers with your companys content. INSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 03INSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 04 Methodology To understand how B2B marketing leaders engage the buyers journey, interact with content, and make decisions, PathFactory and Heinz Marketing conducted a survey in December 2018. The following responses came from 204 B2B marketing leaders across various organization sizes. Respondents were pre-qualified for this survey using the following criteria: A respondents function must be associated with “Marketing.” A respondents title must be a “Senior Director,” “VP / SVP,” or “C-Suite” A respondent must have decision- making authority and/or influence in the buying decision process within their organization Respondents who did not meet all of the above criteria were excluded from the survey.INSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 05 Respondent breakdown Title/role Number of reports Company size Which of the following titles best reflects the level of responsibility you have in your current role? Approximately, how many people report to you? Which best reflects your companys size? 22.5% 10.3% 23.5% 43.6%22.5% 46.1% 31.4% 50+ people 1-10 people 1-10 people 11-20 people 1000+ people 201-1000 people 11-20 people 21-50 people Senior Director C-Suite VP/SVP 25% 16.7% 32.3% 26%INSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 06 01 Anyone can vocalize a challenge, but its the marketing leader who initiates the buying process. 02 Marketing leaders are heavily involved at the beginning and end of the buyers journey. 2 in 5 marketing leaders report that anyone in any role can be the first to express challenges around a strategy, tactic, or tool. Rather, whoever vocalizes an issue is more dependent on the situation than it is on the actual role of that person. However, in most cases, its the marketing leader who formally initiates the buying process. Once the process is set in motion, over 9 in 10 marketing leaders are heavily involved at both the beginning and the end of the buyers journey. And while 62% of marketing leaders work within a buying committee of 1-5 other people, 2 in 3 will likely not delegate purchase decisions to other members. Key findingsINSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 07 03 Marketing leaders are too regularly served lackluster content. 04 Marketing leaders take buyer enablement into their own hands. 92% of marketing leaders report that content plays an important part in their decision-making process, but 1 in 2 leaders feel that the content they receive is irrelevant to their pain points, challenges, and responsibilities. And this irrelevance makes leaders less responsive to content. As a result, marketing leaders turn to outside sources to find what theyre looking for. When companies arent delivering what they need, a vast majority of marketing leaders bring it on themselves to find relevant information through other means. Asking peers or colleagues, browsing third-party review sites, and reading analyst reports are among the ways a marketing leader continues down the buyers journey on their own terms. Key findingsThat the way marketing leaders engage the buyers journey is one built on self-reliance. Although they have other members on their team to assist them, these self-empowered leaders wont sit around waiting for a solution to fall into their lap. Instead, marketing leaders dedicate massive amounts of time and resources to find exactly what theyre looking for since these resources are rarely What do these key findings reveal? readily available to them when they need it. The creation of the B2B buying committee was intended to lighten the load of the buying process for marketing leaders. However, our research has indicated otherwise. Though these committees of decision makers and influencers are present in a majority of organizations, the onus is still on the marketing leader, themself, to see a decision through from start to finish. But before we dive into the weeds of how marketing leaders involve themselves in the decision-making process, first we must understand just how many other people are involved in either making or influencing a decision as members of the buying committee. INSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 08INSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 09 The buying committee 62.3% of marketing leaders report working in a buying committee of 1-5 people and 20.1% report a group of 6-10 people. In large organizations, the size of a marketing leaders buying committee tends to be even bigger. More than 20% of organizations with 201-1000 employees have buying committees of more than 50 people and 18% of organizations with 1000+ employees have buying committees made up of more than 50 people as well. According to HBR, “the number of people involved in B2B solutions purchases has climbed from an average of 5.4 (in 2015) to 6.8 (in 2017).” The New Sales Imperative 1-5 people people people people 6-10 11-20 21-50 7.4% 4.4% people people 51-75 75+ 3.4% 2.5% 62.3% 20.1% How many other people are involved in either making or influencing that decision?INSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 10 The beginning of the buyers journey At the beginning of every buying journey is a need, with a person or department recognizing a challenge and requesting a solution, or a situation driving the need to pursue an alternative. How marketing leaders go about initiating this journey varies, as well as the level of involvement they have throughout the process, includ- ing deciding whether or not to pursue a solution.Typically, who in your company is the first to vocalize a strategic, tactical, or tool-based challenge when it arises? INSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 11 Vocalizing challenges When it comes to vocalizing strategic, tactical, or tool-based challenges, 40.7% of marketing leaders report that the initial concern can come from any number of roles, because it usually depends more on the situation than on the persons position in the organizational structure.Outside of that, 23.5% of marketing leaders themselves are among the first to vocalize challenges, followed by managers and directors at 18.6%. 