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Alexis Hall

Planning for Change: How to Set Your 2021 Marketing Budget

Alexis Hall
Alexis Hall on Aug 18th, 2020
B2B Marketing

Woman at three monitors images.

If you would have told me in March that I would be sitting at my kitchen table writing a blog post about 2021 marketing budgets in August, I might have invested in a comfier office chair sooner. Many of the decisions we made personally and as marketers in the days and weeks following the declaration of a pandemic were made with limited information.

As an agency, we focused on how to adapt our own day-to-day operations and plans, while helping our clients shift theirs. As time has gone by, and we start to understand more the potential long-term impacts this crisis could have, we are still adapting. However, now is the opportunity — not to be reactive — but to continue to invest in the future.


Planning for Change: How to Set Your 2021 Marketing Budget

4 Qualities Only Great B2B Marketing Agencies Possess

Alexis Hall
Alexis Hall
B2B Marketing

Northern Lights Over Lake Image

Is your agency a vendor or a partner?

In response to the shifting market and evolving role of the CMO, agency-brand partnerships are shrinking in average duration, less than three years now, compared to over seven in 1984. But strategic, strong partnerships between brands and agencies have become increasingly important as 64% of CMOs expect to feel more pressure to demonstrate tangible short term results in the next 2-3 years.

This pressure also signals a big opportunity for CMOs to demonstrate the value of marketing as a strategic function with organizations. The right agency, that can support the brand in a true partnership, can be critical in helping CMOs achieve their goals and win over the rest of the C-suite.


4 Qualities Only Great B2B Marketing Agencies Possess

Tales from the Trenches: How to Transition from Marketing Doer to Marketing Leader

Alexis Hall
Alexis Hall
Digital Marketing

I was roughly five years into my marketing career when I began managing my first direct report. It was the biggest challenge I faced yet. I was now being evaluated on the actions, successes, and failures of another person—and I also knew it was my responsibility to give them the support and tools they needed to have more successes than failures.

I felt as if I didn’t know how to influence, motivate, or persuade another person. But I was given the opportunity to try and to learn. I had a great group of bosses, mentors, and peers giving me advice, listening to my concerns or wins, and allowing me to make mistakes.


Tales from the Trenches: How to Transition from Marketing Doer to Marketing Leader

How to Power Marketing Presentations With Data Visualization & Win Over Your Audience

Alexis Hall
Alexis Hall
B2B Marketing, Digital Marketing

Data Visualization for Marketing Presentations

We’ve all been there. We’re five minutes into (what we thought would be) a riveting, data-driven presentation, yet a quick scan of the room reveals the audience is staring blankly at our data tables as we drone on. Or worse, someone asks a pointed question about what they do or don’t see and the discussion goes completely of course. Yikes.

Perhaps the best advice I ever received in this regard was so simple yet incredibly smart: “Try it as a line graph.”

I had presented a data-backed presentation and robust recommended next steps, but whether it was boredom or data suspicion that crept in, I failed to make my case. After the weeks I spent looking at a spreadsheet, I took that visionary advice. When the day came to remake my case, that line graph immediately won my critics over.


How to Power Marketing Presentations With Data Visualization & Win Over Your Audience

Pump it Up: How to Maximize Your B2B Content Marketing Campaign Investments

Alexis Hall
Alexis Hall
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Let’s talk shoes for a moment. Years ago, I purchased a stunning pair Jimmy Choo stiletto pumps; they were all the rage at that time. I’d been eyeing them for months and I convinced myself that this rather spendy investment would pay dividends in style and wearability.

When my Choos made their public debut, I was showered with compliments on how gorgeous they were. I was feeling great.

via GIPHY

Of course, a few hours later a shooting pain in my Achilles tendon meant it was time to give them a rest, so I changed into tennis shoes.

Today, those shoes are collecting dust in my closet. And every time I see them, I feel a mixture of regret (perhaps not my wisest investment after all) and longing to take them out for another spin (with the right insoles at a sitting event).


Pump it Up: How to Maximize Your B2B Content Marketing Campaign Investments

How B2B Marketers Can Strategically Test New Digital Marketing Tactics

Alexis Hall
Alexis Hall
B2B Marketing, Digital Marketing

How to Strategically Test New B2B Marketing Tactics

When it comes to testing new marketing tactics, B2B marketers often find themselves in one of two camps:

  1. Chasing the new, shiny object. (Their motto: Let’s innovate, innovate, innovate!)
  2. Maintaining the status quo. (Their motto: We don’t mess with what’s working.)

Whichever camp you currently find yourself in, chances are high that you’re intrigued by what the other has to offer. The chasers are fearless innovators who are eager to test any new platform, media type, or strategy—and the keepers of the status quo are methodical budget managers who have proven tactics and processes on lockdown.

However, we’d suggest finding a middle (camp)ground: Testing strategically. (Your motto: I test to add to my success.)


