Mastering B2B Market Research: A Step-by-Step Guide

Top B2B Market Research Companies

Market research for B2B marketing

Remember, the product should speak to the people who work at that company, not a faceless corporation. Then define the target audience — that is, the specific human prospect looking for the brand’s products or services. Also, as distinct as the B2B and B2C marketing audiences can be, B2B marketers can always learn from B2C campaigns, too. On the flip side, Printful offers order fulfillment and warehousing to businesses. Customers aren’t necessarily looking for long-term solutions or long-term relationships. Customers make purchases for long-term solutions, resulting in a longer sales cycle, longer contracts, and longer relationships with companies.

Forrester offers tailored client solutions that help leaders apply the research to real-world decisions. Forrester shows how operational excellence and innovation can benefit people, the planet, and your bottom line. Forrester helps leaders regain control and navigate volatility with a resilient, stakeholder-aligned approach. Achieve AI success with deep customer and employee insight, strong leadership, and a reimagined approach to business, data, and technology.

  • That’s why it’s crucial that they are equipped with up-to-date market research that gives them the ability to say the right things to the right people.
  • Tailor questions to individuals or small groups and be clear why you’re asking.
  • Are there new areas that could increase your market share, or should you focus on a more niche audience with less competition?

B2B market research can provide value to a number of different roles within an organization. Instead of just churning out standardized research with basic dashboards, metrics, and brand funnels, your brand research should address these dos and don’ts. Those insights should provide the clarity needed to drive change; otherwise, what’s the point? While competitive landscape analysis takes a deep dive into your competitors, market opportunity research focuses more on the opportunities that have arisen out of the current competitive landscape. Market Opportunity Research allows companies to better understand their opportunities within the marketplace, including which markets are worth going after and which are non-starters. For qualitative research, market researchers must review transcripts and recordings of past IDIs, focus groups, and more to search for commonalities or themes that have been presented throughout.

Market research for B2B marketing

We Partner With Hosts Driven by Knowledge-Sharing

Enterprise organizations also may also use B2B churn analysis to improve customer retention, and B2B channel research to improve their relationships with key partners. Brand research can show that most of their customers feel an existing loyalty to their current brand, so the merging of brands should be done strategically and incrementally. They can also use B2B partner enablement research to further optimize your channel and fast track your partner readiness. Understanding customers’ key buying criteria is crucial for product managers.

Market research for B2B marketing

Finally, another initiative that was prioritised was around external training – 52 out of 83 agencies are focusing on upskilling their employees to coincide with the ever-changing market. This could be due to the fact that more than half of agencies surveyed expressed a focus on retention. A focus on retention leads to more positive work environments In the conversation, they discussed how the traditional specs for recruiting have changed drastically with adaptability and a willingness to relearn at the forefront. Some agencies go as far as having a no pitch policy – they will obviously meet prospects and build proposals but they won’t go for staged pitches with 4+ agencies all bidding. Considering the average gross income was £5.6 million in 2023, £5.91 million in 2022, and £5.92 million in 2021, this indicates a long-term and somewhat inconsistent economic impact from Covid-19 (as much as people want to forget).

Market research for B2B marketing

The Performance Gap: AI-Enabled Teams Are Pulling Away​

I recommend starting with at least three to five for each persona you create and make sure it‘s a mix of customers, prospects, and people who don’t know your company. Tools like Enlyft can help you create custom buyer persona profiles and match your prospects to them to make it easier to find the people you need to talk to. Creating detailed buyer personas gives you the ability to craft content and messaging that truly connects with your audience. All types of businesses should create (and will benefit from) buyer personas because every business needs customers or clients to be successful. According to recent studies, 71% of companies that exceed revenue goals have documented buyer personas, yet many businesses still confuse them with basic customer demographics. The strongest buyer personas are based on market research and insights you gather from your existing and potential customer base through surveys, interviews, and data analysis.

Market research for B2B marketing

B2C / E-Commerce Focus (Well Served)

This can help your team identify certain personas when talking to prospects. Make it clear these aren‘t sales calls Market research for B2B marketing — you’re genuinely seeking to understand their experience. Don't just talk to people who love your product and want to spend an hour gushing about you. Start with our free buyer persona templates to organize your findings as you work through these steps. If you’re interested in trying this, a content mapping template is a great resource to explore. When you align your messaging with where your audience is in their journey, it just clicks.

Identify opportunities for growth by understanding markets, customers, and competitive dynamics that shape future demand. Define and prioritise key audiences to improve targeting, personalise communications, and focus resources on the most valuable groups. From global brands to public sector bodies and small businesses, empowering leaders to see the bigger picture, act with confidence, and create positive change. And the remaining 12% said they don’t have an AI strategy in place but that it was more of a case-by-case approach.

Improved alignment across sales, marketing, and product teams

Surveys uncover patterns faster if you’re in a rush to measure something’s prevalence (e.g., cart abandonment reasons). If you’ve already built buyer personas in your customer relationship management (CRM) or marketing software, now’s the time to use them. Our unique insights are grounded in annual surveys of more than 700,000 consumers, business leaders, and technology leaders worldwide; rigorous and objective research methodologies, including Forrester Wave™ evaluations; and the shared wisdom of our clients. “B2B leaders experimented with AI boldly in 2024, but their focus will shift to the bottom line. Provide video-based customer support where representatives can demonstrate solutions live. These videos highlight key moments, quick tips, or entertaining content to capture immediate attention.

Personalization is the main reason your buyer personas are essential, and it's only possible when you truly understand your audience. Companies with documented buyer personas see tangible results across every marketing metric. Creating detailed buyer personas isn‘t just a nice-to-have — it’s a critical driver of marketing success. Whether you're B2B, B2C, SaaS, e-commerce, or service-based, buyer personas help you understand and reach your ideal customers. A buyer persona is a research-based profile that represents a segment of your target audience.

Marketing strategies act as blueprints that help businesses allocate resources effectively, align teams and focus on key priorities. Develop messaging frameworks for different buyer personas and decision-making roles. Tracks competitive positioning in AI-generated vendor comparisons, monitors category-specific queries ("best SIEM solutions," "top CRM for healthcare"), and optimizes content for B2B buyer research patterns. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends. Small businesses often benefit even more from buyer personas because they have limited resources and need to be strategic about where they invest their marketing dollars. I'll share some examples of completed buyer personas so you can get a better understanding of what they look like.

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