Alexis Hall

How Collaborating with Influencers Can Help You Save the Day and Change the World of Marketing

Alexis Hall on Nov 19th, 2018     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing, MarketingProfs B2B Forum

Influencer marketing is a phrase on the tip of most marketer’s tongues, but many are still struggling to figure out exactly what it means in the context of their B2B business and how to implement.

At last week’s MarketingProfs B2B Forum in San Francisco, TopRank Marketing’s Ashley Zeckman took the stage to help set the influencer marketing story straight and provide insights into what it REALLY takes to develop a successful B2B influencer marketing program.

Why the Sudden Need for Influencer Marketing?

Trust in marketers has fallen. In fact, a recent study by HubSpot found that only 3% of people trust marketers (just over lobbyists and politicians). And B2B marketers specifically are facing the worst of it. MarketingProfs and CMI’s most recent report found that only 51% of B2B marketers state that their marketing is moderately successful and 61% of them still don’t have a document content strategy.


How Collaborating with Influencers Can Help You Save the Day and Change the World of Marketing
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Ashley Zeckman

How Dell, SAP and Dun & Bradstreet Collaborate with Influencers to Scale Successful B2B Content #MPB2B

Ashley Zeckman on Nov 16th, 2018     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing, MarketingProfs B2B Forum

This week at MarketingProfs B2B forum, some of my favorite influencer marketers took the stage for a lively discussion on how they’ve been able to scale content creation by collaborating with influencers.

The panel was led by TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden and included the following rockstar marketers:

Dr. Konstanze Alex – Head of Corporate Influencer Relations, Dell

Amisha Gandhi – Vice President, Influencer Marketing, SAP Ariba

Luciana Moran – Senior Vice President, Content & Creative, Dun & Bradstreet

If you’re interested in influencer marketing, then you’re in for a real treat. In this post, I’ll outline some of the best insights for B2B influencer success. But first, let’s look at WHY influencer marketing is a must-have for B2B marketers.


How Dell, SAP and Dun & Bradstreet Collaborate with Influencers to Scale Successful B2B Content #MPB2B
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Alexis Hall

How High Impact Marketers Approach Marketing Strategy #MPB2B

Alexis Hall on Nov 15th, 2018     B2B Marketing, MarketingProfs B2B Forum

Planning for 2019 is well underway and most marketers are asking themselves if their plan will really impact results. Many marketers start with goal revenue numbers. And from there, work backwards to corresponding goals for leads, channels, tactics and audience targets. Unfortunately, the words that no marketer wants to hear ring clear from leadership: do more with less budget.

So how can you do more with less? How can you ensure success in the ever-changing landscape of the B2B consumer?

Samantha Stone, the Founder of the Marketing Advisory Network, suggests that marketers flip the usual model for 2019 planning. If you start with marketing strategy,  you can stop doing “more” and instead focus on a few tactics your team executes incredibly well, that can have a significant impact on the organization.


How High Impact Marketers Approach Marketing Strategy #MPB2B
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Ashley Zeckman

How B2B Marketers Can Drive Growth in the Age of Assistance #MPB2B

Ashley Zeckman on Nov 14th, 2018     B2B Marketing, MarketingProfs B2B Forum

One of the key themes for this year’s MarketingProfs B2B Forum is the importance of ongoing learning. And part of learning is growing. And part of growing means stepping outside of your comfort zone.

Gopi Kallayil, the Chief Evangelist for Brand Marketing at Google opened his morning keynote by encouraging the audience to do things that make you uncomfortable. And to prove his point, he involved the ENTIRE audience. How?

He started by asking the audience to raise their hand if they were either a fan of or expert Bollywood dancers themselves. Then, he asked all those people to join him on stage. Here’s proof that it worked:


How B2B Marketers Can Drive Growth in the Age of Assistance #MPB2B
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Lane Ellis

50 B2B Marketing Influencers and Experts to Follow 2018

Lane Ellis on Nov 14th, 2018     B2B Marketing, MarketingProfs B2B Forum

B2B Marketing Influencers 2018

MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2018 is here, as some of the world’s savviest B2B marketing leaders and innovators come together in San Francisco for a much-anticipated conference.

To help business marketers find helpful voices to learn from, we’ve sorted through the nearly 100 excellent speakers and are thrilled to publish our annual list of B2B marketing influencers speaking at MarketingProfs B2B Forum.

List Methodology: First, we pulled the list of all speakers from the MarketingProfs website. Then we added those speakers to the Traackr influencer marketing platform to crawl each speakers’ respective social profiles and start tracking their content and the impact of that content amongst their networks. Using Traackr’s algorithm for ranking, we then sorted the speakers according to their respective social influence: reach, relevance, resonance, and audience metrics.


50 B2B Marketing Influencers and Experts to Follow 2018
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Lee Odden

B2B Influencer Marketing Interview: Whitney Magnuson, IBM

Lee Odden on Nov 12th, 2018     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Whitney Magnuson IBM

Our journey into the world of B2B influencer marketing continues this week with an interview featuring Whitney Magnuson, Global head of social and influencers at IBM Systems.

Overall, IBM has a long history working with influencers ranging from the Midsize Insider blogging program to the IBM Futurists. For her part at IBM Systems, Whitney has overseen the creation of a first-of-its-kind external influencer outreach program that has since become the model for IBM company-wide among many other accomplishments.

