B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®

B2B Marketing views, news and interviews.

Lee Odden

Inside B2B Influence: Justin Levy of Demandbase on Optimizing B2B Marketing with Influence

Justin Levy Inside B2B Influencer Marketing

If you’re new to this series, Inside B2B Influence is a podcast and video series that goes behind the scenes of B2B marketing and showcases conversations with industry experts on influencer marketing for B2B companies. We’re doing our best here at  TopRank Marketing Blog to elevate the practice of growing influence within and outside of B2B brands to drive thought leadership, create demand and grow revenue.

In Episode 15 of Inside B2B Influence, Justin Levy, (@justinlevy) Director of Social and Influencer Marketing at Demandbase (client) and I connected to help answer some key questions about working with influencers at a technology company. I’ve known Justin for many years and we’re both members of the esteemed Marketing Fitness Group on Facebook. His work with influencers goes all the way back to when he and Chris Brogan ran a marketing agency back in 2008.


Inside B2B Influence: Justin Levy of Demandbase on Optimizing B2B Marketing with Influence

5 Tips for Empowering Enterprise SEO Success

Lee Odden
Lee Odden on Jun 28th, 2021
Enterprise SEO, SEO

Enterprise SEO

Large scale search engine optimization projects are often viewed as a golden egg career opportunity for many SEO professionals. Big budget projects and well-known brand names can look great on a resume. Unfortunately, many search marketers quickly realize that the golden egg actually came from a large, slow moving tortoise.

Many Search Marketers are accustomed to optimization projects where the advice they are paid to give is communicated directly and for the most part, actually implemented. Those same marketers may not be prepared to adapt SEO processes to accommodate the operational and communication needs of large, complex organizations. Successful enterprise SEO projects require a unique combination of creative and mechanical SEO expertise as well as large company political savvy.


5 Tips for Empowering Enterprise SEO Success

Inside B2B Influence 14: Ann Handley of MarketingProfs on Content Marketing and Influence

Ann Handley

Inside B2B Influence is a show that goes behind the scenes of B2B marketing and showcases conversations with insiders from the world of influencer marketing. We connect with influential practitioners at B2B brands of all kinds and sizes to answer the rising number of questions about working with influencers in a business context.

In this first episode of the second season of Inside B2B Influence, I was able to catch up with the incredibly popular, talented and beloved Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs, Ann Handley. I’ve known Ann for well over 10 years and she’s been a great friend, client and source of inspiration to me about more meaningful content marketing.


Inside B2B Influence 14: Ann Handley of MarketingProfs on Content Marketing and Influence

Optimize for B2B Customers with Digital First Content Marketing

Digital First B2B Content

The evolution of B2B marketing has required companies to extend the transformations and pivots made during the pandemic to more permanent changes in marketing driven by evolving consumer preferences for information discovery, consumption and interaction. B2B marketing is evolved as a digital first practice and there’s no going back.

While most marketers understand it is simply not enough to rely on push marketing tactics and advertising, they still rely on these familiar and comfortable tactics.

Today’s business customers have more content choices in text, images, audio, video and interactive formats on more devices than ever. They expect more than just useful information from the brands they buy from.


Optimize for B2B Customers with Digital First Content Marketing

Top 5 Benefits of Influencer Marketing for B2B Brands

Benefits B2B influencer marketing

Despite that 96% of marketers engaging influencers for marketing deem their programs successful, there are still a very large number of B2B companies evaluating where influencer engagement fits in their marketing mix.

After spending the last 8 plus years working on developing influencer marketing strategies, creating pilot projects, implementing campaigns and running ongoing influencer programs for brands that range from 3M to Dell to LinkedIn, here are some of the top benefits B2B companies of all sizes are realizing through their influencer marketing efforts.

Before I get to the list, I think it’s important to mention that benefits realized are directly connected to goals imagined. That may seem obvious but the application of influence to marketing is viewed in many different ways and therefore, the outcomes can be just as different.


Top 5 Benefits of Influencer Marketing for B2B Brands

How B2B Marketers Can Build a Community of Influence with Content

B2B Community of Influence with Content
One of the most compelling scenarios for B2B marketers to build content and community is through a combination user generated content (UGC) and strategic content collaborations. To do this, many B2B brands will initiate ongoing social media content and engagement programs to stimulate dialog with customers, community and influencers to build essential relationships.

With B2B marketing shifting to digital first, there is more demand for content than ever, but there are also resource challenges with the need to continuously create new content. At the same time traditional social media and content marketing can have trust issues if the brand isn’t engaging with the community or the right influencers on a regular basis. A content marketing focused solution that solves for both of those challenges that also helps build community and influence for B2B brands can be found through participation marketing – aka, user generated content in the form of content collaborations with external influencers, brand community and customers.


