30+ Amazing B2B Video Marketing Statistics & Latest Trends 2026

Word of mouth is the KEY influence in making B2B purchase decisions. Most B2B companies assume that, when it comes to customer satisfaction, “no news is good news”. Demand generation activities in the earlier stages create a pool of engaged accounts interested in your solution. Your first job is to make this as easy as possible, by removing friction from your marketing and sales funnel. These vendors have a unique advantage, because they have the chance to frame buyer’s thinking about the category and influence the purchase criteria.

Thus, it takes longer; sometimes, the B2B buyer’s journey can take weeks, months, or even years. Oppositely, the B2C buyer’s journey is quicker, primarily because it’s a process sustained on emotion. The B2B buyer’s journey involves multiple stakeholders, from C-suite executives to finance departments, so getting folks fully aligned on decisions takes some time. Typically, the B2B buyer’s journey is longer and more complex than the B2C buyer’s journey.

Spend more time connecting with followers with HubSpot’s time-saving suite of social tools. Like email marketing, social media is also a highly effective channel for sharing content and enhancing the brand’s expertise, which we know B2B customers appreciate. Many B2B companies struggle with social media marketing, though. That’s right — social media marketing isn’t just for brands targeting individual consumers.

Z&D continues its research by learning more about these tools and reading about Rainstorm Storage and its competitors. In the decision stage, prospects are confident they have found a solution to their problem and choose the product or service that will solve it at the right price. The main goal for the prospect is to solve the problem at hand, so they are looking for resources to learn more about their circumstances—likely via a search engine like Google or social media. Observe how prospects respond to every step of your sales cycle so you can continue identifying and knocking down obstacles.

FAQs About the B2B Buyer’s Journey and Sales Cycle

Once the buyer becomes problem-aware, they start to explore potential solutions. By sharing and creating things like detailed product sheets, benchmarking reports, case studies, and narratives that emphasize partnership rather than mere problem-solving, we guide our audience on a journey. You’d be surprised at how many times I’ve heard enterprise people say they learned about a solution from a trend report. For example, launching a targeted social media campaign or collaborating with influencers to spotlight new product features or benefits can draw attention to potential challenges. Similarly, organizations that started as product-led and later shifted to an enterprise focus often mistakenly believe they can sell their solutions the same way.

Some high-stakes purchases may require more consideration (like electronics or fine jewelry), but most B2C purchases happen quickly. Oppositely, the B2C buyer’s journey is much shorter and more emotional; it also involves fewer people. The B2B and B2C buyer’s journeys may sound alike, but they aren’t as one and the same as you may think.

Your goal is to create awareness and position yourself as helpful to potential leads, not make a hard sell. More specifically, it’s organizations that create enablement content geared toward every B2B buying stage that tend to win more often. They can’t afford making the wrong decision that wastes resources, stalls projects, or damages their professional credibility. Over several weeks, each buying-committee member researches, compares potential options, and runs pilots. The company’s sales team needs better lead tracking, operations seek integration with quoting tools, finance is focused on ROI, and IT prioritizes security compliance.

These statistics have direct implications for how marketing and sales teams structure their content, their outreach, and their measurement. Understanding this complexity is the starting point for any effective B2B marketing strategy. The B2B buying journey describes the end-to-end process a business buyer goes through from recognising a problem to completing a purchase. By clearly mapping out each stage of the buying process, marketing, sales, and product teams can align their efforts, identify gaps, and optimise their strategies. Hire the best B2B lead generation companies for your businesses. However, if you’re not ready for that, you can learn more about our tool via our interactive online demos.

B2C purchases are typically made by individuals with short decision timelines and personal criteria. Digital channels, including search, review platforms, LinkedIn, and AI tools,s have replaced many of the touchpoints that used to require direct vendor interaction. It typically involves multiple stakeholders with different priorities and spans from weeks to many months, depending on the complexity and value of the purchase. But it is also a significant competitive advantage for the companies that get it right. The B2B buying process in 2026 rewards vendors who show up with the right content, at the right moment, across the right channels, for every member of the buying group. • Customer case studies featuring specific, measurable outcomes from companies similar to the buyer

Effective marketing and sales strategies address the needs of each stakeholder role, providing relevant information and value propositions that resonate with their specific priorities. The buyer’s journey map aligns marketing and sales plays to each decision stage. The buyer’s journey helps companies allocate their resources more effectively across different stages. Mapping out the journey provides an in-depth view of how your potential customers behave at every step in the buying process. In fact, up to 90% of the B2B buyer’s journey is influenced by external information sources early—well before marketing and sales teams can reach them. ABM campaigns, role-specific case studies, and persona-matched messaging sequences are the right tools here.

The B2B buying journey is the full process from recognizing a business need, to researching solutions, selecting, and implementing a solution from a preferred vendor. Learn why 33% more B2B companies hit targets with a structured GTM. Learn how to combine both approaches, overcome common challenges, and leverage AI-powered tools to maximize ROI and build lasting customer relationships. Apollo customers report 46% more meetings with AI Research Agent and a 35% increase in bookings with AI messaging. Buyers can start in self-service (product tours, pricing calculators, knowledge bases), escalate to chat or email for specific questions, and schedule calls when they're ready for deeper conversations.

• Most B2C purchases throughout the year fall in the ~$100 range.
• Formal buying committees are giving way to fluid networks of influence—internal stakeholders, external peers, AI agents, and digital communities—all shaping decisions long before sellers get involved.
• Most influence happens in buying networks you don’t get invited into.
• When you have identified the content that needs to be created or updated, assign priorities to each of the content pieces.
• After the selection, the final step is the exchange of contracts, upon which the official purchase is made, and the implementation phase can begin.

Define the lead interaction touchpoints

Download our guide to optimizing email marketing for conversions and learn how to grow an email list, ensure deliverability, and increase engagement. Next up, let’s look at the types of B2B marketing you can implement now that you’ve created your overall strategy. Depending on the customer buyers journey b2b segments and competitor analysis, teams can explore channels, strategies, and tools to optimize leads and customer funnels.

So, what should salesfolks do when they’ve arrived to this stage of the buyer’s journey? Trust and credibility play a huge role here; buyers want reassurance that they’re making the right choice. This is a crucial part of the buyer’s journey because they’re on the verge of making a final commitment. Providing the buyer with resources to help them determine the right solution for them.

Buyer journey mapping is highly beneficial in understanding the path to purchase, and the creation of the map can be quick, cost effective and impactful if it is created workshop-style with key stakeholders involved. There is always opportunity to engage more with customers and often the brand with the highest share of mind is the brand that wins. Even when a contract comes to an end, it is necessary to find ways to keep the brand top of mind and the lines of communication open with customers for when the next need arises. The lists of touchpoints under each step of the buyer journey should be as exhaustive as possible so that no stone is left unturned. It is also important to include other players in the value chain who play a role as buyers navigate the path to purchase. People sometimes fall into the trap of listing requirements at stages of the journey (like well-known brand and competitive pricing), as opposed to touchpoints that shape the journey.