Forrester: B2B buying groups expand as they question AI

Content Marketing for B2B in 2026: Strategies That Drive Growth

b2b buyer's journey

Take everything you’ve learned from the above steps and plan your outreach content to drive revenue. Then, decide on your messaging and value drivers for each target audience and key account. Consider what you can offer prospects that your competitors can’t. According to b2b buyer’s journey a study by Forrester on the Three Myths of the “67 Percent” Statistic, 67% of a buyer’s journey is now being done digitally. The B2B buyer’s journey is unique in that you’re not selling to an individual but to an entire team or group of people, all of whom might have a say in the purchasing decision.

b2b buyer's journey

Younger generations get very attached to brands that align with their values. Brand awareness is a key target for increased investment among B2B marketers. Buyers want a brand behind the product or service they’re purchasing. While social media accounts might not convert as frequently as content or email marketing, they’re just as important. Spend more time connecting with followers with HubSpot’s time-saving suite of social tools.

  • How top brands are shifting from platform inflation to real revenue impact.
  • 65% of B2B businesses state that their buyers are tightening their budgets, highlighting the need to focus more on spending.
  • The average view time for demos across companies and industries is 5 minutes and 14 seconds, down 5.5% from 2025.
  • Even if you can navigate the complex web of stakeholders, you might already be too late to influence the outcome.

With that information, businesses can better choose the best channels. A presence on a specific social media platform, such as LinkedIn? Learn what they’re currently doing — do they have a website? Scope out the market and see which businesses are marketing to the business’ target audience.

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This research will help you understand not just what prospects do at each stage, but why they do it — crucial insight for mapping how the traditional Awareness, Consideration, and Decision stages play out in your specific market. The B2B buyer’s journey is a complex process that requires a strategic approach to effectively engage and convert potential customers. Content that helps in this stage includes product comparison guides, case studies, ROI calculators, and expert reviews.

b2b buyer's journey

Journey mapping reveals friction points where prospects might abandon their buying process. Your map should capture each touchpoint where prospects interact with your business, from initial awareness through consideration, decision-making, onboarding, and beyond. Unlike B2C journeys, B2B buying processes typically involve multiple stakeholders, longer decision timelines, and more complex considerations.

Some purchases include generative AI features, which often require additional evaluation and cross-functional input. In the 2025 survey, generative AI tools were the single most cited meaningful interaction type for researching purchases. For renewals and add-on purchases, increasing efficiency and productivity are stronger drivers than they are for first-time buys, according to the report. As a result, buyers are tightening budgets and closely examining both new purchases and renewals.

How B2B Buyers Use Video in the Purchase Journey

b2b buyer's journey

They are also more likely than other buyers to report negative experiences with AI-generated information. Procurement professionals, however, were identified as decision-makers by 53% of respondents and are involved from the earliest stages of the buying cycle rather than only at the end. Fewer than half cited increased complexity or slower decision-making as significant drawbacks. When they do, the buying group doubles in size compared with purchases that do not include such features.

Learn from the experiences of other marketers, sellers, and builders who are using customer voice to drive growth. Request a demo and we’ll show you how it fits into your buyer’s journey. And often, they've skipped the first few micro-stages of the buyer journey altogether. Can we trust this company to follow through? Trust is the biggest barrier in B2B sales, and customer advocacy helps you break through it. Modern buyers don’t want to talk to sales before they’re ready, and they’re skeptical of anything that looks like a trap (like requiring an email just to read a pricing doc).

Take Adobe, a software company with 545.1K followers and 7.8 million likes on its TikTok account. Still, some companies have managed to attract thousands, if not millions, of viewers to their videos through high-quality content and a deep understanding of the app. TikTok is a difficult platform for B2B brands to stand out on. Here are some B2B marketing examples of businesses that do it right. A B2B marketing approach that works for one business may not work for another, but that’s not to say we can’t learn something from the pros. Roughly 47% of surveyed marketers said they agree they have a clear understanding of AI’s role in their strategies and that they can measure AI’s impact accurately.

Thus, it takes longer; sometimes, the B2B buyer’s journey can take weeks, months, or even years. As I previously mentioned, the B2B buyer’s journey involves multiple people from start to finish. Oppositely, the B2C buyer’s journey is quicker, primarily because it’s a process sustained on emotion. The B2B buyer’s journey involves multiple stakeholders, from C-suite executives to finance departments, so getting folks fully aligned on decisions takes some time. Like I previously shared, the decision-making process, sales cycle, and customer motivations vary, ultimately shaping how businesses approach their sales and marketing strategies.

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