B2B Marketing Archives - B2B Marketing Blog

7 Questions B2B Marketers Need to Answer About Influencer Marketing

Lee Odden on Aug 2nd, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Diminishing organic social reach, distrust of brand marketing and information overload makes reaching and engaging today’s B2B buyer harder than ever. On top of that, the major changes brought by the pandemic have created new challenges and opportunities for B2B companies to better attract and engage customers in meaningful ways.

Out of the pandemic and the shift to digital first go-to-market approaches for B2B companies, Influencer Marketing has emerged as one of the most effective ways to connect with customers to create better experiences. Despite substantial growth in the discipline from best practices to software, many B2B brands are still experimenting or simply don’t know how to identify, engage and activate influencers.

7 Questions B2B Marketers Need to Answer About Influencer Marketing

5 Ways the Pandemic Has Forever Changed the Voices & Visions of B2B Marketing

Lane Ellis on Jul 28th, 2021
B2B Marketing

How has B2B marketing changed forever during the pandemic?

The voices and visions of B2B marketing have been forced to shift over the past few years, as have many of the goals and methods we strive for and use to connect with our current and potential customers.

Some of these changes are subtle while others are decidedly not, yet each brings with it both new opportunities for embracing the future of B2B marketing along with risks for those who don’t heed the call when the winds of digital change shift.

Let’s take a look at five of the most substantial changes in B2B marketing that the pandemic has driven, and explore new insights that can inform and inspire your efforts in the push towards 2022 and beyond.

5 Ways the Pandemic Has Forever Changed the Voices & Visions of B2B Marketing

Digital Diamonds: 5 Multifaceted Tactics To Boost Your B2B Marketing Clarity & Commitment This Summer

Lane Ellis on Jul 21st, 2021
B2B Marketing

How is successful B2B marketing like a master jeweler working with diamonds of the digital marketing variety?

Diamonds are forever, as the 1971 James Bond film and its title song made famous, and with the archival global power of the web, your B2B marketing efforts are also likely to endure — so why not strive to make them truly memorable?

Also like diamonds, B2B marketing is a multifaceted endeavor.

Let’s explore five enduring tactics that can help you achieve B2B content marketing clarity and create your own digital marketing diamonds.

1 — Achieve Content Marketing Clarity

via GIPHY

Bring diamond-like clarity to your B2B content marketing by identifying and focusing on the heart of your effort’s primary goal.

Digital Diamonds: 5 Multifaceted Tactics To Boost Your B2B Marketing Clarity & Commitment This Summer

Write from the Heart for More Memorable B2B Content Marketing

Joshua Nite on Jul 20th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

B2B marketers have been pushing for personalized content for a good long while. Now we’re also trying to humanize content — to make the case that B2B buyers are human beings who want to connect with other humans on an emotional level.

Isn’t it remarkable that we still have to make that argument?

But I’m not here to write another 1000 words about humanizing content. I want us to take it a step further, beyond personalization, humanization, personality and empathy.

B2B content marketing needs to come from the heart.

True, genuine heart is the last frontier in content. Every brand has an Instagram with behind-the-scenes content to boost authenticity. Every brand is striving to give at least the appearance of sincerity, personality and transparency.

Write from the Heart for More Memorable B2B Content Marketing

Share Your Expertise in the 2021 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Survey

Lee Odden on Jul 19th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

The past year or more has taught B2B marketer many lessons, especially the importance of creating digital first experiences that are credible, authentic and relevant to specific buyers. As part of the digital transformation of marketing, many B2B companies have adjusted their go-to-market approach to satisfy the changing customer expectations that have evolved during the pandemic.

One of those adjustments in B2B marketing has been the increasing role of influence in delivering credible, authentic and relevant digital experiences. Our initial B2B Influencer Marketing research from 2020 showed that going into the pandemic, confidence in working with B2B influencers was very high as were expectations of outcomes.

Despite the growing confidence in working with B2B influencers over the past year, today there are important questions to be answered as more B2B brands enter the realm of influence and grow more sophisticated with the practice.

Share Your Expertise in the 2021 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Survey

Productivity Pulsars: Blast Into Orbit With 5 Efficiency Boosters For B2B Marketers

Lane Ellis on Jul 14th, 2021
B2B Marketing

How can B2B marketers boost content creation productivity and avoid that dreaded black hole of inefficiency?

As TopRank Marketing chief executive and co-founder Lee Odden said in 2018 in 16 Ways to Be More Efficient with Content Creation, “Without additional budget or writing resources, the most practical way to squeeze out more content creation productivity is by being more efficient,” and the same may be even more true today in 2021.

There’s no denying that better efficiency offers benefits in many areas of a B2B marketer’s work, so we wanted to share some of the galaxy’s top tactics, methods, and tips to improve your productivity through efficiency as we make the push through the rest of 2021 and plan ahead for 2022.

