INTRODUCTION Content consumption habits among buyers continue to shift, and while buying cycles have grown longer and more complex, buyers—like marketers—have less time to devote to researching purchases than in the past. More than one- third of buyers strongly agreed they have fewer hours in the day to read up on 34% potential purchases. It’s no surprise that shorter formats, on-demand and bundled content, mobile- of buyers have less friendly formats and visual and interactive content top their list of preferred time to devote to content assets with what little time they can carve out. Buyers are also inclined to check trustworthiness of sources, and analyst reports and third-party reading/research independent content are preferred by a wide margin among buyers. on purchases. Given their limited timeframe for doing research, buyers want to get right to the meat of content assets that will help them most in their journey. When we asked what type of content they want, prescriptive content that lays out a formula for success was the most popular type of content among buyers. In addition, this year, case studies led the pack in terms of the content format that resonates strongest with buyers. They’ve signaled their hunger to benchmark their own experiences against others who’ve tackled similar challenges. An overall desire for more data and benchmarking research also resonated strongly in terms of buyers’ recommendations for content improvement, all tying back to the time-starved challenges. Influencer content has also become of paramount importance; 87% of survey respondents said they give more credence to industry influencer content. Hand in hand with that, buyers also indicated they give more credence to peer reviews, third-party publications and user-generated feedback; more than two- thirds (68%) of buyers said they frequently give credence to peer reviews and user-generated feedback, while 60% give credence to content authored by a third-party publication or analyst. 2017 Content Preferences Survey Report • 2