Forrester: The State Of Business Buying, 2024

Journey mapping provides businesses with insights that they can use to improve their processes. By adding live chat, they cut down on delays at a key point of contact, which makes customers happier and more likely to stick with them. B2B customer journey mapping helps you see where your business aligns with customer expectations — and where it doesn’t.

Awareness stage bounce rates on brand websites are 25% higher than in later stages 55% of B2B buyers follow thought leaders on LinkedIn before interacting with a brand 70% of B2B buyers first learn about a brand through organic search results Top-of-funnel content engagement is 3x higher for companies with a documented buyer journey 65% of B2B buyers discover brands through email newsletters in the awareness phase

One of the biggest mistakes we see companies make in B2B sales and marketing is treating the buyer journey as though it only concerns that specific team. Trust and credibility play a huge role here; buyers want reassurance that they’re making the right choice. This is a crucial part of the buyer’s journey because they’re on the verge of making a final commitment. If you want to understand the buyer’s journey in its simplest form, I suggest thinking about the three stages that make the buyer’s journey flow seamlessly. At this stage, businesses focus on educating prospects, addressing pain points, and positioning their product or service as the best solution. I briefly mentioned the stages of the buyer’s journey and the customer’s journey above.

That contact information came from Cognism, so it played a key role in that deal.” Your prospects can easily collect information and find what they’re looking for, making it ten times harder for your outbound sales team to influence their decisions. When businesses see how similar companies have performed with your help, they’ll be signing on the dotted line in no time! It’s companies like these that sell solutions to help businesses automate or enhance their processes. A central theme in the report is “value clarity.” That refers to a buyer’s understanding of how a product or service improves outcomes within their specific role and business context. A key finding from Reddit’s report is the platform’s growing role in search-driven research.

• You can enhance their journey by running targeted ads, maintaining proactive communication, and delivering ongoing value through insightful resources.
• More than 9 in 10 B2B marketers prefer short articles/posts, while 76% use videos as their go-to, followed by three-quarters (75%) who opt for case studies/customer stories.
• At Searchlab, he combines strategic thinking with hands-on AI tooling to deliver measurable results for businesses.
• Generally, these stages are known as Awareness, Consideration, and Decision.
• A third of businesses experience being ghosted by leads mid-cycle.

How to Redesign Sales Roles in the Age of AI

At B2B Summit North America, taking place in Phoenix from April 26–29, 2026, Forrester’s analysts will share how AI-driven buyer autonomy is collapsing traditional go-to-market models, what this inflection point means for businesses, and how to thrive in a world where buyers control the journey. To win in this environment, providers must demonstrate deep understanding of buyer needs, ensure that their claims can be validated through trusted external voices, and design trial experiences that prove long-term business value.” Receive our NewsletterJoin over 70,000 B2B decision-makers growing their brands The most effective B2B content types include case studies, whitepapers, product comparisons, webinars, and thought leadership articles. A strategic approach ensures that every piece you publish moves prospects closer to a decision, supports sales, and drives measurable revenue. McKinsey publishes comprehensive case studies that go beyond basic success stories.

B2B Video Marketing Budget Statistics

Top-performing B2B brands treat content distribution as a core strategy — not an afterthought. Most B2B companies produce content, but very few create content that actually influences buying decisions. Work closely with your sales team to understand where prospects drop off. Use tools like Bombora or 6sense to track which topics and keywords signal purchase intent.

It’s all too easy to choose specific strategies, like social media marketing and content marketing, without a strategic approach. Tools like HubSpot’s Sales Hub can help marketers segment and qualify leads to identify which prospects convert best, providing data-driven insights to refine buyer personas. Marketers can use demographic and psychographic data to identify individual prospects they’ll be marketing to. Then define the target audience — that is, the specific human prospect looking for the brand’s products or services.

From fractional CMOs to agencies, learn when to use each resource and how to align them for consistency, scale and measurable impact. As AI agents start shortlisting vendors, structured, machine-readable content will determine which brands even get considered. Behavioral signals, intent data, and AI can improve personalization, sales alignment, and pipeline performance across complex buying journeys.

Tech and SaaS companies tend to invest more (11-15%), while industrial and manufacturing firms typically sit lower (3-5%). B2B companies spend an average of 8.7% of revenue on marketing in 2026. 72% of Dutch B2B companies invest in digital marketing.

The pursuit of measurable efficiency can leave brands vulnerable when competitors, platforms, or AI reshape customer discovery. Learn how to balance AI chatbot efficiency with the high-touch needs of enterprise sales to engage VIP prospects without losing the human touch. The B2B buyer journey is evolving rapidly as it becomes more digitized, less predictable and more complex. Sprout Social helps you understand and reach your audience, engage your community and measure performance with the only all-in-one social media management platform built for connection. These business-focused metrics prove ROI far more effectively than vanity metrics like likes or followers, which don’t translate to bottom-line results.

B2B Video Adoption and Investment

Growth Method is the only work management platform built specifically for growth marketers. Supplier Selection and Validation – stages that previously required sales involvement – are increasingly completed through peer review sites (G2, Capterra), community forums, LinkedIn, and vendor documentation. Understanding these differences helps marketers avoid applying consumer-focused playbooks to business purchasing decisions.

Essentially, they’re asking themselves, “How can you help my business grow? Download our guide to optimizing email marketing for conversions and learn how to grow an email list, ensure deliverability, and increase engagement. Knowing where the business stands helps cultivate a consistent brand image, regardless of channel.

G2 fielded an online survey among 1,076 B2B decision makers responsible for, or influencing, purchase decisions for departments, multiple departments, operating units, or entire businesses. A customer journey map for B2B companies helps simplify complicated processes, provide better experiences, and unite your teams b2b buyer’s journey around a common knowledge of the consumer. Also known as B2B online marketing, digital marketing helps promote your brand so you can better connect with prospects. It’s important to note that content marketing is most effective when brands align content with the various stages of the buyer’s journey.