B2B decision processes normally involve 6-10+ people. The decision makers have different perspectives and we need to communicate with them in different ways. Management is looking at the total investment, production people are interested in how it will affect the production, IT worries about integrations to existing systems. And so on.
Engineers are often key decision makers in B2B buying processes. And to reach and convince them we need to communicate the right content in the right channels in order to make engineers trust our message. In this post, we summarize engineer’s content preferences from a report by TREW marketing, published for the 8th consecutive year. In a later post we will look closer at what channels you should use to most effectively reach them.
In short: In technical marketing, credibility isn’t just important – it’s everything. Engineers and technical buyers make decisions based on facts, not fluff. They seek out sources they trust, prefer content that speaks directly to their challenges, and rely on third-party validation to ensure they’re making the right choices. And “people don’t read anymore” is definitely not true.
What is true though is that a large part of the engineers buying process is done online. Around 60% according to this survey. And the most important channel for this, is the potential vendors’ websites. What triggers the first personal contact are most often “The technical complexity of the solution” and ”Pricing/inventory information questions”.
When engineers list what they think is the most valuable assets they look for when they do research to make a significant purchase, the list looks like this:
- Datasheet, 79%
- Technical publication article, 61%
- CAD drawing, 37%
- Product demo video, 35%
- Product review/testimonial, 34%
- White paper, 32%
- Instructional/how-to video, 29%
- Webinar, 26%
- Print catalog, 26%
- Case study, 25%
- Ebook, 23%
- Blog post, 10%
The question then is why the list is dominated by fact and text heavy assets. The explanation is probably that an important step in the industrial purchase process is research by engineers to find components for their designs. They need access to all of the key product details up front, including dimensional data, physical specs, and a CAD model to test fit with other components in their larger design, ie it’s a typical “How” decision.
This though means that a number of steps and decisions have been taken before on a higher level in the funnel, probably triggered by other types of communication. So, a good advice is to always develop communication that targets different needs and steps in the decision process like “Why”, “What”and “How”.
Do you want to know more about how to win new customers by smart communication, just reach out to ulf@sfinxconsulting.se
