Joshua Nite

How B2B Marketers Can Benefit From Working With More Diverse Influencers

Joshua Nite on Aug 1st, 2022
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

When was the last time you saw someone in a wheelchair in your day-to-day life? Someone just going about their daily routine, who also happened to be in a wheelchair?

Now, when was the last time you saw someone in a wheelchair as a main character in a movie — a movie that wasn’t entirely about being in a wheelchair?

You can apply that same thought experiment to any type of diversity: race, gender, sexuality, body size and shape are all underrepresented in the media.

If a cisgender, heterosexual white man like me can see this lack of representation, how does it look and feel to those who are in marginalized groups? What is the entertainment industry missing out on by ignoring these voices?

How B2B Marketers Can Benefit From Working With More Diverse Influencers

4 Secret Successes of B2B Influencer Marketing

Joshua Nite on Jul 19th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Does B2B influencer marketing work?

We asked marketers that question for our new 2022 B2B Influencer Marketing Report. The result: 86% said their programs were either moderately or very successful.

But what’s more interesting is how the marketers we surveyed are defining success.

We tend to think of influencer marketing as a top-of-funnel tactic. While it’s definitely effective for raising awareness and building credibility, the benefits don’t stop there.

Here are four surprising benefits that B2B marketers are seeing with smart influencer marketing.

#1 — Lead Gen & Revenue

Influencer marketing can bring in prospects to your brand, even without having the influencer endorse your solution or give a sales pitch. In fact, over half of our respondents said their influencer program is directly responsible for generating new leads. What’s more, 33% said they can directly attribute revenue to their program.

4 Secret Successes of B2B Influencer Marketing

5 Ways Influencer Marketing Builds Trust for B2B Brands

Joshua Nite on Jun 20th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Ever notice that the people who say, “trust me,” are the least trustworthy people around? Something about those two little words immediately puts people on guard. If you were really trustworthy, we think, you wouldn’t have to ask.

Right now, we have a serious trust gap in our cultural institutions. The Edelman Trust Barometer for this year shows a continued downward spiral. Nearly half of respondents view the government and the media as divisive forces in society, rather than sources of reliable information.

“Trust me,” says the senator. “Trust ME,” says the pundit. And most of us say, “no, thank you.”

This trust gap may seem like the perfect opportunity for business to step in. After all, B2B brands want to be trusted advisors to potential clients. The only problem is, even if consumers trust us more than the government or media… they still don’t trust us all that much.

5 Ways Influencer Marketing Builds Trust for B2B Brands

6 Ways Livestreaming Video Can Boost B2B Marketing Results

Joshua Nite on Jun 6th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Video

There’s at least one thing that became popular during the pandemic that I hope sticks around. No, not sourdough starters or puzzles — I’m talking about live streaming performances.

It’s funny: You can go to YouTube right now and pull up dozens of recorded contents from your favorite bands, whether they’re playing stadiums or dive bars. But there’s no substitute for watching it happen live. There’s an intimacy and immediacy that even the highest-def recording can’t match.

And livestreams aren’t just for musicians or comedians, either. B2B brands can use the format to reach and engage people in new and interesting ways. It’s no coincidence that our client LinkedIn, in its quest to become the destination for B2B marketing, now boasts robust livestreaming video capabilities.

6 Ways Livestreaming Video Can Boost B2B Marketing Results

Episodic Expansion: How to Optimize B2B Experiences by Expanding Your Podcast to Full-On Video

Joshua Nite on May 23rd, 2022
B2B Marketing

Podcasts have been having their 15 minutes of fame for nearly a decade now. For marketers, we’ve seen podcasts go from off the radar, to a wide open new channel, to an established, even crowded, medium.

It’s true that it’s harder to build a subscriber base now than it was at the beginning of the B2B podcast boom. That doesn’t mean podcasts aren’t a valuable channel, however — just that it takes strategy and time to realize their full potential.

No, the proliferation of podcasts means that you should be repurposing your podcast content for other channels. This content can help drive traffic to the podcast, raise awareness of your brand’s thought leadership, and even become superstar content in its own right.

Episodic Expansion: How to Optimize B2B Experiences by Expanding Your Podcast to Full-On Video

The Business Case for Awesome B2B Content

Joshua Nite on May 9th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Have you seen Everything Everywhere All at Once? It’s a must-watch for everyone, but especially B2B marketers.

The movie tells a simple story about healing generational trauma. But it does so using multiverse travel, kung fu fighting, a truckload of googly eyes, and much more.

Simply put, it’s awesome. You have to admire the bravery of both the filmmakers and the financiers, who read this script and went, “Yup, that seems reasonable.”

