B2B Monday Myth: Millennials Aren’t Making B2B Decisions
by MGB2B
The Myth: Millennials Aren’t Making B2B Decisions
The Truth: Millennials Are Changing the Face of B2B Marketing Altogether
Over the last few years, the demographic for B2B buyers has dramatically shifted. More than half of today’s B2B buyers — employees assigned to find product providers — are labeled as millennials. This is a huge increase from 2012, when millennial buyers made up only 27% of the B2B buyer job category.
The question isn’t: Do millennials make B2B decisions? It’s how has this giant shift affected B2B marketing?
This dramatic shift in such a small period of time means that successful B2B marketers must understand what makes millennials tick. As you’re probably already aware, millennials are less likely to respond to many of the marketing tactics that worked on Baby Boomers, or even Gen X. Millennials have never known a world without the Internet — they are digital natives. They complete the majority of their buying journey through their own research, rather than relying on sales reps. That means marketing content must always be relevant, easy to find, mobile-friendly, and engaging — but informative as well. The challenge with content marketing today is finding that perfect balance of engaging visual content, and informative decision-making content.
If you’re worried about sacrificing Gen X and Baby Boomer decision makers, don’t. They may respond a little differently from their younger counterparts, but they crave content just as much.
The Importance of Mobile for This Audience
Whatever content you create for this audience, one of the most important things to remember is to have mobile-friendly content. With 42% of B2B researchers using mobile as they make purchase decisions, you can’t afford to lose buyers during that process. That means your website, emails, white papers, blog posts — everything — need to be legible, well-designed, and easy to navigate on a mobile phone. This applies across generations of course, but is particularly true for millennials, who use their mobile phones for nearly every decision they make — whether at work or at home.
Not sure how to approach B2B marketing for this audience? Drop us a line.
Continue Reading