One thing we can count on is by the time you have finished reading this buying behavior may have been altered one again. Changes in buyer behaviors continue unabated. This is making it difficult for marketing and sales leaders to plan the right mix of strategies and tactics resulting in a winning formula.
5 Buyer Behaviors B2B Marketing Must Keep An Eye On
New buying behaviors means B2B marketers have to become more responsive today. Creating nimble organizations and improving knowledge in buyer understanding. Here are ways buyer behavior will continue to reshape marketing:
Buyers Embrace Collaboration
Social and digital technologies has allowed for progress in the area of collaboration. Meaning the sphere of influence and interaction not only has widened but increased. Old ideas about roles on buying teams are being shattered as we speak. The era of collaborative buyer networks has arrived. We now have to consider internal as well as external members of collaborative networks impacting decision-making.
Buyers Want Co-Creation
Collaborative networks are fostering a new environment for co-creating products, services, and for solving problems. This new development will put pressure on B2B organizations to get in line with flexible products and services which allow buyers to play an active role in co-creating. Buyers... Read more
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5 Buyer Behaviors Reshaping B2B Marketing
Tags: b2b marketing, B2B Sales, Business-to-business, buyer persona, buyer personas, content marketing, content strategy, demand generation, lead generation, marketing, social marketing, social media marketing, Tony Zambito
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Email, Emerging Platforms, Opinions, Social Media, Targeting, Websites, Word of Mouth | No Comments »
The Art of Buying
Galvanized by Art (Photo credit: cobalt123)
The quest to uncover how and why people and businesses engage in the act of buying is becoming an endurance race. Spurred on by increasing social technologies advances. The result is many organizations, whether academia or business, have focused on the science of buying. What we may be losing is critical understanding of the art of buying.
What we are witnessing in the new digital age is the old rules of near total dependency on understanding processes and rules associated with buying is no longer the sole winning ticket. Buying processes and rules have been dissected and analyzed many times over throughout the past few decades. We clung to the belief of knowing the how will lead us to systematic knowledge of how to close more business with buyers. The problem marketing and selling organizations face today is the how – processes and rules – are not as easily defined or structured as in the past. Social technologies have made it possible for new networks and collaboration amongst buyers – causing plenty of flex in processes and rules.
The Why of Buying
If the science of buying has focused on the how of buying, the art of... Read more
Tags: b2b marketing, buyer persona, buyer personas, buying behavior, Digital Marketing, marketing, marketing effectiveness, qualitative analytics, qualitative research, Sales, sales effectiveness
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When Crisis Communications Bleeds Into Community Support
The recent battle of claims and data between Elon Musk/Tesla and the New York Times showcases a unique crisis communications situation. What's the best way to handle a crisis of "he said-they said" before it spirals out of control?
At some point in their career, every communications professional needs to handle at least a few crisis situations on behalf of a client. All things being relative - whether it’s a disaster like the BP oil spill, a trolling commenter on your brand’s Facebook page, or an executive giving out embargoed information too early – the way you initially respond will set the tone for everything that follows. It’s all about being prepared to the best degree, and then maintaining as much control as possible.
But in some cases, keeping a loose grip on that control and relying on trusted advocates to speak on your behalf can be more effective than any prepared statement.
An example of this recently played out between Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk and the New York Times. When Musk went on the attack against a negative review of the company’s East Coast charging station, first via social media, then by blog, and eventually (perpetually?) even further, his response quickly incited a crisis spiral.... Read more
Tags: b2b marketers, b2b marketing, b2c marketers, b2c marketing, crisis communications, crisis management, crisis public relations, elon musk, new york times, nytimes, PR, Social Media, tesla, twitter
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One Thing Brand Marketers Can’t Forget When Making New Year’s Resolutions
Whether you focus on B2B or B2C, brands today have the ability to become their own media companies. With that in mind, there are lessons to learn from Mashable’s recent article, “4 Things Media Companies Must Do… Or Die.”…which I’ll re-categorize at this point in the year as “New Year’s Resolutions for Marketers.”
It seems that ever since the advent of mobile devices, brand marketers have been scrambling to keep up. In the early days of online advertising – and even more recent ones – advertisers simply transferred the content of their more traditional ads onto mobile devices and wished really hard that consumers would latch on. But as we have learned over the years, nothing worthwhile is that simple.
The consumer who clicks on an ad when surfing the Internet taps a different ad on his iPad. But even if the consumer does see your brand’s ad, who’s to say it’s effective? Learning what it takes to make a compelling ad is just as daunting as what form it should come in.
Whether you focus on B2B or B2C, we already know the overused-at-this-point-phrase that “content is king,” but what that really means is that brands today have the ability to become their... Read more
Tags: b2b marketers, b2b marketing, b2c marketers, b2c marketing, content marketing, mobile advertising, new year resolutions, Social Media, social media marketing
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Seven Marketing Lessons From 007 Villains
Much has been written about the simple mistakes that Bond villains make in allowing the nominal spy to escape and foil their evil plans. But along with recommendations to overcome previous superspy-killing bungles, there are marketing lessons to be learned.
With the film franchise’s 50th anniversary and the new James Bond movie, Skyfall, out this week, there’s a lot of excitement around the legacy of everything Bond. Beyond the drinking, fighting, intrigue, women, gadgets, fast cars, and espionage, there are the villains. What purpose would Bond and MI6 have if it weren’t for the deviant masterminds of nuclear, drug-related and generally destructive plots?
Aside from their schemes, these criminals are often successful entrepreneurs or high profile public figures who are bona fide geniuses. Much has been written about the simple mistakes that Bond villains make in allowing the nominal spy to escape and foil their evil plans. But along with recommendations to overcome previous superspy-killing bungles, there are marketing lessons to be learned.
In that spirit, here are seven marketing tips from 007 bad guys that can apply to your brand.
Don’t give away your secrets to the competition: The classic Bond villain mistake. Things seem like they’re going in your favor, so why not have a... Read more
Tags: 007, b2b marketers, b2b marketing, b2c marketers, b2c marketing, bond villains, james bond, PR, public relations, skyfall, Social Media, social media marketing, social networks
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