Blog and insights

Many B2B companies want to create more insight in their buyer. One way of doing this is to develop buyer personas. This is actually a good thing. Unfortunately, we often see how buyer research fails. Sometimes the buyer persona profiles are completely ineffective. We have been developing buyer personas for more than 15 years, and here are the 7 common mistakes in buyer persona development.

Discover how to create content that convert with these tips from our co-founder Ingrid. She shares the path from B2B buyer journey to content.

“The success of your marketing campaigns depends on your insights into the target group”, says Lianne Veldhuis, content marketer at Ultimo Software Solutions. Ultimo offers software solutions to support management processes. Two years ago, SPOTONVISION collected buyer insights and created 2 buyer personas for Ultimo. Today Lianne works with the personas and insights in their buyer journey on a daily basis. Do you want to know how customer insights lead to successful campaigns?

The economy is running at full speed, the market is expanding internationally and companies dare to take more risks than before. A number of companies are not being held back by national borders and seek international success. What does it mean for you as marketer to develop and execute an international marketing strategy? Where should you start? What does your strategy need to look like to best serve different countries and cultures.

“We actually turned our marketing upside down” says Marije Gould, Vice President Marketing EMEA for Verint Systems. She explains that in the past year they chose a completely different approach to their B2B marketing. And it worked.

More and more, B2B companies want more insight in their target buyers. A customer profile (buyer persona) is made before marketing plans are developed. So far so good. Building a buyer's profile however might sound easy but it isn’t always as easy as it seems. A buyer persona is a fundamental step though.

Each buyer is unique. However, we do not always have the opportunity and the resources to approach each buyer individually. So, we listen to the buyers and we try to find common denominators so we can tailor our marketing message. The crazy thing is that we have been marketing for years without a solid idea about our buyer, particularly in business-to-business.

To really know your buyer, you should regularly talk to him. Marketers often confuse talking to buyers with talking to existing customers. Sure, that is important too but it is much more relevant to understand why a potential customer walked away or why a prospect has never heard of you. This article outlines several tips on how best to interview your buyers to ensure your know their profile and their buying cycle.

This week Shimon Ben Ayoun interviewed, Adele Revella, Buyer Persona expert and founder of the Buyer Persona Institute. Below you can watch the full video interview or alternatively you can read the interview summary.