{"id":8243,"date":"2024-07-25T15:35:23","date_gmt":"2024-07-25T15:35:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tup.kxe.temporary.site\/why-buyer-groups-matter-in-b2b-demand-gen-and-how-to-target-them\/"},"modified":"2024-07-25T15:35:23","modified_gmt":"2024-07-25T15:35:23","slug":"why-buyer-groups-matter-in-b2b-demand-gen-and-how-to-target-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/okdesign.ca\/en\/why-buyer-groups-matter-in-b2b-demand-gen-and-how-to-target-them\/","title":{"rendered":"Why buyer groups matter in B2B demand gen and how to target them"},"content":{"rendered":"


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In B2B demand generation<\/a>, buyer groups<\/a> have become more important than individual buyers. Traditionally, marketers focused on the buyer journey as if a single person handled research, evaluation and final selection. This approach assumed that targeting a CEO, CFO or CMO would likely result in a sale.<\/p>\n

However, in large organizations, this isn\u2019t realistic. Typically, multiple people identify the need for a solution, conduct research and consult decision-makers. Meetings often involve stakeholders from different departments, so focusing only on key decision-makers may overlook the broader buyer group journey.<\/p>\n

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\"Buyer\"Buyer<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

What is a buyer group?<\/h2>\n

Buyer groups include all key stakeholders in B2B purchase decisions, including people from roles you may not be actively targeting who nonetheless have a say in the final decision (examples here often include legal, IT, and\/or compliance).\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2023, the average B2B buyer group consists of a bit more than nine members, per 6sense\u2019s estimates<\/a>. Each member may have up to 15 interactions with each vendor under evaluation. Notably, over 70% of these interactions occur before any member of the buyer group contacts the sellers.<\/p>\n

Dig deeper: <\/em><\/strong>New ways to identify B2B buying group members<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Why should you consider buyer groups?<\/h2>\n

The bigger buyer group \u2014 the influencers of the sale \u2014 do a lot of the work, and sometimes, the person signing the checks is only interested in doing just that. Targeting CFOs alone, for example, could miss the influencers conducting research, determining which vendors are the best fit to solve specific pain points and evaluating who is or isn\u2019t in the budget.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In many B2B marketing teams, everything from advertising campaigns to email lists, social media content, lead generation and sales tasking is fundamentally targeted to the key decision maker: usually the person in the C-suite signing off on the new relationship. <\/p>\n

By structuring your digital marketing strategy around that sole buyer, you\u2019re cutting your brand out of the key research phases and missing the opportunity to get your brand into the vendor evaluation phase.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Influencers may not be the right person to sign off on the final agreement, but more often than not, the C-suite isn\u2019t close enough to the pain points to decide which vendor is best positioned to solve a problem. In short, your key messaging to a C-suite member of a buyer committee could be ignored.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not everyone in the buyer group needs to hear the same message. Think of conversations that happen internally at your company when you\u2019re making decisions about a purchase. IT asks different questions; marketing and legal have their own set of concerns. What if you could target each buyer in the group with a unique message?\u00a0<\/p>\n

Aligning martech to your buyer groups<\/h2>\n

Many tech tools are evolving for exactly that \u2014 the ability to create an account and, within the account, serve different messages to unique buyers that align with their specific pain points or questions.<\/p>\n

Some solutions, like account-based marketing<\/a> (ABM) tools, can do this out of the box and allow you to:<\/p>\n