Tony Zambito

DECEMBER 23, 2020

Hyper personalization to Account-Based Marketing will discover COVID-19 has accelerated the bad versus the good of many of the approaches implemented. Marketing Will Face Buyer Backlash. For most of 2021, marketing will see that many strategies and tactics coming out of the last decade will undergo reassessment.

Marketing AI 235

Marketing AI Account Based Marketing Fulfillment Interactive Marketing 235

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 7, 2018

As segments become more diverse and more personalized, the challenge to be relevant grows. As the importance of personalization grows, understanding diverse differences become deep insights must-have. The way people think, feel, and behave are hard to discern from data or AI alone. Tribal Understanding Required.

Marketing AI 187

Marketing AI Peer-to-peer Buyer Personas Segmentation 187

Tony Zambito

MAY 19, 2021

Experiences that help bring personalization to life. It will mean that you will need to build out a hybrid between digital and human interaction. Interactions that create a rewarding overall digital buying experience for the buyer. Buyers are waiting for it.

Differentiation 244

Differentiation Top of Funnel Buy Buyer Personas 244

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 20, 2022

When you are faced with a major decision, be it personal or business in nature, you want all the information you can get. As we enter a pronounced era of uncertainty , decisions related to investments, strategies, markets, and the likes have intensified. Many of you know the feeling. You are looking to make an informed decision.

Buyer Personas 147

Buyer Personas Press Advertising Mediums Customer Surveys 147

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 21, 2020

An obvious example is how the event and conference industries were confronted early on with the sudden challenge of no in-person events. What new challenges do your buyers face? How do they hinder progress? Proliferating now is digital virtual events. What are the not-so-obvious challenges? Psychology. How has your buyer’s thinking changed?

Buyer Personas 255

Buyer Personas B2B Sales Research eCommerce 255

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 26, 2020

With air travel, conferences, and in-person meetings curtailed, innovation in this area due to COVID-19 will increase. . The coronavirus pandemic is now accelerating such trends to enable consumers and B2B buyers to configure their own solutions. In complex B2B sales and purchasing, this is the new frontier in many ways.

Marketing & Strategy 245

Marketing & Strategy Buyer Personas B2B Sales Interactive Marketing 245

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 18, 2015

Whereby sales organizations, in particular, went through training on how to adapt to the personalities of individuals in the buying process. Buyer Profiling Is Limited In Ability To Support Personalization. Personalization is an extension of database marketing, whereby attempts are made to differentiate through personalized marketing.

Ideal Customer Profiles 100

Ideal Customer Profiles Profiling Buyer Personas Marketing Management 100

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 4, 2015

Goals have much do with personal desired end states and involve a myriad of specific types of goals and sub-goals. Goal-Directed Marketing™ Connects On A Personal Level. To simplify a bit here, the confusion has plenty to do with confusing pain points, tasks, responsibilities, and activities with that of goals. They are not the same.

Direct Marketing 100

Direct Marketing Buyer Personas Allocation Ideal Customer Profiles 100

Tony Zambito

MAY 5, 2011

.  Enhancing not only technology enabled engagements that can be found through such platforms as Twitter and Linked-In as well as company or industry specific platforms, but radically changing the notion of what personal engagements actually means.      Related articles.

Buy 100

Buy Buyer Personas B2B Lock-In 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 19, 2010

  Gaining a solid grasps on their motivations, drivers, personalities, people they interact with, and the likes has led to many programs offering clues on how to reach, sell, and close business with buyers.  Image by Peter Fuchs via Flickr.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Rules Tagging Training 100

Tony Zambito

AUGUST 16, 2010

This has been a summer of many defining moments on a personal level. In my return from a brief hiatus this summer to savor the recent defining moments in my personal life, I began to think of how this is an apt description of what has taken place this year in terms of social media and digital marketing. Cover via Amazon.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Allocation Marketing & Strategy Social Media 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 27, 2011

.    Scenarios that contain robust narratives can be very effective in describing as well as imagining the buyer’s interaction with a company’s touchpoints – be they in-person, telephonically, or socially.      All good stories have good context as well as good narratives. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Storytelling Touchpoints Interactive Marketing 100

Tony Zambito

JULY 17, 2016

However, what is missing are the intent and the goals driving a person or a team to embark on such a journey. For example, we see plenty of hyperbole around the buyer’s journey today. Oftentimes, these exercises lay out the tasks and activities buyers may take along a journey.

