How to Address the 95% of Passive Buyers (Playbook)
Don't focus only on the 5% of active buyers
Not everyone in your audience or ICP is ready to buy now.
Should you completely forget about those potential clients? Absolutely not.
Should you push them to become active buyers? Definitely not.
Instead, you should develop a marketing strategy that adapts to passive buyers too.
In this newsletter, I’m going to explain how you should do this exactly.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
The concept of passive buyers vs active buyers
Create a content ecosystem for passive buyers
Get ready for when passive buyers become active
For context, here is an overview of the ideal B2B Marketing strategy for 2025:
This graph will serve as a reference throughout the newsletter.
The concept of passive buyers vs active buyers
“95% of your potential buyers aren't ready to buy today. These 95% are “out-market” today, but will be “in-market” sometime in the future.” LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
This quote from LinkedIn explains a simple fact. B2B businesses are not constantly in an active buying mode because they’re busy with other projects. However, there is a high likelihood that they will become buyers in the future.
So some people are not actively buying, does it mean you should forget about them? No, because they are your future buyers. You should rely on a long term strategy to raise awareness about your offer among this audience.
Eventually, a buying trigger will bring them 'in-market'.
You cannot totally control these buying triggers as they can be anything internal or external. A new trend, a competitor's action, or a CEO's idea… It could be anything. But you can try to influence the trigger AND be in the best position when it happens.
It’s very common in B2C. Someone might not be thirsty at a given time, but eventually they will. That’s why drinking sodas brands spend millions on awareness campaigns. To build TOMA (top of mind awareness) for when the thirst comes.
The question is: how should you optimize your marketing for passive buyers?
Create a content ecosystem for passive buyers
You need to create educational content for businesses that might need your offer in the future. This will help you to build to establish top-of-mind awareness (TOMA) for when the need arises.
You should avoid pushing passive buyers into aggressive sales sequences.
Clients that are not actively buying don’t want to talk to a sales rep or receive a promo code to buy now. They want to passively listen to what you have to say or research more information at most. This phase can take time as the graph shows below.
*The time between each step is random, it can vary based on multiple factors
You cannot create just any type of content
Certain types of content are not suitable for engaging passive buyers. For example, a long technical ebook, blog, or webinar will not be appealing to them. In opposition, an overview youtube video or daily LinkedIn post have more chance to trigger their curiosity.
Beyond the format, it’s all about the type of information you’re sharing.
Want to learn how to create the right content for passive buyers?
In my course, 'The Authority-First Framework,' I teach you how to plan your content. You’ll learn how to conceptualize your strategy, develop a content plan, create content, repurpose it, and drive revenue.
In this course, you will gain access to a Notion dashboard to organize your content:
Get ready to convert when they become ‘active’ buyers
Eventually, passive buyers will experience a buying trigger and transition into active buyers. They will be 'in-market' and begin comparing solutions. If you’ve executed your strategy well, you’ll already be a strong contender. If not, your competitors who published content have higher chance to win the deal.
But creating content for a long period of time is not the unique factor of success. You need to be ready to convert active buyers into prospects. When they become active, 2 potential scenarios can happen:
They will contact you directly (inbound)
You will have to contact them (outbound)
This is exactly what I am teaching you in the module 5 of my course “Capture demand to turn attention into revenue”
Alright, this is the end of this newsletter! I hope it helped you to prepare for your 2025 marketing strategy. The next newsletter will be next Wednesday!
It's reassuring to know the actual audience is bigger
very interesting framework!