B2B Marketing Blog

5 Payoffs B2B Marketers Win From Precision Pacing

Lane Ellis on Mar 3rd, 2021
B2B Marketing

How does having a proper pace make for better B2B marketing?

Is there such a thing as an ideal pace when it comes to marketing efforts, and does it matter if you’re in a sprint or an ultra-marathon?

Part of proper pacing is recognizing the length of your marketing race and maximizing your efforts to fully take advantage of each mile of the journey, whether its a short one-off campaign or a protracted always-on marathon.

Knowing and implementing steady pacing are often-overlooked elements in long-term B2B marketing success, so let’s take a look at five ways they pay off.

1 — Burning The Marketing Candle at Both Ends Will Fizzle Out

It’s unfortunately all-too-common for marketers to engage in marketing efforts at an unsustainable pace, leading to burn-out, especially during the pandemic when the boundaries between professional and home life have narrowed or disappeared entirely.

5 Payoffs B2B Marketers Win From Precision Pacing

5 B2C Content Marketing Techniques that B2B Marketers Should Steal (And 5 They Shouldn’t Touch)

B2B marketers, are we over the B2C envy yet?

We used to have a legitimate reason to be envious. B2C marketers got to be more creative, personal, emotional, and interactive. We were stuck with dry, logical appeals with no-frills presentation.

These days, though, B2B marketers can be just as dynamic and creative as our B2C counterparts. And we not only can, we should.

Yet we still hear that drumbeat: “B2B marketing needs to be more like B2C.”

Does it really?

I would argue yes, but only to a certain point. B2B is its own discipline with its own best practices. There are a few recent developments in B2C that we should borrow, but there are just as many strategies and tactics that don’t translate as well.

5 B2C Content Marketing Techniques that B2B Marketers Should Steal (And 5 They Shouldn’t Touch)

5 Ways B2B Marketers Sabotage Influencer Marketing Success

Lee Odden on Mar 1st, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

It is the nature of marketers to continuously evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts. The problem with this approach to marketing optimization is that it assumes effective execution of marketing strategies, which we all know, is often not the case. Poor execution is as often at fault for poor performance as much as the effectiveness or appropriateness of the tactic.

For nearly 10 years we’ve been engaged in influencer collaboration for B2B content marketing programs (like this one for Content Marketing Institute in 2012) and have worked with a wide range of B2B brands during that time. We’ve fielded multiple times that in inquiries and questions from B2B marketers about influencer marketing as well as conducting the first ever dedicated research study into B2B influencer marketing. This depth of experience has provided unique and far reaching insight into how B2B brands understand and implement content marketing efforts in partnership with influencers – good, bad and otherwise.

5 Ways B2B Marketers Sabotage Influencer Marketing Success

B2B Marketing News: Trust Tops Brand Marketer Study, Top Email Engagement Day Shifts, YouTube’s New Comparative Data, & Ad Prices Rise

Lane Ellis on Feb 26th, 2021
Online Marketing News

Brand marketers stick to trust-building strategies forged in 2020’s fires, study finds
91 percent of brand marketers will keep focusing on the strategies aimed at building trust they developed in 2020 as a response to the pandemic, according to recently-released survey data of interest to digital marketers. Marketing Dive

Ad Prices Forecast To Inflate 3% This Year
Digital display ad price inflation for 2021 is expected to be 3.4 percent, with digital video slightly higher at 3.6 percent, while this year is expected to hold some recovery from the impact of the pandemic in 2020, according to newly-released forecast data. MediaPost

In Engagement Shift, Friday Proves Top Day for Email Response Rates in 2020
With an 18.9 percent click-to-open (CTO) rate, marketing emails sent on Friday lead the way when it comes to engagement levels, according to recently-released survey data, with Saturday coming in as having the lowest engagement rates. MarketingCharts

B2B Marketing News: Trust Tops Brand Marketer Study, Top Email Engagement Day Shifts, YouTube’s New Comparative Data, & Ad Prices Rise

Find, Engage and Close: Demandbase’s Jon Miller on Recasting the B2B Marketing Automation Journey #B2BMX

Lane Ellis on Feb 25th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Integrated Marketing, Marketing PR Conferences

How can B2B marketers recast the marketing automation journey to meet today’s challenges and be ready for those to come?

Jon Miller, chief marketing officer at Demandbase, recently presented a session at the 2021 B2B Marketing Exchange Experience virtual conference, and explored new account-based marketing best practices.

Although this pandemic year at #B2BMX won’t see B2B marketers gathered in the event’s usual sunny Scottsdale, Arizona location, many new attendee opportunities were on tap virtually.

Refresh, renew, remix has been the conference’s theme this year, and to help ease the lack of physical networking, #B2BMX included a Spotify music playlist, live music performances, and even various charitable elements.

Find, Engage and Close: Demandbase’s Jon Miller on Recasting the B2B Marketing Automation Journey #B2BMX

10 Marketing and Communications Leaders to Inspire You in 2021

Lee Odden on Feb 25th, 2021
Marketing & PR Industry

Even the best of marketers can be challenged in times like those we’ve all experienced over the past 12 months. But it is those who rise above those challenges that fuel the inspiration we all need to succeed in our industry.

On this blog, we’ve made a point to highlight inspirational marketing voices with lists of top marketers by discipline (B2B marketing, social media marketing, content marketing) and our famous lists of Women Who Rock in Marketing since 2010. Over the past few years, we’ve tried (not hard enough) to be more inclusive in these lists to represent women and people of color.

10 Marketing and Communications Leaders to Inspire You in 2021

Microsoft’s Miri Rodriguez on How B2B Marketers Are Embracing Empathy For Better Customer Storytelling #B2BMX

Lane Ellis on Feb 24th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Marketing PR Conferences

How do B2B marketers who fully embrace empathy build stronger relationships?

