Base One blog

March 23 2010 4:19 PM

There’s a proliferation of research into how, as B2B marketers, we are planning to leverage Social Media to grow our brands (Cyance / ABBA) and with some variations they tell a familiar story. Apparently we are all increasing spend on web based media, on Google and on social media whilst at the same time reducing our investment in advertising and direct mail. We are using email more and we rely on our websites for an increasing proportion of our leads. Some of us are also investing in Lead Management Automation and other automation tools in our bid to increase efficiency and ROI.

But how many of us can honestly say that this diversion of effort and spend is in reaction to any quantifiable change in our buyers’ behaviour. Have all our buyers changed how they buy? Are they all buying in the same way? Is the rate of change the same for all our audiences and markets? The fact is, currently, we just don’t know.

Since it’s our job to advise on how to adapt to the challenges and opportunities of the Digital Age we decided it was down to us to help inform these decisions. Thus the research we are about to publish which looks at “The Buyersphere” in detail in an attempt to identify the differences and similarities in behaviour across sectors, ages and different types of purchase. This first wave focuseson B2B buying in the UK and we’ll be looking at global and regional differences later this year.

The report is still being finalised but Ican say that the data looks very interesting. Having looked at some of the early findings it is likely that some of us have been too keen to assume thatour buyers are no longer influenced by traditional media having switched almost entirely to the Social world. I could also name a few that are missing tremendous opportunities as their audiences are the ones who have embraced the Digital Age.

One thing is clear, as predicted, there is a generational wave coming and if, as I believe we should, we use this information to help us plan around our audiences not around our own prejudices there is a tremendous opportunity for the B2B marketers that are ready to listen and react.

If you’d like to receive an early copy of the report let me know.