Lee Odden

Marketers: We Can Do Better Than Words with Action

Lee Odden on Jun 4th, 2020
Marketing & PR Industry

Minneapolis

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d send an email with the subject line: USA on Fire – What are we doing? What do we say?

My message started with: “The past few days have been tragic and surreal to say the least. I feel we have an obligation to address this internally and in some way, externally. At the same time, I am not 100% clear on what to say.”

I share this because I think a lot of individuals like myself who basically live in a bubble, but are in a position to affect change and have the motivation to do so felt the same way. Who am I to say anything at all?

Marketers: We Can Do Better Than Words with Action

Why SEO & Influence are Critical to Pandemic Era Content Marketing

Lee Odden on May 25th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Influencer Marketing, SEO

On this Memorial Day of 2020, it is important we remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice serving our country – not only in the military, but those on the front lines of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you to first responders, law enforcement, healthcare workers and all that support them!

The health and economic crisis we are all facing now compounds the many other uncertainties of our time including trust and expectations in the brands we buy from. The COVID-19 pandemic and our society’s reaction to it have changed the reality we have lived with into something different and very digital.

Why SEO & Influence are Critical to Pandemic Era Content Marketing

10 Worst Practices for B2B Influencer Marketing

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

When it comes to sharing B2B marketing advice, I prefer not to clown around too much and do my best to be positive and optimistic with trends, insights and how to’s focused on looking forward towards best practices and getting better results.

Marketers expect serious results but unfortunatley, many B2B marketers insist on clowning around with half-hearted or incomplete influencer marketing efforts.

I know this from stories told by brand marketers that have worked with other agencies and from being on the receiving end of clueless pitches, minimum viable engagement efforts and willfully ignorant attempts to get me to promote something I really have no business caring about. I’ve heard much of the same from other people who are often engaged as influencers as well.

10 Worst Practices for B2B Influencer Marketing

The B2B Marketing Force Multiplier: Integrated SEO and Influencer Marketing

Lee Odden on May 11th, 2020
Influencer Marketing, SEO

As business customers with questions are ignoring tone deaf brand marketing (and tiring of Pandemic messaging too) they are increasingly in search of information more than ever. Trust Radius reports that some B2B tech categories are seeing anywhere from 194% to 613% increases in search driven traffic. Search engines are clearly positioned to deliver answers for buyers seeking answers, but where is the trust? And more importantly, is your brand the best answer when and where buyers are looking?

SEO alone is not enough. A study from CSO insights ranked Web searches the 8th most trusted source of information for technology buyers. According to a study by Forbes/Yext, only 50% of customers believe search results. Search ads are not necessarily the solution because 65% of marketers don’t trust them either (HubSpot).

The B2B Marketing Force Multiplier: Integrated SEO and Influencer Marketing

Four Ways to Optimize the Marketing Performance of a B2B Influencer Program

Lee Odden on May 4th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Uncertainty for some is opportunity for others. While much is being said about changes in influencer marketing approach and B2C influencers losing work at scale because events are now cancelled and industries like retail, travel and hospitality have been disrupted due to COVID-19, consumer behavior has decidedly shifted towards digital experiences.

While in-person events have been a staple for B2B marketers, we’ve seen how working with digital influencers on co-created content can be a sound alternative.

How brands approach marketing during a crisis makes the issue of trust even more important. When planned and implemented effectively, B2B influencer marketing programs build trust and confidence for buyers, influencers and the brand.

Four Ways to Optimize the Marketing Performance of a B2B Influencer Program

Always On Influence: Definition and Why B2B Brands Need it to Succeed

Lee Odden on Apr 27th, 2020
Influencer Marketing

Always On Influence Series

Influencer Marketing in the B2B world is fast growing as an essential part of the marketing mix. How brands implement influencer engagement strategies varies from one off campaigns, to event activations to passive social engagement to the topic of this post: Always On Influencer Marketing.

According to research from Linqia. 42% of marketers have shifted to an “always on” influencer marketing strategy from individual campaigns. As B2B companies evolve in their influencer marketing maturity, confidence builds along with the realization that a relationship driven endeavor like engaging with influencers requires an ongoing effort.

