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 »
Social Media "Experts"…Really?!?
These days everyone is desperately trying to figure out the best ways to leverage social. In fact, if you type the phrase “social media” into Google, over 500 million results will appear. That’s more than the results for just “media”. Marketers are feeling the pressure to become more “social” from senior management and scrambling to put together social media campaigns so that they can check that box off of their marketing deliverables. Many marketers think by launching a Facebook page or getting a lot of Twitter followers that they have satisfied their social media needs. Once marketers realize that it takes much more to drive social activity that will result in ROI and the resources required for managing these social initiatives, they are quickly on the hunt for social media experts to assist them; and there are many who claim to be social media experts ready to serve your every need.
Marketers have started to tackle their social media needs, similar to how they have historically approached every other marketing tactic - by isolating and siloing their strategic parameters, success metrics, and analytics. We’ve seen this time and time again. This is how marketers dealt with banner advertising in the ‘90s,... Read more
Tags: branding, content strategy, Digital Marketing, Facebook, social marketing, Social Media, social media strategy
Posted in Ad Networks, Creative Best Practices, Media Planning & Buying, Social Media, Targeting, Web Analytics | 3 Comments »
Why Twitter’s Keyword Targeting in Timelines is Only Half of the Equation
Last week, Twitter launched a new ad product called “Keyword Targeting in Timelines.” This new targeting method enables advertisers to reach users based on the keywords in their recent Tweets and the Tweets with which users recently engaged. Twitter’s Kevin Weil later said that the big advantage of this new targeting technique is timing.
Twitter’s new capability is a well needed platform move and is similar to Google’s ability to target in “real-time” whoever searches for “buy shoes.” One could argue that searches have clearly better intent than tweets. For example, “Justin Bieber’s new song is awesome!” (and getting served an ad for his album). Keyword targeting doesn’t provide any timing advantage on any other platform, without understanding the sentiment and context of the entire tweet.
Twitter is right, timing means nothing if you are unable to react to things that happen right now. The big opportunity for advertisers is how to engage users in moments that matter to them. Advertising is about being in the right place and in the right time, yet finding the right users who have explicitly expressed interest isn’t scalable, it requires an intelligent approach to finding new users who also may be interested but haven’t expressed... Read more
Tags: advertising, keywords, marketing, real time marketing, real-time, social advertising, social marketing, twitter
Posted in Ad Networks, Ad Serving, Media Planning & Buying, Opinions | No Comments »
How to Gain Real Value from Social Media Marketing
Social media will continue to be a prominent channel for marketing in 2013. It has forever changed the way brands interact with customers and prospects. While the majority of marketers are utilizing social media as a key communication channel, there are still a lot of question marks about the true value of marketing through social forums. Marketers need to change their mindset about how to use and derive value from these newer channels and eventually maximize the revenue potential of these captive audiences.
When marketers post a campaign to Facebook they may ask, how many likes will this drive or how many users will view this? Those aren’t necessarily the right questions as it relates to social media. These forums are different than other forms of communication and marketers need to start looking at the big picture. Social media is part of the consumers’ daily life, with over 1 billion Facebook users, reaching a vast amount of consumers through a forum they use nearly every day has a special value.
A recent survey found that 62 percent of marketers are leveraging social media profile data (e.g., profile ID, likes, and, interests). Yet, many marketers need to effectively leverage this profile data across... Read more
Tags: marketing, Neolane, personalization, social marketing, Social Media, social media technology, social networks, solomo
Posted in Social Media, Targeting | 2 Comments »
The Panel I’d Like to See: Shaking Up the Digital Media Conference
I don’t know about you, but the last three conferences I’ve attended have had eerily similar programming slates. I’m not naming names, but if I see another “Is Content Really King” or “RTB, DSP, CPE – Drowning in a Sea of Acronyms” panel, it’s going to make my eyes and ears bleed. In the interest of adding a little levity to our industry, I’ve put together a list of panels I’d love to see an adventurous programming director include in their next conference:
1 year? 6 months? 3 months? How low can you go?
Join us as a top HR Director, Recruiter, VP of Sales and Agency Group Director debate just how short a job stint can be before it affects your career in Digital Media.
The Dos and Don’ts of Entertaining
Take a walk on the wild side with some of the best-known sales professionals on the digital party circuit as they give their “rules of the game.” Sellers of both sexes give their tried and true mantras for thriving and surviving during a long night out entertaining. Do flirt, don’t sleep; Do sip, don’t gulp; talk shop only if “shop” means late night karaoke. This panel could get crazy! We certainly hope... Read more
Tags: advertising, agency sales, buyer experience, content marketing, content strategy, Digital Marketing, Facebook, google, online advertising, Sales, social marketing, Social Media, Video
Posted in Opinions | 1 Comment »