Marketers could use a healthy dose of that kind of courage. Awesome content doesn’t overwhelm the story you’re telling the audience — in fact, it makes your message more likely to stick.

The Business Case for Awesome B2B Content

Does B2B Influencer Marketing REALLY Work?

Joshua Nite on Apr 4th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Online Marketing

Does B2B influencer marketing really work image

B2B marketers are always being told to borrow tactics from B2C. But imagine if B2B companies practiced influencer marketing the way B2C brands do. You pick a star with a huge following on social media, pay them to promote your product, and get a ton of reach…

Spoof ad with Taylor Swift promoting cloud storage solutions

…and I’ll write your name.

It’s easy to see why this tactic wouldn’t work. No offense to Ms. Swift, but only a sliver of her followers are likely to be in the market for a new SaaS solution. More to the point, Taylor’s audience doesn’t come to her for business suggestions. She has the reach, but not the relevance.

So, can influencer marketing work for B2B?

Does B2B Influencer Marketing REALLY Work?

Fast-Forward: 4 Business Problems Solved by B2B Content Marketing

Joshua Nite on Mar 28th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

For B2B business, the pandemic was a magnifying glass pointing out the cracks in systems. We discovered just how fast digital transformation can be when our livelihoods are on the line. We found that global supply chains aren’t as resilient as we thought. We found that remote work is far more viable an option than we’d been led to believe.

None of these realizations were brand new — we were just able to see them clearly for the first time.

The same is true of B2B buyer behavior. When we talk about how the pandemic changed B2B sales and marketing, what we mean is that we can finally see what we have missed before.

Fast-Forward: 4 Business Problems Solved by B2B Content Marketing

The Gated Content Dilemma in B2B Marketing: Here Are the Best Practices

Joshua Nite on Mar 9th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Q: How many lead gen marketers does it take to change a lightbulb?

A: Please fill out the form below and we will email you the punchline.

The great gate debate continues to rage throughout the B2B marketing world. What once was a landscape full of sparse landing pages with lead gen forms has become an ocean of content. But still, there’s little consensus about how to get the most value out of what we marketers create.

Does ungating content devalue it? Does gating content make it inaccessible to the audience you’re most trying to reach? We all agree that getting people’s contact information is a value exchange. The debate is whether we offer the value first, or we demand that the reader do so.

The Gated Content Dilemma in B2B Marketing: Here Are the Best Practices

Why Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Matter More than Ever for B2B Marketing

Joshua Nite on Feb 7th, 2022
B2B Marketing

The team at TopRank Marketing asked me to write a blog post on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in B2B Marketing.

Every introduction I wrote rang hollow. I talked about how representation matters, including a post with an adorable kid overjoyed at seeing himself onscreen in Encanto. I tried starting with a statistic about brand values.

I tried starting with a question: What is a cis straight white guy doing writing a post about diversity, equity and inclusion?

The idea was to follow up that rhetorical question with a post that would justify its own existence.

But it turns out that question isn’t rhetorical at all: It demands an answer. And I don’t have a good one.

Why Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Matter More than Ever for B2B Marketing

Who Is the New B2B Buyer and How Do You Connect with Them?

Joshua Nite on Jan 11th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

We all know that Millennials are out-of-control college kids doing shots on Spring Break. And Gen Z are the 10-year-olds currently being raised by TikTok, right?

Hold onto your hats: The youngest Millennials are in their late-twenties. The oldest Gen Zs are 25 — that means they’re out of school and in the workforce. These two demographics are the fastest-growing cohort of B2B buyers.

And they don’t think like Boomers or Gen Xers.

So how do B2B marketers reach these mysterious digital natives? Here are a few pointers.

How to Connect with the New B2B Buyer

You don’t need the latest slang to speak authentically to younger audiences (though I find the new slang totes yeet). Just keep in mind these preferences.

Who Is the New B2B Buyer and How Do You Connect with Them?

B2B Tech Marketing Opportunities for a Remote Work World

Joshua Nite on Dec 2nd, 2021
B2B Marketing

Right now my co-worker is curled up at my feet, delicately snoring. That’s better than yesterday, when my other co-worker snuck off and shredded an entire roll of paper towels.

I should mention that I work at home, and Remy and Rosie are my co-workers:

Which is to say: Remote work is a whole different animal than office work. And while the pandemic was the catalyst that sent us home, remote work will be here long after it’s safe to go back to the office.

For B2B tech companies, remote work presents new opportunities for products and services. Here are a few trends our agency has been seeing, and how our clients have met them.

B2B Tech Marketing Opportunities for a Remote Work World