How B2B Marketers Can Build a Community of Influence with Content

10 Ways to Drive Revenue through Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi

Drive Revenue Content Marketing

Huge congratulations to Joe Pulizzi on the release of the completely updated and expanded edition of Content Inc. Also thanks to Joe for contributing one of the handful of guest posts we’ve ever accepted here at TopRank’s B2B Marketing Blog. Along with thousands of other marketers, I’ve learned a lot from Joe and you will too. 

Read on to discover 10 ways you can drive revenue for your business through content marketing from the Godfather of Content Marketing himself:

Content Inc Revenue ModelWhether you are a marketing professional, content entrepreneur or a media executive, driving revenue from an audience is always the same. Once you build a loyal and trusting audience through your content marketing or media strategy, there are 10 different ways to generate revenue: six direct sources and four indirect sources.


10 Ways to Drive Revenue through Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi

Content Marketing Optimization Audits – Find Where SEO Can Boost Content Marketing Success

Lee Odden
Lee Odden on May 17th, 2021
Content Marketing, SEO

Content Marketing Optimization Audits

SEO and content marketing intersect in more ways than optimizing web pages with keywords.

Answering the question, “How does SEO and content marketing strategy interact?” starts with understanding customers, behaviors and preferences for information discovery, consumption and sharing. Knowing what customers care about and how those concerns and interests manifest as search keywords and social topics folds very well into the keyword research practiced by professional SEOs.

Keyword Glossaries and Editorial Plans can be valuable tools for marketers to aid in creating relevant content that is inherently optimized for customers and target audiences alike. Specific keyword optimization is appropriate as well, but the end content product becomes much easier to find, consume and share if an understanding of customer questions is translated into topics and keywords from the start. This is the core of how brands can become the best answer for what customers are looking for.


Content Marketing Optimization Audits – Find Where SEO Can Boost Content Marketing Success

B2B Marketing News: Optimizing CX Study, AI Disrupts B2B Sales, B2B Influencer Marketing on the Rise

Lee Odden
Lee Odden on May 14th, 2021
B2B Marketing

Digital Customer Experience Optimization

Website Optimization A Key Upcoming Focus for Customer Experience Design
60% of B2C and B2B marketers believe that designing an effective customer experience is very important in gaining a competitive advantage in their market according to research by Ascend2. A high level of customer experience has a demonstrable impact on customer loyalty behaviors. As such, delivering a better customer experience is one of the top priorities of CEOs across the globe in the next few years. MarketingCharts

Forrester Report: B2B Marketers Need to Lead, Not Support
For B2B marketers, it’s no longer enough to define and protect the brand, help generate leads, and support sales. Going forward, B2B marketing leaders also need to be leaders within their organizations. Rather than supporting other functions and stakeholders, marketing needs to “become the architect of organizational success,” according to the forthcoming “The Future of B2B Marketing” report from Forrester. Chief Marketer


B2B Marketing News: Optimizing CX Study, AI Disrupts B2B Sales, B2B Influencer Marketing on the Rise

Trust and the Search for Answers: How Influence Optimizes SEO Performance

influence search optimization

According to the annual Global Digital Overview Report from We Are Social and Hootsuite, 81% of internet users search online for a product or service to buy and 74% have purchased online. Without question, digital engagement and commerce is the new normal and is as relevant for B2B companies as it has been for B2C.

During the pandemic, search engines have become even more important as B2B brands and buyers alike digital transform to virtual engagement for information discovery, consumption and interaction. As a result, many companies have invested more in search engine optimization in order to capture the fast-growing opportunities to be the best answer for customers at the moment of need – when actively searching for solutions.

Best practices for SEO abound on the web including this list from SEMrush:


Trust and the Search for Answers: How Influence Optimizes SEO Performance

Beyond SEO: B2B Content Optimization for Trust and Customer Experience

B2B marketing optimization

As the world’s most popular search engine, Google says its mission is to “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”

To be the best answer for customers that are looking for solutions, B2B marketers need to understand the opportunities to make information easy for search engines to find, index, and sort in search results.

A big part of optimizing the customer’s search experience is understanding myriad data sources and file types that can be included in search results. By understanding these opportunities, B2B marketers can inventory their digital assets and create a better, more holistic SEO strategy that realizes the benefit of inclusion and visibility in all the places and formats that matter to customers who are looking.


Beyond SEO: B2B Content Optimization for Trust and Customer Experience