B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®

B2B Marketing views, news and interviews.

Joshua Nite

20 Marketing Jokes for Marketers Working from Home

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on May 28th, 2020
B2B Marketing, B2C Marketing, Content Marketing

Laughing Man at Laptop Image

I’m not here to lie to you: Sheltering in place is getting pretty old. 

I do count my blessings, of course. My family and I are healthy. My wife and I both can work from home; our kids are pretty great; we actually enjoy each others’ company. 

Still. There are only so many loaves of bread you can bake, puzzles you can solve, board games you can play before the ennui sets in. 

If you’re like me, you could use a laugh right now. And I need to exercise my comedy muscles before they atrophy.

And in a world where people are still writing articles called, “Should You Include Humor in Your B2B Content,” we need constant reminders that people like jokes. People like to laugh. Laughter brings you closer to your audience and creates a connection.


20 Marketing Jokes for Marketers Working from Home

Break Free B2B Marketing: Latane Conant of 6sense on Reinventing the CMO Role

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on May 19th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Online Marketing

Latane Conant

What’s in a job title? In my tenure as a marketer, I’ve met gurus who don’t live on mountaintops, ninjas who don’t know martial arts, and evangelists who don’t preach on Sunday. 

At worst, these creative job titles are pure puffery. But at best, they serve as a statement of purpose. I’m thinking of titles like Shep Hyken’s Chief Amazement Officer, or Ann Handley as Chief Content Officer: They tell us something about what the person — and their organization — values.

Latane Conant from 6sense has a subtly unusual job title: Chief Market Officer. She dropped the ‘ing’ from ‘Marketing,’ and that tiny change signals a major shift in the way she approaches her job. Instead of focusing on the verb of marketing — what tactics to deploy to reach an audience —  her job is to deeply understand the market, the people her brand is trying to reach.


Break Free B2B Marketing: Latane Conant of 6sense on Reinventing the CMO Role

Break Free B2B Marketing: Lisa Sharapata of 6sense on the End of the MQL

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on May 5th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Online Marketing

Lisa Sharapata from 6sense

What do we mean when we talk about a transformation in marketing?

Let me put it this way. The switch from horses to cars was a transformation. It was a fundamental rethinking of the way that humans move. We went from, “Find an animal that can go further and faster than you can and ride on it,” to “Burn fuel and use the energy to turn a motor that transfers the power to wheels.”

Every improvement since then — from V8 engines to power steering — has just been an iteration on the theme. A little faster, a little more efficient, a little safer, but iteration, not transformation.


Break Free B2B Marketing: Lisa Sharapata of 6sense on the End of the MQL

Should B2B Marketers Embrace Ephemeral Content?

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on Apr 23rd, 2020
B2B Marketing, Social Media

Burning Matches Emphemeral Content Image

One great thing about being a young Gen X’er: There was no social media during my junior high and high school years. 

Young millennials weren’t so lucky. They chronicled their adolescence in excruciating detail on Myspace, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, every half-formed thought and laundry-detergent-eating stunt preserved forever.

So it’s no surprise that the youngest social media users leapt on Snapchat when it launched. Snapchat Stories provided the feeling of togetherness that social media’s good at, without the potential to embarrass your future self.

Other platforms were quick to buy into the idea of ephemeral content — content that expires and is deleted after a set period of time, usually 24 hours. Instagram’s creatively-named offering, Instagram Stories, boasts 500 million daily users. That’s more daily users for a single feature on Instagram than there are for the entirety of Twitter. 


Should B2B Marketers Embrace Ephemeral Content?

Break Free B2B Marketing: Sruthi Kumar on Creating Memorable Experiences

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on Apr 21st, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Online Marketing

Break Free B2B with Sruthi Kumar

Marketers are in the business of attracting attention. All of our tactics, our strategies, our goals boil down to: Did we get someone’s attention and inspire them to take action?

The key to modern marketing is that we have to earn that attention. There will always be someone on who is louder, funnier, more talented, or just less shameless than your brand is willing to be. The only way to truly capture and sustain someone’s focus is to earn the right to their time. 

How do you earn attention? By providing remarkable experiences. By showing you care about your audience, you know who they are, and that your brand is here to help and to entertain them. 


