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Study: Videos Influence Millennial Online Purchasing Decisions

Millennials prefer online video content for researching new business products. That’s according to a new study by Sacunas, a business-to-business marketing agency, that analyzed marketing channels, content types, motivators and additional factors that affect Millennials’ business decisions.

The study found that YouTube and Facebook are growing in popularity for those Millennials looking to research products before making buying decisions. The findings demonstrate that this particular age group looks for informative and engaging video content that educates and adds value, especially when the viewer is researching a product or line of offerings.

“Our findings contradict the traditional belief that social media is a secondary influencer on purchasing decisions for B-to-B brands,” said Heather Wadlinger, director of research and strategy for Sacunas. “We’ve confirmed that Millennials not only turn to social media for information about B-to-B brands, but they also overwhelmingly prefer Facebook and YouTube to other social platforms like LinkedIn.”

In addition, the study found that Millennials largely prefer to work with companies with a clear social conscience. “To successfully market to Millennials, B-to-B companies need to understand the unique behaviors and psychology of the Millennial buyer,” said Adam Vasquez, president of Sacunas. “B-to-B brands not only have to optimize their customer experience, but they must also evolve to have meaning beyond the products they represent.”

The Pew Research Center reports that there were an estimated 55.2 million Millennials in the American workforce in 2015, surpassing Generation X as the largest demographic in the labor force. The Department of Labor predicts that 74 million Millennials will be in the workforce by 2025.

For its study, Sacunas conducted phone surveys of 2,000 Millennials in the U.S., and asked them about buying habits, social channel usage and business-to-business purchasing decisions.