What does it take to successfully engage B2B buyers? The recent 2015 Content Preferences Survey by Demand Gen found that 67% of B2B buyers are now more reliant on content when making purchasing decisions.

However, a lack of detailed and industry-specific information has led them elsewhere – they are instead seeking peer recommendations and scouring social networks such as Quora and LinkedIn for pre-purchase guidance. B2B vendors should therefore make better use of unique data to generate niche, targeted content that answers buyers' questions – and ultimately to make marketing campaigns go further.

Get interactive

Whether it’s through a compelling infographic or a thought-provoking 30-second video, one finding came across clearly in the survey: 91% of buyers surveyed have a preference for more interactive and visual content. Practically, this means turning unique data – for example, from online user engagement or first-party surveys – into interactive content that resonates with your audience. Dot Com Infoway, an India-based IT company, found that having larger images alone has the potential to increase sales by 46%.

Package right

The survey also found that 74% of buyers have less time to view content than they did a year ago – this means an even shorter period to capture interest. Demand Gen notes that more than half of respondents strongly recommend packaging similar content together, giving them useful resources to refer to as they "progress through the buying cycle". In order to supply the right content at the right time, to the right person, it must be packaged for multi-channel consumption – and that means having detailed insight into how and where buyers are consuming content, and what stage they're at in the purchase journey, then targeting them with relevant messages at the appropriate moment.

Be honest

Nearly three thirds (65%) of surveyed buyers strongly recommend curbing the sales message in content – this means that rather than sending out generic 'hard-sell' material, vendors should instead focus on creating helpful thought leadership content that contributes toward building long-term trust. 92% of respondents said they 'strongly prefer' prescriptive content (e.g. "7 Steps To…" or "3 Tips For…") that offers them genuine value.

To find out how censhare is enabling businesses to optimize the customer journey with personalized communications across multiple channels, explore our Advanced Analytics and Multichannel Campaign Management solutions.