Are You Connecting with the Millennial Tech Buyer?

Lunie Caetano

The B2B technology purchase journey is a complex one – having to tailor your messaging to influence tech buyers may be as well. When connecting with tech buyers, 3 generations may be responding to your marketing efforts differently. Today, you are most likely vying for the attention and more from Baby Boomers, Generation X and Millennials. How different are they? Or are they the same?

Here is the breakdown of each generation according to Kasasa – this article will be focusing on Millennials as they are gaining ground within the tech buying space:

  • Millennials (1981-1996)
  • Gen Xers (1965-1980)
  • Baby Boomers (1944-1964)

What Do Millennial Tech Buyers Look For?

Building a connection with Millennials counts – during each stage of the research and decision-making process, 32% of Millennials feel that personalized emails and/or messaging would help them.2 This generation looks to build trust and connection with a brand, whether a start-up or an established company, and not just skim through generic information. With that said, they also look to resources that include insight from the product/service itself, case studies, and reviews. They are more likely to conduct in-depth research and make decisions without your help. Reviews, product demos, and free trials are used more than older buyers at rates 20% and 53% higher than older buyers.1

What Does This Mean for Your Demand Generation Efforts?

  1. Build a Relationship with Millennials: Personalize messaging to ensure the Tech Buyer can resonate with the product and/or service you are looking to market to them. They are looking to connect as people and not just as a lead or transaction.
  1. Digestible Content: Since they can be highly self-reliant when it comes to looking for information – offer brand information (when needed) and expert opinions. Creating an experience where it is easy to consume is a highlight as well.
  1. Authenticity Wins: They are looking to build trust, so it is important to meet their specific needs and concerns in addition to the personalization.

 Here Are Some Stats About the Generations – How Different Are They Really?

When consuming information, tech buyers of all ages prefer short articles and posts that provide a mix of general news, expert opinions, learning guides, videos, and whitepapers along the purchase and post-purchase path.4

  • Millennials consult more resources than older buyers.1
  • Millennials use reviews, product demos, and free trials more than older buyers.1
  • The majority of Millennials (86%) said a demo and/or trial was important in their purchase decision, and more than one-third (31%) stating it was very important.2
  • When evaluating tech purchases of $10,000 or greater, millennials’ most frequently used sources of information include industry analysts (38 percent), vendor face-to-face meetings (36 percent) and vendor websites (33 percent).3
    • A greater number of baby boomers rely on industry analysts (50 percent) as well, followed by colleagues (49 percent) and vendor face-to-face meetings (48 percent).3
    • The top of Gen X’s list includes colleagues and vendor websites (both at 40 percent), and analyst and trade shows (both at 38 percent) when it comes to information sources that most influence enterprise technology buying.3

Resources

1 The 2020 B2B Buying Disconnect by Trust Radius
2 The B2B Millennial Buyer Survey Report – 2019 by Demand Gen Report & The Mx Group
3 Who do B2B Tech Buyers Trust and What This Means for Marketers by Marketing Insider Group
4 How to Decode the Millennial Technology Buyer by Convince&Convert