Monthly Archives: October 2015

The Emerging Importance Of B2B Ethnography To Buyer Personas

Better, deeper, insightful, and well-rounded understanding of customers and buyers is on the top of the list for many CEOs and CMOs today. In recent studies by IBM and other research studies on CEO sentiments, customer insight and understanding are identified as a top focus for CEOs. A majority of surveys also find a growing concern for both establishing and retaining customer loyalty in today’s digital marketplaces. There are two additional concerns CEOs are finding of increasing importance to the growth, as well as, survival in competitive environs. These two are: CEOs and CMOs have a growing concern about the relevancy…

Article by

Beyond Buyer Profiling To Buyer Personification

Segmentation has been a staple of business marketing and sales for several decades. The concept of breaking down a potential market or industry into smaller target segments is a standard technique taught in business schools and used by many organizations. Beginning in the 1980’s and 1990’s, we began to see a shift to individualism. The understanding of not only the segments and organizations that buys but also the individual that buys. We saw the influence of the Meyers-Briggs Testing philosophy extended into the business world. Whereby sales organizations, in particular, went through training on how to adapt to the personalities of…

Article by

The Telltale 8% Drop In Content Marketing Effectiveness

When the Dow tumbled in 2008, the largest single-day drop in the history of the Dow occurred on September 29, 2008. The index fell by nearly 778 points or almost 7%. In October of that same year, the Dow tumbled yet another 733 points, or by 8%. It goes to show you that sometimes, numbers being relative, an 8% drop can be significant and historic. The annual Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs B2B Content Marketing Benchmark Study 2016 is quite startling. Perhaps not as drastic as the Dow falling by 8%, but to see the percentage of marketers who believe their…

Article by

Goal-Directed Marketing: How Marketers Can Help Buyers Achieve Their Goals

Many CMOs today are faced with a dilemma. As digital interactions and media become more intertwined into everyday life, marketers need to respond. Respond with content and media that fits into the new world of digital commerce. Yet, as CMOs invest and allocate more to content and digital media, the returns are not occurring as hoped. Various studies have shown buyers continue to find as much as 60-to-75% of content to be non-relevant. In one study, SiriusDecisions found 60-to-70% of B2B content produced goes unused. Basically, results like these indicate content and digital media is having a problem with trust.…

Article by