Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®

5 Ways To Inspire Your Marketing With Gratitude

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Jun 3rd, 2020
B2B Marketing

Diverse group of grateful, thankful people on colorful bars image.

How does gratitude help us become better marketers and in our professional and personal lives?

The world B2B marketers face today is rife with a variety of new and unexpected challenges, and meeting these often daunting twists and turns head-on with a mega-dose of gratitude creates not only better marketing, but also makes us stronger and more compassionate.

To inspire your own marketing process let’s explore five examples of infusing the power of gratitude into your work efforts, from five memorable people.

1 — Infuse the Goodness of Fred Rogers in Your Marketing

via GIPHY

“Try your best to make goodness attractive. That’s one of the toughest assignments you’ll ever be given,” Fred Rogers once said in an observation that applies especially well to the best marketing efforts.


5 Ways To Inspire Your Marketing With Gratitude

Break Free B2B Marketing: Julie Brown of Johnson Controls on Proving the EBIT of Your Marketing

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on Jun 2nd, 2020
B2B Marketing

Break Free B2B - Julie Brown Image

For decades, marketers have measured success differently than the rest of the organization. We raise awareness, increase share of voice, generate impressions, deliver MQLs to sales. 

Meanwhile, the success of the business itself is measured in….well, money. Revenue. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). 

But this disparity is changing as marketers are becoming more data-driven — and being increasingly accountable for their direct contribution to revenue. It’s not enough to show a return on investment; it’s not enough for marketing to not be a cost center. The marketing department needs to be a powerful engine for generating revenue.


Break Free B2B Marketing: Julie Brown of Johnson Controls on Proving the EBIT of Your Marketing

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: “Webinerd” Mark Bornstein of ON24 on Dialing In Digital Experiences

Nick Nelson
Nick Nelson on May 26th, 2020
B2B Marketing

Break Free B2B Marketing Mark Bornstein Image

Like many other digital experiences, the webinar has traditionally been viewed as a means to an end: Create something that seems valuable to your audience, and use it as a vehicle to acquire contact information for lead generation purposes.

But marketers like Mark Bornstein take a different angle: What if we view the webinar itself as an end — an extremely valuable marketing tool on its own? What if we’re just muddying it up with all these mandatory form-fills and sales-y follow-ups?

“You need the name once, you need the demographic information one time,” he observes. “But why do we keep putting forms together again and again? What matters is the experience.”


Break Free B2B Marketing: “Webinerd” Mark Bornstein of ON24 on Dialing In Digital Experiences

Why SEO & Influence are Critical to Pandemic Era Content Marketing

Pandemic Marketing SEO Influence
On this Memorial Day of 2020, it is important we remember those who have made the ultimate sacrifice serving our country – not only in the military, but those on the front lines of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Thank you to first responders, law enforcement, healthcare workers and all that support them!

The health and economic crisis we are all facing now compounds the many other uncertainties of our time including trust and expectations in the brands we buy from. The COVID-19 pandemic and our society’s reaction to it have changed the reality we have lived with into something different and very digital.


Why SEO & Influence are Critical to Pandemic Era Content Marketing

How to Measure Changing Marketing Goals During a Crisis

Birdie Zepeda
Birdie Zepeda on May 21st, 2020
B2B Marketing, SEO

Seated man looking a monitor of marketing goals.

In recent months, I’ve been listening to Paramore’s song “Hard Times” a lot. Their 2017 hit talks about struggling to overcome challenging circumstances above ’80s-inspired new wave pop. It’s a bop, as the kids say, and confronts hardship — truthful and emphatic with a spoonful of sugar.

via GIPHY

During this global health crisis, I’m sure most marketers want to wake up fine, be told that they’re alright, and — in their weakest moments — have “wonder[ed] why [we] even try.”

While we have no control over the state of the world, we do have control over how we react or work in tandem with it. With data, we get a glimpse into how our respective markets have been impacted, and it can inform a new perspective and next steps. Let’s take a look at how the pandemic affects data and analytics, and if B2B marketers need to shift their pre-pandemic goals.


How to Measure Changing Marketing Goals During a Crisis

Day 4,777: Remote Work Tips From 13+ Years As A Distance Marketer

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on May 20th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Online Marketing Strategy

Hand marking days on a chalkboard image.

Today is day 4,777.

Not days quarantined, but days working remotely.

On Monday, March 23, 2007 I started working remotely, and 4,777 days later I still do.

A staple aspect of my daily work life that had been the exception for most marketers is now — at least temporarily — the rule, with most people working from home due to the global health crisis.

Having been a remote worker for a long time, I wanted to share the helpful practices that I wish I’d known when first starting out, and expand on my previous article “Remote Communication Opportunities For B2B Marketers.”

Many have been working remotely much longer than me, and each one will have their own stories of remote work successes and snafus.


Day 4,777: Remote Work Tips From 13+ Years As A Distance Marketer

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.

Latne 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

10 Worst Practices for B2B Influencer Marketing – Don’t be a Clown

Worst Practices B2B Influencer Marketing

When it comes to sharing B2B marketing advice, I prefer not to clown around too much and do my best to be positive and optimistic with trends, insights and how to’s focused on looking forward towards best practices and getting better results.

Marketers expect serious results but unfortunatley, many B2B marketers insist on clowning around with half-hearted or incomplete influencer marketing efforts.

I know this from stories told by brand marketers that have worked with other agencies and from being on the receiving end of clueless pitches, minimum viable engagement efforts and willfully ignorant attempts to get me to promote something I really have no business caring about. I’ve heard much of the same from other people who are often engaged as influencers as well.


10 Worst Practices for B2B Influencer Marketing – Don’t be a Clown

5 Project Management Tips for Adrift Remote Marketing Teams

Anne Leuman
Anne Leuman on May 14th, 2020
B2B Marketing

Remote island in ocean image.

“WILSON!”

“Wilson, I’m sorry!”

via GIPHY

Work, lately, feels a little like being a castaway.

Isolating yourself. Dreaming of the past. Trusting in technology — however advanced or primitive — to get us through.

And work could stay this way for a while.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought an unprecedented number of information workers, including marketers, home for work. In fact, 62% of American workers said they’ve worked from home at some point during this crisis. But many experts are estimating that this volume of distributed and remote work won’t decrease after the pandemic ends. They see that hundreds, if not thousands, of businesses are realizing they never really needed an office — they could have operated remotely all along.


5 Project Management Tips for Adrift Remote Marketing Teams

Always-On Influence: 5 Examples of Ongoing B2B Influencer Marketing In Action

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on May 13th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Businesswoman walking past five world-time clocks.

Always-on influence is especially vital today as brands look to combat increasing mistrust and apathy.

Why have top B2B firms including our clients LinkedIn, Adobe and Dell Outlet chosen always-on influencer marketing programs, and what results are they achieving using continuing influence programs?

We answer these questions and more with examples of always-on influence in action.

In the first installment of our new #AlwaysOnInfluence series, our CEO and co-founder Lee Odden explored what always-on influencer marketing is and why B2B brands need it now more than ever, and now we’ll move forward and look at why five major B2B firms have chosen ongoing influencer marketing.

First let’s refresh our marketing lexicon with an overview of just what always-on influence is.


Always-On Influence: 5 Examples of Ongoing B2B Influencer Marketing In Action