Audience Development | Tony Zambito Founder of Buyer Personas and Buyer Insights Research

Audience Development

Why Marketing Leaders Should Embrace Story Listening Before Story Telling

“What I’ve seen is a leader doesn’t start with storytelling, they start with story listening.” –John Maeda, Design Partner, KPCB During the past two years, B2C as well as B2B marketing leaders have heard much about the concept of storytelling in marketing. With the number one challenge facing marketers today being one of connecting with customers and buyers, storytelling can seem like one sure bet. Recent headlines in the blogosphere seem to all suggest and promise businesses can accelerate their revenue growth through storytelling. Not so fast. I believe organizations are prone to make the mistake of a rush to…

Article by

How Hologic, A B2B Company, Connects Authentically Through The Human Story Of Breast Cancer Awareness

All across the world, October is recognized as Breast Cancer Awareness month. While we celebrate breast cancer survivors during this month, it is also a reminder for us to pray for the recovery of those suffering from metastatic breast cancer (Stage IV and greater). The hardship women endure from metastatic breast cancer is difficult both for them and their loved ones. During this month, Breast Cancer Awareness is also an encouraging call for women across the world to engage in preventive health practices. The sobering reality today is a person will know of someone with or is personally touched by…

Article by

4 Ways To Differentiate With B2B Audience Messaging Segmentation

If you put yourself in the shoes of a customer as a listener instead of the messenger, you might find a noise you do not like. Perhaps it is a loud constant humming sound. Five competing companies sounding like a meditative chant. Yet there is no escape as a listener. In the shoes of a customer, you move down the hall, only to find the same hum no matter who is the audience. Using an expression from years past, the only choice left for customers is to – tune out. Limitations of Quant In my recent conversations helping marketing and…

Article by

CMO 2014: Brand Experience Will Matter First Before Content Marketing

For many Chief Marketing Officers and marketing leaders, especially in B2B, there is a seismic shift taking place in how marketing is approached and done. A staple in yearly strategic planning is the product or service as the central focus of marketing and sales plans year after year. Product marketing is just as the name implies – all about marketing the product. If this is the central premise of your marketing plan for 2014, time to go back to the drawing board before it is too late. New Differentiation Decade after decade, marketing and sales focused on touting the superiority…

Article by

5 Steps To Goal-Directed Content Marketing

Are the goals you think of, consciously and non-consciously, the same as they were five years ago? Ten years ago? The chances are, they have changed. For some, changes may be subtle while for others goals have changed substantially. Significant shifts in buyer behavior as a result of evolving digital technology are causing both buyers and sellers to revaluate their goals. Some goals are explicit and conscious. Others are personal in nature and live in the non-conscious. One thing we can count on is buyer goals are changing. Another thing we can count on is if information from sellers is…

Article by

Will B2B User Marketing Be The Next Big Thing?

The wave of digital technology and transformation continues to spread. Changing buying behavior in ways unimagined. Interactions between companies and their customers have changed forever. Buyers are empowered. And, now users are empowered with a powerful new voice of influence in purchase decisions. The Rise Of The User Digital technology is impacting how companies organize and operate. This includes the organizations where your customers live. Organizational behavior and structures are transforming. One result is the rise of the user. Users today are more empowered and increasingly an integral part of purchase decisions. I first took noticed when I heard this…

Article by

Improve Effectiveness: A Content Strategy Model Aligned to Buyer Personas and the Persona Buying Cycle

Do you know what your buyers think about? How they explore options? What conversations are important for them to have with sales? What type of information needs they have? For both marketing and sales, getting answers to these questions is becoming critical just to get in the game. While these types of questions have existed throughout the last several decades, they take on new dimensions in the digital age. To answer them requires new perspectives and new skills. Today’s buyers are also changing their own means of getting answers to their questions. Guiding Principles For Chief Marketing Officers, an important charter…

Article by

Latest Report: Why B2B Content Marketing is Failing B2B Buyers

The report is staggering. After spending millions of dollars on content marketing, B2B marketing appears to have taken a few steps backward. The report I refer to is the 11-page report, produced by the CMO Council and Netline, entitled: Better Lead Yield in the Content Marketing Field. While this report focused on new content ROI, it proves to be revealing in several ways. As I read it, this report indicates a dismal failure for B2B Marketing thus far. My basis for this assessment is by looking at the report from the buyer’s viewpoint. Not the seller’s viewpoint. Therein lies the core…

Article by

Buyer Foresight: Article Roundup Vol. 1

Something new. Periodically, I will highlight a compilation of linked articles I have written to help people. The purpose is to reflect on what can truly provide new thinking for use in today’s complex business world. My hope is such reflection will help people to gain their own foresight into future possibilities. Let’s get started: The Art of Buying With this article, the purpose is to bring attention to the question of why people buy. Sometimes it takes art versus science to answer this question. 5 Buying Behaviors of the Persona Buying Cycle Looking back, this thinking continues to evolve…

Article by

Map Content to the 5 Phases of the B2B Buyer Persona Buying Cycle

B2B business strategies were much simpler back in the day. In the pre-Internet and pre-digital age, the target of one customer or buyer was an accepted viewpoint. We are no longer back in those days. We are in the new digital age. This new age consists of more complexity, collaboration, co-creation, and new emerging buying behaviors. Recently, I introduced the concept of the Persona Buying Cycle™. It represents a view of understanding new buying behaviors via the B2B buying cycle. Designed to help us address not only new behaviors – but address new complexities. The Why Last year, I suggested…

Article by