How to Engage 95 % B2B Buyers Before They’re Ready to Buy

Only 5% of your B2B market is actively looking to buy. Yet most marketing teams spend 90% of their budget competing for that small sliver.

The 95% Problem

What about the other 95%? They're not ignoring you—they’re just not buying today. But they are forming opinions, watching the market, and silently shortlisting brands.

This isn’t a funnel issue.
It’s a mindset issue.

This guide is your strategic roadmap for long-term B2B buyer engagement—built not on quick conversions, but on trust, value, and consistent presence.So when they are ready, you’re the first name they think of.

Who Are the Out-of-Market Buyers?

Out-of-market buyers are the 95% of your potential audience who aren’t actively looking to purchase right now. They don’t have immediate needs or budget. They’re just not ready yet.

They’re researching, comparing brands, and quietly building trust.
When the time comes to buy, they’ll already have a shortlist in mind. If your brand hasn’t stayed visible and valuable during that “quiet phase,” you're likely not on it.

That’s why long-term brand building matters just as much as short-term sales.

Why Future Buyers Deserve Your Focus

In B2B, the buying process doesn’t start with a sales call—it begins with awareness.

Future buyers—those not actively in-market today—are still learning, observing, and forming impressions. They may not be ready to buy, but they’re definitely deciding who they’ll trust when the time comes.

“82% of B2B buyers choose vendors who engage and educate them early.”
— LinkedIn-Edelman Thought Leadership Study

By the time they reach out to sales, most buyers already know who’s on their shortlist.
That shortlist is built on months of silent research, content consumption, and brand perception.

This is your window to influence—not with a pitch, but with presence, relevance, and value.

If you're not part of that early learning phase, you're not part of the final decision.

Engaging early doesn’t just feel good—it pays off:

• Lower CAC: Familiar brands don’t need to sell as hard.
• Higher retention: Buyers who trust you early tend to stay longer.
• First-mover advantage: Brands remembered early are often chosen first.

So if you’re only showing up when they’re ready to buy, you’re already too late.
It’s not about selling today—it’s about being remembered tomorrow.

Why Traditional Tactics Don’t Work for the 95%

Legacy B2B marketing is built for short-term wins: MQLs, demos, pipeline.  And for the 5% who are actually ready to buy? That might work.

But what about the 95% who aren’t?

This approach falls flat—because it’s built for urgency, not trust. Here’s what usually goes wrong:

• Too much pressure, too soon:  Out-of-market buyers aren’t ignoring you because they’re disinterested—they just don’t want to be sold to yet.
• Lack of context:  A cold LinkedIn message or email that says, “Let’s chat for 15 minutes?” feels intrusive when the buyer hasn’t even realized they have a problem. Outreach without relevance just adds noise.
• Wrong success metrics: Relying on short-term KPIs like click-through rates and form submissions ignores long-term influence. You can’t track brand familiarity in a spreadsheet—but it’s often the real reason someone takes your call six months later..

Out-of-market buyers aren’t uninterested. They’re just not ready. But they’re still forming opinions. That means your job is to build memory, not just generate leads.

Think Salesforce. They don’t wait until someone’s shopping for a CRM—they’re already there through events, thought leadership, and constant value delivery.

Why to Shape Buyer’s Preference

Before we explore what actually works to engage the 95%, we need to realign how we think. B2B marketing has traditionally chased pipeline—when the smarter move is to shape preferences early.

Most marketing strategies are designed to chase the pipeline to drive demos, generate MQLs, and meet short-term goals.But the buyers you're trying to reach aren’t ready to act today. They’re-
-still learning
-observing, and
-quietly deciding which brands feel trustworthy.

Instead of chasing leads based on your urgency, focus on shaping preference based on their journey.

Because when the moment comes—when that buyer finally enters the market—they won’t Google every vendor from scratch. They’ll think of the one that showed up early, consistently, and added value without asking for anything in return.

That’s how trust is built. That’s how preference is earned. So instead of pushing CTAs, start pulling attention by:

• Sharing value without expecting a response
• Speaking to their current journey, not your sales cycle
• Educating them with empathy, not urgency

Stop trying to convert the 95%.

Think about HubSpot. You don’t hear from them only when they want to sell. You hear from them constantly—with templates, guides, tips, and insights. By the time you need a CRM, they’ve been in your inbox for months.
That’s preference at play.

Demand capture is for buyers who are ready now. Preference building is for everyone else.  While the 5% need immediate action, the 95% need repeated, relevant, value-first brand interactions.

How to Engage B2B Buyers Before They’re Ready

To win over buyers before they’re ready, you need more than outreach—you need influence. These five plays are how smart brands stay relevant, remembered, and first in line when the time comes.

1.  Position Your Brand as a Teacher, Not a Seller

Most B2B content comes in late—when a buyer is already deep in their decision process. That’s a problem. Because by then, mental preferences are already formed.

To earn a spot in the buyer’s mind early, your brand needs to behave more like a teacher than a salesperson.This kind of educational, non-promotional content is the foundation of modern top of funnel marketing—it builds mental availability before a buyer ever signals intent.

