B2B Marketing Archives - Online Marketing Blog

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

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

“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.

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

5 Stars: 20+ Tips to Invigorate Your B2B Marketing Using Testimonials & Reviews

Lane Ellis on Apr 1st, 2020
B2B Marketing

What’s in a review?

With the right client testimonials and customer reviews, B2B brands can increase trust and loyalty in uncertain times while strengthening existing connections and fostering new ones. Your brand may even be sitting on a goldmine of evergreen trust-building user-generated content.

Let’s take a look at 20+ tips to invigorate and expand your B2B marketing toolkit with a smart customer review and testimonial strategy.

Making The Statistical Case For Testimonials & Reviews

With some surveys showing that 90 percent of adult Internet users rely on reviews before making purchases, and others placing the figure even higher at nearly 99 percent, it’s important for B2B brands to make sure they feature the reviews and testimonials their customers have taken the time to write and share online.

5 Stars: 20+ Tips to Invigorate Your B2B Marketing Using Testimonials & Reviews

6 Tips to Keep B2B Marketing Teams in Rhythm While Working Remotely

Nick Nelson on Mar 31st, 2020
B2B Marketing

In these unconventional times, many work teams are grappling with an unconventional dynamic: fully distributed personnel and remote collaboration. This setup presents a number of challenges, but thankfully we live in a time where technology makes it easier than ever to stay connected and tightly aligned on our work.

For B2B agencies like TopRank Marketing, this has always been a point of emphasis. In servicing clients from around the globe, we’re accustomed to communicating across distances, borders, and time zones. We occasionally have our own team members work from home, and in fact, we have a few who do so full-time.

While having everyone in the organization work remotely is uncharted territory for us, our built-in comfort with digital collaboration gives us a head-start, and has allowed us to hit the ground running with minimal disruption to our programs and workflows.

6 Tips to Keep B2B Marketing Teams in Rhythm While Working Remotely

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

A Well-Oiled Machine: Why Every B2B Marketing Team Needs Marketing Operations

Anne Leuman on Mar 26th, 2020
B2B Marketing

What makes a B2B marketing campaign great?

Is it a creative theme that catches your attention? Is it the insightful expertise featured within? Is it the number of leads it produced?

Answer: it’s all of those things and more. Great B2B marketing campaigns have great ideas and great execution.

But great execution is hard to achieve. It demands excellent resourcing, swift approvals, streamlined processes, and more. And as you may have noticed, these aren’t marketing functions. They’re operational functions.

For your B2B marketing campaigns to truly be successful, you need someone leading the operational side of things. You need marketing operations.

What Is Marketing Operations?

According to MarketingProfs, marketing operations is “an emerging discipline that increases efficiency and drives consistent results in marketing-focused organizations. It builds a foundation for excellence by reinforcing marketing strategy with metrics, infrastructure, business processes, best practices, budgeting and reporting.”

A Well-Oiled Machine: Why Every B2B Marketing Team Needs Marketing Operations

50+ Top B2B Marketing Insights You Need To Know Today

Lane Ellis on Mar 25th, 2020
B2B Marketing

Even though the “Roaring Twenties” moniker of a century ago today takes on a more menacing new tone in light of today’s COVID-19 pandemic, smart B2B marketers are still hard at work and looking ahead.

The B2B marketing world of tomorrow will be shaped by the emerging marketing trends we have seen during the beginning of 2020, and we already have a wealth of insight to learn from new research data that has come out in recent marketing reports.

We’ll take a look at:

Impressive Results in a Growing Influencer Marketing Industry
Social Media Changes & The Rising Importance of Trust
The Global Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The Role of Emerging Digital Interfaces in B2B Marketing

50+ Top B2B Marketing Insights You Need To Know Today

How Authentic Content Builds Brand Trust in Uncertain Times

Nick Nelson on Mar 19th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

These are strange times indeed.

As I write this, I’m sitting in my home office, because my employer – like so many others across the country and world – is doing what it can to help stop the spread of COVID-19. This is the type of event that casts new light on just about everything, including the topic I’d planned to tackle today.

