Digital Marketing for IT Companies: The B2B Pipeline Playbook

6sense’s 2026 Buyer Experience Report, published in early November from about 4,600 B2B buying journeys, found that buyers first contact a seller 59% of the way through a buying cycle that averages 10.3 months. The buyer side makes 82% of first contacts, and the vendor buyers favored before that contact wins about 82% of the time (6sense). Kerry Cunningham, 6sense’s head of research, says the sales cycle revenue teams see is often “the validation stage of a selection process that has already been underway for multiple quarters” (MarTech Edge).

6sense sells software to B2B marketers, but other studies point the same way, and the finding changes where an IT company’s marketing has to work. Most of the decision is made before anyone in sales is involved, from what buyers already know, internal discussion, analysts, review sites, AI tools and vendor websites. This guide covers how technology buyers buy, how AI assistants have changed their research, and six things IT, SaaS and managed service companies need to get right: positioning, the website, search, LinkedIn, email and the handoff to sales.

How B2B technology buyers buy

• In large groups. 6sense puts the average buying group at 10.2 people. Forrester’s 2026 State of Business Buying found that a typical decision involves “13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers,” with procurement a decision-maker in 53% of buying cycles (Forrester).
• Mostly on their own. In a Gartner survey of 646 B2B buyers, 67% preferred a buying experience without a sales rep (Gartner).
• From a short list. 6sense found buyers considered 4.9 vendors on average, with 3.3 already on their shortlist on day one (6sense).
• Rarely, but at a time you can’t predict. LinkedIn’s B2B Institute, drawing on research by John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute (Ehrenberg-Bass), argues that “95% of your potential buyers aren’t ready to buy today” (LinkedIn). Companies replace many business products, such as computers or banks, only every four or five years, so only a small share is in the market in any quarter.

Put together, the job is to be known and trusted by the whole buying group before they enter the market, so that you are on the day-one shortlist, and then to be easy to evaluate without a salesperson.

How AI assistants have changed B2B research

AI assistants have become a common research tool, though less for finding vendors than for comparing them. 6sense found that 81% of buyers used a large language model during an evaluation, down from 94% a year earlier, but only 26% used one to discover vendors (MarTech Edge). In an April 2026 report from review site G2, based on a survey of 1,076 B2B software buyers, 51% said they start research with an AI chatbot more often than with Google, up from 29% in G2’s 2025 report (G2).

Buyers also check what the assistants tell them. Review platform TrustRadius found that 63% of technology buyers used AI during a purchase and that 94% of those fact-check its answers at least some of the time (TrustRadius). Gartner found that 69% prefer to validate AI-generated insights with a sales rep (Gartner), and Forrester’s predictions for 2027 expect buyers to “double their human interactions to validate AI-generated recommendations” (Forrester).

So an IT company needs to appear in AI answers, and its site, reviews and salespeople need to confirm what those answers say. Our post on AI search for B2B SaaS covers how to get assistants to describe your product correctly.

1. Position the company in the buyer’s terms

Many technology companies describe what they build: platforms, stacks, architectures. Buyers, many of them outside IT, want to know which problem goes away, how quickly and at what risk. A useful test is to ask someone outside the company to read your homepage and say in one sentence what you do and for whom. If they can’t, the positioning isn’t doing its job.

Strong positioning names a specific audience, a specific problem and specific proof. “Excellent service” and “deep expertise” are what every competitor claims. A hypothetical managed service provider could say instead that it guarantees a four-hour response time with a penalty in the contract, or that it specializes in moving financial services firms off legacy infrastructure. Choosing a niche means turning some buyers away, and that is why it works: it gives the right buyers a reason to remember you.

2. Build a website the whole buying group can use

Each page should answer three questions: what problem it solves, what proof shows it works and what the visitor should do next. Beyond that, write for every member of the buying group, not only the person who found you:

• Finance: how pricing works, even as a range or a model, and the business case.
• IT and security: integrations, security and compliance documentation, and how data is handled.
• Procurement: contract terms, implementation timelines and support levels.
• Users: a demo, a sandbox or a trial. Forrester found that more than 60% of business buyers use a trial (Forrester).

Case studies with named customers, measurable results and the buyer’s own industry belong on the pages where buyers compare options. Be careful with gated content: 6sense found that only 35.2% of buyers who completed a form used their own contact details (6sense).

3. Rank for problem and comparison searches

Search content for IT companies works best when it targets three kinds of queries:

• Problem queries, such as how to cut cloud costs or meet a compliance requirement, which reach buyers before they know which category to buy.
• Category queries, such as managed detection and response for mid-sized companies, which reach buyers building a list.
• Comparison queries, such as “X vs Y” or “alternatives to X,” which reach buyers choosing between vendors.

