Is Your B2B Marketing Strategy Ready for the New Generation of Buyers?
71% of B2B buyers are now Millennials and Gen Z, the old tactics are failing. According to Hootsuite CEO Irina Novoselsky, the new currency is trust, and it's earned on social media long before a sales call ever happens.
TL;DR: To win over today's younger B2B buyers, marketers must opt for a "pull" strategy centered on building trust through authentic social media engagement. This approach uses employee advocacy and social listening to get discovered by buyers who make their purchasing decisions long before a formal sales conversation ever begins.
On the Attributed Podcast, Irina laid out a stark new reality.
The research phase has materially changed… Your company's ability to get on [the buyer's] list depends on how you show up in all of these different areas where that prospective customer is making their research decisions.
Keep reading for a summary, or listen to the entire conversation here.
Why Replace 'Pull' Marketing with 'Push' Tactics in the New B2B Buyer Journey?
B2B marketers have spent decades pushing messages at potential customers through ads, emails, and calls. But the new generation of buyers wants to be in control.
Irina draws a compelling parallel to the dating app Bumble.
Bumble said, 'Well, hold on. Maybe women want to be in control of the dating. Maybe they want to be the ones that are pulling what they want to them…Gen Z is really similar... The best way to sell to them is have them pull you in, which is essentially showing up where they're doing their research.
This research is happening on social platforms, in communities, and through peer networks, not on your corporate website. Gen Z buyers will consume an average of 13 pieces of long-form content before making a decision. They’re watching the YouTube reviews, reading the case studies, and listening to what your executives and employees are saying online.
The result is staggering. By the time a buyer from this demographic gets on the phone with a sales rep, Irina noted, they are over 80% likely to make a purchase.
How is Employee Advocacy and Executive Presence Driving B2B Sales?
So, how do you pull the modern buyer in? The answer, according to Irina, lies in building genuine relationships through authenticity and vulnerability.
She points to a 75-year Harvard study that found deep relationships were the single greatest predictor of happiness, and the biggest source of regret was the failure to cultivate them.
We are a human society, and a lot of it goes back to relationships.
For a B2B brand, this means dropping the corporate jargon and showing the human side of the business. Irina revealed a critical finding from Hootsuite's research: over 60% of the time, brands are just talking about themselves: their product launches, their awards. Customers, however, want to know what's in it for them.
This is where your people become your greatest asset.
Key Pillars of the New B2B Strategy:
This new strategy hinges on three key pillars.
First, an executive's social presence is now mandatory, as Gen Z buyers vet leadership to understand brand values (a factor that influences nearly 40% of Hootsuite's own leads).
Next, employee advocacy acts as a superpower, empowering a network of trusted voices that drive real results; one company saw reps triple their social-driven deals.
Finally, social listening serves as agile market research, offering real-time insights that can prevent costly errors and guide successful product launches.
A Model for Calculating the ROI of Organic Reach
The inevitable question from leadership is: What’s the ROI? How do you measure the value of a LinkedIn post or a comment thread?
Irina acknowledged the difficulty.
I would ask you, what's the ROI of relationships? Why do we bother going to conferences?
While it's not a simple calculation, it's not impossible. Her advice is to apply the same funnel math used for paid advertising to your organic social reach.
If you're a company that understands that funnel math, you should be able to imply your organic reach and impressions and just do similar math.
By connecting impressions to pipeline conversion rates, you can start to build a quantifiable case for the immense value being generated. After all, a referral from a trusted source has a 70% chance of being acted on, while a paid ad sits at 3-5%. Yet, most marketing budgets are inverted.
For more on this, check out our latest Google Search Ads benchmarks.
The Choice Is No Longer Yours to Make
The shift in the B2B buyer journey is a fundamental rewiring of how business is done. The new generation of buyers values authenticity over advertising, relationships over reach, and social proof over sales pitches.
B2B brands that succeed will be those that empower their entire organization, from the CEO down, to engage in the social conversations where their customers live. By leveraging social intelligence, fostering genuine advocacy, and building trust long before a transaction is ever considered, they can ensure they are not only heard but actively sought out.
About the Speaker
Irina Novoselsky is the CEO of Hootsuite. After starting her career in finance, she transitioned to operations, where she discovered a passion for building teams and creating value. As the leader of Hootsuite, Novoselsky is at the forefront of helping enterprise companies navigate the seismic shifts in technology, generational behavior, and the new social-first buyer journey.
