B2B Marketing Archives - Page 2 of 23 - Online Marketing Blog

How Can B2B Brands Benefit from Collaborating with Influencers? Let’s Get the Scoop from the Experts

Caitlin Burgess on Jan 24th, 2019 B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Spokespeople. Brand advocates. Experts. Sponsors. Thought Leaders. Influencers. Call them what you will, but leveraging the voices, expertise, appeal, and reach of influential people has been a standard marketing and advertising practice for at least a century. In the B2C realm, that is.

As TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden recently pointed out: “B2B brands are running a little behind B2C in terms of influencer marketing sophistication and have not been investing as much in technology, staff or the influencers themselves.”

In fact, recent research shows that an impressive 48% of B2C influencer programs are ongoing, however, just 11% of B2B influencer programs are always-on. But on the flip side, research also shows that interest and commitment are growing. In fact, 65% of multinational brands will increase influencer marketing spending in the next 12 months, reaching $10 billion over the next five years.

How Can B2B Brands Benefit from Collaborating with Influencers? Let’s Get the Scoop from the Experts

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5 Marvelous B2B Content Marketing Lessons From Mrs. Maisel

Anne Leuman on Jan 22nd, 2019 B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

WARNING: This post contains spoilers for Season 1 of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” If you haven’t seen Season 1, please do so immediately. Oh, and read at your own risk.

The year is 1958. You’ve been an amazing wife. You’ve dedicated your entire life’s purpose to your husband—only to find out he’s leaving you for his secretary.

That is the situation that Miriam “Midge” Maisel finds herself in as the first season of Amazon Prime’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” kicks off.

via GIPHY

However, her reaction is not what you’d expect from a “traditional” 1950’s housewife. While outside forces are pushing her to reconcile with her husband, Midge is firm in putting her own happiness first for once in her life. It’s this decision that leads her to a career (gasp!) in stand-up comedy.

5 Marvelous B2B Content Marketing Lessons From Mrs. Maisel

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How A Best Answer Content Strategy Drives B2B Marketing Results

Lee Odden on Jan 17th, 2019 B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

For many B2B marketers content is a numbers game, especially as the number of channels for discovery and engagement grow right along with competition for attention.

We all know how the information overload story ends: buyers disconnect, they start to ignore marketing content and they lose trust in the brands trying so desperately to reach them.

Smart voices like Ann Handley in the B2B marketing industry have called for a focus on quality and even brevity over the hamster wheel of content mediocrity. Many have listened and yet many more B2B marketers are still fighting the uphill battle of creating uninspired blog post after blog post, ebooks, white papers, case studies and who knows how many social messages – and to what end?

How A Best Answer Content Strategy Drives B2B Marketing Results

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How to Choose a B2B Marketing Agency that Can Evolve with Your Needs

Alexis Hall on Jan 15th, 2019 B2B Marketing, Digital Marketing

B2B brands’ marketing departments are constantly evolving. Over the past 10 years, marketing teams have undergone a seismic shift to accommodate changing technology, millennial consumers and employees, and to breakdown silos between marketing and the rest of the business.

To keep pace with the changing marketplace, many B2B brands are working to find the perfect balance between growing out their in-house digital marketing team and partnering with an external digital marketing agency. Most brands are seeking agency partners to provide a spectrum of services, from tactical support to creative strategy and content innovation. And they need a partner that can adapt and evolve along with their marketing needs and opportunities.

So, the question is: To find that partner that can grow and adapt to your needs, what should you be looking for?

How to Choose a B2B Marketing Agency that Can Evolve with Your Needs

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From Our Marketing Family to Yours, Happy Holidays, Marketers!

Caitlin Burgess on Dec 25th, 2018 B2B Marketing, Digital Marketing

It’s the most wonderful time of the year. The smell of pine, cinnamon, and fresh-baked cookies are in the air. The jingle bells are ring-ting-tingling. And we’re all reflecting on months past and looking ahead to what the new year will bring.

2018 was quite a year for the TopRank Marketing team. We had the pleasure of working with an incredible book of clients—both longtime partners and new favorites. We welcomed new incredibly smart and talented team members, and said goodbye to some who went on to make their marks on different industries and brands. And 2019 looks awesomely bright, as we gear up for more projects and grow our team.

To celebrate the year, the holiday season, and each other, the TopRank Marketing team enjoyed a few days of festive fun. Take a peek!

From Our Marketing Family to Yours, Happy Holidays, Marketers!

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7 Efficiency-Boosting Martech Tools & Platform Features B2B Marketers Need to Consider

Anne Leuman on Dec 18th, 2018 B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Back in 2011, roughly 150 marketing technology solutions were on the market. Today, the growth of this sector and it’s options are staggering. In fact, according to Scott Brinker, the mastermind behind the Chief Marketing Technologist Blog, the martech landscape has grown an impressive 27% in 2018 to include nearly 7,000 solutions.