Break Free B2B Marketing: Sruthi Kumar on Creating Memorable Experiences

6 Unconventional Social Channels for B2B Marketing

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on Apr 9th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Social Media

Hand Holding Phone At Urban Overlook

This just in: B2B doesn’t have to be boring! People who are on B2B buying committees like to be entertained just as much as everyone else. They use the same social media sites as B2C consumers do, too. 

Sorry to drop so many knowledge bombs in one paragraph. Take a minute to let it all sink in.

Okay, so maybe self-isolation is making me more snarky than usual. I’m glad that we don’t have to constantly explain why B2B marketing not only can be, but must be relatable and creative.

But there’s one mental obstacle most of us are still struggling with: The idea that social media marketing (outside of LinkedIn) is mostly for our B2C colleagues. We’ve accepted that we should have a Twitter account or a Facebook page, but that’s where a lot of organizations draw the line.


6 Unconventional Social Channels for B2B Marketing

5 Ways SEO Can Shine a Light on Your Unseen B2B Content

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on Apr 2nd, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, SEO

Hidden Content Image

“Look, marketers. Everywhere the light touches is content beloved by customers.”

“But what about that shadowy place over there?”

“That’s our unseen content. We worked hard to create it, but nobody ever visits it.”

“That’s really depressing.”

“That’s life.”

Okay, sorry to bring the room down. And I’m also sorry to say that it gets worse. A recent study found that 69% of all web content is not seen by consumers.

Hidden Content Image
The remaining 31% is our kingdom.

Fortunately, there are many ways to create content that beats the odds. For example, you can co-create with influencers, or experiment with interactive content that inspires social media sharing. But what about the content you have already created? The really good stuff that never caught on with an audience?


5 Ways SEO Can Shine a Light on Your Unseen B2B Content

The B2B Marketer’s Journey To Experiential Content at #B2BMX

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on Feb 26th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Interactive Marketing

Ryan Brown Ceros

What makes an experience an…

B2B Marketing Experience?

Full disclosure: I am not on the design team at TopRank Marketing.

But you know what I mean. You’ve eaten dinner at dozens, if not hundreds of restaurants in your lifetime. But there are likely one or two that stick out in your memory. What makes them memorable?

That question drove an intriguing presentation at B2B Marketing Exchange, led by four expert marketers:

B2BMX Speakers 2020

Short answer: What makes experiences different and memorable is if they’re really good… or really bad. Anything in the middle tends to blur together in our recollection. Only the extremes stand out.


The B2B Marketer’s Journey To Experiential Content at #B2BMX

5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on Feb 13th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Humanizing B2B Content Father and Son Cooking Together Image

“You’ve really got to put yourself out there. Don’t be too stiff.”

“Be honest and sincere!”

“Be vulnerable and relatable… and it doesn’t hurt if you can make ‘em laugh.”

Is this advice for a middle-aged man trying online dating for the first time? Or is it advice for B2B marketers?

Given the proximity to Valentine’s Day, can’t it be both?

The point is, as good as this advice may be for marketers, it’s as vague as it is omnipresent. We talk about “person-to-person” marketing and “humanizing the brand.” But what does it really mean to humanize a brand? 

Michelin Men Original Costumes

Yes, these were the original Michelin Tire mascots.

In some cases, apparently, it means high-octane nightmare fuel. So, maybe don’t try and make an adorable mascot for your software-as-a-service solution.


5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing

What B2B Podcasters Need to Know About SEO

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on Feb 4th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Podcasting

What B2B Podcasters Need to Know About SEO

There are few things more satisfying than clicking “Publish” on a shiny new podcast. All the hours of planning and recording are done. You ran down your podcast launch checklist. Now it’s time for the world to enjoy the fruits of your labor. 

You can sit back and watch the downloads roll in, right?

Well… it depends on whether people can find your podcast. While the podcast market isn’t oversaturated yet, it’s still a crowded playing field. 

Post-launch, your podcast promotion plan will likely include a mix of paid promotion, influencer amplification, and social media marketing to help build your audience. But before you record a second of audio, your organic strategy can help ensure your podcast is found and treasured.


What B2B Podcasters Need to Know About SEO