Tailor your B2B content to the sales cycle

An annual report on content use by B2B technology buyers shares insights and best practices for content development for the different parts of the technology product sales cycle. Marketers must develop the correct content to engage, connect, and build trust with customers at the right time in the sales cycle.

The annual B2B Technology Content Survey by Eccolo Media asks tech buyers which B2B content they find most useful. In both the full 2014 report and a 2015 infographic, there are some great insights, and the study has broken the information down into different parts of the sales cycle: Pre-sales, initial sales, mid-sales, and final sales.

Content now plays a role at every stage of technology purchases, so marketers must develop the correct content to engage, connect, and build trust with customers at the right time in the sales cycle.

According to the full 2014 report, the most frequently used and influential channel for receiving information is websites, especially web content forwarded from a personal contact. The report continues, saying that microsites and campaign landing pages are extraordinarily valuable.

tech buyer content usage stats

Different content types evaluated in the report, and their influence on buying decisions, include the following:

  • White papers
  • Case studies/success tories
  • Product brochures/data sheets
  • Detailed technology guides/implementation scenarios
  • Video and multimedia files
  • Competitive vendor worksheets
  • Customer magazines and publications
  • Webinars
  • Blog articles
  • Podcasts and audio files
  • Infographics
  • Social content
  • E-newsletters and digests
  • E-books
  • Tweets
  • Web slide shows

Finally, the report offers best practices in content marketing for tech companies:

  1. Map content to the buyer’s journey.
  2. Leverage LinkedIn but don’t ignore Facebook.
  3. Don’t create more content; create smarter content.
  4. Keep what works, and explore what’s new.
  5. Tap into the perceived influence of interactivity.
  6. Don’t stop after the purchase.

Read the full 2014 Eccolo Media 2014 B2B Technology Content Survey Report or download the 2015 Sales Cycle: What Content Goes Where infographic.