As digital-first — aka Millennial — buyers upend the traditional notions of the buyer’s journey, they’re bringing new procedures. Specifically, this includes setting the bar high for customized outreach while still preferring to operate in stealth. With that in mind, companies need to refine their inbound and outbound strategies to engage with this elusive cohort.
According to the recently released “2024 B2B Buyer’s Survey,” here are the four steps needed to engage with Millennial buyers:
1. Understand The Top Resources For Education
The first to step engaging with Millennial buyers is ensuring they’re proactively supplied with relevant information as they navigate through their journeys. According to the research, the first two landing spots for these prospects include:
Web Search
A key component of curating website content is to ensure it’s fully optimized for web search and follows SEO best practices. With that in mind, Andy Crestodina, Author of “Content Chemistry: The Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing,” emphasized the importance of setting up brand alerts during a B2B Marketing Exchange session. He continued that whenever an organization receives a notification that their brand was mentioned, they should visit the site and check for relevant links that could pull more traffic to their page. Additionally, Crestodina mentioned the importance of focusing on the pages that appear on Google, as they’ll often generate 9,000% more traffic than the average page.
Vendor Websites
With websites tying web searches for the No. 1 landing spot, marketers must ensure their web pages are fully optimized. But given the sheer depth and complexity of web pages, it’s easy for practitioners to get lost in the maze and struggle to embrace the process. However, experts suggest that data-driven insights are the secret sauce that helps fine-tune messaging, elevate the user experience and, ultimately, turn clicks into conversions.
The top three criteria buyers had for website experiences included easy access to pricing and competitive information, easy access to relevant content that speaks directly to their needs and content that speaks directly to and demonstrates expertise around specific industries and companies.
2. Engage Millennial Buyers On Social Media
Millennial buyers are like digital detectives, and their sleuthing tool of choice is social media — according to 70% of the survey respondents. That means the next step is connecting with these buyers on their social platforms of choice, which include LinkedIn and Twitter.
LinkedIn was the top channel of choice for social buyers with 33% of the vote, and that’s good news for marketers: The networking website generates four out of five B2B leads.
X (Twitter)
According to estimates, the channel formerly known as Twitter boasts more than 368 million monthly active users worldwide, so it makes sense that that’s where 33% of the younger generation conducts their research.
3. Demonstrate A Strong Knowledge Of Buyers’ Needs & Your Solutions
While buyers like to talk a big game about their independence and anonymous practices, the truth is just about two-thirds believed their winning sales rep was educated about their needs, and that knowledge subsequently influenced their decision to pick the winning vendor. So, the third step in connecting with Millennials — according to 70% of them — is to demonstrate your knowledge about your offerings and their pain points.
4. Deliver Highly Customized Outreach
The fourth and final step is ensuring your outreach is highly targeted and relevant. Millennials’ standards are high, as 65% will only accept outreach from a sales rep if it’s highly customized — cookie-cutter outreach just won’t cut it. This generation values personalized experiences like no other — they want to feel like brands get them. Millennial buyers expect tailored, thoughtful outreach that speaks directly to their needs, interests and even their sense of humor.
For more insights into the habits of B2B buyers, download the “2024 B2B Buyer’s Survey” now!