Nick Nelson

Twitter Has Renewed its Live Video Push & Here’s What You Need to Know

Nick Nelson on Oct 17th, 2018     Social Media, Twitter, Video

Once a pioneer in bringing live video to the social media world, Twitter fell behind the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn, and others as this format rose to mainstream prominence. However, the platform’s recent move to make live video more easily discoverable shows Twitter is recommitting to video.

But the question is: Can Twitter recapture the magnetic energy of live video?

When I attended Jane Weedon’s keynote speech at Content Marketing World last month, I was deeply struck by this remark from Twitch’s Director of Business Development:

“Authentic and real-time video can be better than immaculately produced when it comes to engaging an audience.”

Her company’s model serves as proof of this assertion. Twitch welcomed more than 15 million daily visitors last year, and continues to see explosive growth, largely because of this dynamic.


Twitter Has Renewed its Live Video Push & Here’s What You Need to Know
Leave a Comment
Lane Ellis

The Art Of Crafting More Powerful Content: 5 Top Tactics from the Experts

Lane Ellis on Oct 16th, 2018     Content Marketing

Craftsperson working and creating.

Welcome to the second piece in our new multi-part “Collective Wisdom” series of content marketing strategy articles, where you’ll learn proven methods taking you from the beginning of the content planning cycle to its final post-publication conclusion, and featuring insight from some of the world’s most respected and successful digital marketers.

Previously in “How to Boost Your Content Marketing Efforts By Planning Ahead,” we looked at implementing a smart and robust content planning strategy. Now it’s time to take a look at the intrinsically important content creation stage of any successful content marketing campaign.

Crafting Powerful Content

As we’ll explore, skillfully crafting content is one of the most important steps on a successful content marketing journey. After all, content is the centerpiece you present to the digital world — so let’s examine some of the strongest tactics to incorporate in your next campaign.


The Art Of Crafting More Powerful Content: 5 Top Tactics from the Experts
Leave a Comment
Lee Odden

16 Ways to Be More Efficient with Content Creation

Lee Odden on Oct 15th, 2018     Content Marketing

Content Creation Efficiency

Last minute scrambling to crank out another blog post is hardly the origin story for most great content. Falling behind on content production happens for a variety of reasons from poor planning to lack of resources.

Solutions will vary, but one thing I’ve found that helps with the creation of quality content on a consistent basis is a combination of efficiency and creativity. Process and technology are a certainly a big part of efficiency but so is thinking beyond your own capabilities (creativity).

Knowing you should do a thing and being able to do it well are not the same thing, so while some of these types of ideas are familiar, it is in their implementation that you’ll find new content creation productivity.


16 Ways to Be More Efficient with Content Creation
Leave a Comment
Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: Google Shutters Plus, B2B Chatbots, Facebook’s Shiny New Pixel, & the Voice Search Bonanza

Lane Ellis on Oct 12th, 2018     Online Marketing News

2018 October 12 News Adode Image

Google+ for G Suite lives on and gets new features
Despite Google shutting down Google+ after an API glitch allowed access to user data, its business version lives on and has even bene given new features. TechCrunch

Marketers struggle to keep up with content creation demand for their personalization efforts
New Adobe survey data shows the content scaling challenges digital marketers are increasingly facing as demand for content creation and personalization has risen. Marketing Land

Should You Entrust Chatbots With B2B Customer Communication?
With some predicting that by 2020 85 percent of customer interactions will be with chatbots, Forbes takes a look at their expanding role in B2B communications. Forbes


Digital Marketing News: Google Shutters Plus, B2B Chatbots, Facebook’s Shiny New Pixel, & the Voice Search Bonanza
Leave a Comment
Lane Ellis

Prepping for #Pubcon Pro Las Vegas 2018: 11 Presentations We’re Looking Forward to Most

Lane Ellis on Oct 11th, 2018     Marketing PR Conferences, Pubcon

Pubcon Pro

Pubcon Pro Las Vegas 2018 — the search marketing industry’s longest-running conference under the same name — will soon be upon us, and TopRank Marketing will be there speaking and giving you a diverse selection of live-blogging and social media coverage throughout the October 17 – 18 event.

Our chief executive Lee Odden will be a featured main-stage speaker on Wednesday, October 17 from 3:55 – 4:50 p.m., while senior account manager Tiffani Allen and I will be covering the event by liveblogging sessions and sharing useful tips through our social networks.

You can read all about Lee’s much-anticipated presentation in our “Learn to Grow Influence and Trust in Marketing with Lee Odden at #Pubcon Pro 2018” piece, and then dig in and get the inside scoop on 10 of the top speakers who’ll be presenting at Pubcon, in Lee’s “Stop Gambling with Your Marketing and Go Pro with Tips from Ten Pubcon Pro Speakers” conference preview and guide.


Prepping for #Pubcon Pro Las Vegas 2018: 11 Presentations We’re Looking Forward to Most
Leave a Comment
Joshua Nite

2019 B2B Content Marketing Trends: The 10 Biggest Opportunities for Marketers

Joshua Nite on Oct 10th, 2018     B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

For content marketers, each year’s publication of the B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Report should be truly exciting. Even more than the latest iPhone announcement. In fact, especially more than the latest iPhone announcement.

Don’t get me wrong: I love a slightly bigger screen, creepy new camera features and a higher price tag as much as the next guy. But the annual report from Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs can actually make marketers better at our jobs.

The 2019 edition has officially been released, and there are plenty of thought-provoking stats in just the first couple of pages; high-level attributes of top performers and clear opportunities for improvement.


2019 B2B Content Marketing Trends: The 10 Biggest Opportunities for Marketers
Leave a Comment
Nick Nelson

What You Need to Know About Instagram Stories for B2B Marketing

Nick Nelson on Oct 9th, 2018     Social Media

Instagram Stories for B2B Marketing

Why would B2B brands be interested in using Instagram Stories as a marketing channel?

