Steve Zakur, Author at SoloSegment

SearchChat Podcast: Marketers Succeed at What They Rehearse

Posted on December 2, 2019 by Tim Peter, Steve Zakur

On this episode of SearchChat, SoloSegment’s CEO, Steve Zakur and I talk about personalization and the lessons we’ve learned from working with clients. We talk about the data that you need to get started and lessons that you can learn about how to deliver on a personalization initiative from both musicians and the military.

We start with Steve’s takeaways from Personalization ‘19, including that customers don’t have a separate B2B brain. This is how the internet works now — it doesn’t matter where I go, I have the same expectations.

Personalization is a means to an end, not the end. We discuss how you make sure when you’re creating these engaging customer experiences that they will lead to some meaningful result for you as a business. Also up for debate: is it better to start with the easily winnable goals, or the more clearly valuable business goals? The takeaway is to look to musicians for the answer.

We also tackle delivering engaging personalization. Is saying “Hi, Tim” at the top of the website, personalization? Does it create the engaging user experience we hope for? People want to be known, and in a way that matters.

All this and more, on SearchChat.

SearchChat is available on

Search Chat is SoloSegment’s podcast dedicated to all things search AI and content marketing related. Who is SoloSegment? We’re a technology company focused on site search analytics and AI driven content discovery to improve search results, increase customer satisfaction and unlock revenue for your company. If you think we might have the answer to your conversion problems, feel free to connect with us.

About Tim Peter

Tim Peter is the President of SoloSegment. An expert in e-commerce and digital marketing strategy, web development, search marketing, and analytics, Tim focuses on the growth of the social, local, mobile web and its impact on both consumer behavior and business results. SoloSegment provides analytics that improve site search conversion and machine learning technologies that improve content effectiveness.

Forget AI expertise. You need domain expertise to succeed.

Posted on November 18, 2019 by Steve Zakur, Madeline Moran

At the heart of all great businesses are domain experts who are excellent at execution. Regardless of whether the business remains highly analog (increasingly rare in today’s marketplace) or is the latest emerging digital start-up domain expertise and execution wins over technology disruption alone.

About Steve Zakur

Stephen Zakur is CEO of SoloSegment. SoloSegment provides analytics that improve site search conversion and machine learning technologies that improve content effectiveness.

When B2B Personalization is Too Hard to Implement

Posted on October 18, 2019 by Steve Zakur, Madeline Moran

I had a conversation several weeks ago with a large data company, discussing behavior based personalization. The VP of Marketing heard me out for a few minutes, and then said “Woah, wait a minute. So it’s personalization? I already have that.”

So I said “Oh, how’s that going? What are you seeing?”

And he said, “Well, we haven’t turned it on yet.”

About Steve Zakur

Stephen Zakur is CEO of SoloSegment. SoloSegment provides analytics that improve site search conversion and machine learning technologies that improve content effectiveness.

Is AI All Hype Right Now?

Posted on October 11, 2019 by Steve Zakur, Madeline Moran

Recently on our podcast we talked about a conversation Tim Peter had with a colleague. The discussion revolved around AI. Tim was asked an intriguing question.

“Come on. All this AI stuff, when we talk about marketing and all that, that’s all just hype, right?”

About Steve Zakur

Stephen Zakur is CEO of SoloSegment. SoloSegment provides analytics that improve site search conversion and machine learning technologies that improve content effectiveness.

SearchChat Podcast: Key Marketing Lessons from MarTech East

Posted on October 7, 2019 by Tim Peter, Steve Zakur

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Steve and I spent time together recently at both a Red Sox game but more importantly, at MarTech East in Boston. The shift in conversation was wildly fascinating: the focus seemed to be personalization, privacy, and security.

About Tim Peter

MartTech East 2019 Wrap-up

Posted on September 23, 2019 by Steve Zakur

I thought I’d just capture a few thoughts on MarTech East 2019. This summary isn’t representative of the conference, it’s representative of my experience at the conference.

This was my first MarTech East. It was an excellent conference for practitioners of marketing technology arts. Kudos to Scott Brinker and the Third Door Media team. The following are my key takeaways from the conversations that I had with presenters, attendees, and vendors.

About Steve Zakur

Stephen Zakur is CEO of SoloSegment. SoloSegment provides analytics that improve site search conversion and machine learning technologies that improve content effectiveness.

Are you connecting your marketing to business results?

Posted on September 17, 2019 by Steve Zakur, Madeline Moran

I was at the Marketing Analytics Summit a few weeks back, and talked to a lot of people who felt that:

Measurement was really important
Measurement was really, really hard

The eternal struggle for marketers seems to be connecting marketing actions to business results. But this can’t be a reason to give up on analytics.

About Steve Zakur

Stephen Zakur is CEO of SoloSegment. SoloSegment provides analytics that improve site search conversion and machine learning technologies that improve content effectiveness.

Opportunities And Gaps In MarTech

Posted on September 16, 2019 by Steve Zakur

Last week I was asked what the biggest opportunities and gaps are in the MarTech stack. It’s an interesting question when one considers all the technology that’s available in the market. While I could opine on features and functions that I’d like to see, what really bugs me is the fact that so much of the overarching promise of marketing technology remains unfulfilled.

About Steve Zakur

Stephen Zakur is CEO of SoloSegment. SoloSegment provides analytics that improve site search conversion and machine learning technologies that improve content effectiveness.

SearchChat Podcast: Surviving the Dog Days of Summer

Posted on August 21, 2019 by Tim Peter, Steve Zakur

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As summer hits its hot, vacation-filled days the work world slows down for a minute. In these slower moments, there’s a chance to reflect on the speed of business.

About Tim Peter

The Challenge Of B2B Personalization

Posted on August 14, 2019 by Steve Zakur

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve had 147 conversations with B2B marketing leaders. These aren’t sales calls. I’m not pitching anything. They’re conversations about the issues that are top of mind for these professionals. I guide these discussions with questions around areas we’re interested in, but the main goal is to get a sense of the market. It turns out that personalization is a top of mind issue.

About Steve Zakur

Stephen Zakur is CEO of SoloSegment. SoloSegment provides analytics that improve site search conversion and machine learning technologies that improve content effectiveness.