Of course, B2B are rejoicing at the increased number of solutions at their disposal. Many have been steadily adding new tools and solutions to their martech stacks as the need arises to help streamline operations, automate the mundane, quickly gain new insights, track campaigns, and generate greater results.

In other words, these tools offer big efficiency gains, giving you the time, insights, or resources to make better marketing decisions.

7 Efficiency-Boosting Martech Tools & Platform Features B2B Marketers Need to Consider

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B2B Marketers: Is Your Influencer Marketing Mechanical or Meaningful?

Lee Odden on Dec 11th, 2018 B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

influencer marketing

If they don’t care, they won’t share.

With the need to scale and drive efficient performance, many B2B marketers work hard to operationalize their efforts. While process brings efficiency, a transactional approach to a relationship-centric discipline can reduce effectiveness significantly.

The effect of a mechanical vs. meaningful relationship is particularly impactful when it comes to influencer marketing. This is why many in the field call it influencer relations – it’s a relationship business, not just an advertising buy.

Now that is not to say that paying B2B influencers is out of the question. In fact, it makes sense to clearly outline the situations where payment is appropriate and where it is not. For example, if you ask an influencer to attend an event and emcee a track or co-author an ebook, payment for that expertise and time is definitely appropriate. If you invite an influencer to share a quote for an article or be a guest on a podcast, then payment is less likely to be involved.

B2B Marketers: Is Your Influencer Marketing Mechanical or Meaningful?

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TopRank Marketing’s Top 10 B2B Content Marketing Trends & Predictions for 2019

Caitlin Burgess on Dec 5th, 2018 B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

It’s that time of year, B2B marketers. As the holiday seasons kicks into high gear and the countdown to a new year accelerates, we all find ourselves looking into our figurative crystal balls to gauge what the new year will bring, and how we’ll improve ourselves and our content marketing strategies, capitalize on opportunities, and adapt or side-step new challenges as they come.

2018 was a big year for content marketers—from the implementation of new data privacy and security regulations like GDPR to the rise of promising new tools and technologies to enhance personalization, measurement, and data analyzation. And from our perspective, 2019 is on track to bring even bigger changes, presenting both opportunities and challenges for B2B marketers.

TopRank Marketing’s Top 10 B2B Content Marketing Trends & Predictions for 2019

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Flipping the B2B Marketing Script: 7 Brands That Talk to Consumers, Not Companies

Nick Nelson on Dec 4th, 2018 B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

“It feels like I’m talking to a wall.”

This is the utterance you might hear from a person whose counterpart in a conversation is not particularly engaged. If you’ve been there, then you know it’s not a great feeling.

But one of the biggest issues in B2B content marketing is actually the reverse: people tend to feel like the brands marketing to them are the ones talking to walls – as in, speaking to them as if they were an intangible corporate entity rather than a human being.

For this reason, “business to business” can be a troubling misnomer. In this discipline, we’re not really marketing to businesses – buildings with walls and stairs and desks and chairs – but the people who inhabit those buildings.

Flipping the B2B Marketing Script: 7 Brands That Talk to Consumers, Not Companies

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What B2B CMOs Need to Know About Successful Influencer Marketing

Lee Odden on Nov 27th, 2018 B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

B2B Influencer Marketing for CMOs

65% of multinational brands will increase Influencer Marketing spending in the next 12 months reaching $10 billion over the next 5 years.

With so much at stake for marketing in our fast paced industry, senior marketers must be able to see both the forest and the trees when it comes to influencer marketing in the B2B world. Much of what the marketing industry knows about working with influencers is seen through a consumer marketing lens often with the self-anointed social celebrities publishing ads as content without real passion for the brands.

With so much of influencer marketing akin to “get rick quick” with a shiny marketing object, many B2B marketing leaders can acquire unrealistic expectations about what works and what doesn’t with influencers in the business world.

What B2B CMOs Need to Know About Successful Influencer Marketing

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Learning Changes Lives: Top Insights from #MPB2B & 5 Tips for Rocking Marketing Events

Ashley Zeckman on Nov 19th, 2018 B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing, MarketingProfs B2B Forum

The MarketingProfs B2B Forum is hands-down one of the BEST conferences you can attend as a marketer. The keynotes are inspiring, the sessions are high-quality and the vibe makes you feel at home. Ann Handley and the MarketingProfs team work incredibly hard to orchestrate this great event each year and it shows.

The team at TopRank Marketing has been attending conferences like this one for decades and has been able to hone our focus to make the most of the time and investment that are made. Below are some highlights to help you get the most bang for your buck at events.