Marketers' Misconceptions Part 1 - "69% of Marketers Struggle to See Prospective Buyers as Individuals"

This is the first in a short series of blogs based on research conducted by IDG Connect - and made available exclusively through Base One - into a fascinating area: the discrepancy between how marketers and prospective buyers view email communications. The findings, published this January, examine different perceptions of the drivers for engagement, intensity and open rates. Part one addresses the difficulties of B2B communication...

The growing use of Facebook, Twitter and the iPhone is blurring the lines between corporate and consumer communications. Now it is more vital than ever to address real people... rather than job titles. However, one of the key findings of the IDG research is that, while prospective buyers place a lot of emphasis on information they need personally, marketers still struggle to see them as individuals.

The question was asked: "What motivates prospective buyers to agree to receive additional emails on products or service?" marketers and prospective buyers agreed on the first two primary motivators. These were: 'information which helps with my / their job' and anything which supplies 'fresh insight and ideas'.

 

But on the third motivator opinions became divided. Marketers believed this to be 'whether or not the prospect owns the product or service' (75%); while prospective buyers (62%) placed weight on: 'an area I want to learn about'. Emphasis on the personal 'I' is very revealing, especially when you consider barely a third (31%) of marketers believed this motivator to be of prime importance.

 

The inference is plain: prospective buyers are positioning themselves as individuals. Of course they are interested in information for the purposes of their job. But their perspective is still ultimately that of John or Sarah, Mike or Jane. They are responding as people - not job titles. They want information that will help them personally and (the evidence suggests) they want to be entertained along the way.

What do you think? We will be back next Thursday with Part 2 of Marketers' Misconceptions - when we will look at the biggest mistakes email marketers make while communicating with prospects.

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Reference: the nice people at IDG asked me to point out that this research was compiled from interviews with 100+ marketers and 100+ prospective buyers who use product/service promotional and educational email as part of organisational purchase decisions.