B2B business strategies were much simpler back in the day. In the pre-Internet and pre-digital age, the target of one customer or buyer was an accepted viewpoint. We are no longer back in those days.
We are in the new digital age. This new age consists of more complexity, collaboration, co-creation, and new emerging buying behaviors. Recently, I introduced the concept of the Persona Buying Cycle™. It represents a view of understanding new buying behaviors via the B2B buying cycle. Designed to help us address not only new behaviors – but address new complexities.
The Why
Last year, I suggested a single view of the buyer was a dangerous road to travel. This view wired into B2B Business for nearly a century. We now live in a new digital age of audiences, influencers, procurement policies, buying teams, committees, social collaboration platforms, and more.
Mapping content strategy to this new world means factoring in more views than a single buyer. For B2B businesses, the dynamics of audiences, nurturing, insight, experience, and “consumer-like” branding are all new. These new dynamics are fast emerging as success factors for succeeding in the new digital age.
One of the key insights behind this thinking, gained through a collection of on-site... Read more
Tags: audience persona, branding, buyer persona, buyer persona development, buyer personas, buying cycle, content marketing, content strategy, Digital Marketing, market research, marketing, Tony Zambito
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Emerging Platforms, Opinions, Social Media, Targeting | 3 Comments »
Smartphones penetration in the US has crossed the 50% mark and we check them over 150 times a day – for everything from looking at email to taking photos to getting the weather forecast to browsing the web. Considering smartphones were first introduced less than 6 short years ago, that kind of growth and usage is nothing shy of amazing.
So how - and why - did all this happen? To get a clear picture, it’s worth taking a look at the underlying technologies and economics that made it possible for the smartphone to become the transformational device it is.
Let’s start with the device itself. Smartphones are the latest link in a chain that started decades ago and are responsible for the broad democratization of the Internet, making it available to almost anyone, anywhere, anytime. In a very real way, smartphones opened the floodgates and released the “digital pressure” created by the exponential increase in online data and services available.
The smartphone itself is a powerful, handheld, networked computer with more processing power than all of NASA had when it put a man on the moon in 1969. Combine that with an incredibly intuitive and user-friendly interface that provides easy access... Read more
Tags: mobile, mobile devices, smartphones
Posted in Emerging Platforms, Wireless | No Comments »
Fast-growing social platform Pinterest recently introduced an analytics product for businesses, brands and partners that integrate Pinterest into their sites, said Steve Patrizi, Head of Partner Marketing at Pinterest during a presentation at iMedia in:Focus Summit on What Women Want From Brands. Partners can use those analytics to see what's working and not working across the service. Many brands are weaving Pinterest into their sites so that users can pin products, and the integration boosts engagement time in most cases, he said. In addition, Pinterest recently introduced "rich pins," which let brands add more information to pinned products, such as price or where to buy.
Brand are using Pinterest in a variety of ways, Patrizi added. Nordstrom, for instance, incorporates Pinterest in stores by showing the most-pinned items. Martha Stewart showcases just-pinned products on its home page, while Modcloth also highlights popular pins on its site.
Tags: iMedia Summit, pinterest, rich pins, Steve Patrizi
Posted in Emerging Platforms, Opinions, Social Media | No Comments »
At the recent Google I/O 2013 Keynote, Google announced a laundry list of new enhancements and services. Solidifying its’ game plan of playing offense rather than defense with innovation. Which, at this writing, is putting the challenge on Apple to respond.
My thoughts shared here are heavily influenced by a brilliant article from Mike Myatt entitled -Leadership Lesson: The Difference Between Google and Apple. Mike is one of our best thinkers on leadership and is the author of Leadership Matters . . . The CEO Survival Manual. Here is Myatt’s view on how Google is gaining the edge on Apple:
“…there is one very big difference between the two – Google plays offense while Apple has recently settled for playing defense. Apple is struggling to maintain its position in the market, while Google is expanding its position.”
Mike goes on to say it is this offensive mindset, which is putting the hurt on Apple. In essence Apple has ceded ground to Google, Samsung, and HTC while taking a defensive stance. The result: Apple’s stock has fallen by over 35%.
What really caught my attention and is well worth noting is the following statement from Mike:
“Google could have made the decision to stay solely focused... Read more
Tags: Apple, branding, buyer experience, buyer foresight, buyer insight, buyer persona, buyer personas, content marketing, content strategy, customer foresight, customer insight, Digital Marketing, google, online marketing, Targeting
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Emerging Platforms, Opinions, Search, Social Media, Targeting, Websites, Word of Mouth | No Comments »
Every company has aspirations to become the market leader in their space. Leading your market has built-in advantages over your competition. Market leadership helps to ensure a level of stability and longevity.
Getting there and staying there is the hard part.
The demands of the market and the buyers within them can set the bar very high. Being the market leader can be very tenuous as buyers evaluate new emerging technologies and options. Rising to the top also comes with a heavy responsibility. Which is this:
Customers and buyers expect market leaders to provide them with a roadmap of the future.
Recently, this became a profound understanding for me, which I want to share with you. I conducted a significant amount of qualitative buyer interviews during the past year or more. There was a sense buying behavior was shifting in this direction. It has led me to conclude this:
Organizations today, particularly B2B, must develop the capability as well as provide to their prospective buyers and existing customers future-oriented Buyer Foresight™ .
Michael Brenner, who has a fantastic blog B2B Marketing Insider, and I had a conversation on the subject of buyer foresight. You can find it here: Marketing is in the Throes of a Buyer... Read more
Tags: buyer foresight, buyer persona, buyer persona development, buyer personas, content marketing, content strategy, customer foresight, customer insight, Digital Marketing, market research, marketing, Social Media, Targeting, Tony Zambito, trends
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Emerging Platforms, Entertainment, Opinions, Research, Social Media, Targeting, Uncategorized, Web Analytics, Websites, Word of Mouth | No Comments »
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