The problem with personas is that people don't understand what to do with them, so they create them based on their interpretation of getting to know someone and what you might learn about them as you become acquainted on a personal basis. Many of the projects I do for companies start with buyer personas. After all, it's a logical place to start as it's next to impossible to develop a content strategy without a keen understanding of the people involved in buying complex B2B product offerings. But I'm noticing a trend I hadn't foreseen. Yep, it's true. At all. MORE >>

According to dictionary.com: Alignment is a state of agreement or cooperation among persons, groups, etc. When alignment is discussed in marketing, the usual application is to sales and marketing alignment. This has been an ongoing conversation for nearly as long as I can remember. And I've been in the business environment for quite a while. The issue that comes up for me is that there are some alignment issues before we can even get to sales and marketing alignment that could have major implications for brands, if they took stock. marketing misalignment. customer misalignment. MORE >>

Curation is your personal or brand's recommendation for the source and content of others. I've read a lot of articles and blog posts about content curation. have to say that I've been outspoken about not being a fan. Mostly, my reaction is related to the ridiculous notion that a company can become a thought leader through curation alone. Eric Wittlake wrote recently about that with his post, Three Reasons Content Curation is Overated , so I'll let you read his views. tend to agree with him. Yep, it's true. Twitter is the content curation machine of this century. MORE >>

Definition of Thought Leadership by Wikipedia: A thought leader is a futurist or person who is recognized for. Many B2B marketers cite a goal of their content marketing programs as establishing their company as thought leaders in their marketplace. This is an admirable goal, as prospects are looking for experts, not just products or solutions. However, becoming a thought leader takes a bit more effort than you may think. innovative ideas and demonstrates the confidence to promote or share. those ideas as actionable distilled insights. Innovative Ideas - Innovative = New. Be specific. MORE >>

This said, inundating prospects with more links and choices rather than improving the personalization, value and contagiousness of your email message is not the right answer. I was reviewing a few email messages I'd developed for a B2B lead nurturing program with a project team when they said the equivalent of - Gosh, these are short. We should include links to events, products, etc. We're missing a big opportunity to give our prospects more choices. Then there was a pause and one of them asked, "What if they don't like the one link we're including?" Seriously. MORE >>