Lead Nurturing

Aug 2013

Lead Optimization Study: The Right Prospect, The Right Message, At The Right Time

Generating leads is a big deal. Acquiring new accounts and customers an even bigger deal. Getting both of these right is a very good deal. Getting them wrong – well – can be a very bad deal. Recently, I reviewed the interesting findings from the CSO Insights Lead Optimization Study. The study’s primary focus was to see how marketing is attempting to generate more demand and how well it supports the efforts of sales to generate revenue. Over 600 firms participated in a web-based survey. If I were to pick one word to sum it up, I would pick: struggle. The…

Article by Tony Zambito

Jun 2013

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 Tony Zambito

Jun 2013

How Buyers Decide When They Don’t Care About Your Competitive Advantage

In today’s emerging digital age, understanding buying behaviors is becoming job one for many B2B organizations. Faced with relentless new demands from customers and buyers, B2B leaders must map out a course of transformation. This transformation involves being relevant in today’s complex marketplaces by an equally relentless focus on customers and buyers. End of Sustainable Competitive Advantages One of the byproducts of the emerging new digital age is the equalizing of competition. One of our brightest thinkers of today is Columbia Business School professor Rita Gunther McGrath. In her just-released book, The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your…

Article by Tony Zambito

May 2013

10 Ways to Know Your B2B Buyers Deeply Using the Buyer Persona Canvas

Getting in alignment with buyers today is no easy feat. Every time there is a quarterly review, a pipeline review, and just any kind of review – there is the lingering wish to know more about your buyers. Insight into buyers is harder to come by. The business world has been flipped upside down when it comes to the buyer-seller relationship. I believe it is a good thing. It is good for business, good for sellers, and good for buyers. What we all are striving for is the common good of getting to know each other more deeply. In my…

Article by Tony Zambito

May 2013

4 Reasons Why Content Marketing Should Care About Audience Development

Over the past year, questions about content marketing effectiveness are beginning to surface. The Content Marketing Institute as well as a survey sponsored by eConsultancy, indicated belief in effectiveness was under 40%. Most recently, SiriusDecisions made this statement: “Fully 60 to 70 percent of content churned out by b-to-b marketing departments today sits unused. This stark statistic underscores the urgent need for a content revolution in b-to-b organizations.” There is consistency on both the customer/buyer as well as the seller side regarding this issue. In my qualitative research work in the past year, this view was evident. Digging into the…

Article by Tony Zambito

May 2013

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 on evolving 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…

Article by Tony Zambito

May 2013

One Way to Know the Ideal Buying Scenarios for Lead Nurturing

Depending on which reports you may read (Marketing Sherpa, Forrester, and etc.) approximately 60% or more of B2B businesses do not have a formalized lead nurturing program. Yet, these same reports benchmarking such effort tell us this: companies who perform lead nurturing enjoy a better than 25% higher return on their efforts than those who do not. Which begs the question: why are companies slow to adopt to lead nurturing? Reasons I suspect one reason may be the pressure for instant results. Which makes you think: how much potential revenue is being left on the roadside? If organizations evaluated what…

Article by Tony Zambito