B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®

B2B Marketing views, news and interviews.

Lee Odden

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

Paul Dobson Citrix

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

Marshall Kirkpatrick Sprinklr

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

Ryan Bares

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

Brian Solis Inside Influence

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

Srijana-Angdembey Oracle

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

Digital Marketing Priorities 2020

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

Pierre-Loic-Assayag

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

Inside Influence 6: Amisha Gandhi from SAP on the Power of Mutual Value in B2B Influencer Marketing

Amisha Gandhi SAP Inside Influence

The latest edition of Inside Influence: What’s working and what’s not inside the world of B2B Influencer Marketing, features B2B Influencer Marketing “OG”, Amisha Gandhi, VP Influencer Marketing & Communications at SAP. At TopRank Marketing, we’ve had the pleasure of working with Amisha for several years on a variety of influencer marketing programs from the launch of SAP Leonardo to developing a virtual reality experience featuring influencers for use at tradeshows.

In this 6th episode of Inside Influence, I talk with Amisha about the power of how creating mutual value between B2B brands and influencers drives returns across the customer lifecycle. Of course we also hit a few highlights of the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report.

In this 6th Episode of Inside Influence, we cover:


Inside Influence 6: Amisha Gandhi from SAP on the Power of Mutual Value in B2B Influencer Marketing

Inside Influence 5: Jen Holtvluwer from Spiron on Award Winning B2B Influencer Marketing

Jen Holtvluwer

When we conducted our research for the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report, we found what the most successful B2B marketers have in common. They:

  • Have a Documented Influencer Marketing Strategy
  • Engage in Always-On Influencer Engagement
  • Have a Centralized Influencer Program
  • Use Software to Identify Influencers
  • Rely on Experts and Analysts
  • Use Blogs as Content Platforms
  • Create Interactive Content with Influencers

Check out the full interview podcast here:

Learning from those who are already successful in a fast growing discipline is what the Inside Influence: What’s working and what’s not inside the world of B2B Influencer Marketing show is all about.


Inside Influence 5: Jen Holtvluwer from Spiron on Award Winning B2B Influencer Marketing

Inside Influence 4: Janine Wegner from Dell on Thought Leadership and Influencer Relations

Janine Wegner Interview

Today marks the 4th installment of the Inside B2B Influence series: What’s working and what’s not inside the world of B2B Influencer Marketing. I want to thank everyone who has viewed the interviews, made comments and shared with their networks. This week we’re continuing our search to explore the world of B2B influencer marketing with insights from the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report.

Episode 4 of Inside B2B Influence features guest insider, Janine Wegner, Global Thought Leadership Program and Activation Manager at Dell Technologies who our agency TopRank Marketing has the pleasure of working with on influencer content marketing programs like The Zettabyte World – Securing our Data-Rich Future.

Janine and I were able to dig into a topic that I think represents a huge opportunity for influencer integration: the intersection of thought leadership.


Inside Influence 4: Janine Wegner from Dell on Thought Leadership and Influencer Relations

Inside Influence 3: Ursula Ringham from SAP on Influencer Marketing Operations

Ursula Ringham SAP Interview

Welcome to the 3rd episode of Inside B2B Influence: What’s working and what’s not inside the world of B2B Influencer Marketing. Each week we feature an interview with a B2B marketing insider on all things influence and a deeper dive into the insights found in the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report.

In this 3rd episode of Inside Influence you are in for a treat: A discussion with the force of nature and client of TopRank Marketing that is Ursula Ringham, Head of Global Influencer Marketing at SAP.

Ursula leads the Global Influencer Marketing team at SAP in collaboration with the entire SAP product portfolio to create innovative content with trusted external voices to build brand awareness and create pipeline. She is also an accomplished storyteller, author, creator, influencer marketer, digital innovator, social media maven, champion of girls education, and self described “outdoor sports freak”.


Inside Influence 3: Ursula Ringham from SAP on Influencer Marketing Operations

B2B Marketing News: Demand Gen Adapts, B2B Buyers Taking Longer, Microsoft Digital Marketing Center Beta

Gartner Hype Cycle AI

The Gartner Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, 2020 – Chatbots are projected to see over a 100% increase in their adoption rates in the next two to five years and are the leading AI use cases in enterprises today. Forbes

Bing is now Microsoft Bing as the search engine gets a rebrand – Microsoft doesn’t go into detail about why it added the company’s name to the Bing brand, other than it reflecting “the continued integration of our search experiences across the Microsoft family. The Verge

68% of B2B buyers say the length of their purchase cycles has increased over last year – The COVID-19 pandemic has led many B2B firms to lengthen their purchase cycles and to expect more personalized attention from vendors, according to recent research from Demand Gen Report. MarketingProfs


B2B Marketing News: Demand Gen Adapts, B2B Buyers Taking Longer, Microsoft Digital Marketing Center Beta