Miri Rodriguez, storyteller and internship program head at Microsoft, recently presented the opening keynote at the 2021 B2B Marketing Exchange Experience virtual conference, and asked this important question.

Although this pandemic year at #B2BMX won’t see B2B marketers gathered in the event’s usual sunny Scottsdale, Arizona location, plenty of new attendee opportunities were on tap virtually.

Refresh, renew, remix has been the conference’s theme this year, and to help ease the lack of physical networking #B2BMX included a Spotify music playlist, live music performances, and even various charitable elements.

Miri began by looking back at the history of empathy in B2B marketing, to when empathy was new to the B2B space, especially the practice of considering it a leading component of the digital experience.

Microsoft’s Miri Rodriguez on How B2B Marketers Are Embracing Empathy For Better Customer Storytelling #B2BMX

Problem Solved: Increase B2B Content Marketing Success by Conquering 4 Conundrums

Nick Nelson on Feb 23rd, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

In his recently-published book, What’s Your Problem: Become a Better B2B Marketer by Enhancing Your Problem-Solving Skills, Steve Goldhaber argues that the discipline of content marketing boils down to a simple consistent objective: solving problems.

It’s a reasonable framing. Almost every piece of marketing content is essentially aimed at solving a problem. This really gets to the fundamental intent of B2B content marketing as a practice: by helping our audience solve day-to-day problems and overcome business challenges, we hope that they’ll eventually consider using our product or service to solve a bigger problem.

But content marketers can’t focus solely on solving problems for customers. We also need to look inward and address key challenges that threaten the value and impact of our problem-solving content. The old saying about “getting your own house in order” comes to mind.

Problem Solved: Increase B2B Content Marketing Success by Conquering 4 Conundrums

How to Elevate B2B Marketing with Always-On Influence #B2BMX

Lee Odden on Feb 22nd, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

While 96% of B2B marketers we surveyed in or State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report are confident about influencer marketing, the majority are still approaching influencer engagement on a periodic or campaign basis vs. Always-On. That short term approach is costly:

12X more B2B marketers are very successful by running Always-On influencer programs vs. those engaged in intermittent campaigns.

With all the challenges brought by the pandemic and uncertainty in the world, an increasing number of B2B marketers are working with influencers on an ongoing basis to create more trusted content with credible distribution and authentic engagement.

But it’s important to understand that there’s nothing wrong with running influencer campaigns. When a message, available experts and readiness of an audience all align with the right approach, you can see influencer content campaign outcomes like:

How to Elevate B2B Marketing with Always-On Influence #B2BMX

B2B Marketing News: New Influencer Marketing & Social Reports, LinkedIn’s B2B Engagement Study, & Google My Business Gets Messaging

Lane Ellis on Feb 19th, 2021
Online Marketing News

LinkedIn Provides New Tips on How to Create Engaging B2B Content [Infographic]
LinkedIn (client) has launched a new 17-page guide offering B2B marketers tips, statistics and a variety of insight and examples surrounding the production of successful B2B creative on the Microsoft-owned platform, the firm recently announced. Social Media Today

2021 Social Media Industry Benchmark Report
Overall social media posting frequency has fallen, while engagement has declined on Instagram, according to newly-released report data from Rival IQ, which also found that platform-specific hashtags have seen growing success. Rival IQ

Dentsu Finds ‘Social Good’ Branding Attitudes Index High Among Most Nations, Less So In Japan
Brands that actively promote a variety of social good initiatives garner positive attitudes towards those brands, according to recently-released global survey data of social media users, examining how social media user attitudes differ in various nations. MediaPost

B2B Marketing News: New Influencer Marketing & Social Reports, LinkedIn’s B2B Engagement Study, & Google My Business Gets Messaging

Break Free B2B Marketing: Sarah Barnes-Humphrey of Shipz and The Art of Consistent Change

Susan Misukanis on Feb 18th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Video Interviews

For more than a decade our team at TopRank Marketing has fostered a potent community of leading influencers, developing close relationships with subject matter experts in a wide variety of industries.

When it comes to B2B influencer marketing, it’s only natural to wonder just what an influencer actually looks like?

In our third season of Break Free B2B Marketing video interviews, we’re continuing in-depth conversations with a powerful selection of top B2B influencers, and taking a close look at the issues that each expert is influential about in their industry.

Every successful B2B influencer has a rare mix of the 5 Ps — proficiency, personality, publishing, promotion, and popularity — as our CEO Lee Odden has outlined in “5 Key Traits of the Best B2B Influencers.”

Break Free B2B Marketing: Sarah Barnes-Humphrey of Shipz and The Art of Consistent Change

Why Influencer Marketing Should Be a Priority 2021 Tactic for B2B Brands

Lane Ellis on Feb 17th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Smiling professional woman at computer.

Influencer marketing has seen increasing investment, and global brand spending is expected to reach up to $15 billion by 2022, nearly doubling the $8 billion the influencer marketing industry was worth in 2019, according to Business Insider Intelligence report data.

Other predictions forecast influencer marketing spending to grow to $13.8 billion in 2021 (Influencer Marketing Hub), and $24.1 billion by 2025 (MarketsandMarkets).

It’s become more common, however, for B2B marketers to lament, “I want to explore B2B influencer marketing, but how can I find the time and get the resources to do it?”

Let’s take a look at some of the factors that have led major B2B brands to shift so much more spending to influencer marketing — factors that when brought into focus will drive even the biggest skeptics to commit time and resources.

Why Influencer Marketing Should Be a Priority 2021 Tactic for B2B Brands