Dive Brief:
- Research from B2B Marketing Zone asked 25 industry thought leaders about B2B marketing trends, and one key trend uncovered was the changing expectations of B2B buyers as Millennials replace Baby Boomers in the marketplace.
- The report pointed out that digital natives complete most of the buying journey by doing their own research rather than relying on sales reps. For marketers, this means content must be relevant, easy to find, and mobile-friendly.
- Curalate CMO Matt Langie told Marketing Dive last year that millennials don’t want to be marketed to — they want to be engaged with. The challenge is “striking the right balance of engaging, visual content while at the same time delivering informative decision-making content.”
Dive Insight:
The B2B Marketing Zone report suggests marketers can improve their content marketing by producing content focused on the needs of specific audiences, and by “being human” through producing content for people, not audience segments or search engines.
“2016 will be the year where B2B marketers finally realize that, while they can always make more content, their customers can't make any more time. They will be forced to value ‘fit’ over ‘reach’ where they target the customers that fit them the best rather than reaching for more eyeballs,” Mike Moran, senior strategist at Converseon, said in the report.
In terms of creating B2B content that appeals to Millennial buyers, Curalate's Langie told Marketing Dive to effectively reach digital natives brands need to “publish compelling, interesting creative that educates and/or entertains this demographic." It’s also important to make it easy to act on that content.