Word-of-Mouth the Most Influential for B2B Execs

Thursday, May 17th, 2007;
-- Andy Beal |

Over at eMarketer, they’ve compiled some recent reports that suggest executives in business to business industries rely heavily on referrals and word of mouth, when making buying decisions.

“One-to-one communications make the difference in the B2B industry,” says eMarketer Senior Analyst Lisa Phillips. “Word-of-mouth can be generated from trade events such as shows and conferences. The Internet helps to sustain marketing momentum.”

Internet channels also look like they’re playing a strong part in influence business buying decisions. Who’s influenced by what they see on the web?

  • Online magazines influence 36.5%
  • Search engine natural listing 24.1%
  • Technology blogs 19.6%
  • Media/analyst blogs 10%
  • Paid search ads 6.8%
  • Vendor blogs 4.6%
  • Unsolicited email 4%
  • RSS feeds 3.6%
  • Podcasts 2.7%

Seems to demonstrate that you can’t buy influence, it has to be earned from a third-party.

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3 Responses to “Word-of-Mouth the Most Influential for B2B Execs”

  1. links for 2007-05-17 | The Marketing Technology Blog Says:

    [...] Word-of-Mouth the Most Influential for B2B Execs | Marketing Pilgrim Over at eMarketer, they’ve compiled some recent reports that suggest executives in business to business industries rely heavily on referrals and word of mouth, when making buying decisions. (tags: b2b wom wordofmouth emarketer statistics) [...]

  2. This Week In SEO - 5/18/07 - TheVanBlog Says:

    [...] Word-of-Mouth the Most Influential for B2B Execs [...]

  3. Do you Word Of Mouth in B2B? : The LEADSExplorer Blog: Lead generation - Website visitors - CRM - B2B Says:

    [...] Word Of Mouth in B2B According to Marketing Pilgrim the Word of Mouth is the most influential in B2B with 53% of respondents. Word-of-mouth (WOM) gets [...]

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