The buying journey has completely changed over the last decade due in large part to the Internet and the amount of information now accessible online. Businesses must come to the realization that their prospective buyers are completing up to 70% of their buying journey before contacting them. This stat may be staggering to some, but there’s good news — you still have the ability to influence your audience early on and throughout their entire buying journey. My new eBook takes a deep dive into what a modern day B2B buyer’s path to purchase looks like, the marketing solutions that play into each phase of their buying journey, and how those marketing solutions ultimately influence the buyer’s decision to purchase. This eBook is a must read for any marketer looking for a fresh perspective on the B2B digital landscape and how their business can capitalize on the online marketing opportunities available to them.

1. Todd Ebert
Chief Marketing Officer
The B2B Buying Journey

2. This is the fictional story of one marketing
director’s buying journey for a new CRM
system and the digital advertising that
influences her every step of the way.
B2B marketers can use this narrative to
understand the path-to-purchase for their
own prospects, and plan digital marketing
campaigns that drive brand awareness,
engagement, leads, and ultimately customers.

3. The Challenge for B2B Marketers
How do you ensure that prospective customers know your brand…
Before they
need your
product?
During
their
research?
Through the
evaluation (RFP)
process?
…and
beyond?

4. Part soccer
mom
Part marketing
professional
Meet Mary the marketing director and soccer
mom. Like most adults, she spends over
seven hours a day surfing, searching and
socializing online. She is almost always
“connected” with smart phone in hand.
How can the companies that make CRM
software capture Mary’s attention?
First, they must understand her and other
prospective buyers’ online behavior.

5. Daily Media Consumption
24%
Email / IM
@
6%
Online Shopping
23%
Surf Content
1%Search
19%
Surf Video
28%
Surf Social Media
Surfing, not searching.
Like most of us, Mary spends a lot of her day surfing the Web and reading content relevant to her personal life and her profession. She spends over
70 percent of her time online surfing content, watching videos and checking social media. Mary spends about 1 percent of her time conducting
searches — a mere fraction of the time that she spends reading content. This is typical of most people who quickly search and click the result to
visit another site. The takeaway for marketers is that display advertising provides the best opportunity to reach Mary with targeted advertising.
Online /
Mobile
7.6
Hours
Offline
7.0
Hours

6. One woman, two buyers.
While at work, Mary takes frequent breaks to
check Facebook, visit her favorite meal
planning sites and catch up on child-rearing
tips in parenting blogs.
At home Mary often burns the midnight oil,
staying up-to-speed with the latest marketing
trends by reading articles on industry news and
association sites as well as email newsletters.
Interestingly, as she surfs the web Mary sees ads for work-related products on consumer sites and ads for personal
products on her business sites. This is an example of “Programmatic Advertising” at work, where technology enables
different advertisers to competitively bid on putting their ads in front of Mary [or any of us] on any site she is visiting.

7. Mary’s business buying journey is long and complex.
In additionto knowing how Mary consumes digital media, CRM companies
vying for her business need to understand the overall B2B buying journey.
Mary, and other B2B buyers, are now in total control as they self-educate
onlineprior to engagingwith a sales person. Theycan get nearly all the
information they need in just a few seconds from their smartphones or
laptops. Product details, technical specs, analyst ratings, user reviews and
even pricing are only a few clicks away.
B2B buying is a much longerand more complex process than its consumer
equivalent, with wrong decisions being very costly to both the bottom line
and the decision-maker’s career.
“Buyers do their own
research online. On average, they
are 70% through the journey before
even contacting a sales rep.”