Intent 100

Intent Buyer Personas CMO Work Management 100

Tony Zambito

DECEMBER 19, 2010

  My recent post entitled Seven Buyer and Sales Trends to Watch in 2011 is one of those instances for me personally.    By the time they get to sales folks, whether it is in person or on the phone, they already are armed with enough information to help make a decision.    And thank you Mr. . 

Top of Funnel 100

Top of Funnel Trends Conversion Buyer Personas 100

Tony Zambito

FEBRUARY 5, 2017

Even efforts in personalization are victim to this mentality. Whereby personalization becomes about refining the ability to “put content in front” of people. What should then organizations be guided by when it comes to the dilemma of how to use content effectively?

Digital Transformation 50

Digital Transformation Buyer Personas Broadcasting Leads 50

Tony Zambito

JUNE 5, 2016

Experience, by nature, is highly personal and subjective. If we stay consistent with the 80/20 correlation noted above, it is a good bet that 80% of such efforts are focused on internal processes rather than what is actually happening in the minds of customers. . Thus, no two people may describe their experiences in exactly the same way.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Research B2B Correlation 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

.  In the world of books we see the title of Shift as perhaps the new trendy title for business as well as personal self-help oriented books.    Both offer illuminating perspectives that will cause us to think differently.

Design 100

Design Buyer Personas B2B Thought Leadership Lead Ranking 100

Tony Zambito

MAY 8, 2011

  Basically, if I could sum up the conversations, they believed that the content was good and can help buyers become interested however they saw that there was no means for them to personally use this content as well as to personally produce content specific for their engagements with buyers.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Content Marketing Content Buying Cycle 100

Tony Zambito

AUGUST 14, 2016

Buyer personas were originated to offer qualitative (and personalized) understanding of buyer goals, their goal-directed behaviors, their thinking, emotions, and other qualitative drivers. Looking to quantify buyer personas in as many slice and dice ways as possible. As a means to help inform overall customer strategy.

Buyer Personas 102

Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles Profiling CMO 102

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 31, 2016

In fact, it is getting harder and harder to find a slice of time where content is not invading precious personal or business space. The explosion of content in the digital world is an unprecedented phenomenon just a few could have predicted twenty-five years ago. Content is ubiquitous in all phases of life and in business.

Ideal Customer Profiles 100

Ideal Customer Profiles Leads Lead Marketing Qualified Leads 100

Tony Zambito

MAY 12, 2011

Design for Interaction : designing buyer personas should include a healthy focus on interaction that involves personal engagement - whether it is by a social technology medium, by phone, or in person.    This can be done on two levels. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas B2B Sales B2B Buying Cycle 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 2, 2016

Web-based and mobile-based applications, further integrated into both personal and business applications on smartphone and tablet devices, caused market disruption. For instance, GPS navigation initially became widespread in the consumer auto market, as well as, in the business markets of logistic and transportation.

Organization 100

Organization Enterprise Management Marketing Strategy Marketing & Strategy 100

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 23, 2016

Affecting how individuals make choices and decisions with organizations, as well as, personal consumer choices. Whereby the notions of clearly defining decision-makers, approvers, influencers, and users have become an extremely difficult proposition as these notions have converged.

Enterprise Management 100

Enterprise Management Marketing Strategy Marketing & Strategy Work Management 100

Tony Zambito

DECEMBER 13, 2015

Although other suppliers may have met criteria in a superior fashion, the influence of a bias towards defending decisions and minimizing personal risks were of the larger concern. Whereby IT leaders chose IBM over any other providers because it was the safe choice, which could be defended.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Lead Ranking B2B Sales Research 100

Tony Zambito

JULY 24, 2011

  This includes blurring the lines between personal and business.   With many never having met their peer in person or arranging to meet peers at conference.  .  The implications are that the Social Buyer – from a B2B prism – is active on the likes of Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook daily. 

