What kind of content consumers prefer when researching products?

Companies have found in content marketing a powerful ally and 93% of them rely on it to strengthen the impact of their brands. But customers of these organizations do not respond to the same profiles and patterns of behavior that a consumer. Looking several times before deciding on a product or service, research, requested a lot of information but preferably condensed and to the point and begin the search on your own network.

Pardot just to publicize its report “The State of Demand Generation” and one of the first conclusions reached is that users and consumers prefer different content according to each stage of the research process and search for information.

What kind of content consumers prefer when researching productsWhite papers, case studies and other resources must not extend beyond five pages. It is the optimum length for the 70% of the 400 respondents by Pardot. Only 2% prefer to be more extensive content and a significant 28% think it should be as long as necessary to inform them properly need everything.

Generally, once started searching for products or services, the most popular content are those in the form of reviews or objective analysis, also highlighting the special care taken, the comments and opinions of other users to context or analysis provided through this information.

Google maintains his reign searches also in B2B

Searches for a new purchase Google begin almost always (70%), which maintains its reign in this sector of business. Very few buyers who decide to go to look at Yahoo (5.5%) or Bing (2.8%). Moreover, for some, 16%, is more important to ask before your personal contacts, which start surfing the Internet. Social networks have less weight, but there is also a 2.5% first searches Linkedin and other social networks (2%).

These figures are consistent with a previous study of CMO Council and Netline stating that those seeking content for B2B companies rely more on the content of professional associations, industry research, case studies or independent criticism in the content offered by the own salesman.

Logically, the search intensity varies depending on the service or product you want to hire. 9 out of 10 respondents, the search is more and more intense depending on the cost of the product, and three quarters preferred that the content is different at each stage of the process.

Typically, not all searches performed once, especially if the purchase requires prior approval from his superior. Therefore, only 1 in 5 respondents do recognize in one session. Typically, at least back to the Internet to look for more information at least 2 or 3 times before deciding to purchase (70%) and even in some cases searching to more than 3 times (12%). And as expected, as search they deepen tuned much more in the terms and require other more detailed information.