Buyers prefer video & experts
- B2B buyers are gravitating toward named experts and short video content over polished corporate marketing. - Coverage from the SaaS CMO Circle and trade outlets recommends a 'video‑first' approach for complex purchases. - Marketers are advised to prioritise role‑specific, operator‑style videos and personal branding to engage enterprise buyers (economictimes.indiatimes.com).
Business software buyers are moving away from polished brand messaging and toward short videos delivered by recognizable experts. (brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com) At the SaaS CMO Circle, executives from Adobe and LinkedIn said buying groups have grown larger and less visible, which makes “collective confidence” more important than a feature list or pricing sheet. ETBrandEquity published that discussion on April 10, 2026. (brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com) A second SaaS CMO Circle piece, published April 17, 2026, said Gen Z and millennials now make up 71% of B2B buyers, citing LinkedIn marketing executive Sachin Sharma. He said those buyers “are more likely to watch than read” when they research vendors. (brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com) That shift is showing up in broader marketing budgets. MarketingProfs, citing LinkedIn and Ipsos research, reported that 78% of B2B marketers already use video and 56% plan to increase B2B video spending within a year. (marketingprofs.com) The same MarketingProfs report said almost half of B2B marketers rank short-form social video as the highest-return format, while 58% choose influencers for authenticity and credibility and nearly half prioritize industry relevance and subject-matter expertise. (marketingprofs.com) The buying process itself also looks less like a straight line to a sales rep. Wynter’s 2025 survey of 100 chief marketing officers at companies with at least $50 million in revenue found 72% start by asking trusted people, 54% use review sites, and 51% use Google to verify what they hear. (wynter.com) By the time a vendor gets a meeting, most of the homework is already done. Wynter found 88% of CMOs arrive at sales calls already familiar with the vendor, 100% check the vendor website, and 76% still prefer advice from other real people over artificial intelligence tools. (wynter.com) That helps explain why marketers are being pushed toward operator-style clips instead of studio-polished campaigns. The ETBrandEquity coverage said video works not just as a faster format, but as reassurance for buyers who may need to defend a purchase internally. (brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com) The backdrop is a content machine that many teams say is already strained. Content Marketing Institute’s 2025 benchmark report, based on 980 respondents, found 58% rate their strategy only “moderately effective,” and 54% of teams with dedicated content staff say those teams have just two to five people. (contentmarketinginstitute.com) So the practical playbook is getting narrower: put product operators, practitioners, and subject-matter experts on camera, keep the clips short, and make them specific to the buyer’s role. In a market where peers and proof carry more weight than slogans, the face delivering the message is becoming part of the message. (marketingprofs.com)
