How to map content to the new buyer journey

Read time: 10 minutes

In this article:

• From funnel to flexibility: The reality of today’s B2B buyer

• Rethinking content strategy through buyer priorities

• Content types that align to buyer need
  • When buyers need education
  • When buyers need validation
  • When buyers need reassurance and ROI
• How intent signals shape your next move
• Focus on what your buyer needs next

In the not-so-distant past, the B2B buyer journey was often depicted as a linear path: awareness at the top, consideration in the middle, and decision at the bottom. It was neat, it was structured, and for a time, for a while.

But the buyer journey has changed again. And each time it evolves, expectations rise with it.

That simple path no longer reflects how B2B buying actually happens. Today’s buyers engage across an average of 10 channels. They jump forward and backwards, involve additional stakeholders late in the process, and do most of their research independently before they ever speak to a vendor.

This isn’t the erosion of the funnel; it’s a fundamental redefinition. Buyers are no longer following a process laid out by marketing and sales; they’re designing their own journeys. And if your content doesn’t adapt to those new expectations, it risks being ignored entirely.

This article introduces a practical framework for mapping your content to modern buyer behaviour. Whether you’re overhauling your strategy or fine-tuning your nurture streams, this approach will help ensure your efforts meet buyers where they are, not where your funnel assumes they should be.

From funnel to flexibility: The reality of today’s B2B buyer

Today’s buyers are more informed, more independent, and more demanding. According to McKinsey, the average number of touchpoints has doubled since 2016. Buyers are now using more channels, expecting more transparency, and involving more internal stakeholders in decision-making.

This means that:

• You can no longer rely on a single entry point. Buyers might first encounter your brand via organic search, a peer recommendation, or a LinkedIn comment. And when they do decide to engage, our Vendor Engagement Report shows they’re split across multiple preferences: 30% prefer to speak directly to a sales rep, another 30% would rather request a product demo, and 20% will choose to evaluate independently via your website.
• Your buying group is bigger, more fragmented, and harder to predict. The idea of a single decision-maker is outdated. Different members of the buying group bring distinct expectations to the table. While researchers are more likely to prefer independent evaluation via a vendor’s website, final decision-makers are more inclined to download gated content or speak directly with vendors. This shows that a single piece of content may resonate very differently depending on who’s viewing it, reinforcing the need to tailor assets by role, not just stage.
• Buyers want control and clarity. From self-serve pricing pages to AI-assisted research tools, modern buyers expect to explore on their own terms and only engage directly when they're ready. They’re no longer reliant on gated PDFs or drawn-out discovery calls to get the information they need; instead, they expect vendors to anticipate their needs and provide answers proactively. Whether it’s through intelligent search, interactive product tours, or real-time pricing breakdowns, buyers are seeking fast, frictionless, and transparent interactions. If your content can’t be accessed easily or doesn’t provide immediate value, they’ll move on.

This complex and non-linear journey spanning multiple channels means content must flex by role, need, and channel. You’re not building a one-way funnel; you’re architecting a responsive ecosystem.

To succeed, your content strategy needs to:

• Support a variety of buyer roles with contextually relevant content
• Deliver value across channels and formats
• Reduce friction and build trust at every stage

There’s no one journey, just many overlapping ones. And your content needs to flex accordingly.

Rethinking content strategy through buyer priorities

If the modern buyer journey feels chaotic, that’s because it often is. With multiple stakeholders engaging at different times and buyers switching between channels based on their needs, it's no wonder demand gen teams are struggling to keep up.

To bring clarity and focus, it helps to think about what buyers actually need at each stage of their journey. Rather than layering in multiple dimensions, we recommend focusing on one core driver: buying need.

Each stage of the funnel aligns with a dominant buyer need:

• Awareness: Buyers need education. They’re exploring a problem and need context, trends, and foundational knowledge.
• Consideration: Buyers need validation. They’re shortlisting solutions and looking to confirm fit and viability.
• Decision: Buyers need reassurance and ROI. They’re making a choice and want to mitigate risk and justify the investment.

These needs should inform the format, tone, and CTA of your content. For example:

• A researcher in the awareness stage might respond well to an ungated explainer blog.
• An IT influencer in the consideration stage may need product comparisons or integration guides.
• A budget holder in the decision stage will want pricing breakdowns and ROI calculators.

Mapping your content to buying need helps prioritise the right format for the moment, avoids forcing content into a rigid funnel, and supports faster, more confident decision-making.

Think of it as a content grid, where each intersection represents a specific combination of role, stage, and need. A researcher early in the awareness phase might benefit from an ungated explainer blog post, while a CFO nearing a purchasing decision will be more interested in an ROI model or pricing breakdown tailored to their organisation's scale.

By breaking content down this way, you can:

• Identify gaps in your asset library
• Ensure consistency and coverage across buying stages
• Align marketing and sales teams around the right messaging for the right person at the right time

For teams needing alignment, building a matrix that plots roles and stages against asset types is a powerful planning tool. It helps visualise how content should flex across journeys and ensures no buyer persona or stage is left unsupported.

Content types that align to buyer need

Once you’ve identified the core needs driving your buyer’s behaviour, the next step is to match those needs with the right type of content. Content that helps them make progress feels valuable and timely, whether that’s understanding the problem, comparing solutions, or justifying investment.

The key is to move beyond simply filling funnel stages and instead anchor every asset to a clear buyer intent. Below, we break down how those needs translate into content decisions: what to create, who it serves, and where it fits in the journey.

When buyers need education

Buyers in this mode are exploring a problem, framing their challenges, and collecting context. They're not yet looking at vendor solutions; they're trying to get smarter on the space so they can form their own perspective.

When buyers need validation

Here, buyers are evaluating vendors, comparing approaches, and seeking signals that your solution can actually solve their problem. They’re weighing trade-offs and looking for proof that you're worth a deeper conversation.

When buyers need reassurance and ROI

At this point, buyers are close to making a decision. But they still have questions: Is this the right fit? Can I justify the spend? What happens after I say yes? Content here should address objections, demonstrate ROI, and make the decision feel safe.

Pro tip: When in doubt, ask: What job is this content doing for the buyer?

How intent signals shape your next move

Intent signals shouldn’t just tell you who’s active; they should reveal why they’re active and what they need next.

In a needs-first content strategy, the most valuable signals aren’t just high-intent keywords or repeat visits. They’re sequences of behaviour that suggest a shift in mindset, from research to evaluation, or from consideration to final validation.

If a technical buyer moves from a blog to a product comparison guide, or if a CFO downloads both a case study and an ROI calculator in one session, those actions don’t just show engagement; they tell you exactly what job that buyer is trying to complete.

That’s the level of intent that should shape your content and follow-up. Not just "this account is active," but "this persona is progressing, and here’s what will help them next."

Use behavioural patterns to:

• Spot where buyers are hitting friction or gaps in content
• Align messaging with the buyer’s evolving priority (e.g. risk mitigation vs. capability fit)
• Trigger content that supports the next need, not just more of the same

Intent doesn’t live in isolation; it lives within the buyer journey. And if you map it against need, not just stage, it becomes your most powerful content planning tool.

Focus on what your buyer needs next

Modern demand generation isn’t about volume; it’s about utility. The best content strategies today focus less on filling the funnel and more on clearing a path.

If you know what your buyer is trying to solve, you can give them the next thing they need to move forward; nothing more, nothing less. That’s where the real momentum happens. Not from bombarding prospects with options, but from helping them take the next step with confidence.

Keep your strategy rooted in buyer need, and you’ll spend less time guessing and more time converting.