Attract, nurture and convert – I have been sharing this marketing philosophy with businesses for years. Within a business’ marketing strategy, they should have clear ways to: 

• attract high-quality leads through targeted marketing strategies
• nurture those leads with valuable content that builds trust
• convert those leads into paying customers through a sales process

It creates a flow of customers as they consistently get new eyes on the business, keep people interested and help their audience make a buying decision. Many businesses have built their marketing around this philosophy in the form of a funnel. For example, getting found on Google (attract), offering a lead magnet followed by email communications (nurture) and inviting potential customers to a sales call (convert).

This worked effectively for many years but times have changed…

Same philosophy, different journey

The way buying decisions are being made, especially in the B2B and professional services sectors, has shifted. We still need to attract, nurture and convert customers, but we can’t expect new customers to follow a linear process. That’s not how they are interacting with brands anymore. 

They are now bouncing around between the different marketing stages as they look for more information, change their minds, pause or restart the buying process. They know they can get more information independently online, mitigating risk and validating their provider selection before speaking directly to a business. 

It doesn’t make sense to push potential customers through a traditional marketing funnel anymore because you can’t predict where they are in their buying decision. You might think they’re ready to jump on a call with a salesperson, but the potential customer may still be engaged in independent research and not thinking about making direct contact yet. 

Instead, build a brand bubble. Bring together a combination of marketing techniques that keep them in your world as they bounce around between buying phases and come to their decision. Provide the information and trust indicators that they are looking for at different stages of the buying process consistently across different channels. Whatever information they are looking for, it takes them back to you.

But what has created such a seismic shift in buyer behaviour and how do we need to respond as B2B and professional services businesses?

3 critical shifts in buyer behaviour

The message is made clear in research by Gartner. The buyer journey has changed, particularly for B2B businesses with high-value, high-consideration offerings, and if we fail to keep up, we’ll lose out on customers, revenue and reputation. If we don’t provide what they need as they make a buying decision, they will go elsewhere.  

Increase in decision-makers

While in the past you only needed to gain the approval of a couple of decision-makers, today there are 6-10 stakeholders involved in making purchasing decisions. This is a 2-3x increase since 2015! It’s a smart business decision on their part because getting more people involved in decision-making mitigates risk.

On your end, it means you need to convince multiple different buyers to get the sale over the line. These decision-makers are usually spread across departments – leaders in operations, finance, marketing and more. So you need to prove your worth in multiple arenas. 

It’s fair to assume that different decision-makers will use different channels, online and offline, to support their buying decision. Millennials and Generation Z have risen through the leadership ranks. They utilise digital channels a lot more than previous generations, even when making business decisions. You need to account for these variations in your ideal client. 

Longer to convert

Many businesses have noticed that customers are taking longer to consider proposals and follow up on enquiries. This is reflective of an overall extension of the buyer journey. The time between a customer discovering a business and making a purchase has increased across the board. 

The number of decision-makers is a considerable factor in this. The more people involved in a decision, the longer it will take to get on the same page about how to move forward. However, one phase in the buyer journey has increased more than the rest – the research phase. Buyers spend about 27% of their time on independent online research. This is compared to only 17% of their time meeting with a supplier. 

Buyers are engaging with businesses at a distance before they step forward to start direct discussions. They go back and forth between looking for different solutions, comparing competitors, researching brands and collecting key information. They might pause and restart their decision-making or shift their priorities part way through. If you don’t stay top of mind during the ins and outs of research phase, you’re at risk of being left behind. 

Omni-channel journey

Considering all the above, the buyer journey is now taking place across multiple channels, both online and offline. It’s not about picking the preferred channel of your ideal client. It’s about showing up in multiple ways. 

Each decision-maker could start their search in a completely different place. Then they could go on to visit your website, read your blog, follow you on social media, sign up for your newsletter, speak to your existing customers, speak to a representative at a tradeshow and more. They immerse themselves in your brand. Understand what they are looking for such as information about your process and trust indicators like reviews and case studies and share it across your marketing channels. 

The omni-channel journey benefits businesses. By showing up on different platforms and in different ways, you stay top of mind. Each interaction is a reminder of the value you provide. With longer periods of decision-making, every interaction matters. When they need to gather more information, you’re not far away. This puts you in a really strong position.

How to update your marketing efforts

Considering the new decision-making process, adapt your marketing approach to make it easier for customers to say yes to buying from you today. Here are some quick-fire actions to implement into your marketing strategy.

• Add to your marketing channels – Be present consistently across multiple marketing channels to provide the right information for longer. Where else are customers looking for you?
• Increase research content – Make sure you have enough content across channels to engage customers in the research phase. What else do they need to know and where do they need to see it?
• Close the gaps – We don’t want leads falling off the end of funnels. We want to keep them in our brand bubbles. How can you continue to re-engage leads?

The best approach to take with this is another 3 part marketing philosophy I use all the time – review, strategise and plan. 

• First review what you are doing now and the impact it is having. Check where you are still meeting your benchmarks and where you are falling behind. 

Unsure of how your current marketing is really performing? Fill out my Free Marketing Effectiveness Scorecard to see how these changes have affected your results. 

• Then reconsider your strategy, including who you are trying to reach and your business goals. Without a clear strategy behind your efforts, you’ll make noise but not necessarily money. 

• Finally, use this insight to plan how you are going to turn your marketing funnel into a brand bubble. Start with a 90-day plan and then review the results for continuous improvement. 

If you don’t know where to start with reviewing, strategising and planning your marketing, I can be your expert guide. I help B2B businesses who feel lost with their marketing efforts find clarity and a marketing approach that creates commercial success. Book a discovery call and I’ll show you how to upgrade your marketing efforts to appeal to 2025 buyers.