Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: B2B Content Lifecycle Study, LinkedIn’s New Featured Section, B2B Millennial Report, & Facebook Adds Story Discovery Feature

Lane Ellis on Feb 28th, 2020     Online Marketing News

2020 February 28 Skyword Chart

Millennial buyers want better content from B2B marketers
Better B2B content is a top concern among Millennial buyers, as the demographic accounts for some 33 percent of overall B2B buyers, a portion Forrester’s newly-released report expects to grow to 44 percent by 2025. Digital Commerce 360

LinkedIn Launches New ‘Featured’ Section on Profiles to Highlight Key Achievements and Links
LinkedIn (client) began a gradual roll-out of a new “Featured” section, where users’ key achievements will appear near the top of profiles when starred from updates, the Microsoft-owned platform recently announced. Social Media Today

How the Fastest-Growing US Companies Are Using Social Media
87 percent of Inc. 500 firms used LinkedIn for social media during 2019, topping a list of how the fastest-growing U.S. firms are using social media, outlined in a recently-released UMass Dartmouth report of interest to digital marketers. MarketingProfs


Digital Marketing News: B2B Content Lifecycle Study, LinkedIn’s New Featured Section, B2B Millennial Report, & Facebook Adds Story Discovery Feature
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Joshua Nite

The B2B Marketer’s Journey To Experiential Content at #B2BMX

Joshua Nite on Feb 26th, 2020     B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Interactive Marketing

Ryan Brown Ceros

What makes an experience an…

B2B Marketing Experience?

Full disclosure: I am not on the design team at TopRank Marketing.

But you know what I mean. You’ve eaten dinner at dozens, if not hundreds of restaurants in your lifetime. But there are likely one or two that stick out in your memory. What makes them memorable?

That question drove an intriguing presentation at B2B Marketing Exchange, led by four expert marketers:

B2B Content Experience Team

Short answer: What makes experiences different and memorable is if they’re really good… or really bad. Anything in the middle tends to blur together in our recollection. Only the extremes stand out.


The B2B Marketer’s Journey To Experiential Content at #B2BMX
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Lee Odden

Award Winning B2B Influencer Marketing at B2BMX

Lee Odden on Feb 25th, 2020     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

IT Vangards

The 2020 B2B Marketing Exchange conference kicked off today with great workshops, case studies and a green light keynote from the talented Tamsen Webster.

Tamsen Webster Keynote Speaker

After the last executive marketing leadership panel, our president Susan Misukanis and I had the good fortune to attend the B2BMX Killer Content Awards.

I am very proud to say that in the B2B Influencer Marketing category, all three finalists were TopRank Marketing clients: Dell Outlet, Alcatel Lucent Enterprise and SAP.

ALE Killer Content Awards 2020

We are happy to share that Alcatel Lucent Enterprise won the 2020 Killer Content Award for best B2B Influencer Marketing campaign!

This is the second “Finny” that Jen Holtvluwer and Alison Munn have won working with TopRank Marketing. You can read the ALE case study here, which was truly an innovative B2B influencer marketing campaign, which featured the elements outlined below.


Award Winning B2B Influencer Marketing at B2BMX
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Lee Odden

The Influence of ABM in B2B Marketing: Top B2BMX Sessions & Speaker Insights

Lee Odden on Feb 24th, 2020     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Influence ABM in B2B Marketing
2020 marks the 8th year in a row that I’ve presented at the B2B Marketing Exchange. During that time there have been many changes: within the B2B marketing industry, the strategies and technologies driving performance and in the programming at B2B events like B2BMX.

ABM in particular has experienced a rise in the B2B marketing world and evidence of that momentum is evident in the session topics, martech vendors and attendees at this year’s B2BMX conference in Scottsdale, February 24-26.

According to research from Demand Gen Report, 50% of B2B companies have been implementing ABM programs for more than a year and that number will continue to rise. With growing popularity, increasing numbers of marketers are searching for ways to incorporate ABM into their B2B marketing mix.


The Influence of ABM in B2B Marketing: Top B2BMX Sessions & Speaker Insights
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Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: How B2B Buyers Pick Vendors, BuzzSumo’s New YouTube Insights, ABM Brings B2B Improvements, & How Brands Use Direct Messaging

Lane Ellis on Feb 21st, 2020     Online Marketing News

2020 February 21 MarketingCharts Chart

B2B buyers consume an average of 13 content pieces before deciding on a vendor
B2B buyers say that they take in an average of 13 pieces of online content before choosing a vendor, consisting of eight vendor-made and five third-party elements, according to newly-released survey data from FocusVision, containing a number of additional insights of interest to digital marketers. Marketing Land

B2B Firms Are Failing To Integrate Sales, Marketing And Customer Success Teams: Study
Revenue growth is a top challenge for B2B brands, and some 84 percent of B2B sales and marketing professionals say that revenue responsibility rests with both sales and marketing, however 37 percent say the two functions aren’t optimally aligned — some of the findings in new survey data from Leandata and Sales Hacker. MediaPost


Digital Marketing News: How B2B Buyers Pick Vendors, BuzzSumo’s New YouTube Insights, ABM Brings B2B Improvements, & How Brands Use Direct Messaging
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Anne Leuman

4 Questions to Drive More Productive Marketing Meetings

Anne Leuman on Feb 20th, 2020     B2B Marketing

Group at table conducting a meeting image.

