Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®

Show Me The Numbers: 20 B2B Marketing Insights From Audience Poll Data

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Aug 12th, 2020
B2B Marketing

Group of people with hands on a large colorful data chart image.

What can poll results tell B2B marketers about a year unlike any other, and how can this valuable audience data help us refine our marketing strategy as we push towards 2021?

For more than a year we’ve run weekly social media polls on our Twitter profile, and for several months now have simultaneously also placed a weekly user poll on our LinkedIn* page.

We wanted to share some of the fascinating insights you have shared with us in the form of results from our polls, in order to see the trends that have emerged during this unprecedented year.

Let’s look at trends in social media communications, how marketing is changing in 2020, and the rising effectiveness of B2B influencer marketing, all through the lens of poll-derived feedback.


Show Me The Numbers: 20 B2B Marketing Insights From Audience Poll Data

How to Nurture B2B Influencer Relationships During the Pandemic

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on Aug 11th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Two glove-covered hands fist-bumping image.

I’m so glad that I went to B2BMX this past February.

For one thing, we did some amazing interviews with some very smart marketers. The very idea of these interviews seems weird now — we were just sitting! Three feet apart! With no masks! At a giant marketing conference at a hotel!

The cancellation of in-person events means I’ll miss one or two conferences this year. But for folks who make a living as keynote speakers and thought leaders, it’s a massive adjustment. And that includes a sizable subset of B2B influencers — those who are primarily keynote speakers and in-person consultants.

As an agency, we’re true believers in B2B influencer marketing (see our latest report to learn why). But we have had to adjust our strategy as influencers’ needs change. Like everything else in 2020, influencer relationship-building takes a different approach than you might be used to.


How to Nurture B2B Influencer Relationships During the Pandemic

In Search of Trust: How Authentic Content Drives Customer Experience

Lee Odden
Lee Odden on Aug 10th, 2020
Content Marketing

Authentic Content Customer Experience

The experience customers have through marketing content can be one of the most important differentiators for brands today.

And yet 58% of B2B buyers don’t not believe claims made by the vendors they most recently bought from (TrustRadius).

It’s hard to create a great experience if customers don’t trust brand communications.

Trust is the gateway to influence perceptions, behaviors and actions and brands that want to succeed in the uncertain environment of today’s digital world need to double down on building trust with their customers. But how?

Today’s increasingly digital buyers have high expectations of the companies they do business with: buyers want personalized and relevant information, they want a consistent experience across channels, they want confidence in the brand as a company that cares about privacy, their customers and the community.


In Search of Trust: How Authentic Content Drives Customer Experience

B2B Marketing News: Top Channels for B2B Audiences, Podcasts Soaring, Smartphone Video Rules for Millennials

Lee Odden
Lee Odden on Aug 7th, 2020
Online Marketing News

Short Form Video NRG

With the number of global video viewers projected to reach 2.72 billion in 2023 Snap Inc. commissioned a study from National Research Group surveying 1,000 smartphone owners and found that for Gen Z and millennials, smartphones top all other devices with 78% watching more video on their smartphones than they did last year. – AdWeek

Podcast listenership in the US has been soaring in recent years and US podcast ad spending is expected to surpass $1 Billion in 2021 – eMarketer

Coronavirus pandemic is reshaping our approach to social media: report. The average user now holds some 8.1 social media accounts and spends nearly 2 ½ hours using them daily, according to new GlobalWebIndex data. Mobile Marketing Magazine

Twitter May Soon Display Retweets and Quote Tweets in Separate Counts – Social Media Today


B2B Marketing News: Top Channels for B2B Audiences, Podcasts Soaring, Smartphone Video Rules for Millennials

New Features and Sneaky Techniques to Boost B2B Marketing Engagement on LinkedIn

Nick Nelson
Nick Nelson on Aug 6th, 2020
B2B Marketing

B2B Marketing Engagement LinkedIn

For B2B brands, this is an opportune time to be focusing on LinkedIn for marketing. But doing so in the right way is paramount, because it is very easy to get it wrong. (And so many marketers do.)

The social media platform’s strengths as a B2B marketing channel are undeniable:

  • More than 700 million professionals from around the globe, all with rich profile data including locations, job titles, seniority and more. Not only do members share these details openly, but they are motivated to keep them updated and accurate, for purposes of career development and professional identity.
  • Ability to easily surface mutual connections and opportunities for personal introductions, via 1st-degree, 2nd-degree, and 3rd-degree connections.
  • A variety of messaging, publishing, and advertising tools to reach highly targeted professional audiences in an inviting context and trusted environment.

New Features and Sneaky Techniques to Boost B2B Marketing Engagement on LinkedIn

For Successful B2B Marketers The Engine of Influence is Always On #B2BIMReport

B2B Engine of Influence Always On

As the need for B2B brands to reach and connect authentically with customers rises, B2B influencer marketers are evolving from transactional and intermittent campaigns to more relationship driven, Always-On Influencer engagement programs as our research from the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing report found:

  • 19% are piloting
  • 25% run periodic campaigns
  • 34% use an Always-On approach

Transactional campaign approaches are hard pressed to develop brand loyalty and advocacy. That’s why, with 84% of B2B marketers focused on building brand awareness with their influencer marketing efforts, that ongoing influencer engagement has become essential for creating vested relationships that inspire more qualitative activations and brand advocacy.


