Tony Zambito

APRIL 17, 2016

Recent surveys of marketing professionals by Rapt Media , Forrester , Seismic, SAP , IBM , and others all indicate that content personalization remains the biggest challenge for marketers this year and for the foreseeable future. The majority of content today is not hitting the mark with buyers and customers.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Research Personalization Marketing Budget 100

Tony Zambito

AUGUST 14, 2016

As the concept of buyer personas has crept into the conscious of both B2C and B2B Marketing, so has misguided representations of buyer personas become prevalent. With many touted frameworks and processes being representative of buyer personas in name only. This same urge is being applied to buyer personas.

Buyer Personas 102

Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles Profiling CMO 102

Tony Zambito

DECEMBER 8, 2015

We are seeing continued growth in the adoption of buyer personas as a means for understanding buyers and customers. At the same time, the growth is fraught with the perils of buyer personas being misunderstood, mislabeled, and serving as a cover for basic buyer profiling. There has been much content propagated on buyer personas.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Customer Surveys Ideal Customer Profiles Organic Leads 100

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 22, 2017

One means for the last sixteen years to understand customers and buyers have been the use of buyer persona development. It is time to rethink buyer persona development in this new era of digital disruption. When the concept of buyer personas was first launched in 2001, the world was a very different place. and early 2000’s.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Digital Transformation Enterprise Management Account Based Marketing 100

Tony Zambito

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

In the 15 years since originating the concept of buyer personas in 2001, there has been one issue that continues to plague fully understanding exactly where, how, and why buyer personas can be beneficial. I believe, in part, the issue is fertilized by efforts to capitalize on the emerging popularity of the term buyer persona.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles Segmentation Profiling 100

Tony Zambito

JUNE 5, 2016

Understanding How Customers Desire and Perceive Experience Through Buyer Persona Research. Buyer persona research can play a role. That is if organizations truly adopt the original intent and methods of buyer persona research. The same can be said for buyer persona approaches I have seen addressing content marketing.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Research B2B Correlation 100

Tony Zambito

JUNE 26, 2016

A recognition of the growing importance of digital content marketing to overall marketing strategies today. As the concept of content marketing has become more prominent in the B2B Marketing landscape, so have terms and compartmentalization. For example, some content marketing pundits believe you should separate out audience personas.

Buyer Personas 104

Buyer Personas Research B2B Fulfillment 104

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 3, 2016

In 2016, we will mark the fifteenth year since buyer personas were first introduced. The journey, however, continues towards professionals and organizations gaining a true understanding of what buyer persona development entails. by Scott Lewis.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Correlation Effectiveness Ideal Customer Profiles 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 1, 2015

A recent survey by B2B Marketing, in conjunction with the UK-based agency Tomorrow People, indicated only 38% of marketers considered their content to be “very customer-centric.” One of the key premises of user personas and buyer personas, since their origins, are they can foster a common view of customers within organizations.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles B2B Marketing Paid Search Agency 100

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 26, 2015

As mentioned in previous articles, CMOs in particular, will now have to succinctly discern between buyer profiling and buyer personas. (This discernment is needed for it is unfortunate that conventional buyer profiling and win/loss analysis is being repackaged, if you will, as buyer personas by agencies and individual consultants.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas B2B Paid Search Agency Ideal Customer Profiles 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 20, 2011

The chorus appears to be getting louder and louder on content marketing in bloggersphere, digital media, and traditional media.    In this case, should CMO’s be looking at content marketing or content strategy as the first order of business on the agenda? . 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Marketing & Strategy Buyer's Journey Content 100

Tony Zambito

DECEMBER 20, 2015

A recent survey conducted by Cintell*, entitled 2016 Benchmark Study On Understanding B2B Buyers , indicates that high performing organizations utilized qualitative research for their buyer personas. The study focused entirely on the use of buyer personas for understanding B2B buyers. This is a welcome shift. Communicating The Value.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Research Studies Demand Generation Agencies 100

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 10, 2022

Over the last twenty years, since founding the concept of buyer personas, I have worked with many leaders. What content do they read when evaluating our products?” Just as I saw twenty years ago, I continue to see win/loss analysis be misrepresented as buyer insights and what buyer personas are based on.

