BENCHMARKING CONTENT MOST VALUABLE TO BUYERS This year’s survey illustrates buyers’ need to benchmark themselves against their peers and study real-world examples of solutions in action. Case studies Analyst reports, emerged as the top content type, with 78% of buyers accessing this format type as they researched purchases in the past 12 months. (vs. 72% in 2016) Buyers assessments, also continue to rely on white papers, webinars and E-book formats for research. case studies and Shorter formats—including blog posts, infographics and ROI calculators— remained steady among buyers year over year, while third-party/analyst reports ROI calculators were cited by more than two-thirds of buyers (67%) for research this past year, cited as key for up from 62% last year. Another strong benchmarking format, assessments, also saw steady growth, gaining seven percentage points to 32% of respondents vs. benchmarking the 2016 survey. among buyers. When we specifically asked which sources and formats are most valuable for research, case studies again emerged on top, with 48% of respondents indicating them as most valuable, followed by third-party/analyst reports (44%) and white papers (35%). Which types of content have you used during the past 12 months to research B2B purchasing decisions? (Check all that apply) 78% 77% 76% 67% 67% Case studies White papers Webinars E-books Third-party/ analyst reports 2017 Content Preferences Survey Report • 5