Here’s how you do it:

A. Build a Value-First Content Hub

 Don’t just publish product brochures or gated whitepapers. Build a real insight hub that buyers would turn to even if they weren’t planning to buy.

Create assets-

• Plug-and-play templates
• Frameworks and benchmarks
• Strategic guides (e.g., “CMO’s Guide to Attribution in 2025”)Buyers in early stages want clarity, not commitment. Your content should make them smarter and not pressure them to talk to sales.

Example: Instead of pushing a demo for your marketing analytics tool, publish a “CMO’s Guide to Structuring a Marketing Attribution Model in 2025” that any exec could use—regardless of platform.

B. Map Content to Real-Life Triggers

Most buyers don’t start exploring your category just because they saw an ad or read a blog. They’re pulled into the buying journey by real-world events—shifts inside their company or external changes that signal the need for something new.

These moments are known as Category Entry Points (CEPs).

Category Entry Points are the specific situations, triggers, or business contexts that prompt a buyer to enter your product category—even if they weren’t actively looking before.

They’re the “when” and “why” behind buying behavior—not just the “what.”

Think of them as mental doorways into a category. Your job is to position your brand at those doorways.

Use Category Entry Points —key events that push buyers into your category.

If your content speaks to those moments, it becomes instantly more relevant. You're not just creating content—you’re meeting buyers right at the start of their decision journey.

C. Offer Help Early

Don’t wait until buyers are comparing vendors to start showing up. Most of their preferences are shaped before they define the problem or explore the category.

That’s where you earn trust—not by being the loudest, but by being the most useful.

Offer content that helps them. Show up early with:

• Industry insights
• Mistake avoidance guides
• Problem-framing content

This type of early education doesn’t just make your brand visible—it makes it memorable and credible.

 Example: If you’re in HR tech, write a post like “Why Most Remote Onboarding Programs Fail (And How to Fix Yours)”—not “Why Our Tool Is the Best for Remote Onboarding.”

According to the LinkedIn-Edelman Thought Leadership Study:

• 3X more buyers recall brands that educate early
• 64% of decision-makers say thought leadership is a more trustworthy basis for evaluating a vendor than marketing materials
• And 71% say that consistent, relevant thought leadership increases their trust in a brand
  

2. Turn SDRs Into Guides, Not Pitch Machines

Today’s buyers don’t want cold calls. When you treat every touchpoint like a sale waiting to happen, you lose the trust of buyers who aren’t there yet. They want relevant, helpful conversations.

A. Lead with Content, Not Calendars

 Use the first touch to share something helpful, not request time. A relevant guide, article, or case study—tailored to their role or business trigger—can warm the relationship instantly.Example:
“Congrats on the Series B! Thought this GTM hiring guide might be helpful as you scale.”

B. Use Behavioral Signals

Most SDRs still rely on static data: job titles, company size, industry. But modern buyers leave behavioral breadcrumbs—web visits, content downloads, webinar attendance—that show you exactly what they care about.

Using those signals makes outreach feel relevant, not robotic.

• If they read a blog post about compliance, mention that topic.
• If they downloaded a pricing sheet, follow up with a value breakdown—not a “just checking in” email.

 Emails with personalized subject lines based on behavior have 29% higher open rates and 41% higher click-through rates. (Experian)

C. Listen Before You Qualify

A lot of SDRs are still trained to qualify fast: budget, timeline, decision-maker status.

But that playbook feels transactional. And it drives buyers away—especially when they’re not yet sure they even need a solution.

Instead, train reps to approach conversations with curiosity.
Ask things like:

• “What prompted you to explore this area?”
• “Where are you seeing the biggest friction right now?”
• “How are you solving this today?”

When buyers feel heard, not hunted, they’re more willing to open up. And ironically, that leads to faster trust—and higher conversions. Buyers are 2.7x more likely to consider a brand that shows deep understanding of their business and challenges. (Forrester)

3. Build a Brand Ecosystem

If you're only connecting with buyers through ads, emails, or cold outreach, you're missing the bigger opportunity– creating a space where your audience comes to you.

That's what an ecosystem does—it gives people a reason to keep interacting with your brand, even when they’re not ready to buy.

Ecosystems outperform traditional B2B lead nurturing strategies by keeping future buyers involved—even when they aren’t actively evaluating vendors.

In a world where only 5% of your market is in buying mode, ecosystems are how you stay relevant to the other 95%.

A brand ecosystem is more than a content strategy or a lead nurture flow. It’s a mix of:

• Community
• Content
• Conversation
• Peer-to-peer learning

The goal? To create consistent value without a sales agenda so that your audience stays engaged, and your brand stays top of mind. Let’s us understand how to do it.
Stop relying only on ads and emails. Build a world your buyers want to be in.

A. Nurture Communities

Build niche communities around topics your ICPs care about—think “B2B Revenue Leaders in SaaS” or “Healthcare Marketing Ops Pros.” Make it a space where peers share ideas, challenges, and tools—not just your content.Start LinkedIn groups, Slack spaces, or roundtables. Focus on peer learning—not just your content.

B. Host Intimate Events

Roundtables with 6–10 people (virtual or in-person) give your ICPs a platform to talk to each other—and position you as the brand that brought them together. Let them talk. You just provide the room.