No business wants to act or appear opportunistic right now. That goes without saying. But the truth is that marketers, brands, and creators of all kinds can make a positive difference. Being legitimately and authentically helpful in a moment like this can have a lasting impact.

How Authentic Content Builds Brand Trust in Uncertain Times

Remote Communication Opportunities For B2B Marketers

Lane Ellis on Mar 18th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Online Marketing Strategy

The challenges brought about by COVID-19 are multi-faceted and permeate the lives of B2B marketers on many levels, yet they also thankfully present new opportunities.

Remote work and online business communications are two of the major benefits modern B2B marketers can take advantage of now thanks to the technological advances the Internet and its 50-plus year history has made possible.

As a remote worker for the past 13 of my 36 years working in online communications, I’ll offer up a selection of tips to keep in mind as we all adjust to the numerous business changes brought about by COVID-19.

We’ll also look at how the present situation affects the issues of brand purpose and trust, resources and tools for newly-minted remote workers, social media best-practices during challenging times, and how we can learn from the challenges.

Remote Communication Opportunities For B2B Marketers

Smooth Sailing: Our Guide to Effective Project Management for B2B Marketers

Anne Leuman on Mar 17th, 2020
B2B Marketing

What does the word “work” mean to you?

A dictionary would tell you that work is, “activity involving mental or physical effort done in order to achieve a purpose or result,” or maybe, “a task or tasks to be undertaken; something a person or thing has to do.”

But how do we know which tasks to tackle first? Or what specifically needs to happen in order to achieve our purpose?

That’s where project management comes in.

And for B2B marketing agencies or teams, there are a lot of nuances when it comes to project management. Launching several campaigns at once. Racing to meet tight deadlines. Ensuring important milestones are met and in the right order. These are not your typical projects. And the typical approach to project management just won’t cut it.

Smooth Sailing: Our Guide to Effective Project Management for B2B Marketers

Should COVID-19 Stop B2B Marketers From Marketing?

Lee Odden on Mar 16th, 2020
B2B Marketing

You’ve read the news, seen the reports, remarkable real-time graphs and updates from the CDC. Virtually all industry conferences are cancelled or postponed, major sporting events are postponed, most schools and many stores are closed and just about any venue for large crowds from malls to theatres are as empty as the toilet paper aisle at Target.

COVID-19 is serious business and is undoubtedly having an impact on business. Should it stop companies from marketing to other businesses?

We all have an obligation to make the changes necessary to minimize COVID-19 transmission through closures, postponements and having employees work from home like we just implemented at TopRank Marketing this week along with many other companies.

Should COVID-19 Stop B2B Marketers From Marketing?

Jumpstarting a Pilot B2B Influencer Marketing Program in 5 Steps

Nick Nelson on Mar 12th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

The hardest part is getting started.

Has there ever been a more relatable expression? I know we can all think of a task or obligation that we put off endlessly out of some perceived dread, only to find that once we actually buckled down and got to it, the act was rather quick and painless.

The spectre of starting from scratch can also stall a lot of decisions in the business world. Take B2B influencer marketing as an example. You might’ve seen the stats showing how effective it is, or how it drives shocking ROI. Maybe you’ve even seen TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden out on the speaking circuit, articulating the approach and sharing some of our success stories.

Jumpstarting a Pilot B2B Influencer Marketing Program in 5 Steps

14 Search Marketing Influencers at Top B2B & B2C Brands

Lane Ellis on Mar 11th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Search Marketing, SEO

Search marketing strategy is undoubtedly vital for most B2B brands today, yet there are several elements that play important roles in its ultimate success that may surprise you.

Leading the search engine optimization (SEO) program for a major brand is a vital role that’s only taken on greater importance over the years, as even the rise of social media marketing hasn’t eliminated the need for B2B marketers to have a strong search marketing strategy.

With search marketing influencers at top brands facing a nearly constant barrage of new SEO challenges, how do smart search industry leaders build successful campaigns?

Non-paid organic search efforts have some of the lowest website visitor traffic bounce rates for B2B and B2C campaigns alike, which is why SEO practitioners at major firms continue to play such an important role in successful marketing efforts.

14 Search Marketing Influencers at Top B2B & B2C Brands