Engineers are often key decision makers in B2B buying processes. To reach and convince them, we need to communicate the right content in the right channels in order to make engineers trust our message and select us as a potential supplier.
In this post, we summarize engineer’s channel preferences from a report by TREW marketing, published for the 8th consecutive year. In an earlier post we looked closer at what messages that triggers engineer’s decisions.
To summarize the core of both posts: 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.
A large part of the engineer’s buying process is done online. Around 60% according to this survey. And the most important channel for this, is the potential vendors’ websites which 73% rely on.
The top ranked information sources after the vendor’s website are:
- Trade publications (online), 73%
- Technical publications (print), 45%
- Sales/application engineers, 37%
- Industry directory websites, 34%
- YouTube, 31%
- Conferences/trade shows, 29%
- Webinars, 26%
- Newsletters, 26%
- Industry/association groups, 26%
- LinkedIn, 15%
- AI platforms, 10%
A bit surprisingly, YouTube is the most used and trusted social media channel, followed by LinkedIn and GitHub. Maybe even more surprising is the low ranking of AI platforms. According to the study, most technical buyers don’t consider themselves particularly trusting of generative AI platforms. On a scale from 1 to 10, the average trust level came in at 4.4. This finding hints at a year-over-year trust drop. In 2024, when asked to what extent technical buyers trust answers from AI-based tools on a scale of 1 to 10, the average trust level was 6.5.
Channels develop rapidly though, so don’t hesitate to test new channels. I today’s digital world, it’s fairly cheap and sometimes unexpected media choices helps you stand out. A golden rule is to spend 70% of your budget on activities you know works, 20% of new activities you have tested and 10% to test new things.
And if you want to discuss effective communication, you are always welcome to contact ulf@sfinxconsulting.se