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Buyer Personas Sample Urgency Marketing Analysis 234

Tony Zambito

APRIL 12, 2011

  A key component for engaging the social buyer persona is that an organization today must offer avenues of engagements that buyers choose.    Social buyer personas today expect transparency.    Social buyer personas today expect transparency.    Related articles.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Word of Mouth WOM Curation 100

Tony Zambito

MAY 12, 2011

Without question, while B2B Marketing is focused on developing its new prominence in the early stages of the buying cycle via content strategy and content marketing, B2B Sales is caught flat-footed on how to adapt to changing buyer behaviors.  Image via Wikipedia.   What do these new buying cycles look like? 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas B2B Sales B2B Buying Cycle 100

Tony Zambito

AUGUST 22, 2011

During a series of articles entitled The Future of Buyer Personas is Social , I referenced several times that the social age will cause a rethinking of buyer persona research and development.     The design of buyer persona research becomes critical given this important premise. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Viral Marketing Research Planning 100

Tony Zambito

JULY 18, 2011

This is the third part of a series of reflective articles on the future of buyer personas.    In part 1 of this reflection on the future of buyer personas, I focused on some of the misconceptions about buyer personas and in part 2 , I offered perspectives on why changes were needed to be relevant to the social age. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Lead Ranking Ideal Customer Profiles Opt-out 100

Tony Zambito

MAY 21, 2021

A November 2020 Trust Radius research report on the B2B Buying Disconnect points to buyers increasing the amount of research they do, searching online more, seeking more review content, and looking for more sources. And yes, giving less attention to content that fails to connect. 4 – Rethink Your Personalization.

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Buyer Personas Intent Signal B2B Sales Interactive Marketing 197

Tony Zambito

APRIL 27, 2011

.  What is new is that story telling is beginning to gain acceptance as a planning tool for strategies focused on buyer experience interactions and understanding the social buyer persona.    An unhealthy focus on perceived wants in content strategy and content marketing can result in misguided efforts in content creation. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Storytelling Touchpoints Interactive Marketing 100

Tony Zambito

MAY 11, 2011

  Here is where buyer persona development can be of help.    In a previous article, Buyer Personas Require Qualitative Research and Contextual Inquiry , I mentioned that buyer persona development is at its’ core a research methodology grounded in the practices of qualitative research and contextual inquiry. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Segmentation Buy Work Management 100

Tony Zambito

JULY 6, 2011

About a dozen years ago, I became involved with personas through fate by meeting Alan Cooper , at the time he just finished his landmark book The Inmates Are Running The Asylum , and becoming enamored with personas as a process to build more user friendly products.  What Buyer Personas Never Were and Should Not Be In The Future.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Peer-to-peer Ideal Customer Profiles Psychographics 100

Tony Zambito

MAY 4, 2011

Buyer Persona Development and the qualitative research methodology applied to creating buyer personas have proven to be an effective means for B2B organizations to reach a deeper understanding of their buyers.    Buyer persona development methodology is at its core a research methodology. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Research Ideal Customer Profiles Demand Generation Agencies 100

Tony Zambito

MAY 10, 2021

Producing different forms of content at the ready for buyers when they go seeking. Applying the same goal-directed thinking that is essential to understanding buyer personas. In a 5 vertical markets buyer persona engagement for HP, we found that 3 of 5 buying processes were completely different. While 2 were closely the same.

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Top of Funnel B2B Sales Buyer Personas Process 215

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 18, 2011

As many of you know from reading my articles before, I am a big advocate of buyer personas and exactly for the purpose Adam has stated.    Here, I will present a story related to increasing demand generation and how buyer personas can play a role.    Adam says it best on why: “This needs to come first. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Demand Generation Demand Generation 100

Tony Zambito

FEBRUARY 15, 2010

Over the past few years, I have struggled with the use of the word “profile” or “profiling” when it came to describing buyer personas.   My discomfort is arisen out of experience, what the terms fails to communicate about buyer personas, and how it is problematic in gaining adoption by senior leaders. Who do they support?

