Transforming B2B Buyer Journeys into Revenue Streams

By: Jacob Cohen Donnelly

Research shows B2B buyers spend 70% of their purchasing journey in evaluation—a challenge smart publishers can help their partners address.

According to 6sense’s B2B Buyer Experience report, buyers avoid software sales teams for most of the journey and only reach out when they have a shortlist of prospective vendors.

The report’s key point is that “buyers had their first conversations with the ultimate winner 84% of the time,” and 83% of the time, the buyer initiated the first contact instead of reacting to a seller.

Let that sink in. Nearly all buyers know who they want to work with before contacting a vendor’s seller. If someone is considering a purchase and the first contact is with a seller doing outreach, you’ve already lost. No one can build a business on such a small percentage of the total addressable market.

This has major implications for how software is sold and, because many of us in the B2B world sell to these vendors, there are implications for us. Fortunately, publishers are perfectly built to help overcome this challenge and deliver the right value. It requires creating numerous ad products.

For this article, let’s use a customer data platform (CDP) as an example.

Someone in their early buyer’s journey may not know they need a CDP, but are consuming content about 1st-party data. They read about capturing, categorizing and activating the data, and other topics. After that, they realize they need to purchase a CDP.

The evaluation process begins now. Any vendor that has their brand around this content is at an advantage. The simplest product to create is a category or tag-based sponsorship. Any story about audience development or 1st-party data gets tagged and the vendor’s ad appears there.

You can create webinars and virtual events on topics related to the sponsor’s offerings. You can also help with thought leadership content addressing prospective buyers’ concerns.

Consider the webinar I hosted with Bloomberg Media’s global head of product. Omeda was the sponsor and while they got leads, I’d argue the most significant part was the 30-second host-read advertisement explaining Omeda’s role in helping publishers. They didn’t need to be an active participant to benefit.

This matters because the buyer is looking to build a list of potential partners. They understand they need the tool and its desired outcomes. Now they want to know who to contact.

Many publishers might say they have done their job for the sponsor at this point. But it leaves uncertainty about the marketing campaign’s efficacy. How long will it be between the lead hitting the vendor’s CRM and the buyer reaching out? If it takes six months, will the vendor give the publisher credit? Not likely, even though the buyer learned about them from your publication first.

What if you could own the buyer’s hand until the end of their journey? Here’s how.

At the top of the funnel, the buyer is learning. As they move down, they evaluate specific vendors. To help them decide, have the sponsor cover the cost for them to attend one of your upcoming events. The only requirement is that the buyer and sponsor meet face-to-face. Hosted buyer meetings are standard, but the key point is that both parties already know each other exists.

What if they evaluated three potential vendors and all three of them were at your event? Now, you’ve enabled the buyer to have an introductory meeting with their three targets in a single trip. I don’t expect any deals to close at the event, but it allows a kickoff. Each sponsor could walk away feeling as if they have a legitimate shot—which is good for the publisher—and the buyer has moved into the final stage: validation.

The sponsor should cover the cost because the buyer’s group champion won’t be allowed to buy a ticket due to their low seniority. They are likely a more junior person because they have to use the purchased tool. By covering the ticket cost, these junior champions can get invited.

Building a full funnel is the best outcome for a publisher. We can monetize the reader across multiple touch points. Additionally, when it comes time for renewal, the partner knows how much ROI they got from working with the publisher. That’s a win.

But it gets even better because this can help refocus marketers away from buying units or specific tactics and move them toward creating always-on marketing campaigns. Someone reading AMO is actively looking for a CDP, and another just realized what 1st-party data is. They’re at different stages of the journey, and if vendors aren’t sponsoring and marketing at those steps, they’ll miss out.

If publishers integrate into the vendor’s marketing campaigns, they are more likely to drive successful purchases and earn more of that client’s marketing spend.

It matters for consumer too

The 6sense report focused on B2B buyer behaviors. As a friend always said, behind that second B in B2B is a C. People are the decision makers whether it’s business or personal. How we evaluate things is equally important in both cases.

I return to a comment by Joe Marchese from Human Ventures on the People vs. Algorithms podcast:

If you believe that performance media can get you a customer and that that is your gateway to getting your customer, you have to believe that whatever is the gateway to that customer controls that customer. The idea that you can build a brand or business on performance media alone is totally flawed.

The only way to reduce customer acquisition costs over time is brand. And you can’t measure brand on a short feedback loop.

Look at Nike. It pushed the bulk of its marketing dollars into performance channels because it was easily tracked. The outcome is stark. According to The Economist:

Last year they [Nike & Adidas] accounted for 35% and 16%, respectively, of the $146bn in net sales generated by the 15 biggest sportswear brands, according to Morgan Stanley, an investment bank. But that is down from a combined 63% in 2018.

Publishers can help brands with this evaluation. Put brand marketing and thought leadership around content that matters to the prospective buyer. If it’s running shoes, sponsor running sites. You may not sell sneakers right then and there, but you’ll be in consideration.

When the buyer is ready, they’ll seek you out, but not necessarily by clicking an ad. They may just go to Nike’s website. It’s not trackable, but it happens because the brand was built. Consumer media should ensure it has the products that brands need to push their message and collect data to prove those people are engaging.

Brands love running affiliate marketing campaigns with publishers. The smartest ones realize that if they invest brand dollars on that platform, it drives more sales. Performance marketing feels good because you can track everything, but as Marchese says, you can’t build a brand on performance media alone.