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 Mary the Marketing
Director, her 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. 28%
@ 6%
24%
7.6 Hours
Online
Daily Media Consumption
1%
Search
Email / IM
Surf Content
Surf Social Media
Online Shopping
19%
Surf VideoOffline
7.0 Hours
@
7.0 Hours
Offline
Surfing and searching all day.
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 fraction of the time that she spends reading content, but an extremely important 1% since it drives her to other sites with information
that answers her questions or needs. The takeaway for marketers is that a combination of display advertising and search engine marketing provides
the best opportunity to reach Mary with targeted advertising.
Source: combination of statsfrom eMarketer, Forrester and other research studies
22%

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 business sites. This is an example of “Programmatic Advertising” at work, where technology enables many advertisers to
competitively bid on putting their ads in front of Mary [or any of us] on any site she is visiting. They are targeting the buyer
wherever she goes instead of the old days of advertising on a single site and hoping buyers visit that site and see their ad.

7. Mary’s buying journey progresses through many stages.
Do I have a
problem?
Who can
solve it?
Who should
solve it?
Do I want to
solve it? How?
“Buyers do their own research online.
On average, they are 70% through the
journey before even contacting a sales rep.”
The companies vying for Mary’s business need to understand her buying
journey in order to reach her with their messages and influence her decision.
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.
Should I
buy again?
Unaware
Aware
Research
Consider
Evaluate
Purchase
Renew
Advocate
70%
BUY

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 tradeshow.
She has no budget for a new CRM and no timeto think
about it right now. Hence she is unaware of most CRM
software brands.
Unaware - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »

9. Mary notices CRM ads on her favorite sites.
Mary is 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 likeSugar, Act!, Insightly, Sage,
Base and Zoho.
Some of those CRM companies create campaigns to
raise their awareness with marketers. They use
programmatic display advertising to get their ads
directly in front of marketing managers at companies
of the right size and geographiclocation.
Not surprisingly, Mary starts seeing displayads for
CRM companies on the marketing sites she frequents
and also on her favorite news, entertainment, and
lifestyle sites — pages that are not related to her work
life. But she still has no interest in buying.
Aware, No Need - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »
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.
Aware, No Need - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »
Over many months of seeing their ads Mary has developed an
affinity for brands whose ad campaigns are highly creative,
even though she’s not actually interested in buying at the
moment.
The CRM companies are using a technique called persona
targeting to reach Mary. This involves using key firmographic
and demographic data to target your ideal customer profile – for
example, people in marketing roles at companies with over 100
employees in the manufacturing industry. This approach
enables companies to get their message in front of a highly
defined audience of prospects, instead of wasting budget on a
general campaign that hits many people who are not their
target customer.
Building brand recognition increases the likelihoodthat your
product will be included in the consideration set when a
prospect actually has a need and starts researching solutions.
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

11. Six months have passed and a need arises.
Mary is now developing her marketing plan and
budget for next year. Her big challenge is that the
CEO expects the marketing department to deliver
and manage a pipeline of leads for the sales
team. She knows that she will need a CRM to
make this happen.
So, Mary starts by searching broad terms like
“top challenges with CRM implementation” and
“what to look for in a CRM solution.” She clicks
on a lot of links and reads a lot of articles on
marketing trade association sites, blogs, and
company sites.
Exploring - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »
93% of B2B
purchases start
with online research.
- Fierce CMO

12. Exploring - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -»
Mary checks out some brands she recalls.
Now that Mary has done some research she starts noticing lots
of displayads for CRM brands includingsome new ones she
hadn’t heard of before.
She is quite busy during the workday so she rarely clicks on the
ads or reads about the products. But many nights after she’s
put the kids to bed she logs on to catch up on work. In this case
she wants to continue her CRM research so she “googles”
some of the brands she remembers from the ads she saw
earlier in the day.
This is an example of behavioral targeting which is also called
search retargeting. Specialized companies [like MultiView] see
in their data that Mary has searched phrases about CRM and
read articles about CRM. They know she is likelyto be in the
buying journey for CRM and serve her ads accordingly.
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
During The Day Later That Night

