Lee Odden

About Lee Odden

@LeeOdden is the CEO of TopRank Marketing and editor of Online Marketing Blog. Cited for his expertise by The Economist, Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, he's the author of the book Optimize and presents internationally on B2B marketing topics including content, search, social media and influencer marketing. When not at conferences, consulting, or working with his talented team, he's likely running, traveling or cooking up something new.

Top B2B Marketing Trends for 2021

Lee Odden on Jan 18th, 2021
B2B Marketing

Each year I’ve taken inventory of the major trends emerging within our B2B marketing agency practice and with the crazy year that was 2020, the new year requires even greater focus on what’s ahead. Some of the marketing predictions and trends I’ve shared in the past include:

Top 10 B2B Digital Marketing Trends in 2020

Personalization
Video content and live video
AI and Machine Learning
Voice engagement and Podcasts
B2B Influencer Marketing
Content Marketing
Chatbots and Conversational Selling
Customer Experience
Visual and Interactive Content
ABM

Top Digital Marketing Trends for 2019

Live, Interactive Video
Voice Search
AI/Machine Learning/Chatbots
Data/Privacy/Transparency
Influencer Marketing 2.0
Purpose Driven Brands and Gen Z

Top B2B Marketing Trends for 2021

How the Most Successful B2B Marketers Approach Influencer Marketing in 2021

Lee Odden on Jan 11th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

According to the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report, 96% of B2B marketers that engage influencers consider their program to be successful and 90% expect their budget for influencer marketing to increase or stay the same over the next 12 months.

Why the confidence? 77% of marketers say their prospective customers rely on advice from industry experts with 84% engaging influencers to create brand awareness and 69% counting on influencers for lead generation.

Influence plays a role across the entire B2B customer lifecycle from awareness to advocacy and with B2B marketing going decidedly digital during the pandemic and uncertainty of 2020, the importance of peer, expert and influencer recommendations through social and digital media are more important than ever.

How the Most Successful B2B Marketers Approach Influencer Marketing in 2021

45 B2B Influencer Marketing Statistics to Optimize Your 2021 Marketing

Lee Odden on Jan 4th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

We’ve finally turned the corner to 2021 and like many other marketers in the B2B world, I am ready to make this year better than ever. One source of inspiration I’ve found effective are the insights from industry research. That’s one of the main reasons we conducted the first research survey around B2B influencer marketing.

Having watched the growth of influence in marketing for B2B companies closely over the past 9 years, 2021 represents a significant opportunity for marketers to connect with the trusted voices in their industry to co-create content, inspire meaningful engagement and community, motivate authentic brand advocacy and boost influence of brand executives and subject matter experts as well as the brand itself.

The data for B2B influencer marketing are compelling:

45 B2B Influencer Marketing Statistics to Optimize Your 2021 Marketing

50 Influential Women in B2B Marketing Who Rocked in 2020

Lee Odden on Dec 30th, 2020
B2B Marketing

If there was a year in need of inspiration, 2020 was it. Luckily, we’re continuing our long tradition of highlighting inspirational marketers who are also influential.

Over the past 10 years we’ve honored hundreds of women in marketing doing great work, creating and sharing content, and making a difference in the industry including last year’s 50 Women CMOs Who Rock in Marketing.

In this, the 11th year of publishing the TopRank Blog List of Women Who Rock in Marketing, we’ve taking a more B2B approach. The vast majority of honorees in the 2020 edition of our list work for B2B brands or have a B2B marketing function within a B2C or B2B/B2C brand.

50 Influential Women in B2B Marketing Who Rocked in 2020

Inside Influence 13: Tim Williams from Onalytica on Optimizing B2B Influencer Experiences

Lee Odden on Dec 28th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

In this final 13th episode of Inside Influence where I talk with B2B marketing insiders about what’s working and what’s not in the world of influencer marketing, our perspective has shifted from B2B brands to the influencers themselves.

At TopRank Marketing, we conducted the first in-depth research into B2B influencer marketing which inspired this series and Onalytica recently conducted the first research study of B2B influencers to better understand influencer marketing from their perspective.

Any B2B marketer that wants a complete picture for success with B2B influencer marketing going into 2021 and beyond will benefit greatly from both reports:

The Current State & Future of B2B Influencer Marketing – Onalytica
2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Research Report – TopRank Marketing

Inside Influence 13: Tim Williams from Onalytica on Optimizing B2B Influencer Experiences

Inside Influence 12: Paul Dobson from Citrix on The Secret Sauce of B2B Influence: Authenticity

Lee Odden on Dec 21st, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

As with most marketing, there is no silver bullet to B2B influencer marketing but there are some essential best practices and strategies that have been proven time and time again. To uncover that secret sauce of working with B2B influencers, Episode 12 of the Inside Influence Show features Paul Dobson, Senior Director, Social and Influencer Marketing at Citrix.

