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
Home › iMedia Connection Blog › Tony Zambito
Tagged 'Tony Zambito' 
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 »
7 Big Questions for B2B Marketers in 2013
The more change occurring the more questions arise. This year is no exception. B2B Marketers are experiencing ongoing as well as new challenges as we start to hit stride in 2013. What are the big future questions for B2B Marketers? Let's look at a few:
How do we generate more leads and keep them?
Survey after survey indicate B2B marketers have this issue top of mind. Creating demand and filling up a pipeline is loaded with pressure packed environments. In my qualitative buyer research work, I see shifts in behavior on the part of buyers. There are unique sets of goals and behaviors emerging in the area of nurturing. Calling into question how leads should be defined and segmented. Lead research and unique lead persona development will emerge to help B2B marketers address this most important question.
How do we use marketing automation effectively?
Marketing automation has crawled out of infancy stage and is being more widely adopted. Many organizations have been in the "let's just get started" phase. Experiencing the pain of implementation. The next level question is how to make marketing automation more effective to get better results.
How do we operationalize content marketing?
Content marketing has certainly arisen as one of the core capabilities B2B marketing... Read more
Tags: buyer experience, buyer persona, buyer personas, content marketing, demand generation, Digital Marketing, lead generation, lead nurturing, marketing, marketing automation, social media marketing, Tony Zambito
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Emerging Platforms, Opinions | No Comments »
4 New Values Affecting How Buyers Perceive You
Perception (Photo credit: Genna G)
A key component of understanding buying decisions is gaining a reality check on how buyers perceive you and whether you match to their criteria. How well organizations are perceived will serve as one of the primary influences shaping buying behaviors and purchase decisions.
Buyer research can reveal many aspects of what comprises buyer perception. Buyer experience is now becoming one of the most important factors contributing to and influencing perceptions. The new digital age is introducing new types of criterion buyers place a value on, which can directly affect their perceptions:
Buyer Experience: previous as well as current experiences can have an enormous impact on how buyers perceive you. Do you think waiting an extra day to return a call was no big deal? Think again.
Engagement: evidence is building on engagement being a factor in shaping buyer perceptions when making purchase decisions. What the "engagement experience" tells buyers can make a big difference. This differs from buyer experience in this way: when you ask customers and prospects to engage - meaning interact - it better not be painful.
Knowledge: the sharing of knowledge and insight is fast emerging as a one area shaping how buyers perceive companies. Content marketers need... Read more
Tags: buyer experience, buyer persona, buyer personas, content marketing, content strategy, marketing, Social Media, Tony Zambito
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Email, Emerging Platforms, Media Planning & Buying, Opinions | 1 Comment »
When Did You Last Map the Buying Process of Your Customers?
Are the buying process maps of how your customers buy out of date? If so, this can impact the success of how and where you allocate resources:
How do we generate more leads?
How do we acquire more customers?
How do we message to our customers?
How do we improve our brand?
A tool to focus your limited resources in the highest impact area(s) is to map the customer’s buying process to identify gaps.
Are You Behind the Curve of Buyer Evolution?
Recent surveys, such as the one conducted by CEB’s Sales Executive Council in 2011, show that more than 50-60% of the buying process is being conducted without the help of a sales representative. It’s a fact that buyers have radically changed their buying behavior. This must be tied to execution changes in both marketing and sales. The rise of demand generation, inbound marketing, and content marketing have been marketing responses to connect with a new informed buyer. You can learn more about what research has revealed on rapidly changing buying behaviors and how your peers are allocating resources here.
Have We Considered These Recent Developments?
Is the buying process changing at a more rapid pace than the needed adaptations in marketing?
Who makes... Read more
Tags: buyer insight, buyer journey, buyer persona, buyer persona development, buyer personas, buyer research, campaigns, content marketing, Lead, marketing, marketing plan, sales and marketing alignment, sales enablement, Tony Zambito
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Email, Emerging Platforms, Media Planning & Buying, Opinions, Social Media, Targeting | No Comments »
Grow SMB Revenues With Buyer-Based Marketing
This is part 3 of a series on the challenge of targeting SMB markets and how the use of buyer-based modeling and buyer-based marketing help organizations to grow their SMB customer base.
The sheer size of the SMB makes for a daunting task for any organization intent on marketing to the SMB segment. When you consider some Fortune 1000 or Global 2000 organizations can have in the 10’s or 100’s of thousands of companies in their customer bases, the expression of zeroing in on your target buyer can sound near impossible. It is a dilemma however that cannot be ignored. The U.S. Small business Administration estimates that the SMB segment accounts for better than 98% of all businesses in the United States.
In the previous article in this series, How To Get To Know The New SMB Buyer, I touched upon the means to get to know the SMB buyer. Marketing to the SMB segment and buyers should first start with visiting the segmentation issue a little deeper. There have been many means tried for SMB segmentation whether it is by size, type, vertical, products, solutions, and etc. To some degree, they have helped to... Read more
Tags: buyer behavior, buyer experience, buyer insight, buyer journey, buyer persona, buyer persona development, buyer persona marketing, buyer personas, buyer strategy, buyergraphics, buyerology, content, content marketing, Digital Marketing, small business, small business marketing, Strategy, Targeting, Tony Zambito
Posted in Creative Best Practices, Email, Emerging Platforms, Opinions, Search, Social Media, Targeting | No Comments »