It starts with a very simple premise: B2B customers are people, and people use Instagram, which eclipsed 1 billion active monthly users over the summer. And when it comes to the platform’s “Stories” format, it surpassed the similarly oriented Snapchat in users within a year of its 2016 launch.

Instagram Active Users

Of course, the issue here is more one of context. Can business-focused content really succeed on a social network that slants so strongly toward casual, leisure surfing?

As we’ll see, B2B companies are showing that yes, it can. And there’s plenty of opportunity to take it a step further.


What You Need to Know About Instagram Stories for B2B Marketing
Leave a Comment
Lee Odden

Enterprise B2B Influencer Marketing Interview: Amisha Gandhi, SAP Ariba

Lee Odden on Oct 8th, 2018     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Amish Gandhi Influencer Marketing Interview

One of the pioneers in the enterprise B2B influencer marketing space that I’ve been most fortunate to collaborate with most is Amisha Gandhi, (AmishaGandhi) Vice President of Influencer Marketing at SAP Ariba.

Whether it was the SAP Leonardo launch microsite with interactive content and 30+ influencers sharing their expertise reaching 21 million views or campaigns like this one with Arianna Huffington plus internal and external influencers for SAP SuccessFactors, there’s a lot of success in the momentum Amisha has created in the B2B influencer marketing world.

As the creator of SAP’s Global Influencer Program, Amisha has numerous B2B influencer marketing case studies being used in articles and presentations all over the industry. Now her focus is specifically with the Ariba global program that also includes working with analysts, communities and brand partners.


Enterprise B2B Influencer Marketing Interview: Amisha Gandhi, SAP Ariba
Leave a Comment
Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: Search & Social’s Strong Ad Growth, Facebook’s Breach Fallout, & Reddit Tops 1B Native Video Views

Lane Ellis on Oct 5th, 2018     Online Marketing News

2018 October 5 News Image

Social and Search Forecast to Contribute Two-Thirds of Global Ad Growth Through 2020
By 2020 search and social are expected to account for 66 percent of global ad spend growth, according to new research data by Zenith. Video ad spend growth has also surpassed that of static images. Spending for online video ads is forecast to grow annually by 18 percent, while that of social media looks to grow by 16% annually. MarketingCharts

Reaction: Facebook advertisers on alert as network breach exposes 50m user accounts
In the wake of Facebook’s recent revelation of a security breach that exposed some 50 million user accounts, advertisers have reexamined their advertising with the social media giant, and some have pulled the plug entirely, at least temporarily, including Mozilla and Sonos. The Drum


Digital Marketing News: Search & Social’s Strong Ad Growth, Facebook’s Breach Fallout, & Reddit Tops 1B Native Video Views
Leave a Comment
Alexis Hall

Want to Go Stress Free? Here Are 6 Reasons to Hire A Digital Marketing Agency

Alexis Hall on Oct 4th, 2018     Digital Marketing

When to Hire a Digital Marketing Agency

From developing and executing your marketing strategy to measuring results, your plate always has a healthy heaping of responsibilities—all of which are likely served with a side of stress from time to time.

If you’re nodding your head in agreement, you’re certainly not alone. A couple years ago, Workfront released its Marketers Stress Report revealing that 80% of marketers feel they have too few team members and too much work. Furthermore, 1 out of 4 marketers said they were “overly stressed” or “stressed to the max.”

Fast-forward to today, the stress factor still remains as marketers contend with a myriad of challenges, from lack of internal resources to adapting to the changing digital landscape. The good news, of course, is that a digital marketing agency (like TopRank Marketing) can lend a helping hand.


Want to Go Stress Free? Here Are 6 Reasons to Hire A Digital Marketing Agency
Leave a Comment
Anne Leuman

How Customer-Centric FAQ Pages Can Improve Content Marketing Results

Anne Leuman on Oct 3rd, 2018     Content Marketing

How FAQ Pages Drive Content Marketing Results

Your prospects and customers have questions. And it’s your job as a content marketer to answer them. That’s why you’re continuously turning out content to inform, engage, and inspire action throughout the buyer journey.

But wouldn’t it be great if you could answer many of those burning questions in one convenient, easy-to-use resource?

It would. And it exists. It’s an early-internet favorite that’s not super top-of-mind these days: The FAQ page.

FAQ pages have been around since before search engines, but the question is: Are you making the most of this often forgotten resource?

Rather than an afterthought, FAQ pages can become a robust piece of content that directly serves the interests of your prospects and customers, helping accelerate the success of your overall content marketing program. Here’s how you can make sure that your FAQ has “best answer” content that helps inform customers and prospects and move them along the buyer journey.


How Customer-Centric FAQ Pages Can Improve Content Marketing Results
Leave a Comment
Nick Nelson

How Brands Can Avoid the Dreaded Fauxthenticity Pitfall

Nick Nelson on Oct 2nd, 2018     Content Marketing, Digital Marketing

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Fauxthenticity

Let’s be real for a second here.

Today’s marketers and brands are collectively recognizing the need to strike a note of authenticity with their audiences. That’s excellent.

But in the quest to get real, it’s all too easy to wind up making the exact opposite impression by trying too hard, especially on social media channels.

When I think about this subject I’m always reminded of Steve Buscemi’s attempt to conform with school kids on the TV show 30 Rock:

via GIPHY

So, we should ask ourselves: How can we, as businesses, avoid this “fauxthenticity” pitfall? How can we overcome the inherent barriers that inhibit genuine connections between brand and customer? How can we speak the language of our audience without looking like we’re trying really hard to speak their language?


How Brands Can Avoid the Dreaded Fauxthenticity Pitfall
Leave a Comment