Allow me to paint a picture.

SCENE

INTERIOR – OFFICE

The CAMERA pans to a worker, furiously typing on their computer. Headphones on. The keys CLACK with productivity until–

— A LOUD CHIME rings out.

The CAMERA zooms slowly to the computer screen. A meeting alert flashes across the monitor.

— The worker’s head hits the desk with a soft THUD.

We CUT back to the worker. Head hung in exasperation, the worker stops their typing, rises, and departs to attend their call.

END SCENE

It’s happened to all of us. Stop work. Attend meeting. Rinse and repeat.


4 Questions to Drive More Productive Marketing Meetings
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Lane Ellis

24 Essential B2B Influencer Marketing Statistics

Lane Ellis on Feb 19th, 2020     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Business people throwing papers in the air image.

How important is influencer marketing to businesses in 2020?

Influencer marketing will see global brand spending of up to $15 billion by 2022 (Business Insider Intelligence), and B2B marketers who haven’t yet experienced its many benefits now have more research data than ever to make the case for starting an influencer marketing program.

Even if you’ve already developed an influencer marketing strategy, the wealth of new information coming out about its power to build trust and inspire action is growing, which is why we wanted to share 24 significant B2B influencer marketing statistics that combine to tell a compelling story that will alter your future campaigns.

Let’s jump right in with a look at some of the latest influencer marketing statistics.


24 Essential B2B Influencer Marketing Statistics
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Lee Odden

5 Key Traits of the Best B2B Influencers

Lee Odden on Feb 18th, 2020     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Traits B2B Influencers

Marketers are still asking, what is B2B influencer marketing? Here’s a definition I’ve been using over the past 5 years or so:

B2B influencer marketing is activating internal and external subject matter experts with engaged networks to advocate and co-create content of mutual value that drives measurable business goals.

As the groundswell around influencer marketing rises and becomes a normal part of the B2B marketing mix, the volume of information and misinformation on the topic also increases.

One of the most popular questions people also ask about B2B influencer marketing focuses on what makes a good business influencer? By now we all know that popularity alone does not make someone influential. It’s certainly important, it’s just not the only thing.


5 Key Traits of the Best B2B Influencers
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Lee Odden

How Influence and SEO Can Drive Customer Experience

Lee Odden on Feb 17th, 2020     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Influence and Customer Experience

We talk a lot here on Online Marketing Blog about influencer marketing and one of the benefits of incorporating the voices of influencers in brand content is not often covered: customer experience.

What’s the connection between CX and influence? A big part of customer experience is trust and many customers simply do not trust brands or advertising.

That’s where adding credible 3rd party voices to brand content comes into play. Brands that want to deliver the most relevant, engaging and actionable experience for their customers will often incorporate external experts that already have the attention of the audience that brands want to reach.

Partnering with relevant influencers to co-create content can open doors for brands trying to engage hard to reach and increasingly skeptical audiences. Those content collaborations can also help deliver an experience that is more credible and trusted than brand content alone.


How Influence and SEO Can Drive Customer Experience
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Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: Record Influencer Spending, Google’s Gmail Shopping Ads, Pinterest’s Verified Merchant Program, & Twitter Engagement Stats

Lane Ellis on Feb 14th, 2020     Online Marketing News

2020 February 14 MarketingCharts Chart

Facebook Adds ‘One-Time Notification’ API to Messenger for Business
Facebook has given marketers new options for contacting consumers who have agreed to notifications, with the release of an API token system that will enable expanded brand-to-customer contact choices, the social media giant recently announced. Social Media Today

Twitter says ad tech and product updates will improve direct response advertising
Twitter saw fourth quarter advertising revenues climb by some 12 percent to $885 million, with monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) up 21 percent to 152 million, and pointed to several updates that it expects to continue bringing better direct-response ad revenue, the firm recently reported. Marketing Land


Digital Marketing News: Record Influencer Spending, Google’s Gmail Shopping Ads, Pinterest’s Verified Merchant Program, & Twitter Engagement Stats
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Joshua Nite

5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing

Joshua Nite on Feb 13th, 2020     B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Humanizing B2B Content Father and Son Cooking Together Image

“You’ve really got to put yourself out there. Don’t be too stiff.”

“Be honest and sincere!”

“Be vulnerable and relatable… and it doesn’t hurt if you can make ‘em laugh.”

Is this advice for a middle-aged man trying online dating for the first time? Or is it advice for B2B marketers?

Given the proximity to Valentine’s Day, can’t it be both?

The point is, as good as this advice may be for marketers, it’s as vague as it is omnipresent. We talk about “person-to-person” marketing and “humanizing the brand.” But what does it really mean to humanize a brand? 

Michelin Men Original Costumes

Yes, these were the original Michelin Tire mascots.

In some cases, apparently, it means high-octane nightmare fuel. So, maybe don’t try and make an adorable mascot for your software-as-a-service solution.


5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing
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