Productivity Pulsars: Blast Into Orbit With 5 Efficiency Boosters For B2B Marketers

From Tech to Human: Three Post Pandemic B2B Marketing Trends

Lee Odden on Jul 12th, 2021
B2B Marketing

For many, the past few months have opened up giving us a taste of “return to normal” but what does that mean?

When most people say normal, what they often mean is comfortable. In the business world pre-pandemic comfortable is a dangerous place to be.

Any company that did not adjust, adapt or pivot over the past year and a half probably isn’t in business or doing as much business as they should. There have been many changes during the pandemic from digital transformation across all aspects of business to evolving expectations of customers. Companies and their marketers must be in tune with all of these changes in order to survive and thrive in a post-pandemic business environment.

From Tech to Human: Three Post Pandemic B2B Marketing Trends

11 Ways Top B2B Marketers Are Breaking Free of Boring B2B

Lane Ellis on Jul 7th, 2021
B2B Marketing

How can B2B marketers in 2021 break free from conventional and oftentimes boring B2B efforts?

We’re fortunate to have 11 takes on this important topic from some of the top subject matter experts in B2B marketing, with a wide range of insight on how marketers can smash through traditional boring-to-boring marketing.

Our third season of the Break Free B2B Marketing series of video interviews has given us a new group of experts, influencers, and future-thinkers all gathered for one purpose: sharing the ways they’ve broken free and how you can do the same for yourself, your brand, and your business.

Let’s jump right in and see how 11 influential voices in B2B marketing go about breaking through, with actionable tactics you can implement in your own marketing efforts as we head toward 2022.

11 Ways Top B2B Marketers Are Breaking Free of Boring B2B

Inside B2B Influence: Justin Levy of Demandbase on Optimizing B2B Marketing with Influence

Lee Odden on Jul 5th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

If you’re new to this series, Inside B2B Influence is a podcast and video series that goes behind the scenes of B2B marketing and showcases conversations with industry experts on influencer marketing for B2B companies. We’re doing our best here at TopRank Marketing Blog to elevate the practice of growing influence within and outside of B2B brands to drive thought leadership, create demand and grow revenue.

In Episode 15 of Inside B2B Influence, Justin Levy, (@justinlevy) Director of Social and Influencer Marketing at Demandbase (client) and I connected to help answer some key questions about working with influencers at a technology company. I’ve known Justin for many years and we’re both members of the esteemed Marketing Fitness Group on Facebook. His work with influencers goes all the way back to when he and Chris Brogan ran a marketing agency back in 2008.

Inside B2B Influence: Justin Levy of Demandbase on Optimizing B2B Marketing with Influence

Break Free B2B Marketing: Minda Harts of The Memo on Having Courageous Conversations

Susan Misukanis on Jul 1st, 2021
B2B Marketing

When it comes to B2B influencer marketing, it’s only natural to wonder just what an industry influencer actually looks like?

For our third season of Break Free B2B Marketing video interviews, we’re featuring conversations with leading B2B influencers, and examining the issues that each subject matter expert is influential about in their specialized industry.

For over a decade our team at TopRank Marketing has nurtured a strong community of leading influencers, developing close relationships with SMEs in many industries, and we’re delighted to share our latest episode of Break Free B2B Marketing.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Minda Harts of The Memo on Having Courageous Conversations

Mindful Marketing: 5 Uncommon Ways To Work With B2B Influencers

Lane Ellis on Jun 30th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

What are some uncommon ways B2B marketers can successfully work with influencers?

One of the many advantages of working with subject matter experts (SMEs) who are influential in their industry is the sheer variety of ways that marketers can collaborate to build a mutually beneficial partnership.

While we’ve explored many of the traditional ways B2B marketers often work with influencers, we wanted to take a look at a few of the unusual ways collaboration is taking place.

Let’s dive right in, with examples from both SMEs and marketers who’ve implemented uncommon takes on the B2B influencer partnership that can help inspire your own influencer programs.

1 — From Influencer to Long-Term Friendship

Mindful Marketing: 5 Uncommon Ways To Work With B2B Influencers

Social Significance: Why B2B Brands Value Social CX & Are Spending More

Lane Ellis on Jun 23rd, 2021
B2B Marketing, Social Media

Why are B2B brands placing greater value on social media, and why are they willing to spend more than ever before on social customer experience (CX)?

New digital marketing research reveals why B2B brands are finding a renewed passion for the expanding benefits of social media, and why they are becoming more willing than ever to spend more for the competitive advantages that social CX offers.

Let’s take a look at some of the latest report and survey data, and see how B2B brands are changing their social media strategies and outlook.

1 — Social Helps B2B Brands Meet Customer Expectations

A new report from Sprout Social reveals how customer expectations have evolved for the brands that they follow on social media.

Social Significance: Why B2B Brands Value Social CX & Are Spending More