13. Mary builds her list and a new contender emerges.
Mary has explored a lot of content about the benefits and challenges
of implementing a new CRM. And now she starts deeper searches
like “top CRM companies” to identify products that would work for her
smaller sized company. Her goal is to narrow down the list to a
handful for deeper consideration by her boss and the head of sales.
And then ultimately to issue the RFP to a few of them.
During this time she starts seeing ads for Base, a different CRM
brand she hadn’t considered yet. So, she clicks on their ad and visits
their site. The product meets all of her criteria and is priced lower than
others she likes so she adds it to her list.
Mary is now being reached by a form of behavioral targeting called
competitor conquesting. This is when companies target their ads to
people who have searched their competitors’ branded keywords
and/or visited competitor websites.
Researching - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »

14. Mary narrows down her list.
Mary has to get an initial recommendation to her boss so she does some more specific
research on terms like ”CRM case studies,” ”CRM comparisons” and “CRM ratings.” In
addition to organic links, she clicks on several ads on the page that sound like they
have the information she is looking for. She reads the content and then does additional
searches to dig deeper and deeper. She’s now pretty well educated about CRM and
has narrowed down her consideration set to a handful of brands.
Mary is being reach by targeted search engine advertising where companies bid
against each other to have their ad show up on a search results page for the key
phrases buyers use to find information. It’s important to note that Mary clicks on several
of the search ads of the brands she recognized from having seen their display ads.
More on this later in the book, but in summary, the combo of display and search is
proven to drive a higher response from buyers.
Researching - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -»

15. Evaluating - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »
What’s on Mary’s mind?
Throughout her research, Mary visits many CRM vendor
websites. Most of the time she leaves without filling out forms or
downloadingcontent.
But, time and time again, Mary sees specific ads for Act! software
after visiting their site. One ad even reminded her to downloadan
ebook that she had clicked on but never completed the form.
TheAct! brand is now definitely top of mind for Mary, and she’s
gone back to their site several times after seeingtheir ads.
Mary is now being reached by site retargeting, a techniquethat
tags peoplewho leave a company’s website and shows them that
company’s 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 on the first visit.
Users exposed to site retargeting
spent 50% more time on site
than the average site visitor and
also consumed more pages.
Website visitors who are retargeted
with display ads are 70% more
likely to convert on your site.
- CMO.com

16. Validating - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -»
Mary does some reputation checks.
At this point, Mary is ready to issue an RFP to two contenders: Act! and Insightly. But
before doing so she searches for information about the reputations of the companies
themselves and their products.
She enters in keywords like "Insightly reviews" and "Act! reviews" to find out what
kinds of experiences customers have had with each company. She also searches
“Insightly News” and “Act! News” to learn about any recent changes
in their organizations.
Mary finds largely positive reviews about each company but also notes some
specific questions that she will include in her RFP.
It is important to note that you should always pay to advertise on your own brand
name [like Insightly does] so that you show up in the first search results page and do
not allow your competitors to take that prime spot.

17. Validating - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - »
Mary hits the road.
While waiting on responses to her 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 visit their
tradeshow 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 a type of display targeting called
geo-fencing. This is where you can target users at very specific
geographic locations, such as industry association trade shows
and conferences.

18. Mary's getting ready to buy.
Mary has received proposals from both Act! and Insightly. She feels like the
pricing is a bit high for both, so she searches "Act! CRM pricing" and
”Insightly discounts" to see if any customers have posted information about
their prices online. That way she’ll have some bargaining power to get a
better deal just like she did when buying a Ford Fusion a few months prior.
This is a great example of search behavior that indicates a person’s strong
intent to buy. Smart advertising companies [like MultiView] use this type of
signal to trigger relevant display ads that can influence the buying decision.
For example, Act! could have influenced Mary by running display ads
touting a research study that showed they are the best value for the money.
Per an earlier slide, this is another example of paying to advertise on your
own name, albeit in the 2nd position since ZoHo is making an effort to steal
prospects interested in Act! with a “free” offer.
Purchasing - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -»

19. Mary finally buys, but her journey is not 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.
Renewing - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -»

20. It’s time for Mary 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 them.
Advocating - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -»

21. 100% of potential buyers research
solutions and companies online
Your competitors are online trying to
capture the attention of your prospects
You Must
Be Present
To Win!
Prospects complete 70% of their buying
journey before making contact with vendors
In summary…