8. Mary’s not in the market for a CRM system…yet.
Mary recently joined ABC Widgets as the
marketing director and is focused on building
a new website, updating collateral and
planning their major trade show. She has no
budget for a new CRM and no time to think
about it right now.
Unaware Stage - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »
1

9. Mary notices CRM ads on her favorite sites.
Mary is very aware of SalesForce.com since they have a strong
presence across marketing trade publications, conferences and
shows, but she is unaware of their many competitors like Sugar,
Act!, Insightly, Sage, Base and Zoho.
In addition to offline tactics liketrade shows and direct mailers, a
few of those companies use programmatic display advertising to
get their ads directly in front of marketing managers at
companies of the right sizeand geographic location.
Not surprisingly, Mary starts seeing display ads for CRM
companies on the marketing sites she frequents. However, she
also sees a lot of CRM ads on her favorite news, entertainment
and lifestyle sites — pages that are not related to her work life.
2
Unaware Stage - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »
Repeated exposure to
display ads increases the
number of relevant search
queries by up to 25%.
- Harvard Business Review
85% of consumers
don’t mind digital display
ads when they are
relevant. - Bizrate

10. Good creative captures Mary’s attention.
Awareness Stage - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »
Over timeMary has developed an affinity for somebrands whose
ad campaigns are highly creative,even though she’s not actually
interested inbuying at the moment.
At this stage of the buyer journey,companies are usingpersona
targeting to reachMary.Personatargeting is when you use key
firmographic anddemographic data to target your ideal customer
profile– for example,people in marketingroles at companies with
over 100 employees inthe manufacturingindustry.This approach
enables you to get your messagein front of a highly defined
audience of prospects instead of wasting budget on a general
campaignthat hits many people who are not your target customer.
Buildingbrand recognitionincreases the likelihoodthat your
product will be includedin the considerationset when a prospect
actually has a need and starts researchingsolutions.
High-quality creative increases
ad viewing time six times (5.8x)
and nearly doubles purchase
intent (+93%) vs. low-quality
creative. – MarketingLand
60% of marketers believe data
is essential to improving their
advertising effectiveness and
reaching the right audience. –
eConsultancy
3

11. Six months have passed and a need arises.
Mary is now developing her marketing
plan and budget for next year. The CEO
expects the marketing department to build
and manage a pipeline of leads for the
sales team. So, Mary starts researching
CRM systems online. She checks
marketing trade association sites and
blogs, reads lots of industry articles about
CRM and attends several webinars.
4
Research Stage - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »
93% of B2B
purchases start
with online research.
- Fierce CMO

12. Consideration Stage - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »
Mary checks out several brands.
Soon after starting her research, Mary notices display ads
for many CRM brands, including some new ones, as she
surfs the Web.
At this stage of the buying journey Mary is being targeted
due to her recent online behaviors – searching and reading
about CRM systems. Behavioral targeting is when you
target your ads to the people who have searched
industry/product keywords relevant to your business and/or
who have read content containing those keywords.
She recognizes ads for brands she’s seen over the past few
months but doesn’t have time to check them out. So later
that night she “Googles” some of the brands she remembers
to learn more about their products.
3 out of 5 online
buyers say they
notice ads for
products and
services they looked
up on other sites.
- CMO.com
38% increase in
branded search
activity for prospects
exposed to a display
ad. - comScore
5
During The Day Later That Night

13. A new contender emerges.
Mary has done a lot of research and is now trying to
narrow down her list of potential companies to contact.
During this time she starts seeing ads for a different CRM
brand she hadn’t considered yet. So, she clicks on the ad
and visits their site. It meets all of her criteria and is priced
lower than most so she adds it to her RFP list.
Mary is now being reached by a form of behavioral
targeting called competitor conquesting, which is also
known as search retargeting. This is when you target your
ads to people who have searched your competitors’
branded keywords and/or visited their websites.
64%of
marketers use
traditional display
advertising to
conquest customers
from competitors.
- Kapost
6
Consideration Stage - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »

14. Evaluate Stage - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »
What’s on Mary’s mind?
7
Throughout her research, Mary visits many CRM vendor websites. Most
of the time she leaves without fillingout forms or downloading content.
But, time and time again, Mary sees specific ads for Act! software after
visitingtheir site. One ad even reminded her to download an ebook that
she had checked out but never completed the form.
The Act! brand is now definitely top of mind for Mary and she’s gone back
to their site several times after seeing their ads.
Mary is now being reached by site retargeting, a technique that tags
people who leave your website and shows them your display ads as they
surf their favorite sites across the Web. This approach helps you stay top-
of-mind with interested prospects and reminds them about your unique
value proposition.
98% of website visitors
do not convert.
Users exposed to site retargeting
spent 50% more time than the
average site visitor and consumed
more pages.
Website visitors who are retargeted
with display ads are 70% more
likely to convert on your site.
- CMO.com

