Forrester: The State Of Business Buying, 2024

It’s important for your content to meet them where they are and guide them forward. Now that you know who your customers are, where they interact with your brand and what’s working (or needs improvement), it’s time to fine-tune your content strategy. By identifying these patterns, you can IT buyer’s journey refine your strategy, enhance the buyer experience and develop more meaningful interactions that can lead customers seamlessly to a purchase. Mapping out these key touchpoints is essential to determining where your business is succeeding and where there’s room for improvement.

CloudFlare provides web performance and security solutions, enhancing site speed and protecting against threats. This cookie is used to store the user's cookie consent preferences. No coding, no hassle, just beautiful websites, enhanced conversions, and complete control over your online presence. There are 1000s of Bens out there looking for your offer — but if you haven’t created a path to guide them to your business…they won’t find you. Email holds several advantages over social media marketing and paid advertising because, ideally, your list should be full of people who are interested in what you have to say and offer.

Remember, each interaction with a prospect is an opportunity to understand, engage, and nurture. She narrows her choices to two platforms, including one ad-supported and one premium service. Raina wants to cut down on her bills and realizes there’s an opportunity to cut down her monthly entertainment spend. Aligning your sales process with the buyer’s journey ensures that you meet customer needs at each stage and can guide them toward a purchase decision without delays. Everything they’ve explored up to now, including price, value, features, benefits, customer reviews, and brand reputation, will be considered and factored into their final decision. If you find the buyer is engaging with awareness content like a blog post, for example, create a promo for a newsletter signup in the post to encourage continued engagement.

For instance, a small online clothing boutique might cater to “Trendsetting Tina” (a fashion-forward college student on a tight budget) but also to “Practical Patricia” (a working mom looking for comfort and quality). Ideally, though, they’re confident in your product and glide through your checkout without a second thought. They might add the item to their cart and mull it over, skim a few more reviews, or check if it’s in stock locally to skip shipping delays. In the coffee example, they’ve likely landed on a specific pour-over model that fits their needs and budget.

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Only 3–3.5% of unique site visitors self-identify via a form fill. The other half is understanding what buyers expect when they finally do engage — because those expectations have shifted as dramatically as the journey itself. A polished product demo means far less than a collection of credible, specific customer reviews. B2B buyers prefer self-service tools over interacting with sales representatives and want to complete part or all of their purchase process independently (Business Dasher). Your content and messaging must resonate with an entire committee — many of whom you will never speak to directly during the purchase process.

The days of the lone decision-maker are long gone—now, it’s all about buying committees, peer influence, and digital-first research. This includes CRM, marketing automation, ABM software, analytics, and a new wave of AI-powered tools. If you’re not investing in martech and AI, you’re already behind. Whether you’re building your next campaign, rethinking your sales playbook, or just trying to keep up with the latest in B2B marketing, these stats will give you the edge you need.

The Role of Social Media and Influencer Marketing in B2B

C-suite leaders remain the most likely to identify as decision-makers, cited by 68% of respondents. When they do, the buying group doubles in size compared with purchases that do not include such features. Some purchases include generative AI features, which often require additional evaluation and cross-functional input. When Forrester first added generative AI as a research option in 2024, it immediately became one of the most frequently cited tools buyers used.

Bonus Episode: The EV Head Fake: How Regulatory Push and Wasted Capital Transform the Industry

This is a crucial part of the buyer’s journey because they’re on the verge of making a final commitment. Finally, when buyers make it to this part of their journey, they’ve decided on a solution category and are now evaluating providers. Considering how our direct and indirect competitors show up in the marketplace and how they influence perception. Instead of pushing a one-size-fits-all solution, sales teams should provide as many value-driven resources as possible that help buyers confidently choose an approach — whether that includes their product or not. Buyers will take their time to think on what to do next; all you can do is provide resources that give them more insight about your offering.

They identify personas based on imagination, fill up a document, and tuck it in the recesses of a Google Drive somewhere, never to be seen again. Knowing what they’re looking for will help you create the right kind of content. AI tools allow buyers to inject constraints immediately, with 52% specifying budget or feature limits upfront. However, because only 13% of buyers let AI influence high-risk purchases like financial services, human verification via Google remains critical.

• I used this method to observe how people actually used our product, Serpstat.
• Your content needs to dive deep, really highlighting how your product or service can tackle the big, industry-specific challenges.
• AI tools can dramatically reduce production time for captioning, editing, and repurposing.
• Today’s buyers have more access to information than ever before, which means they’re usually well-informed to make their own decisions.
• Do this right, and you’re not just selling — you’re guiding, building trust, and turning casual browsers into loyal customers.

That’s why it’s so critical to understand the buyer’s journey. Collected information is used to be personalize X services, including X trends, stories, ads and suggestions. Registers if a users is signed in the X platform and collects information about ad preferences.

Why do consumers still verify AI recommendations?

Used by the content network, Cloudflare, to identify trusted web traffic. Cloudflare's bot products identify and mitigate automated traffic to protect your site from bad bots. It’s answering the questions they’re already asking, showing them what’s possible, and making it easy for them to see your product or service as the clear choice. This journey matters because it’s how real people, whether it’s someone like Ben searching for the right tool, or your own audience looking for what you offer, make decisions.

What the Buyer's Journey Looks Like for Consumers in 2025

For B2B organizations evaluating where to allocate spend, this signals that competitors are likely investing more, not less. When asked specifically about B2B contexts, nearly three-quarters of marketers identified video as a requirement rather than an option. To succeed with more discerning and risk-averse buyers, providers need to meet them where they are. To win in this environment, providers must demonstrate deep understanding of buyer needs, ensure that their claims can be validated through trusted external voices, and design trial experiences that prove long-term business value.” “As buying groups expand and decision cycles grow, B2B marketers must develop dynamic, role-specific insights that capture how buyers evaluate risk, seek information, and define success for their business purchase.