22. Now Mary Develops Her
Own Digital Marketing
Plan for ABC Widgets

23. Mary’s plan covers 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 tradeshows 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 digital
display advertisingand search engine marketingto 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
follow-up and nurturing that she can pass on to the Sales team.
OWNED
MEDIA
Website
Blog
Social Pages
Email
EARNED
MEDIA
PR Mentions
Social Shares
Reviews
PAID
MEDIA
Display Ads
Retargeting Ads
Search Ads
Social Ads

24. Display Advertising
Brand Awareness
Engagement & Affinity
Lift for Other Marketing Tactics
Mary gets results with the digital marketing “power combo.”
Search Advertising
Website Visits
Calls
Form Fills
+
38% increase
in branded search activity
for prospects exposed to a
display ad
Over 200% avg. lift in
clicks for branded and
category search terms
compared to those who did
not see display ads [for
certain verticals]
Source: comScore

25. She “Must Be Present to Win” at each stage her customer’s journey.
EXPLORING
RESEARCHING
EVALUATING
VALIDATING
PURCHASING
Display CampaignJourney Search Campaign

26. Mary’s got the whole digital buying journey covered.
Mary plans to use search engine marketing and several display campaigns to build brand
relevance and affinity with her target audience as they traverse the buying journey, readying
the path for when they need her product.
Mary will use a persona targeting campaign to reach highly defined segments of potential
customers based on their industry, company and professional role. She will also start a
behavioral targeting 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.
And alongside each of these campaigns, her prospects will see search engine ads tailored
for each part of their buying journey based on the types of keywords they searched.
Being a savvy marketer, Mary uses custom ad creative and finely-tuned search engine ad
text for each campaign. This cuts through the clutter and captures the attention of her
prospects, delivering the right message to the right person at the right time.
Intent Targeting Persona Targeting
Behavioral Targeting Site Retargeting

27. 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 market, and 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

28. Additional Information

29. 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 searchengine
I clicked on 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 ad but are not in
the mood to stop and
go check out the
brand. So you make a
mental note
[consciously or
unconsciously] to
review it later. Then
when you have time
you go to Google /
Bing and type in the
brand name or URL to
learn more.
Responded to Online Display Ads
Did not respond to Online Display Ads
2/3 of Online Users Have Taken Action Based on an Online Ad
When Display Ads Drive a Response, it is More Likely to
Take the Form of a Search as it is a Click
Response to Online
Display Ads
Source: Forrester / iProspect
The Digital “Power Combo” Gets Results

30. 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
its TV commercial
numerous times.
Avg. Click Lifts for Branded and Category Terms Compared to Those Who Did Not See Display Ad
Increase in Display Activity Drives Significant Improvements
in the Performance of Paid & Organic Search
Source: comScore
The Digital “Power Combo” Gets Results

31. Buying Journey Searching (PPC) Surfing (Display)
Not Consciously Looking For Solution Problem Definition – Text ad on the SERP for
general/industry keywords
Persona Targeting – reach your defined target audience so
they recall you when a need arises
Self-educate by researching, reading industry
pubs, research reports, blogs, assoc. content,
etc.
Decision to Change - Text ad on the SERPfor
possible solution and options keywords
Contextual Targeting – reach prospects who have read
content relevant to your products so they consider you
Build consideration set by searching industry
key wordslike “CRM software”, visit competitor
sites, read industry content, etc.
Considering Options - Text ad on the SERP
for comparative and competitive keywords
Search Retargeting – reach prospects who have shown buyer
behavior so they see your value proposition
Search long tail keywords like “CRM system
price comparison”, download whitepapers, issue
RFPs, etc.
Validating Options - Text ad on the SERP for
product specific and product review keywords
Site Retargeting – reach prospects who visited your website so
they keep you top-of-mind during the decision process
Search reputation keywords like “Hubspot
reviews”, check referrals, and signal readiness
to buy
Confirming the Choice - Text ad on the SERP
for company review and action/purchasing
keywords
Search Retargeting – reach prospects evaluating the
competition so they see your distinct advantage
Evaluate ROI, check alternative solutions and
competitors, etc.
RenewConfidence – Text ads on the SERP
for competitor keywords
CRM Data Targeting – display your ad to your customer list so
they build affinity with your brand and see your other products
Exploring
Researching
Evaluating
Validating
Purchasing
Renewing
Few Mins/Day Several Hours/Day
Reach Prospects at EVERY Stage of the Buying Journey