15. Evaluate Stage - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »
Mary hits the road.
While waiting on responses to her request for proposal [RFP] Mary
attends the annual Direct Marketing Association tradeshow.
During breakfast at the hotel she is reading articles on her phone and
is surprised to see an ad from Act! that directs her to visittheir trade
show booth for a demo and free gift. She is charmed by this
coincidental encounter, given that the brand was already on her
consideration list.
She did not know that Act! would be at the show, so she makes a note
to stop by their booth and chat with their product manager.
Mary is now being reached by geo-fencing. This is a form of audience
targeting you can use to target users at very specific geographic
locations, such as industry association trade shows and conferences.
8

16. Mary finally buys, but her journey is far from over.
After months of research, numerous proposals and rounds of
competitive pitch presentations, Mary signs a contract with Act!
for their CRM software.
Several months later Mary has the system deployed and is
using it to power her email marketing campaigns.
Again, she starts seeing Act! ads as she surfs around the Web
but this time it’s for a different product. In this instance Mary is
being targeted specifically by Act! as part of their customer
upsell campaign. They are using CRM data targeting to display
their ads to current clients [and prospects] in their database,
helping them drive interest in additional products.
9
Purchase & Renew Stages - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »

17. It’s time to renew.
Mary has had a successful year using the Act! system to fuel
her email campaigns, and the sales VP she works with is
happy that the CRM enables him to stay on top of his pipeline.
The Act! contract has come up for renewal, so Mary
researches online and visits competitor websites to make sure
that Act! is still competitive with the latest features.
Once again, she starts noticing that CRM ads show up on her
favorite websites, which means that Mary is now being
behaviorally targeted by other brands.
Ultimately Mary decides she has received strong ROI from the
Act! system, so she signs a two-year renewal and agrees to do
a testimonial video for the company.
10
Renewal & Advocate Stages - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »

18. Mary Adds Display to
Her Marketing Plan

19. The Three Pillars of Digital Marketing
As described in the previous section, Mary is a savvy marketer who
successfully built and executed an initial marketing plan, including a
new website, several major trade shows and, last but not least, a new
CRM system to power her email campaigns.
Now that she has accomplished all of that, Mary is expanding her
strategy to cover all three pillars of a best practice digital marketing
plan: owned media, earned media and paid media.
Mary is particularly excited to ramp up her paid media strategy.
Towards that end, she adds the powerful combination of display
advertising and search engine marketing to influence potential buyers
across the entire purchase journey for her products.
She knows that this strategy will drive awareness with prospects,
draw them to her website and enable her to capture leads for her
CRM system and follow-up email marketing campaigns.
OWNED
MEDIA
Website
Blog
Social Pages
Email
EARNED
MEDIA
PR Mentions
Social Shares
Reviews
PAID
MEDIA
Display
Retargeting
Search Ads
Social Ads

20. The Digital Marketing Power Combo: Search + Display
From prior experience Mary knows that she
needs to use a mix of search and display tactics
at each stage of the buyer journey in order to
reach the right person at the right time with the
right message.
She also knows that display advertising is the
quickest and most cost-effective way to reach
prospects compared with SEO, social media and
PR — which are great tactics but take a lot of
work and time to drive results.
At her prior company, Mary saw display
advertising drive a significant lift in the results of
her other marketing tactics, including a higher
click-through-rate on search results, increased
email open rates, and higher social media
likes/shares on her content assets.
Mary witnessed first hand what is commonly
referred to as brand lift. Brand lift occurs when
prospects who have prior familiarity with a brand
[from advertising] are more likely to engage with
that specific brand when they see it in other
places, such as in search results or emails.
Unaware
Research
Consider
Evaluate
Purchase
Renew
Few Mins/Day Several Hours/Day

