Gartner (2020) found that, when considering a purchase, the average enterprise buyer spends only 17% of their time meeting with potential suppliers, while 27% of their time is spent on independent online research.
The article by Salonen et al. demonstrates that rather than trying to understand what constitutes engaging content (what), there should be more emphasis on understanding when to share it (when). Using an experimental approach, the authors found that if the customer is exposed to company-generated content that they deem relevant in a particular stage of their buying journey, this leads to higher customer engagement with the company and the content it generates.
Several managerial recommendations regarding the optimization of digital content marketing according to the needs of customers at different stages of their buying journey are therefore proposed:
- Offer diverse content: The results highlighted that it may make sense to develop a diverse content portfolio that includes educational content (to inform customers about the company, its products, and services), product content (to promote offerings), and cause-related content (to strengthen relationships and branding). Each type of content should be used wisely depending on the stage of the buying journey, especially since the customer’s engagement with content leads to a greater willingness on the part of the customer to start a face-to-face dialogue with the salesperson.
- Tailor content to specific customer needs: There is no one-size-fits-all sequence for presenting content that would ensure a systematic increase in customer engagement. Thus, managers should focus on using technologies that can identify individual customer needs and deliver content tailored to those specific needs. Indeed, the results suggest that customer content preferences vary greatly depending on the individual and the stages of the buying journey. However, if the salesperson has no way of knowing the individual preferences of the customers, it seems that product-related content is most often considered to be suitable for the purchase phase, while educational content is most often considered to correspond to the pre-purchase phase, i.e. learning. With respect to cause-related content, it does not directly help identify the customer’s problem or provide information about the seller’s offer, but it was suggested that it is an important way for customers to gauge their willingness to build and maintain relationships with suppliers at every stage of the buying journey.
- Choose an appropriate approach based on the resources and skills available: The authors developed a model to identify the online content marketing strategy to adopt based on knowledge about customers and their journey.
Thus, the results obtained by this study suggest that the types of content (educational, product, or cause) that customers prefer to see at different stages of the journey vary from person to person. However, managers who want to leverage digital content marketing based on stages of the journey can invest in technologies that improve their understanding of their customer base and thus the company’s ability to target content to the user’s needs at different stages of their journey. The study recommends that managers take a strategic approach that combines investing in technology, personalizing content, and using different types of content to maximize customer engagement throughout the buying journey.
SOURCE :
Salonen, A., Mero, J., Munnukka, J., Zimmer, M., & Karjaluoto, H. (2024). Digital content marketing on social media along the B2B customer journey: The effect of timely content delivery on customer engagement. Industrial Marketing Management, 118, 12–26.