This is part 2 of a series on the challenge of targeting SMB markets and how the use of buyer modeling and buyer-based marketing help organizations to grow their SMB customer base.
In the first article of this series, we visited two new realities. One, that many Fortune 1000 and Global 2000 organizations are turning a focused eye towards growing their SMB customer and revenue base. With revenue growth potential shrinking in larger strategic accounts due to budget and pricing pressures, many are dedicating attention and resources with more determination than in the past. The second reality is that they are finding a very different buyer this time around than in the past. Simply put, SMB buyers are more social, more sophisticated, more connected, and are transforming their buying behaviors at an accelerated pace. New technologies opening their world to advantages only once afforded to large enterprises.
Waking up to these new realities has set up another challenge for executive leaders. That is of how to get to know the new SMB buyer. Here’s how one sales executive put this to me recently:
“One of the things we realized is that we have got to... Read more
Tags: buyer experience, buyer modleing, buyer persona, buyer persona development, buyer persona marketing, buyer personas, buyer research, buyergraphics, buyerology, content, predictive buyer modleing, small business, small business marketing, social marketing, Tony Zambito
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This is part 1 of a series on the challenge of targeting SMB markets and how the use of target buyer modeling and buyer-based marketing help organizations to grow their SMB customer base.
As we continue to come out of the deep freeze over the last few years, we are beginning to see encouraging signs of an economic recovery. However, the purse strings are still drawn tight and new patterns of buying has created an atmosphere of even more exacting pricing pressures from enterprise-wide level buyers and accounts. This means less room for revenue growth to come directly from the fabled 20-30 percent of large customers who typically have made up 70-80 percent of total revenues. This is how a VP of Sales in the software industry put it to me recently in my research:
“Here is what it looks like…we are actually selling more of our product into our larger accounts than ever before….but…over the last three years we've faced stiffer competition that has driven our pricing down. So the net-net has been that we are just holding on as best we can to these larger accounts. Another words, we are not getting significant real... Read more
Tags: B2B email marketing, b2b marketing, B2B Sales, branding, buyer experience, buyer persona, buyer personas, buyer research, buyer strategy, buyergraphics, buyerology, content marketing, demand generation, marketing, Sales, selling, small business, small business marketing, Social Media, Strategy, Targeting
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This is part 5 and final article of a limited series on why buyer choice modeling is the new view B2B Business must adopt to improve revenue performance and develop long lasting relationships with buyers.
How buyers make choices today, in large part driven by empowering new technologies, will transform how B2B businesses will view buyers as well as redefine what is meant by business marketing. The rigid funnel will no longer serve as a workable means of communicating unique views of buyers and their buying behaviors. This not to say that buyer processes, stages, and steps are no longer relevant but to highlight that buyers today no longer make choices neatly in the paradigm of the funnel. A rigid funnel view, whether it is drawn up horizontal or vertical, cannot provide the orbital view of choices being made continuously.
There are four ways that new buyer choice dynamics will transform the practice of business marketing and alter the view of what practices are relevant:
Predictive Buyer Modeling And Intelligence
As we covered, many B2B businesses are wrestling with the unknown and the invisible. B2B buyers are remaining invisible in their behaviors associated with exploring as well as establishing... Read more
Tags: b2b marketing, B2B Sales, buyer choice, buyer choice modeling, buyer experience, buyer insight, buyer persona, buyer personas, buyergraphics, buyerology, content, content marketing, demand generation, lead generation, online marketing, social, Tony Zambito
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Email, Emerging Platforms, Media Planning & Buying, Opinions, Search, Social Media, Targeting, Uncategorized | No Comments »
We’ve heard it a million times: communication is the key to successful relationships. This doesn’t make it any less true in the agency world. And through the years, Phenomblue has benefitted from a boom in communication tools. From the dominance of email, we’ve added video conferencing, Skype and Basecamp to our communication toolbox. This arsenal of tech-related tools allows our Production and Engagement groups to be as accessible and flexible when communicating with clients. And we’re not alone. Agencies and businesses of all types have evolved client communications. Basecamp alone touts more than 5 million users, 4 million projects and 46 million files. Yet at Phenomblue, we don’t hold quantity over quality, especially when it comes to client relationships.
Don’t get me wrong, we use Basecamp daily. Our Producers are in and out of Basecamp all day long, posting messages, checking off milestones, uploading files. But this is coupled with the practice of picking up the phone. You know, actually talking, real-time, voice-to-voice with clients and partners. It’s simply obeying one of the main tenets of advertising: match your medium to your message. And Basecamp (or other software or app based communication tools) aren’t always the right medium. Sometimes it makes the most... Read more
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This is part 4 of a limited series on why buyer choice modeling is the new view B2B Business must adopt to improve revenue performance and develop long lasting relationships with buyers.
Connecting with today’s B2B buyers is on the minds of most CEO’s and their teams today. Not too long ago, reaching and connecting with B2B buyers was a straight forward proposition. Depending on surveys from such sources as IDC, IDG Connect, DemandGen Report, Forrester, and more, we know that buyers are remaining invisible to B2B businesses and spend only a quarter of their time talking directly to sales when making purchase decisions. The idea of connecting to B2B buyers has gone from straight forward to major league complex.
There are plenty of debates regarding the best tactical means to connect with B2B buyers. The effectiveness of these tactical means, as reported by once again the likes of IDC and etc., show that many B2B leaders believe these tactical efforts such as content marketing and marketing automation may only be effective about a quarter of the time. It does represent a big gap and it begs for a rephrasing of the challenge – this... Read more
Tags: b2b buyer, b2b marketing, B2B Sales, Buyer, buyer behavior, buyer decision model, buyer insight, buyer modeling, buyer persona, buyer persona marketing, buyer personas, buyer strategy, buyergraphics, buyerology, Chief marketing officer, cmo, content marketing, marketing, predictive analytics, predictive buyer modeling, Tony Zambito
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Email, Emerging Platforms, Research, Search, Social Media, Targeting, Web Analytics, Websites, Word of Mouth | 2 Comments »
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