In B2B marketing, the harsh reality is that only 5% of your target audience is ready to purchase at any given time. ONLY 5%!! This leaves a massive 95% who aren’t prepared to buy right now but could be in the future. The question is: How do you remain relevant with that 95% until they’re ready to make a decision? The short answer: Play the long game. The answer lies in your long-term strategy.
Below, we explore five key strategies that will help you capture the attention of both the 5% who are ready to buy and the 95% who will be down the road.
Five Key Strategies to Engage Your Audience
- Build Trust and Connection: Become the Trusted Advisor
In the long game of B2B marketing, trust is your most valuable currency. Your brand needs to be seen not just as a provider but as a trusted advisor, offering value beyond the immediate product or service. The goal is to create a lasting connection that goes beyond the transactional.How do you do this? It starts with demonstrating thought leadership. Share perspeptive, solution-oriented content that speaks to your audience’s problems—even when they aren’t ready to buy. By building credibility now, you ensure that when that buying moment comes, you’re the one they trust to solve their problems.
- Engage Early and Plant Seeds: Give Them Something to Think About
Even when your audience isn’t in a buying mindset, you can still engage them in meaningful ways. This means setting the foundation early by giving them something to think about. Offer value upfront in the form of free resources, such as whitepapers, how-to guides, or insightful industry updates.This concept ties directly into the “Rule of 7”, which suggests it takes at least seven interactions with your brand before a prospect is ready to make a purchase. Each interaction should provide something new for them to consider, keeping your brand on their radar until they move closer to a buying decision.
- Focus on Relationship Building and Maintenance
When only 5% of your audience is ready to buy, it’s crucial to build and maintain relationships with the other 95%. A long sales cycle requires ongoing nurturing through consistent, personalized communication. Whether it’s through automated email campaigns, social media interactions, or personalized webinars, maintaining these touchpoints ensures that you’re staying relevant.You should focus on nurturing leads over time, delivering the right message at the right moment to the right audience. These relationships will pay off when that audience eventually moves into the buying phase. Remember, maintaining relevance is the key to future success.
- Keep Networking: Be Visible Across All Platforms
In an overstimulated, overcrowded digital world, visibility is everything. You need to make sure that your brand is present and consistent across every platform where your audience exists. Whether it’s LinkedIn, TikTok, email marketing, podcasts, or industry forums, the more they see you, the more they remember you. It’s like the old saying goes: “Out of sight, out of mind!”But it’s not just about being present—it’s about educating and entertaining your audience to keep them engaged. This is where you express the heart of your brand. By creating content that not only informs but also sparks curiosity, you ensure that your brand remains relevant even when your audience isn’t actively seeking a solution.
- Sales Enablement: Amplify Through Paid Campaigns and Engagement Tools
Being the go-to solution often means going the extra mile to ensure your audience sees you at the right time. This is where sales enablement comes into play. Invest in paid campaigns to get your content in front of the right audience. Use engagement tools like chatbots, automated emails, and retargeting ads to keep prospects engaged as they move closer to a buying decision.Sales enablement isn’t just about exposing your content; it’s about tailoring the journey for your prospects. Use tools like CRM data, heatmaps, and analytics to understand their behaviours and deliver personalized messaging. Paid exposure and smart engagement strategies ensure that you remain relevant as they get closer to purchasing.
How does Contentive do this? Newsletter Sponsorship: Stay Top of Mind
In B2B marketing, consistent visibility is key to remaining relevant with the 95% of your audience who aren’t ready to buy right yet. One way we help companies to achieve this is through our Newsletter Sponsorship, which ensures your brand is seen every day, across multiple touchpoints, without overwhelming your audience. By sponsoring high-value content, your brand becomes a regular, trusted presence, keeping you top of mind until those prospects are ready to convert.
This approach helps nurture future buyers, aligning perfectly with a long-term strategy for brand recognition and relationship building.
Conclusion: The 95% Are Your Future Buyers
In B2B marketing, it’s easy to focus on the 5% who are ready to buy right now. But it’s the 95% who will drive your long-term success and build a future pipeline that offers ongoing success. By concentrating on trust-building, early engagement, ongoing relationships, and effective sales enablement, you stay top of mind and become a top competing choice for your 95%—so that when they’re ready to buy, they’ll think of you first.
Your audience may not be ready today, but with a thoughtful, long-term strategy, you’ll be the go-to solution when the moment arrives.
