Editor's Note: Today's post comes courtesy of Tom Masotto, VP Product Marketing & Business Development at ON24, a cloud-based webinar platform. This post is Part 2 of a 2-part series. You can read part 1 here.
According to Demand Gen Report’s 2014 B2B Buyer Behavior Survey, an effective content strategy can certainly influence the buyer journey.
- An overwhelming majority (82%) of senior executives said that content was a significant driver of their buying decisions.
- 66% of respondents said that the winning vendor provided higher-quality content.
- 61% of B2B buyers agreed that the winning vendor delivered a better mix of content appropriate for each stage of the purchasing process.
As prospects increasingly self-educate through the buying cycle, webinars have become a primary source of information that buyers turn to before making a purchase decision. If designed with the buying cycle in mind, webinars can be an extremely effective method for moving prospects from one stage of the buying cycle to the next.
In this post, I describe prospect attitudes in the “Evaluation” and “Purchase” stages of the buying cycle, and how your webinar content should be tailored to best influence their journey towards the purchasing of your solutions. This is the second in a two-part series, following my first post which covered the “Awareness” and “Consideration” stages.
Evaluation Stage
In the Evaluation stage, your prospects are aware of your business as a potential solution for their needs, but they’re not convinced yet that you're the vendor they should work with. To make that decision, they need specifics about what you offer and the benefits you can provide them. The outcome of this stage is a short list of companies and solutions.
Webinars for the Evaluation stage should describe your solution in detail, present its key features, and demonstrate its return on investment. The webinars and supporting collateral should also create clear points of differentiation between you and your major competitors. The desired end result is that the potential customer is convinced your company has a solution that can fully meet their needs.
Content topic recommendations:
- Solution features
- Competitive differences
- Customer testimonials
- Buying criteria
Evaluation Stage: Example of a “Customer Testimonial” Webinar
Purchase Stage
In the Purchase stage, prospects are ready to make a decision and are narrowing down their options. They’ve already identified their top two or three choices and are looking for the key factors that will motivate their decision. Potential customers need to be sold on your product/solution and the sense of urgency that says they need to make this purchase now.
Purchase-stage webinars are about validation, justification and risk mitigation. Your webinars should showcase customer success stories, demonstrate the features of your solution, and highlight your competitive differences. It is also important to show how other customers have implemented successful projects and attained business value.
Content topic recommendations:
- Demo webinars
- Case studies
- Competitive advantages
- “Working with us” guides
Purchase Stage: Example of a “Demo Webinar”
Design Your Webinars with the Buying Cycle in Mind
Webinars, like solutions from my company ON24, are one of the most important tools for marketers to drive demand and nurture new leads. To be most effective, however, webinar content must be tailored to the specific objectives of each stage of the buying cycle. The key is delivering the right type of webinar content at the right time.
For more information on how to design webinars for the buying cycle, download the ON24 white paper – “The Role of Webinars in the Buying Cycle,” which discusses how ON24 webinars can help you to accelerate the buying cycle and produce sales-ready leads.
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