21. I investigated the product, brand or
company through social media or
message boards
I typed the company Web address into
browser and navigated to the site
I searched the product, brand or
company using a search engine
I clickedon the ad itself
Why is this True?
Because when you’re watching TV
or reading an article on your
favorite website you are focused
on that content. You notice the
advertisement but are not in the
mood to stop and go check out the
brand. So you make a mental note
[sometimes consciously,
sometimes unconsciously] to
review it later. Then when you
have time you Google the brand
name to learn more.
Responded to Online Display Ads
Did not respond to Online Display Ads
The Digital Marketing Power Combo: Search + Display
2/3 of Online Users Have Taken Action Based on an Online Ad
When DisplayAds Drive an Immediate Response, it is as Likely to
Take the Form of a Search as it is an Ad Click
Immediate Response to Online
Display Ads
Source: Forrester / iProspect

22. Why is this True?
Because when you quickly scan a
page full of search results your
mind instantly recognizes the brand
you already know and draws you to
click that result. It all happens in a
micro-second, the same way you
notice a new product on a crowded
grocery store shelf after seeing it’s
TV commercial numerous times.
Average Click Lifts for Branded and Category Terms (Compared to Those Who Did Not See a Display Ad)
This Increase in DisplayActivity Drives Significant Improvements in
the Performance of Paid & Organic Search
The Digital Marketing Power Combo: Search + Display
Source: comScore

23. Unaware
Aware
Research
Consider
Evaluate
Purchase
Renew
Advocate
Mary’s got the whole buying journey covered.
Mary plans to use several display campaigns
to build brand relevance and affinity with her
target audience as they traverse the buyer’s
journey, readying the path for when they
need her product.
Mary will use a persona targeted campaign
to reach highly defined segments of potential
customers based on their industry, company
and professional role. She will also start a
behavioral campaign to reach prospects
who are actively researching her types
of products and competitors.
Last, but definitely not least, Mary will
implement a site retargeting campaign
to stay top-of-mind with people who
have visited her website and left
without converting.
Again, being a savvy marketer, Mary
uses custom ad creative for each campaign
that cuts through the clutter and captures
the attention of her prospects, delivering
the right message to the right person
at the right time.
Keep your brand top-of-
mind with website visitors
who don’t convert and
remind them to come back
Create brand awareness
with a highlydefined
audience of decision-
makers and influencers
Drive awareness and
engagement with
prospects exhibiting
buying behaviors for your
products and services

24. Display advertising reaches B2B
buyers — no matter where they are
With the combination of persona, behavioral and retargeting
campaigns at her disposal, Mary creates a digital marketing
strategy that reaches more potential buyers at all stages of the
buying journey. And by adding display to her digital strategy
Mary dramatically increases brand lift — driving fresh
prospects into her CRM and email initiatives.

25. You can have marketing that is more engaging and effective, establishing
a truly one-of-a-kind presence in your industry. Build your name. Win
new business. Enhance relationships with your customers. Expand
your possibilities with decades of proprietary, first-party B2B data,
best-in-class technology and an intense dedication to creativity. Tell
us your goals and we’ll work with you to create a tailored marketing
solution that goes even further.
About MultiView
From Fortune 100 enterprises to technology startups, I’ve spent twenty-
five years with my sleeves rolled up leading B2B marketing teams that
drive growth. As CMO of MultiView I’m marketing products that help other
B2B marketers connect with more customers. I believe that marketing is
the biggest key to success in today’s hyper-competitive markets, and that
companies who don’t understand that fact will ultimately fail. When I’m not
working I’m a Snapple drinking, chili pepper growing, craft beer loving,
volleyball coaching, bad golfing, Longhorn cheering husband and father.
I’d love to connect with you on Twitter -- you can find me @ToddEbert.
About Me
CONNECT WITH US
Solutions@MultiView.com
www.multiview.com
972-402-7070