40.7% 23.5% 18.6% 8.8% 7.8% .5% A mix of all roles depending on the situation A manager or director A co-ordinator,consultant, or individual contributor Someone else on the executive leadershipteam I dont know I amINSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 12 Initiating the process How exactly is the buying process initiated among marketing leaders? How involved are they, and who takes the lead? In general, marketing leaders are very involved across the board, and they are usually the ones who lead the discovery and decision-making processes. Personal involvement Although the issue can be raised by any number of people within an organization, marketing leaders are heavily involved at the beginning of the decision-mak- ing process: 93.6% report being involved or very involved in the process. This is true for marketing leaders in organizations of all sizes. Even when a marketing leader works within a buying committee of 5, 10, 50, or more people, heavy involvement remains a constant. In fact, for marketing leaders in buying committees with 51 or more people, the personal involvement of marketing leaders increases at the beginning of the journey: of marketing leaders in buying committees of 75 or more people are heavily involved in the decision-making process of those in committees of between 51-75 people are heavily involved 80% 85.7%INSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 13 Personal involvement While one would think that the bigger the committee, the less involvement would be required of a marketing leader, its actually the opposite. As buying committees grow larger, the level of personal involvement at the beginning of the process also increases. Why could this be? As the dynamics of a committee become more complex, the responsibility to find a decision falls more on the individual who is leading the effort. Or perhaps its that larger buying committees deal with purchase decisions that have greater costs and broad-scale impact across the organization, putting the onus on the individual leader to see that the decision theyre about to pursue can actually address their needs. How involved are you, personally, towards the beginning of the decision- making process? Involved 70.1% 23.5% 6.4%1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Very involved Not involved Not involved Involved Very involvedLeading the charge With their heavy involvement at the beginning of the decision-making process, its not surprising that nearly half of all marketing leaders lead the charge when it comes to formally initiating the buying process. But marketing leaders are not present solely to give the green light in the decision-making process. So just how involved are they at the beginning of the journey? Who usually initiates the buying process within your organization?45.1% 21.6% 14.7% 14.2% I do, personally Someone on our executive team A co-ordinator or other member of my team Someone on our management team INSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY INSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 14INSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 15 I or someone within our organization has vocalized a pain point or challenge that needs addressing I or someone on my team has come across a prospective companys content and found it interesting/relevant I or someone on my team heard about a prospective solution from a third-party source Were nearing the end of our current contract and are actively looking for alternatives I or someone on my team discovered a prospective solution at an event or tradeshow I or someone on my team was contacted directly by a prospective solution I or someone on my team saw an email or ad for a prospective solution How is your companys buying process initiated? (Select all that apply.) Other means of initiating the buyers journey As we saw earlier, 61.8% of marketing leaders confirm that a buying process begins when a challenge or pain point has been vocalized. While that is the most common way, there are other ways the buyers journey begins as well: While a majority of buying processes begin with the vocalization of a challenge or pain point, marketing leaders can initiate their buyers journey from a number of other instances, including the end of a contract, coming across compelling content, or a vendors marketing in the form of email marketing or an event presence.Yet once the journey begins, what prompts these leaders to pursue a solution? 61.8% 48% 46.6% 45.1% 37.3% 34.8% 27.5%INSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 16 Determining to pursue Marketing leaders report that there are a number of ways to determine whether or not to pursue a prospective solution, regardless of their company size and size of the buying committee. The top 3 ways marketing leaders decide which solutions to pursue are: Have others on their team conduct research (57.8%) Read analyst reports about prospective solutions (52%) Have others on their team go on discovery calls (48%) Marketing leaders are heavily involved at the beginning of the buyers journey, but as they venture further down the buyers journey, what kinds of resources, materials, and assets are waiting for them? And more importantly, how do marketing leaders respond? We have others on our team conduct research We read analyst reports about prospective solutions We have others on our team go on discovery calls A formal cost-benefit analysis is conducted We conduct interviews with current customers to gauge where their interests lie 57.8% 52% 48% 44.6% 29.9%At the start of the buying process, how do you and the other members of your companys buying committee determine which prospective solutions to pursue? (Select all that apply.)INSIDE THE HEAD OF A MARKETING LEADER: THE BUYERS JOURNEY 17 The role of content Once a buying journey begins, marketing leaders and buying committee members require information to make informed purchasing decisions. This information is usually in the form of content supplied by a vendor. However, many marketing lead- ers look beyond vendor-supplied content for more objective, u