In addition to a few highlights from the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing report, we discussed Paul’s experience working with influencers at Citrix as well as:

Where influencer marketing fits in the mix at Citrix
Tips on being great at influencer marketing for a B2B technology brand
Influencer Marketing vs. Influencer Relations
The impact of influencer marketing on customer experience

Inside Influence 12: Paul Dobson from Citrix on The Secret Sauce of B2B Influence: Authenticity

Inside Influence 11: Marshall Kirkpatrick from Sprinklr on Elevating B2B Content with Influencers

Lee Odden on Dec 14th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Without question the digital age we live in is marked by remarkable advancements as well as ease of information creation, distribution and proliferation. As they say, we live in an age of information overload. What can B2B marketers do to stand out? Simply create more “useful content”?

For 2021 and beyond, the bar for stand out B2B marketing is much higher than utility. Our guest, Marshall Kirkpatrick on episode 11 of the Inside Influence Show featuring B2B Marketing Insiders, has some smart insights on how influence can play a role in creating symphonic thinking and connecting the dots between the kinds of insights buyers are attracted to, that drive engagement and action.

Marshall is the founder of Twitter influencer platform Little Bird which was acquired by Sprinklr where he is now Vice President of Influencer Relations, Analyst Relations, and Competitive Intelligence.

Inside Influence 11: Marshall Kirkpatrick from Sprinklr on Elevating B2B Content with Influencers

Inside Influence 10: Ryan Bares from IBM on Influence Inside B2B Brands with Employees

Lee Odden on Dec 7th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

I have always believed that everyone is influential about something and that sentiment is certainly true within B2B companies. In the B2B marketing world, we’ve all come to understand that buyers trust individual voices more than formal marketing and advertising messages, so finding ways to optimize influence internally is becoming a key area of focus.

To drill down into the intersection of employee advocacy and influence, this 1oth episode of Inside Influence features my discussion with Ryan Bares, Global Social Programs Lead: Social Influencers & Employee Advocacy at IBM Systems.

Beyond hitting a few key findings from the The 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing report, Ryan and I covered a lot of ground including:

Increased focus on employees as influencers
Importance of senior B2B execs to grow their influence

Inside Influence 10: Ryan Bares from IBM on Influence Inside B2B Brands with Employees

Inside Influence 9: Brian Solis from Salesforce on How B2B Influence Adds Value to Customers

Lee Odden on Nov 30th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

According to our research in the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report, 74% of marketers surveyed believe that influencer marketing improves prospect and customer experience for B2B brands. If there’s one industry expert to tap on the topic of customer experience, I can think of few more qualified than the author of X: The Experience When Business Meets Design, Brian Solis.

As an 8 time best selling author, keynote speaker, analyst, futurist, digital anthropologist and Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce, Brian is a longtime friend that I’ve been able to collaborate with numerous times on marketing topics.

Inside Influence 9: Brian Solis from Salesforce on How B2B Influence Adds Value to Customers

Inside Influence 8: Srijana Angdembey from Oracle on How Influence Creates Better B2B Customer Experiences

Lee Odden on Nov 23rd, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Improving Customer Experience is one of the top priorities for B2B marketers today. With the challenges of real-world experiences from field marketing to in-person tradeshows all but gone, B2B marketers are focused on figuring out how to maximize digital experiences.

Working with influencers has proven to be an effective solution. In fact, 74% of marketers agree that influencer marketing improves customer and prospect experience with the brand according to the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report. But how are B2B brands working with influencers to create those experiences?

To find out, I reached out to Srijana Angdembey, Director of Social Media Marketing at Oracle for this 8th Episode of Inside Influence – Interviews with B2B Influencer Marketing Insiders. During our talk, we discussed:

Inside Influence 8: Srijana Angdembey from Oracle on How Influence Creates Better B2B Customer Experiences

B2B Marketing News: Digital Marketing Priorities, Ultimate CX, B2B Burnout, The Power of Podcasting

Lee Odden on Nov 20th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Online Marketing News

Where Do Digital Marketers’ Priorities Lie for the Year Ahead?
Digital marketers have a clear vision of their priorities though some are working with less marketing resources than others, according to Altimeter’s State of Digital Marketing report for 2020. The report highlights that organizations are either cutting costs as a response to the financial uncertainties of the crisis or upping investments in digital to keep up with customers moving online. MarketingCharts

The CX Courtship: How B2B Brands Get To The Partnership Stage [Merkle Study]
The B2B customer experience should be just as smooth as B2C. But too often it’s not. Indeed, 35% of businesses with 1,000 or more employees find choosing a B2B supplier to be almost a nightmarish process, judging by Architecting The Ultimate Customer Experience, a study by Merkle, with participation from its gyro and B2B International agencies. MediaPost

B2B Marketing News: Digital Marketing Priorities, Ultimate CX, B2B Burnout, The Power of Podcasting

Inside Influence 7: Pierre-Loïc Assayag from Traackr on Influencer Marketing Technology

Lee Odden on Nov 16th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Scrow: A conjunction of “scale” and “grow”, which is a word I made up to talk about the value of technology when it comes to ramping up the impact of B2B influencer marketing during the latest Inside Influence show about what’s working and what’s not inside the world of B2B Influencer Marketing.

When B2B marketers think about how to “scrow” the success of their influencer marketing, they often start by looking beyond spreadsheets from transactional to more relationship driven influencer models. To support these efforts they often seek influencer marketing platforms.

Inside Influence 7: Pierre-Loïc Assayag from Traackr on Influencer Marketing Technology