B2B Marketing Archives - B2B Marketing Blog

5 Examples of B2B Brands Rocking With Influence in 2021

Lane Ellis on Jun 9th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

How does influence help B2B brands achieve success?

Influence may be multifaceted almost to a fault, however a key essence is its role in providing smart answers to the questions your audiences have.

Reaching target audiences through digital channels was recently found to be a top-three critical challenge for B2B marketers.

A new LinkedIn* report of the most in-demand marketing skills has shown that digital marketing represented the biggest mismatch of skills in supply and demand. Influence is a vital element of successful digital marketing, and presents B2B marketers with a powerful tool to overcome this challenge, and the five brands we’ll examine here have each used influence in a variety of ways to achieve digital marketing success.

5 Examples of B2B Brands Rocking With Influence in 2021

Optimize for B2B Customers with Digital First Content Marketing

Lee Odden on Jun 7th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

The evolution of B2B marketing has required companies to extend the transformations and pivots made during the pandemic to more permanent changes in marketing driven by evolving consumer preferences for information discovery, consumption and interaction. B2B marketing is evolved as a digital first practice and there’s no going back.

While most marketers understand it is simply not enough to rely on push marketing tactics and advertising, they still rely on these familiar and comfortable tactics.

Today’s business customers have more content choices in text, images, audio, video and interactive formats on more devices than ever. They expect more than just useful information from the brands they buy from.

Optimize for B2B Customers with Digital First Content Marketing

Break Free B2B Marketing: Keith Townsend of The CTO Advisor on Bringing Value Through Friction

Susan Misukanis on Jun 3rd, 2021
B2B Marketing

Keith Townsend

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

Our third season of Break Free B2B Marketing video interviews features conversations with top B2B influencers, looking closely at the issues that each expert is influential about in their specialized industry.

For more than a decade our team at TopRank Marketing has fostered a strong community of leading influencers, developing close relationships with subject matter experts in many industries, and we’re thrilled to share a new episode of Break Free B2B Marketing.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Keith Townsend of The CTO Advisor on Bringing Value Through Friction

On-Target: What’s New With Twitter For B2B Marketers In 2021

Lane Ellis on Jun 2nd, 2021
B2B Marketing, Twitter

What’s new with Twitter for B2B marketers in 2021?

With more than 199 million active daily users and available in over 40 languages, Twitter has continued its growth as a platform for both B2B and direct-to-consumer brands looking to creatively showcase products and services.

It’s also increasingly used to tell brand stories and as a customer communication tool.

When it comes to new feature launches, Twitter has ramped up its pace, helping it make significant gains as a social media platform not just for consumers, but also for a greater number of professional business users than ever.

Let’s take a look at seven of Twitter’s most recent feature roll-outs, changes, and announcements of forthcoming offerings, with an eye towards how B2B marketers can use Twitter in new ways .

On-Target: What’s New With Twitter For B2B Marketers In 2021

6 B2B Content Marketing Summertime Sizzlers To Increase Audience Engagement

Joshua Nite on Jun 1st, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Influencer Marketing

I’m going to knock on wood as I type this, but: It looks like we might have a (mostly) normal summer this year in the U.S. After the lockdowns, isolation, anxiety and fear of 2020, it finally feels like things are opening up.

This is all great for everything except getting people to read your marketing content. In 2020 we had a captive audience starved for entertainment. Now we’ll be competing with everything from music festivals to movies to walking in the park.

The way to break through and have a “hot brand summer?” First, don’t use phrases like “hot brand summer,” because you’ll just make people hate you. Second, it’s all about customer engagement. That means connecting with people on a personal level, offering something novel and fascinating, and using that contact to build a meaningful relationship.

6 B2B Content Marketing Summertime Sizzlers To Increase Audience Engagement

Top 5 Benefits of Influencer Marketing for B2B Brands

Lee Odden on May 31st, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Despite that 96% of marketers engaging influencers for marketing deem their programs successful, there are still a very large number of B2B companies evaluating where influencer engagement fits in their marketing mix.

After spending the last 8 plus years working on developing influencer marketing strategies, creating pilot projects, implementing campaigns and running ongoing influencer programs for brands that range from 3M to Dell to LinkedIn, here are some of the top benefits B2B companies of all sizes are realizing through their influencer marketing efforts.

Before I get to the list, I think it’s important to mention that benefits realized are directly connected to goals imagined. That may seem obvious but the application of influence to marketing is viewed in many different ways and therefore, the outcomes can be just as different.

Top 5 Benefits of Influencer Marketing for B2B Brands

From Finesse To Zest: 25 Powerful Qualities That Elevate Your B2B Marketing

Lane Ellis on May 26th, 2021
B2B Marketing

Which qualities encompass the best that B2B marketing has to offer?

Are there overlapping elements that bring success to both our professional and personal lives?

How can you bring more of these qualities into your own marketing efforts?