The problem is, many B2B marketers still see influencer marketing as something you just turn on or off as needed. Such a short term approach does not yield the full benefit of developing strong content collaboration partnerships with industry influencers that can fuel thought leadership, be repurposed for demand gen and even sales enablement.

Always On Influence: Definition and Why B2B Brands Need it to Succeed

B2C vs. B2B Influencer Marketing – What’s the Difference?

Lee Odden on Apr 20th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

The vast majority of content and industry news coverage around influencer marketing is focused on those who engage consumer audiences: Instagramers, YouTubers, and as of late TikTokers. Of course the world of influence is not limited to consumer products and services. Influencers play an important role in businesses marketing to other businesses as well, whether it’s on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.

So what’s the difference between B2C and B2B influencer marketing? We’ve covered B2B influencer marketing here in depth already with case studies, strategy and best practices, what makes a great B2B influencer, key statistics and more. After 7 plus years of focusing on B2B influencer marketing for some of the top B2B brands in the world, we’ve learned a few things about the practice. From that experience, I’ll focus on what makes for good B2B influencer engagement as a way to understand the difference from B2C.

B2C vs. B2B Influencer Marketing – What’s the Difference?

Where’s the Marketing in Content Marketing? 10 Essential Promotion Tactics That Drive Results

Lee Odden on Apr 13th, 2020
Content Marketing

My marketing journey was born out of SEO roots, where the priority of content promotion has always been high in order to create the kind of accountable marketing performance that matters. In contrast, I see a lot of brands putting the majority or all of their investment towards content creation without qualitative or quantitative effort towards the promotion of that content.

An imbalance of content creation and promotion is not only frustrating potential marketing performance, but it’s wasting the investment made in creating great content. What good is that great content if no one sees it?

Below are 10 content promotion tactics that have stood the test of time and go beyond email blasts, social ads and simple social sharing on brand channels. When promotion is included in the content planning and creation process, it becomes part of a content marketing system that drives the kind of relevant, useful and engaging content customers are looking for.

Where’s the Marketing in Content Marketing? 10 Essential Promotion Tactics That Drive Results

Take the 2020 B2B Influencer Marketing Survey

Lee Odden on Apr 6th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Update: data collection for the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Study has concluded. If you would like to receive a copy of the report, visit our report page here.

Influencer Marketing is positioned to address some of the key B2B marketing challenges of our time: declining buyer trust, improving content quality, reach and effectiveness.

On top of that, business marketers are now faced with the additional challenge of in-person marketing being taken out of the mix with many shifting to pure digital and and purpose driven programs.

Take the 2020 B2B Influencer Marketing Survey

Four Opportunities for Focus to Improve B2B Marketing

Lee Odden on Mar 30th, 2020
B2B Marketing

While uncertainty can be distraction, now is a time for focus in the B2B marketing world. Beyond figuring out the new logistics and operations of remote work, paused marketing efforts and the urgent need to keep employees, customers and community safe and healthy, there’s still a need for marketing. In fact, the areas of focus below are relevant in any time but are worth considering over the coming weeks and months.

Align content strategy with the entire marketing funnel.
Successful business marketers are doing more than ever to understand the customer journey and realize that in today’s environment, buyers are pulling themselves through 60-80% of the funnel with information they find on their own before ever contacting a vendor. Without real-world events and interactions, the current focus on digital engagement pushes that percentage even higher.

Four Opportunities for Focus to Improve B2B Marketing

Marketing During a Pandemic: Stop Pushing and Start Pulling with SEO

Lee Odden on Mar 23rd, 2020
SEO

Customer empathy is at the forefront of the best marketing and tone deaf promotions as if things were normal during the COVID-19 pandemic are probably some of the worst.

When it comes to understanding the customer state of mind right now, I think Dean Shaw from SAS summed it up well on Twitter:

Pro Tip to Companies on what your customers are thinking about right now:
– their health
– their family’s health
– their job
– their savings
– paying their bills
– how to transition to working from home
– their toilet paper supply
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– your product pitch

— deanshaw (@deanshaw) March 21, 2020

Marketing During a Pandemic: Stop Pushing and Start Pulling with SEO