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Buyer Personas Allocation Social Networks 100

Tony Zambito

OCTOBER 26, 2015

Content, which suggests finding out basic demographics, pain points, personalities, and buying criteria. A case in point is we see a glut of content on what to find out about buyers, especially related to buyer profiling “repackaged” as buyer personas.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas B2B Paid Search Agency Ideal Customer Profiles 100

Tony Zambito

NOVEMBER 1, 2015

Leverage as a decision-making practice: Some of the bigger success stories I have personally witnessed are those where the B2B CMO became adept at making their buyer personas an integral part of C-Suite interactions, meetings, and planning. They should be integrated into a shared lifecycle approach to customers.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles B2B Marketing Paid Search Agency 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 5, 2010

  There is enormous pressure at the end of the day; both on a business and personal level. .   During an engagement experience with FedEx, we were able to observe and talk about this phenomenon that exists in this industry with a good number of buyers.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Content Marketing Wikipedia Marketing & Strategy 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 12, 2011

Word-of-Mouth : Most often we think of WOM being one person just deciding to talk to another.  .  Collaboration : Opening avenues of engagements to collaborate on innovation and new product development is another step B2B companies can take today to allow buyers to opt-in on engaging.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Word of Mouth WOM Curation 100

Tony Zambito

APRIL 16, 2012

For example, many a frustrated sales rep will personally walk a buyer through systems and processes to close a deal – out of fear that the company’s own systems and processes will cause a deal to go awry. Without it, the connection between them will not be evident.

Sales Management 100

Sales Management Top of Funnel Planning Demand Generation 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 28, 2011

What I found most interesting is that a whopping 83% trusted independent sources with which they had a personal relationship over advertising or content.  .  Consumers surveyed further showed that they put more trust into what their friends and colleagues shared than in advertisements or content.

Studies 100

Studies Spending Social Media Amazon 100

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 22, 2017

On a personal note, I have taken a reflective two month period recently. The following is a video where Amy Bernstein, Editor of Harvard Business Reviews, explains how leaders will need to be more flexible and understand the importance of context in a world of digital transformation. (On

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Digital Transformation Enterprise Management Account Based Marketing 100

Tony Zambito

MAY 16, 2010

  There are choices we have to make that can be especially personal as well as heart breaking.  Image by Getty Images via Daylife. When we are faced with choices, sometimes they can be gut wrenching.    History has recorded good choices as well as bad choices throughout time. 

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Demand Generation Agencies Social Media Correlation 100

Tony Zambito

JANUARY 29, 2017

As the digital platform economy expands, we are seeing customers, on a personal and business level, adapt to working within digital platform environments. Based on this observation of how teams worked and interacted, the company had insight into which “pre-packaged” intelligence solutions to prioritize for new market entry.

Digital Transformation 100

Digital Transformation Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles B2B Thought Leadership 100

Tony Zambito

SEPTEMBER 6, 2016

Obviously, you would not identify a segment group of personal fitness trainers to target. For example, accounting software designed for independent accountants who consult can include segments of independent accountants and accounting firms. From a classification standpoint, classifications can be related to: Industries. Professions.

Buyer Personas 100

Buyer Personas Ideal Customer Profiles Segmentation Profiling 100

Tony Zambito

MAY 18, 2011

  Drastically affecting how organizational as well as personal goals are established and fulfilled. .  In the social age, we are beginning to see the rise of social goals related to interacting and networking.    Obviously, content marketing comes to mind here. 

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Buyer Personas B2B Thought Leadership Lead Ranking 100

Tony Zambito

MARCH 30, 2011

  What would we learn if we treated the idea of giving the same amount of time and examination that we may give to personal and life affecting soul searching?    Should we really be taking shortcuts or continue to work from decades old assumptions? 

Peer-to-peer 100

Peer-to-peer Buyer Personas Demand Generation Agencies Demand Generation 100