From a seemingly endless compilation of possible traits held by successful marketers, some naturally work their way to the forefront over time, yet aren’t often explored.

To help answer these questions, let’s take a look at five powerful qualities that we can combine to drive not only the best B2B marketing experiences, but that we can also harness and learn from to make us better associates, business partners, and people.

From Finesse To Zest: 25 Powerful Qualities That Elevate Your B2B Marketing

What B2B Marketers Can Learn from Stand-Up Comedy

Joshua Nite on May 25th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Stand-up comedians need to make a connection with their audience. It starts with getting attention, then stoking interest, developing a rapport, and ultimately provoking a reaction.

To do it right, you need empathy, knowledge of your audience, creativity…oh, and a spark that makes you unique.

B2B marketers: Does any of the above sound familiar? I’ve been a professional marketer and an amateur comedian for over a decade, and it’s surprising how much the two inform each other.

Here are just a few lessons that B2B marketers can learn from standup.

Keep It Real

In the early 19th century, standup comedy depended on wordplay and absurdism. For example: “Take my wife…please!” or “The other night I shot an elephant in my pajamas… how he got into my pajamas, I’ll never know.”

What B2B Marketers Can Learn from Stand-Up Comedy

How B2B Marketers Can Build a Community of Influence with Content

Lee Odden on May 24th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

One of the most compelling scenarios for B2B marketers to build content and community is through a combination user generated content (UGC) and strategic content collaborations. To do this, many B2B brands will initiate ongoing social media content and engagement programs to stimulate dialog with customers, community and influencers to build essential relationships.

With B2B marketing shifting to digital first, there is more demand for content than ever, but there are also resource challenges with the need to continuously create new content. At the same time traditional social media and content marketing can have trust issues if the brand isn’t engaging with the community or the right influencers on a regular basis. A content marketing focused solution that solves for both of those challenges that also helps build community and influence for B2B brands can be found through participation marketing – aka, user generated content in the form of content collaborations with external influencers, brand community and customers.

How B2B Marketers Can Build a Community of Influence with Content

Steady As She Goes: Why Consistency Builds Better Long-Term B2B Marketing

Lane Ellis on May 19th, 2021
B2B Marketing

How can B2B marketers build better and more sustainable long-term marketing efforts?

88 percent of global marketers said that achieving brand consistency was crucial, in dentsu international’s recent whitepaper survey, “2021: The year of Brand Consistency, Efficiency and Agility.”

Consistency is an element that’s sometimes overlooked in B2B marketing, however, so we wanted to explore some of the ways that top marketers are incorporating consistency into their efforts.

Let’s get started and dig in with five ways that consistency creates better long-term B2B marketing.

Consistency Case #1 — Content Creation Persistence

For digital futurist and keynote speaker Brian Fanzo, consistency is everything when it comes to successful content creation.

“Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. When it comes to content creation and growing within the #CreatorEconomy, consistency is everything,” Fanzo recently noted.

Steady As She Goes: Why Consistency Builds Better Long-Term B2B Marketing

B2B Marketing News: Optimizing CX Study, AI Disrupts B2B Sales, B2B Influencer Marketing on the Rise

Lee Odden on May 14th, 2021
B2B Marketing

Digital Customer Experience Optimization

Website Optimization A Key Upcoming Focus for Customer Experience Design
60% of B2C and B2B marketers believe that designing an effective customer experience is very important in gaining a competitive advantage in their market according to research by Ascend2. A high level of customer experience has a demonstrable impact on customer loyalty behaviors. As such, delivering a better customer experience is one of the top priorities of CEOs across the globe in the next few years. MarketingCharts

Forrester Report: B2B Marketers Need to Lead, Not Support
For B2B marketers, it’s no longer enough to define and protect the brand, help generate leads, and support sales. Going forward, B2B marketing leaders also need to be leaders within their organizations. Rather than supporting other functions and stakeholders, marketing needs to “become the architect of organizational success,” according to the forthcoming “The Future of B2B Marketing” report from Forrester. Chief Marketer

B2B Marketing News: Optimizing CX Study, AI Disrupts B2B Sales, B2B Influencer Marketing on the Rise

How to Accelerate Reach and Engagement of B2B Content Through Co-Creation

Nick Nelson on May 12th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

“Look, I made this!”

Sharing things we create is a human compulsion that traces back to childhood. Whether you’re showing your mom a drawing so she can pin it up on the fridge, or linking social media followers to your latest blog post, it’s natural for people of all ages to proudly broadcast their creative output.

Therein lies the power of co-creation for content amplification. “If you want your content reach to be great, ask your community to participate.”

Let’s explore this approach to content collaboration from a B2B marketing perspective.

Why Co-create Content for B2B Marketing?

There are many benefits to collaborative content creation. TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden covered several in his writeup last year on winning at B2B influence with the magic of content co-creation. Among them:

How to Accelerate Reach and Engagement of B2B Content Through Co-Creation