How B2B Marketers Can Strategically Test New Digital Marketing Tactics

How to Choose a B2B Marketing Agency that Can Evolve with Your Needs

Alexis Hall
Alexis Hall
B2B Marketing, Digital Marketing

How to Choose an Agency That Will Evolve with Your Needs

B2B brands’ marketing departments are constantly evolving. Over the past 10 years, marketing teams have undergone a seismic shift to accommodate changing technology, millennial consumers and employees, and to breakdown silos between marketing and the rest of the business.

To keep pace with the changing marketplace, many B2B brands are working to find the perfect balance between growing out their in-house digital marketing team and partnering with an external digital marketing agency. Most brands are seeking agency partners to provide a spectrum of services, from tactical support to creative strategy and content innovation. And they need a partner that can adapt and evolve along with their marketing needs and opportunities.

So, the question is: To find that partner that can grow and adapt to your needs, what should you be looking for?


How to Choose a B2B Marketing Agency that Can Evolve with Your Needs

5 Common Digital Marketing Data & Analytics Challenges and How to Start Solving Them

Alexis Hall
Alexis Hall
Digital Marketing

The volume and velocity of the data at our fingertips today has the power to transform the way we do marketing. Armed with the right data about our target audience, we can reach them at the right time, in the right place, with the best tailored messages. Given the deluge of marketing messages inundating consumers and B2B buyers at every moment, it’s critical that your marketing messages be the most relevant in order to break through the clutter.

However, many of us still aren’t using data to its full potential. Only 30% of B2B marketers use data to inform decision-making. That’s because harnessing data is hard. Over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated every day, across so many different people, channels, devices, and technologies. And nearly 50% of marketers say they don’t have the the right people, processes, and technologies in place to make use all of that data to make an impact.


5 Common Digital Marketing Data & Analytics Challenges and How to Start Solving Them

How Collaborating with Influencers Can Help You Save the Day and Change the World of Marketing

Alexis Hall
Alexis Hall
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing, MarketingProfs B2B Forum

Influencer marketing is a phrase on the tip of most marketer’s tongues, but many are still struggling to figure out exactly what it means in the context of their B2B business and how to implement.

At last week’s MarketingProfs B2B Forum in San Francisco, TopRank Marketing’s Ashley Zeckman took the stage to help set the influencer marketing story straight and provide insights into what it REALLY takes to develop a successful B2B influencer marketing program.

Why the Sudden Need for Influencer Marketing?

Trust in marketers has fallen. In fact, a recent study by HubSpot found that only 3% of people trust marketers (just over lobbyists and politicians). And B2B marketers specifically are facing the worst of it. MarketingProfs and CMI’s most recent report found that only 51% of B2B marketers state that their marketing is moderately successful and 61% of them still don’t have a document content strategy.


How Collaborating with Influencers Can Help You Save the Day and Change the World of Marketing

Webinars That Wow: 5 Tips for Create Engaging Webinars #MPB2B

Alexis Hall
Alexis Hall
Marketing PR Conferences, MarketingProfs B2B Forum, Online Marketing

Creating Engaging Webinar Experiences

Think about it. Do you enjoy being marketed to?

As marketers, we love our jobs; we love marketing. But like anyone else, it’s safe to say that we don’t enjoy receiving cold pitch emails, or downloading gated white papers, or spotting that “Request a Demo” ad for the 10th time.

As Mark Bornstein, Vice President of Content Marketing at ON24, said during his Keys to Engagement Driven Webinars session at MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum 2018, we’ve a reached a tipping point.

While the channels have changed, marketers are still very much relying on passive tactics that simply don’t engage. Modern audiences want to learn, but they also want to be inspired. And our professional expectations are very much evolving alongside our personal lives. With the Netflix model, we can choose to consume the content we want, when we want to.


Webinars That Wow: 5 Tips for Create Engaging Webinars #MPB2B

How High Impact Marketers Approach Marketing Strategy #MPB2B

Alexis Hall
Alexis Hall
B2B Marketing, MarketingProfs B2B Forum

Planning for 2019 is well underway and most marketers are asking themselves if their plan will really impact results. Many marketers start with goal revenue numbers. And from there, work backwards to corresponding goals for leads, channels, tactics and audience targets. Unfortunately, the words that no marketer wants to hear ring clear from leadership: do more with less budget.

So how can you do more with less? How can you ensure success in the ever-changing landscape of the B2B consumer?

Samantha Stone, the Founder of the Marketing Advisory Network, suggests that marketers flip the usual model for 2019 planning. If you start with marketing strategy,  you can stop doing “more” and instead focus on a few tactics your team executes incredibly well, that can have a significant impact on the organization.


How High Impact Marketers Approach Marketing Strategy #MPB2B

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

Alexis Hall
Alexis Hall
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
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