Did you know that someone born in the year 2000 is now 24 – old enough to have finished school, uni and a few years of their first corporate job? Insanity, I know, but given this indisputable fact, we need to accept that new generations are entering the workforce, climbing the ranks, and both influencing and making decisions in the B2B space.
So, how do they gather information to make these decisions? In theory, we KNOW that the way people consume information is evolving, but for many organisations, this knowledge hasn’t trickled down into their comms strategy. If you’re still using the same old/same old social media communication channels, you might just find that your prospects have actively stopped hearing or seeing you. Seriously, you may as well talk to the hand - because it’s likely no one else is listening.
A note for anyone born after the year 2000, ‘talk to the hand because the face ain't listening’ was popular 90s slang.
The reality is that if you want to get through to today’s IT decision-makers (aka ITDMs), you need to rethink not only what you’re saying and who you’re saying it to, but where you’re saying it.
So, where are ITDMs getting their info these days?
According to Marketingprofs, Gen Z and Millennial B2B marketers are noticing changes in buyer behaviour. They’re calling out ITDMs' increased use of social media for everything from research to decision-making, price setting to peer reviews, and more. Also to note is that 80% of Gen Z and Millennial buyers rely on social media, compared with just 42% of Boomers.
It’s no great surprise that video continues to be popular, with 72% of ITDMs using YouTube for work-related information and 58% turning to LinkedIn. In fact, 95% of ITDMs watch tech-related videos for business purposes. While there’s a sharp drop-off for Instagram, Facebook and X (which average just under 45%), the percentages are still higher than I expected.
Another preferred medium to throw into the mix is podcasts. 61% of ITDMs say they’ve listened to a business-related podcast over the last year; this number rises to 73% when we look specifically at Gen Z.
What does this mean for you? A single-minded reliance on either YouTube or LinkedIn isn’t going to cut the mustard. You need an integrated content strategy to get your messaging across a broader range of mediums from multiple sources.
Foundry found that older tech buyers rate research from analyst firms and third parties, followed by technology content sites, as the most helpful. However, for Gen Z and Gen X, YouTube and recommendations from peers rank higher, and what they glean from technology content sites comes in third. (I’m showing my age here because I love a good research report and detest long-form video content).
Who are today’s buyers?
While the preferred comms channel can vary widely depending on whether an ITDM is a Boomer, Gen X, Millennial or Gen Z, it’s important to remember that they are only part of a group that will influence and make the final purchasing decision. In a corporate environment, today’s buying committee averages 28 members (up from 20 in 2020), and their ages will likely span entire generations.
When looking at an average buying group size of 28, a new Foundry report says that 15 will be IT influencers, and the rest will represent line-of-business roles. And each member of the group will have their own agenda and selection criteria.
The B2B Institute recently threw a big and hungry cat amongst the pigeons in their Bain-B2B Institute study, which advocates throwing the old traditional lead gen, KPIs, and metrics in the bin. B2B Institute founder, Jann Martin Schwarz, asserts that B2B marketers are focusing on the wrong things and the wrong people. In particular, they’re missing the ‘hidden buyers’.
So, who are these mysterious hidden buyers? They’re the people who don’t show up in traditional individual-focused lead gen. These buyers (think procurement, finance, legal, IT security and C-suite decision-makers) don’t give a fig for features; they’re all about managing risk, and they’re making group decisions far earlier than you even thought. To top it off, their decisions are based on compromise and the ‘least worst’ option.
Can you bypass these hidden buyers? Not a chance. With 40-60% of B2B deals getting stalled due to vetos by hidden buyers, you’re missing a (huge) trick if you don’t adapt to their expectations and talk to them where and how they demand – and fast.
OLS recommendation: The above information is from an excellent podcast with Jann Martin Schwarz and Mimi Turner from the B2B Institute - produced by Paul McIntyre, Executive Editor of Mi3. It’s well worth a listen to. Yes, it’s almost an hour long, but we promise you won’t regret it!
So, back to brand for B2B?
Now, the “what”. Another stunner from the B2B Institute study is that “at every stage, familiarity and trust in a brand of a vendor’s reputation was the casting vote.” I.e., brand effectively acts as ‘deal risk insurance’ and disproportionately influences these hidden buyers, which is tough to swallow if you’ve been talking about nothing but the product!
Our esteemed leader, Kristal, is fond of saying people buy from people. It’s no longer good enough to think of B2B as the be-all and end-all; instead, our customers need to adopt a B2P (business-to-person) approach. To accept that in this day and age - brand comes first.
And yes, while what she’s said hasn’t made her popular with other marketers, she’s feeling nicely vindicated by the B2B Institute study.
Foundry’s Role and Influence of the Technology Decision-Maker Study 2024 (which we’ve referenced throughout this blog) says that 48% of ITDMs would seek a new vendor when making a tech purchase and that ‘the no. 1 reason is that the product or service is more innovative or feature-rich’. But, when identifying that new vendor and getting their offering across the line, ‘68% of ITDMs say that when all stakeholders are aware of a brand, it makes the internal sell-through process easier’. (Yeah, brand is back big time, baby.)
The brand message is getting through to Gen Z and Millennial B2B marketers. They understand that the brand is an essential driver for ITDMs, with 66% prioritising authenticity when creating brand messaging (which must be worrying for anyone who thought that ChatGPT would write their copy in 2025).
And they’re on the money. According to the Foundry report, “Credibility is the number one value criterion when assessing tech content sites, with 44% of respondents saying it is important. That’s followed by clarity of information (41%) and relevancy (39%).”
Finally - regardless of what and where ITDMs go for the information they need, having enough content for decision-making is also important. Back in 2019, just 5 pieces of content did the job, but in 2024, it takes 7, ranging from downloaded whitepapers to research studies. Today’s content must have a broader appeal than ever before, given the resurgence of brand credibility as a decision-making factor, the need to talk to the agendas of hidden buyers, and the generational spread of buyers and their information-gathering preferences.
Talk to the hand takeaways:
- Don’t use too few channels; prioritise an integrated content strategy
- Brand isn’t old news, it rates highly for decision-makers
- Buying groups are like icebergs – you’re only seeing or interacting with the very tip (but ignore what you can’t see at your peril)