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles Profiling Lead Ranking 100

Tony Zambito

JULY 10, 2011

In part 1 of this reflection on the future of buyer personas, I focused on how it is important to leave some of the major misconceptions about buyer personas behind in order to peer into the future.    The areas mentioned are also having a transformational affect on the practice of buyer persona research and creation. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Top of Funnel Peer-to-peer Marketing Funnels 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 17, 2011

One of the major outcomes of the recent advances in the social age is the resurgence of contextually-based persona development and its’ role in helping to inform as well as shape strategy.  The first definition points to reaching an understanding of the behavioral framework that surrounds the new social buyer persona. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Buying Cycle Buyer's Journey Demand Generation Agencies 100

Tony Zambito

MAY 26, 2021

Especially as an idea to examine in buyer persona development. With permission from the organization whom I am helping with buyer research and buyer personas, let me share a statement from a Senior Director level individual: “I am not really ready to buy anything right now. 2 – Expand The Scope Of Content And Conversations.

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Buy Buyer Personas B2B Sales Gartner 196

Tony Zambito

APRIL 28, 2021

Marketing is producing new forms of digital content at 5 to 10 times the volume they did pre-pandemic. Since the pandemic began in March of 2020, we have seen the scales tipped heavily towards how to re-orient sales towards virtual selling and to create more interactive content. And to affect The Buyer Mindset.

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Buyer Personas Planning Interactive Marketing Network Marketing 208

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 12, 2020

Many customer experience efforts by B2B organizations have content marketing as a cornerstone for such initiatives. With online research as the most important element of B2B purchase decisions, many B2B organizations are putting emphasis on developing content-driven customer experiences.

Buyer Personas 310

Buyer Personas B2B Amazon Fulfillment 310

Tony Zambito

AUGUST 2, 2011

This is the fourth part of a series of reflective articles on the future of buyer personas.    In part 1 through part 3 I focused primarily on misconceptions, what needed to change, and why changes must take place in buyer persona development in the social age.  The Science of Buyer Persona Research.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Viral Marketing Ideal Customer Profiles B2B Sales 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 10, 2011

  Here is a key issue facing organizations today: each time a new social technology is introduced, it ultimately alters the buying behaviors of the new social buyer persona.  This issue and the surrounding complexities call into question, for organizations today, their readiness for adapting to the new social buyer persona. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Organization Buying Cycle Buyer's Journey 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 16, 2010

Announced today was Goal Centric’s official introduction of the Buyer Persona Strategy Playbooks series. Below it is printed for your convenience: Buyer Persona Strategy Playbooks Introduced by Goal Centric. Goal Centric introduces revolutionary strategy, marketing, and sales playbooks based on buyer insights and buyer personas.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Marketing & Strategy Enterprise Management Buying Cycle 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 12, 2017

B2B companies are struggling to make gaining buyer insights more than the gathering of analytics, buyer intelligence, sales intelligence, and buyer personas couched in factual data. Let us examine 5 signs indicating to senior executives it is time to reboot: Your Buyer Personas Are Outdated.

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Buyer Personas B2B Digital Transformation B2B Sales 251

Tony Zambito

SEPTEMBER 19, 2016

The digital transformation is causing many CMOs today to reevaluate exactly what content marketing may mean to their overall marketing strategy. Or of late – content marketing campaign effectiveness. The hype surrounding content marketing is starting to be a case of diminishing returns. Marketing Campaigns: A Thing Of The Past.

Buyer Personas 0

Buyer Personas Planning Paid Search Agency Content 0

Tony Zambito

APRIL 28, 2010

The buyer persona development process has an important rule related to the compass: Rule 9: The Purpose of the Buyer Persona Development Process is to Inform on Goal Centered Customer Strategies.   The buyer persona development process is meant to be informing and exploratory. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Rules Wikipedia Social Media 100

Tony Zambito

FEBRUARY 28, 2016

When it comes to the state of B2B content marketing and engagement, this proverb is on the mark. According to a recent study by Track Maven , one among a few on this topic, shows both B2B and B2C marketers have increased their publishing of content in 2015 by as much as 35 to 40%. I am not sure it is a paradox. A Main Culprit.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas B2B Content B2B Sales 100