But does our past really predict our future? Any marketers planning for next year based on yesterday’s data are going to miss not only the dramatic channel changes but the demographic changes as well. Millennials spend more time on mobile and more avidly adopt new mediums than other generations; however, they’re also chasing a human connection that Baby Boomers and many Gen Xers prefer to find in-person. Some 54 percent of B2B buyers report that much of the marketing materials that vendors give them, including video, is useless. Well, it’s that today’s marketers are preparing for yesterday’s market. They create poor-performing content In Forrester’s words, most marketers “produce a haphazard flood of content” which gets soundly ignored. They fail to target it properly to their buyer personas or adjust content types to different buying funnel stages. Most marketers, including those who create an ample amount of video, can’t say. Forrester has a plan. Download their 2017 report A Blueprint for Successful B2B Marketing to learn: The perfect content type for each stage of the funnel Optimal parameters, like video length How companies like KPMG and Polycom dominate with video marketing With this blueprint, you’ll far better prepared to adapt to the new millennial-um.
Generals always prepare for the previous war. Cities always build for the most recent earthquake and regulators always prepare for the last big crash. But does our past really predict our future?
Rarely, especially in marketing. Over the past two decades we’ve evolved from snail mail and billboards to handheld supercomputers and AI ads—and the rate of change is only increasing. Any marketers planning for next year based on yesterday’s data are going to miss not only the dramatic channel changes but the demographic changes as well.
Millennials—oh yes—are about to complete their sweep. By 2025 they’ll account for 75 percent of the workforce (read: buyers) and they’re about to upend your marketing like a digital native hurricane.
The future is bright, loud, and interactive
What does the next generation of B2B buyers love? While it’s impossible to say on an individual basis (your marketing tools will have to tell you that), broadly, they’re in love with new mediums: messaging apps, social media, and of course, video. When Forrester asked whether they prefer video content, three generations responded in this fashion:
- Millennials: 71%
- Gen Xers: 58%
- Baby Boomers: 54%
There are several reasons for this. Millennials spend more time on mobile and more avidly adopt new mediums than other generations; however, they’re also chasing a human connection that Baby Boomers and many Gen Xers prefer to find in-person.
For millennials, video, be it live or asynchronous, is the next best thing to face-to-face. It offers connection but affords them the mobility they value so deeply.
While many companies are adopting video, they’re doing it carelessly and still facing poor results. Some 54 percent of B2B buyers report that much of the marketing materials…
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