For Successful B2B Marketers The Engine of Influence is Always On #B2BIMReport

6 New Rules for B2B Marketing in the COVID-19 Era

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on Aug 4th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Influencer Marketing

B2B Marketing Rules Covid-19
I was supposed to go to an Alanis Morissette concert this July. When the pandemic hit hard in March, I wasn’t ready to cancel my ticket yet. Surely, surely we would have it sorted in time for an outdoor concert four months from now. I held out hope. Then, in June, she rescheduled for July, 2021. And now I’m wondering if that will be enough time.

Isn’t it ironic? 

Don’t you think?

All of which to say: This pandemic has been around for longer than we thought it would, and is looking to linger far longer than we would like. What seemed like a brief, surreal interlude to be gotten through has now become a reality to live with, at least for the time being.


6 New Rules for B2B Marketing in the COVID-19 Era

20 B2B Influencer Marketing Pros to Follow from Top Brands

B2B influencer marketing pros from top brands

Recently we published the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing report after surveying hundreds of B2B marketers about their experiences, best practices, tools, budgets and plans for the future.

In an environment where B2B marketing is decidedly digital and marketers are hard pressed to squeeze more productivity out of fewer resources, credible information about marketing best practices, operations and trends for the future are in high demand. Judging by the response we’ve had to The State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report so far, we’re definitely meeting a need.

There is both optimism and an unrealized opportunity with influencer marketing for B2B companies. For evidence, check out these stats from the report:

  • 78% of B2B marketers believe prospects rely on advice from influencers

20 B2B Influencer Marketing Pros to Follow from Top Brands

B2B Marketing News: How B2B Events Are Changing, Consumers Switch Brands During Pandemic, & New B2B Micro-Segmentation Data

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Jul 31st, 2020
Online Marketing News

2020 July 24 CEIR Chart

Study: Most Americans Permanently Changing Brands During Pandemic
45 percent of U.S. consumers have switched at least one brand preference during the global heath crisis, and some 62 percent believe that their brand change will become permanent — two of several items of interest to digital marketers in recently-released survey data. MediaPost

How microsegmenting boosts B2B conversion rates
Micro-segmentation helps both B2B sellers and customers, with better conversion rates and more relevant customer experiences, with some 68 percent of B2B buyers noting that it’s important for vendors to present relevant content throughout the buying cycle without having to rely on salespeople, according to recently-released Forrester report data. Digital Commerce 360


B2B Marketing News: How B2B Events Are Changing, Consumers Switch Brands During Pandemic, & New B2B Micro-Segmentation Data

Boosting and Deepening Engagement through Empathy in B2B Marketing

Nick Nelson
Nick Nelson on Jul 30th, 2020
B2B Marketing

Business Professional Taking Notes Intently

Empathy is more than a buzzword. It’s not a box to be checked, or an added finishing touch for content. If B2B marketers want to successfully engage human audiences and break free from the deluge of irrelevant messages swirling around today’s customers, empathy needs to be at the center of all strategic initiatives from start to finish.

What Does Empathy Mean in B2B Marketing?

Empathy is defined simply as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. But I’m not sure that characterization fully does it justice in the context of modern marketing.

I rather like the way Zen Media CEO Shama Hyder described empathy in the better creative teamwork guide we helped our clients at monday.com put together:


Boosting and Deepening Engagement through Empathy in B2B Marketing

5 Unheralded SEO Tools for Content Marketers

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Jul 29th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, SEO

Smiling businesswoman at computer image.

Are you using the latest search engine optimization (SEO) tools to help with your content marketing efforts?

Don’t worry, as we’ve got you covered with a look at some of the most helpful SEO tools to help you refine and augment your content marketing plans.

Sorting through lists of the seemingly endless number of available SEO tools can be frustrating as well as a hit and miss proposition, however we’ve put this collection together so that you can skip the search and get right into SEO tools you can use today to help you create amazing content marketing stories.

Let’s jump in with our collection of fresh SEO tools to boost your content marketing experiences.

1 — Google Lighthouse

Google Lighthouse


5 Unheralded SEO Tools for Content Marketers

How B2B Marketers Can Get the Most Out of Webinars in 2020

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on Jul 28th, 2020
B2B Marketing

Businesspeople with Screens as Heads Image.

There has to be a word for the creeping dread B2B marketers have been feeling this year, preferably something German with a ton of umlauts.

As we watched events in the spring cancel, postpone, or go virtual, we held out hope that summer would be different. Then July’s events moved out. Now it’s looking like the type of large-scale events B2B marketers depend on will have to wait until 2021… at the earliest.

But we don’t have to despair! We can close the gap with virtual events. The speaking gig at an industry conference can become a webinar, as can a planned panel discussion or product demonstration. 

The good news is plenty of people have more spare time than before to watch your webinar.


How B2B Marketers Can Get the Most Out of Webinars in 2020