B2B marketing is not just about selling a product or service. It's about building positive brand awareness and strong relationships throughout the entire customer lifecycle.
We face a changing B2B buying landscape with longer sales cycles and larger buying committees made up of increasingly independent decision-makers. Gartner research finds that 70% of the buying journey is complete before a buying group reaches out to a provider. Moreover, only 17% of the purchase process involves a conversation with a provider, and your sales team may only get 5-6% of a buying group's time.
With this limited direct interaction from sales, it's up to the marketing team to tell the brand story and prove to the buying committee members that you're a provider they can trust through your content and messaging. You can't do this at the very end of the customer journey-you need to catch their attention and increase awareness before they begin the research process with a unified brand-to-demand strategy.