Who Is the New B2B Buyer and How Do You Connect with Them?
By Joshua Nite
We all know that Millennials are out-of-control college kids doing shots on Spring Break. And Gen Z are the 10-year-olds currently being raised by TikTok, right?
Hold onto your hats: The youngest Millennials are in their late-twenties. The oldest Gen Zs are 25 — that means they’re out of school and in the workforce. These two demographics are the fastest-growing cohort of B2B buyers.
And they don’t think like Boomers or Gen Xers.
So how do B2B marketers reach these mysterious digital natives? Here are a few pointers.
How to Connect with the New B2B Buyer
You don’t need the latest slang to speak authentically to younger audiences (though I find the new slang totes yeet). Just keep in mind these preferences.
1 — Omnichannel or Bust
Digital natives grew up with the Internet and Gen Z grew up with social media. They’re used to having the answer to any question at their fingertips. They’re also accustomed to multi-threaded conversations: For example, they can start with a social media direct message, continue in text, and end with a quick call. If the only way to interact with your brand is on a phone call, you might as well insist people use semaphore.
Here’s how dramatically the landscape has changed: In 2016, the average B2B buyer used five different channels to interact with suppliers. In 2021, the average was ten channels.
But it’s not just about how many channels you’re on; it’s the experience you provide across channels. Omnichannel means that instead of thinking in terms of channels (ie, Facebook, SMS, chatbot, voice), you think in terms of a single conversation. Every person who interacts with a buyer on behalf of your brand should have access to the entire conversation history.
If someone can interact with the brand across multiple channels with a single seamless experience, they are more likely to choose your brand at decision-making time. That’s especially true for younger demographics, but it also applies across the board.
[bctt tweet=”“If someone can interact with the brand across multiple channels with a single seamless experience, they are more likely to choose your brand at decision-making time.” — Joshua Nite @NiteWrites” username=”toprank”]
2 — Multimedia Is Mandatory
In the last few years, B2B marketers have finally pulled away from the static white paper or downloadable eBook as their primary content focus. While these old standbys still have a place in the marketing mix, top-of-funnel content must be more engaging to earn attention.
Video, audio, motion graphics and interactivity all help your brand’s story to come to life for your buyer. In a way, it’s an “omnimedia” approach; Gen Z and Millennials are used to seeing all different types of media in their social feeds. They don’t think twice about, say, a video embedded in a text …read more
Source:: Top Rank Blog