In this interview, Whitney talks about the differences between B2C and B2B influencer marketing, how influencer marketing is positioned within her company, a favorite influencer marketing campaign and tips on tools and measurement.

What brought you to the world of Influencer Marketing?


B2B Influencer Marketing Interview: Whitney Magnuson, IBM
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Anne Leuman

How Data Insights Can Lead Your B2B Content Marketing Strategy

Anne Leuman on Nov 8th, 2018     B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Let Data Insights Lead Your Content Marketing Strategy

There’s little doubt among seasoned B2B content marketers that strategy is the key to success. In fact, according to the 2019 B2B Content Marketing Report produced by Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs, the most successful content marketers (65%) are far more likely to have a documented strategy than their less successful peers (14%).

The kicker? That same report revealed that just 27% of B2B marketers say their content marketing efforts are very or extremely successful in achieving their organization’s desired results. The next largest chunk, 51%, say their content marketing is only “moderately effective.”

What’s causing the disconnect? The report points to content marketing maturity: The more sophisticated your content marketing efforts become, the more success you’re likely to have.


How Data Insights Can Lead Your B2B Content Marketing Strategy
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Joshua Nite

5 Content Marketing Shortcuts That Cost You in the Long Run

Joshua Nite on Nov 6th, 2018     B2B Marketing, B2C Marketing, Content Marketing

Content Marketing Shortcuts to Avoid

You know what they call a shortcut that actually saves time?

The route.

That was the wisdom my dad gave me the first time we went hiking together. Sometimes when you look at the map, it looks like there’s a better path. But the route is the route for a reason. Chasing a shortcut feels like making progress — but it might not get you to the trail’s end.

Marketers dig shortcuts. Or, as we call them, “hacks.” It makes sense: We’re usually overworked, understaffed, and expected to work wonders. A content marketing hack promises to cut a straight line through a tedious process, increasing efficiency and boosting results.


5 Content Marketing Shortcuts That Cost You in the Long Run
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Lee Odden

B2B Influencer Marketing Interview: Rani Mani, Adobe

Lee Odden on Nov 5th, 2018     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Rani Mani Adobe

For this week’s installment of B2B influencer marketing interviews, we get to meet Rani Mani, Head of Social Influencer Enablement at Adobe. Besides her accomplishments working with cross functional teams and developing strategies for cultivating and nurturing community engagement so that Adobe can be a community driven business, she has an amazing and inspiring personal story.

In this interview, Rani shares how working with B2B influencers can drive marketing results, how influencer engagement is organized at Adobe, tips on recruiting and engaging influencers, and some her favorite B2B influencers to work with.

What brought you to the world of Influencer Marketing?

I am passionate about community building and shining a light on the people doing amazing things in the world with our products and services. Influencer Relations is a perfect fit for that passion.


B2B Influencer Marketing Interview: Rani Mani, Adobe
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Joshua Nite

20 More Dumb Jokes for Smart Marketers

Joshua Nite on Oct 30th, 2018     B2B Marketing

Dumb Marketing Jokes

A great pun is like a great digital marketing campaign: If you do it right, it will stick with people until they’re compelled to share it — even the simplest ones require a level of sophistication to make and to appreciate.

Every marketer I know is incredibly smart — whether it’s my team at TopRank Marketing, the influencers and thought leaders we work with, or the folks I’ve met at marketing conventions. Marketers are sharp, detail-oriented, intellectually rigorous, and susceptible to flattery.

So, if you’re a smart digital or content marketer, take a break from your challenging, rewarding work and enjoy these jokes. And remember: If your colleagues don’t laugh, they’re just not as sophisticated as you.


20 More Dumb Jokes for Smart Marketers
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Lee Odden

B2B Influencer Marketing Interview: Martin Jones, Cox Communications

Lee Odden on Oct 29th, 2018     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Martin Jones

I’ve known Martin Jones casually through marketing conferences for several years. Martin occupies that unique position of being someone who manages influencer marketing programs for his brand and is also an influencer himself.

In fact, it is through an influencer engagement for IBM that both Martin and I were involved with that I had a chance to get to know him in earnest. His climb at Cox Communications is a classic American success story and at the same time, Martin is incredibly humble and one of the nicest people in the industry.

In this interview, Martin shares his journey into working with influencers, tips on identifying, recruiting and managing relationships with influencers as well as insights on measurement and his thoughts towards the future.


B2B Influencer Marketing Interview: Martin Jones, Cox Communications
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Lee Odden

From Basic to Advanced, the B2B Influencer Marketing Software You Need to Succeed

Lee Odden on Oct 24th, 2018     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

B2B influencer marketing software

A hot topic for every marketer today is working with influencers. But how do you find the right influencers? How do you manage those relationships and how do you scale programs?

Basically, what tools do you need when it comes to B2B influencer marketing?

Here is a collection of social media and influencer marketing tools you might find useful whether you’re a B2B or a B2C marketer. But definitely if you work in B2B.

Outside of the promotional tools you might use for the content marketing that goes along with most influencer marketing programs, there are three general areas of opportunity to scale with technology when it comes to working with influencers.

1- Identification, qualification and recruiting


From Basic to Advanced, the B2B Influencer Marketing Software You Need to Succeed
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