Today’s B2B tech buyers are digitally fluent, AI-assisted, and increasingly independent. They move easily between platforms, researching products and evaluating vendors, without ever needing to speak with a salesperson.
For marketing leaders, this changes everything.
When buyers are making critical decisions before sales even enter the conversation, your role expands dramatically. It’s no longer about driving awareness or filling the funnel. You must own the entire buyer journey, from understanding what your buyers want to creating real demand.
That’s a tall order, but it’s the new starting line if you want your AI-powered product to stand out in a saturated, fast-moving market. Successfully marketing your AI solution requires orchestrating seamless omnichannel experiences that deliver relevance at every turn.
Where to Start: Understanding Digital-First Buyers
Most of the B2B tech buying journey happens digitally, but that doesn’t mean you should still be relying on gated PDFs and nurture campaigns. Modern buyers chart their own course, jumping between websites, apps, social platforms, videos, and interactive tools to explore, evaluate, and even purchase solutions.
And they’re confident doing it. Seventy-one percent of B2B tech buyers are comfortable using digital channels for large-ticket purchases, and 73% leverage digital tools for complex decisions.
They’re also bringing AI into the process. Digital assistants are increasingly helping buyers compare vendors, configure solutions, and respond to requests for proposals (RFPs). This means AI is reshaping how your buyers make purchasing decisions.
Marketing AI is hard. Visit our dedicated resource page for Marketing leaders who need help recalibrating their GTM strategy.
The Rise of an Unpredictable Buying Committee
To complicate matters further, buying decisions aren’t centralized anymore. What once involved one or two senior decision-makers now requires consensus from a wide, and often unfamiliar, range of stakeholders. A single deal might include a VP of Customer Experience, a cybersecurity lead, an IT procurement manager, and a Head of AI Strategy.
Five years ago, many of these roles weren’t even part of the conversation. Today, they have the power to make or break your deal.
What does this mean for marketing leaders? GTM strategies based on traditional buyer personas and outdated messaging will fail to resonate. To reach this modern buying committee, marketing teams need to orchestrate connected, omnichannel experiences that speak to each stakeholder’s priorities and position your AI solution as the one that solves their specific challenge.
If you don’t, your competitors will gain influence with the very stakeholders you overlooked.
Learn more about shifting buyer behavior from Laurie Buczek’s blog, The Buyer Behavior Shift: Capitalizing on AI’s Potential
The New Marketing Playbook is Built on Omnichannel Moments
In this environment of self-guided buyers, shifting stakeholder dynamics, and AI-mediated decisions, marketing must prove value earlier and more deliberately than ever. Add to that the challenge of standing out in a saturated market of AI-powered products, plus pressure from a performance-focused C-suite, and the stakes only climb higher.
Buyers are accustomed to personalized experiences from the B2C brands they engage with every day, and now they expect the same from B2B. In fact, nearly 70% say their decision on whether to read something is influenced by whether it’s personalized. Omnichannel marketing is the new marketing playbook.
Still, personalized content only works if it’s delivered in the right format, on the right channel, at just the right time. And that’s tougher than it sounds. A VP of Customer Experience scrolling LinkedIn has a different set of concerns than a Head of AI Strategy downloading a technical white paper. A short explainer video might catch one stakeholder’s attention, while a peer case study builds credibility with another.
The key is creating moments where something clicks for the buyer: “This solves my problem.”
But that’s just the spark. To be effective, each moment needs to connect, creating a continuous experience. Ask yourself:
- What happens after a buyer engages with your content? How are they guided to the next step?
- Is each interaction building momentum, or starting from scratch?
- Do our digital and human touchpoints hand off smoothly?
True omnichannel excellence isn’t just about being everywhere; it’s about designing deliberate transitions between content, people, and stages of the journey.
To lead with that kind of intention, marketing leaders must leave the old playbook behind and navigate this new reality. Here’s how the shift looks in practice.
| Old Marketing Playbook | New Marketing Playbook |
| Marketing owns the top of the funnel, then hands off to sales. | Marketing guides the entire buyer journey, including how and when sales steps in. |
| Buyers discover your products through search engines or industry events. | Content means connected moments: interactive tools, live demos, short-form video, and real-time prompts. |
| Personalization happens in the sales conversation. | Personalization starts with marketing across channels and at scale. |
| Content means white papers and static assets. | Content means connected moments: interactive tools, live demos, short-form video, real-time prompts. |
| Trust is built through human interaction. | Trust is earned digitally and strengthened through strategic human touchpoints. |
Omnichannel experiences are at the center of Marketing’s expanded imperative. Watch this webinar to learn more – Marketing’s Imperative in the Dawn of the Experience Era
What Successful Marketers Are Doing Differently
It’s no surprise that 37% of CMOs say creating a unified, omnichannel customer experience will have the greatest influence on their marketing strategy over the next 12 to 18 months, according to IDC’s 2024 Worldwide CMO Priorities Study. But how are they actually making it happen?
They’re designing journeys where every touchpoint, whether self-service, automated, or human, works in harmony.
Consider this scenario: a potential buyer discovers your product comparison guide on a third-party site. That guide links to a chatbot that provides real-time answers to technical questions. The chatbot offers a live Q&A session with a product expert. After the session, the buyer receives a personalized recap that highlights the exact features they asked about.
Every interaction builds momentum, and each step feels relevant, timely, and connected. That’s what omnichannel excellence looks like, and it’s what successful marketers are putting into practice.
Rather than focusing on how many campaigns they can launch this quarter, top teams are focused on how well each moment contributes to the bigger picture. That shift shows up in how they:
- Map the buyer journey to uncover pain points and find new opportunities.
- Pinpoint where human interaction adds the most value.
- Use real-time buyer behavior signals to fine-tune nurture paths.
- Ensure every asset and handoff supports a unified story.
However, none of this works without a clear understanding of who your buyers are, what they want, and how they’re making decisions.
To Lead the New Buyer Journey, You Need Trusted Tech Intelligence
Successfully guiding today’s buyer, one who is self-directed, AI-assisted, and surrounded by a growing cast of decision-makers, requires more than instinct. It requires intelligence.
Research and analysis grounded in real-world insight help you:
- Identify and understand your buying committee.
- Craft messaging that resonates with each stakeholder.
- Orchestrate omnichannel experiences with confidence.
- Make evidence-based decisions with speed and confidence
- Differentiate your AI product in a market full of similar-sounding solutions.
It’s time to lead the new buyer journey and make your AI product the obvious choice. Discover how IDC can help you think bigger and move faster.
Need immediate support for guiding the new buyer journey? Download our new eBook – Leading through Change: Capitalizing on growth in the AI technology shift
Inspire Buyers Every Step of the Way
Buyers don’t think in terms of funnels, functions, or handoffs. They think in terms of outcomes: Does this solve my problem? Can I trust it?
That clarity is earned one intentional, relevant, and personalized moment at a time.
The companies that succeed are those where marketing and sales aren’t working in silos, but rather building unified experiences that inspire modern tech buyers at every step. Is yours one of them?