For comparison pages, Google’s guidance on writing reviews is a good standard: “Explain what sets something apart from its competitors,” and “Discuss the benefits and drawbacks of something, based on your own original research” (Google). That includes being honest about who your product doesn’t suit. Google says there are “no additional requirements” to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode beyond ordinary search best practices (Google), so the same pages serve both. Reviews count too: 74% of buyers in the TrustRadius study used them. Our guide to content, SEO and social media covers planning content once for all three channels.

4. Use LinkedIn to reach the buying group

LinkedIn lets you target by company, industry, job title and seniority, which suits buying groups. Its minimum budget is $10 a day, or $100 for a new campaign on a lifetime budget, and it suggests a $25 budget for new advertisers (LinkedIn). Three formats are particularly useful for IT companies:

• Document Ads let people read a guide or report in their feed, with an optional Lead Gen Form to download it (LinkedIn).
• Thought Leader Ads promote posts from your founders, engineers or other experts, with their approval (Search Engine Land).
• Retargeting of website visitors and video viewers keeps you in front of a group across a long cycle (LinkedIn).

The 95-5 rule argues for spending part of the budget on reaching buyers who are not yet in the market, measured on reach and recall, and part on capturing the few who are. Install the LinkedIn Insight Tag and Conversions API so results can be tied to pipeline rather than clicks.

5. Stay in touch by email

With buying cycles averaging ten months and only a small share of buyers in the market at once, email keeps you in front of people who have already shown interest. Send useful material, such as research, benchmarks and product updates, rather than a run of sales pitches. Google’s rules for anyone sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts require DMARC authentication and one-click unsubscribe for marketing messages, and say to keep reported spam rates below 0.10% and never reach 0.30% (Google). Gmail has stepped up enforcement since November 2025 (Google), and Outlook.com has required SPF, DKIM and DMARC from senders of more than 5,000 messages a day since May 2025 (Petri).

6. Hand buyers to sales quickly and well

Buyers arrive late, often with a favorite, and they initiate most first contacts, so how fast and how well sales responds matters. A 2011 Harvard Business Review study found that “most companies are not responding nearly fast enough” to online leads (Harvard Business Review), and a test by automation vendor Workato found that only one of 114 B2B companies sent a personalized email within five minutes of a demo request (Workato).

Agree in writing what counts as a qualified lead and an opportunity, how fast sales responds to each kind of request and what happens to leads sales rejects. Report pipeline and revenue by source, not lead volume. Our post on sales and marketing incentives covers the service-level agreement, and our post on B2B intent data covers spotting accounts that are researching before they get in touch.

If you are bringing in outside help, our post on the first 90 days with a marketing agency sets out what to expect. Our SEO, content marketing and paid media teams can help with each of these steps.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do B2B buyers research technology vendors?

Mostly on their own, then with a seller near the end. In Gartner’s survey of 646 buyers, 67% preferred a buying experience without a sales rep. 6sense’s 2026 report found buyers first contact a vendor 59% of the way through a 10.3-month cycle, and the vendor they favored before contact usually wins. Along the way they use vendor websites, review sites, peers and AI assistants, and many then check what AI told them with a salesperson.

What is the 95-5 rule in B2B marketing?

It is the idea, published by LinkedIn’s B2B Institute and based on research by Professor John Dawes of the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute, that only about 5% of potential B2B buyers are in the market at any time. The other 95% will buy later, because companies replace many business products, such as computers or banks, only every four or five years. The advice is to keep reaching the 95% so they remember you when they are ready, rather than spending everything on the few buying today.

How many people are in a B2B buying group?

It depends on the purchase and the study. 6sense’s 2026 report puts the average buying group at 10.2 people. Forrester’s 2026 State of Business Buying found that a typical decision involves 13 internal stakeholders and nine external influencers, with procurement a decision-maker in 53% of buying cycles. For an IT company, that means content for finance, security, procurement and users, not only for the person who first found you.

Do B2B buyers use ChatGPT to choose IT vendors?

Many use it, mainly to compare. 6sense found that 81% of buyers used a large language model during an evaluation, but only 26% used one to discover vendors. G2 found that 51% of software buyers start research with an AI chatbot more often than with Google. Buyers also check the answers: TrustRadius found that 94% of buyers who used AI fact-check it at least some of the time, and Gartner found that 69% prefer to validate AI insights with a sales rep.

How much should an IT company spend on marketing?

There is no single benchmark for IT companies. Gartner’s 2026 CMO Spend Survey of 401 marketing leaders found budgets average 7.8% of company revenue, but that figure covers all industries. Base your budget on contract value, sales cycle length and how many target accounts you need to reach. On LinkedIn, the minimum is $10 a day per campaign, and LinkedIn suggests a $25 budget for new advertisers.