Monthly Archives: July 2013

Follow the Road to Content Marketing Effectiveness with Buyer Persona Story Mapping

(This is part three of a three part series on the use of Buyer Persona Stories™, Buyer Persona Scenarios™, and Buyer Persona Story Mapping™ to drive effective content marketing strategy.) Getting to see the big picture about customers and buyers today is not easy. It can be like sitting in an old stadium trying to peak around a su_column to see the field. When you cannot see the whole field, you are missing the action. With buying behavior changing rapidly each quarter, not having the big picture on the actions of buyers can set back an organizations significantly. In part…

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How To Boost Content Marketing Effectiveness with Buyer Persona Scenarios

(This is part two of a three part series on the use of Buyer Persona Stories™, Buyer Persona Scenarios™, and Buyer Persona Story Mapping™ to drive effective content marketing strategy.) Understanding what activities buyers perform as they attempt to solve complex problems has been a challenge in the digital age. The activities of buyers are no longer transparent and it is harder to figure out what activities directly relate to you and their purchase decision. Yet, in order to be on the same level with buyers, this is exactly what you need to know. In this three part series, we…

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Accelerate Content Marketing Effectiveness With The Power of Buyer Persona Stories

(This is part one of a three part series on the use of Buyer Persona Stories™, Buyer Persona Scenarios™, and Buyer Persona Story Mapping™ to drive effective content marketing strategy.) One good trait of a storyteller is they also know about the story of the person or people they are telling a story to. Knowing how to tell the story in a way that draws them in. Creating an experience, which can suspend time and make a person believe they are in the story. This is the goal of content marketing – to tell good stories compelling a buyer to act.…

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How Can We Make Sure Our Buyer Persona Initiative is a Success? (5 Helpful Elements)

When it comes specifically to buyer personas, there have been plenty of questions about how to pull off a successful initiative. This is one question I typically have been asked when engaged in conversations helping people with questions. It can be a painful question for those who have made attempts in the past only to find they produced little results. And, left plenty of angst and frustration along the way amongst various departments. This concerns me. It makes it easy to discount buyer personas as a useful tool. Easy is the operative word. They have been presented as easy to…

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Does Your Organization Have What It Takes to Catch Up to Evolving Buyers?

Today’s buyers are afforded sources of information, systems, and tools, which help them to make the right purchase decisions. Depending on the complexity of challenges faced, buyers may be seeking simple answers or complex custom solutions. For B2B buyers, the nature of buying itself has changed. This puts pressure on B2B marketers and sellers to evolve and get in lock step with buyers. Many are behind the pace of buyers. Statistics Losing Meaning Over the past year or two, we have had many statistics proclaimed about the buyer’s journey. Stating buyers are from 50% to as much as 90% through…

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Are Your Go-To-Market Strategies Creating Negative Buyer Perceptions?

One of the most elusive buyer insights to attain is getting to know what your buyers think. It can be so hard; businesses can tend to sweep it under the rug for next year’s list of initiatives. This can be a foolhardy approach. Without knowing it, your own marketing and sales tactics can affect how buyers think – in a negative way. Static versus Dynamic For marketing and sales executives, the grind of strategy development, tactical planning, and budget planning can be grueling. Once completed, within the fiscal calendar used, it is a sigh of relief. It can also cause…

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Is Content Marketing Ineffectiveness Changing Buying Behavior?

The pendulum has been around since 1602 when Galileo invented it. It was the world’s most accurate timekeeping device right up until around the 1930’s. The concept is one of our natural laws of the world. We may be experiencing the effects of the pendulum in sales and marketing. Despite the pronouncements of buyers not engaging sales until 50-70% into the buying cycle, this generalized view is and should be questioned. Paired with other studies indicating buyer dissatisfaction with content and information, something new may be afoot. At this stage, it should be treated as an early stage buyer insight…

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4 Hurdles To Being Customer-Centric (4 Steps to Jump Over Them)

In commoditized markets, B2B organizations are under constant threat of watching their customer base evaporate into thin air. Getting caught flat-footed as markets migrate to competitors offering newer products and services. Suffering the consequences of not transitioning from a product-centric company to a customer-centric company. Is Customer-Centric Enough? B2B organizations continue to struggle in the shift from product-centricity to customer-centricity. This is despite taking extraordinary steps to do so. Heralding new programs designed to focus the company on their customers. Implementing customer experience initiatives. Beefing up customer service capabilities. Creating new services to improve delivery and implementation. Yet, today such…

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3 Pillars For Elevating Account-Based Marketing (Using The Persona-Based ABM Strategy)

In B2B companies, new account acquisition is an important strategy. Perhaps as important, if not more, is growing the share of business from accounts. This is where the power of marketing and sales coordination can make an impact. Shaping Account-Based Marketing, the concept of marketing to one entity, into a new powerful force. Not the Domain of One One of the most important concepts to solidify in Account-Based Marketing is this: to succeed takes alignment between marketing and sales. In selling, strategic account management (SAM), key account management (KAM), national account management (NAM), target account management (TAM), and global account…

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Use Persona-Based Buying Scenarios To Improve Buyer Predictability

One of the must have competencies in the future of B2B is buyer predictability. Without it, there will be an inability to anticipate how to help buyers and customers. Creating the undesirable position of being old news. Scenario Planning Scenario planning, as a strategic tool, has been around for a while. It is used in several contexts. You will see its use in military, economic, and business environments. The use of scenarios in buyer persona and insight development is an important component. During the past dozens years, best-in-class organizations, from Fortune 500 to mid-size companies, have made use of persona-based…

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