 Example:
If you sell compliance software, host a session called “How Fintech Heads of Risk Are Preparing for 2025 Regulations”.
Invite 6 risk leaders, ask one strong question to start, and let the group take it from there.

 84% of C-level execs say they’re more likely to engage with a vendor who facilitates peer-to-peer learning (Source: LinkedIn B2B Decision Makers Study)

C. Spotlight Customers

Your prospects want to hear from people like them—not just your sales team.

Bring your customers forward in your ecosystem:

• Let them share lessons learned (even if they’re not perfect wins)
• Turn them into discussion leaders or co-hosts
• Use casual formats—podcast clips, roundtable quotes, informal interviews

 Example:
Instead of writing a polished case study, ask your customer to share “3 things they wish they knew before switching platforms” in a group session or short video.

2x more buyers trust customer stories over brand messaging (Edelman Trust Barometer)

4. Stay Top-of-Mind with Useful Retargeting

Retargeting isn’t about pushing harder. It’s about staying visible in a useful way—especially for the 95% who aren’t ready to buy just yet.Think of this approach as lead nurturing redefined—not through gated content and drip campaigns, but through timely, valuable, and frictionless touchpoints

When done right, retargeting keeps your brand in front of future buyers without feeling annoying or repetitive.

Here’s how to do it well:

A. Share Ungated, Insightful Content

Gating everything behind a form only creates friction. Especially for buyers who are still researching and not ready to commit.

Instead, use retargeting to share:

• Guides and templates they can skim in-feed
• Industry-specific tips
• Use-case breakdowns or mini-case studies
  
  According to LinkedIn, 75% of buyers say thought leadership helps them vet a company’s capabilities, but only if it’s easy to access and not overly promotional.

B. Refresh Creatives Often

Buyers tune out when they see the same ad over and over—especially when it’s not speaking to their world.

Keep your creative fresh by tying it to:

• Industry events (e.g., “Prepping for Black Friday?”)
• Seasonal changes (e.g., “Q4 Planning Tips”)
• Big headlines in your space (e.g., new data privacy laws, funding slowdowns)

C. Deliver Value in the Ad

Your ad should deliver value the moment someone sees it. Don’t make them click to learn what you’re about.

How?

• Lead with an insight into the ad
• Use carousels to show 3–5 takeaways
• Turn your ad into a mini post, not a teaser

On average, only 1–2% of ad impressions get clicked, but brand recall happens even without a click (source: Nielsen). That means the impression matters—if it delivers something memorable.

Retargeting doesn’t need to be pushy to be effective.
When it’s built around relevance, generosity, and timing, it becomes a brand-building tool—not just a conversion tactic.

Give value upfront. Keep it fresh. Deliver the insight right there in the scroll. That’s how you stay top-of-mind without turning people off.

5. Build Brand Familiarity That Drives Future Deals

In B2B, the brand that gets remembered is the one that gets chosen.
But here’s the problem: most brands only show up when they want something—a click, a form fill, a booked meeting.

That’s not how memory works.

Branding isn’t a campaign—it’s a commitment to consistency. Buyers don’t suddenly start researching from scratch when they’re ready. They start with the brands they already know. That’s where mental availability comes in.

Mental availability means being one of the first brands a buyer recalls when a need arises—even if they weren’t thinking about you yesterday.

It’s not built through one-off ads or gated content. It’s built through consistent, memorable presence over time.

Here’s how to engineer it:

A. Be Visually and Verbally Consistent

Your brand should feel instantly recognizable—whether someone sees an ad, a blog, or a webinar invite.

Use the same:

• Color palette and logo placement
• Messaging tone (serious, witty, practical, etc.)
• Visual style (icons, layout, photography)
• Taglines or key phrases

 Research from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute shows that consistent brand assets can increase ad recognition by 34%, and significantly improve recall across long sales cycles.

B. Link Your Brand to Buying Moments

Your brand shouldn’t just be recognizable—it should be relevant to specific business problems or turning points.

This means identifying key “Category Entry Points” (see earlier section), and tying your brand to those triggers.

 Example:
If you help businesses prepare for audits, your brand should be what comes to mind when someone hears “SOC 2,” “new CFO,” or “compliance review.”
Don’t just be in the space—own those moments.

That way, when the need arises—even six months from now—you’re already on the shortlist.

C. Be the Brand They Recall

Click-through rates and demo bookings are easy to track. But they don’t tell you who’s remembering you silently over time.

Studies show that 95% of B2B buyers are not in-market right now (LinkedIn B2B Institute), but 60% of future growth comes from the brands they already remember when they are.

That means brand awareness today = revenue tomorrow.

Don’t cut off campaigns just because they didn’t convert in 2 weeks. 

Your future customers are watching—even if they’re not clicking.

Conclusion

Win by Being Remembered

B2B success isn’t about who talks the loudest—it’s about who sticks.

The brands that win are the ones that:

• Show up early
• Add value constantly
• Stay top of mind without being pushy

Because when your buyer is finally ready to act, your brand shouldn’t just show up.
It should already feel like an obvious choice.