Webinar Recap: Your B2B Buyers Make Their Purchase Decision While Anonymous

It’s true: more B2B buyers are staying anonymous—and it’s going to be OK!

PathFactory’s Christine Polewarczyk and 6Sense’s Kerry Cunningham sat down to discuss the hidden details about anonymous B2B buyers based on the recent release from 6sense: “2023 Buyer Experience Report”. From when to re-target with relevant information to when you should leave a visitor alone, they uncover buying journey trends and how to better understand the behavior of the buyers and buying groups visiting your content.

Here are five things you can do to find real opportunities in the data your anonymous buyers provide.

1) Acknowledge buyer behavior

On average, buyers are 70% through their buying journey before they begin to engage with sellers. This isn’t a new stat, but it reminds us that buyers are in control. In fact, 83% of the time, they’ll initiate contact rather than react to any sales outreach. People are twice as likely to reach out directly rather than complete a form for more information. It might be time to have another look at you content strategy to ensure your buyers can find what they need, when they need it (and yes, that means not gating your customer case studies!).

2) Showing up with the right content

Your B2B website visitors are mostly anonymous, and buyers are becoming less and likely to fill out forms. So how do you know who to approach and who to leave alone? Understanding buyer behavior beyond the form is essential.

If a buying group is interested, multiple people from an account will be engaging with your content. You can take cues from their behavior based on collective signals, or leverage a tool like 6sense that provides buyer intelligence. The content on your site should cater to buyers at every stage of the funnel—from TOFU reports and data sheets, to BOFU customer playbooks that demonstrate the value your solution provides.

3) Marketing strategy & technology integration

To help side-step the anonymous visitor roadblock, a shift in mindset can help uncover new opportunities. Moving away from MQL-centric models is necessary to align marketing and sales to point in the right direction. It will allow your business to recognize opportunities in anonymous engagement data and leverage them to drive more sales.

Integrating PathFactory and 6sense tech helps understand buyer engagement across accounts while identifying those important collective buying signals that marketing and sales teams can use to re-target and re-market audiences with helpful content.

4) ABM strategy

BDRs should focus on those accounts that are already 70% of the way into their buying journey. Often, visitors who complete forms on your site are in the early stages of buying and aren’t necessarily the ones interested in your product (and, honestly, they’re probably not even close to making a purchase decision).

ABM strategies that are informed by data and focused on in-market accounts help avoid resource waste across multiple targets and audiences. By providing insights and value over pushing for meetings, BDRs can showcase relevance and appeal to buying groups.

5) Facilitating buyer decisions

People resist friction. Make your buying process and your content engagement easy without excessive gating or follow ups. Giving relevant information at the right time to the right people creates a more streamlined and rational flow for buyers to make their buying decisions. Instead of bombarding buyers with forms and aggressive tactics, prioritize their needs: provide relevant information, respect their own process and help foster better relationships before making the sale.

The main takeaway: Provide all the content your buyers need to make a purchase decision; it will work in your favor when your product is top of mind when it’s time to buy!