B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®

B2B Marketing views, news and interviews.

5 Things B2B Content Marketers Need to Know About Working with Influencers

B2B influencer content marketing

Given the rapid increase in influencer engagement amongst B2B brands over the past year, the opportunity and impact from working with influencers has become clear, especially with influencer content marketing according to the B2BIMReport:

  • Results – 63% of B2B marketers agree that marketing would have better results if it included an influencer marketing program.
  • Always-On Wins – 12X more marketers who run alway-on influencer marketing programs are very successful vs those running periodic campaigns.
  • Impact on CX – 74% of B2B marketers agree that influencer marketing improves customer and prospect experience with the brand.

1. B2B Content Influencer Marketing defined:

The practice of engaging internal and industry experts with active networks to collaborate on content in a way that drives mutual value and helps achieve measurable business goals.


5 Things B2B Content Marketers Need to Know About Working with Influencers

SEO Harmony: Why B2B Marketers Need To Integrate Search With Content Strategy

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Apr 7th, 2021
B2B Marketing, SEO

People pushing giant puzzle pieces together at sunset.

Siloed and segmented SEO and content strategies work against B2B marketing success, but can they come together and work to compliment one another?

The best SEO specialists can use their skills to make even the most boring B2B content shine in the search engine spotlight — for better or worse, as the case may be.

The very top content creators can craft fantastic digital assets that are often able to rise to the heights of search success with little to no accompanying SEO.

Both of these scenarios are all-too-familiar in B2B marketing efforts, however segmented SEO and content don’t need to be so separate, and indeed the best efforts occur when both SEO and content practitioners or teams work together in harmony.


SEO Harmony: Why B2B Marketers Need To Integrate Search With Content Strategy

5 Striking Insights On Successful B2B Marketing Engagement

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Apr 5th, 2021
B2B Marketing

Hands forming a heart image.

How important is engagement in B2B marketing?

To say that engagement plays a crucial role in creating successful B2B marketing content is an understatement, as it’s how we connect with customers, and a key element in the process of building trust and the desire to continue interaction with a brand.

Engagement is also a fundamental building block of content marketing, offering many innate benefits well worth the effort it often takes B2B marketers to properly achieve.

To get that process started, let’s take a look at five striking insights on successful B2B marketing engagement, from some of the top marketers in the industry today.

1 — Brian Solis

“Meaningful customer engagement starts with discovery,” Brian Solis, global innovation evangelist at Salesforce, observed in our groundbreaking 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Research Report.


5 Striking Insights On Successful B2B Marketing Engagement

Always Have A Backup: Why B2B Marketers Must Be Prepared

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Mar 31st, 2021
B2B Marketing

Hard drive platter in clean room in engineer's hand image.

Are you ready for World Backup Day?

For World Backup Day we want to explore the importance of backing up not only your business’ data, but why B2B marketers should always have a backup plan B — and preferably also a plan C and D — at the ready.

“Don’t be an April Fool. Be prepared. Back up your files on March 31st,” the World Backup Day website admonishes for the annual day celebrating the importance of backups, which falls just ahead of April Fool’s Day.


Always Have A Backup: Why B2B Marketers Must Be Prepared

Creating B2B Podcasts That Rise Above The Noise

Joshua Nite
Joshua Nite on Mar 30th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Podcasting

B2B Podcasts Recorder Image

It’s never impressive to hear someone say they have a podcast. Making a podcast is easy! I have one that’s nearly a decade old and 400 episodes strong. 

The hard part is getting people to listen. My personal podcast has maybe 200 monthly listeners and brings in just enough in donations to pay for our web host. And at that, we have 198 more listeners than a lot of podcasts out there. 

The barrier to entry is low… but if you’re a B2B brand looking to engage with potential buyers, you’re going to want to aim higher.

How do you make a B2B podcast that actually gets listened to? One that inspires people to subscribe and tell their friends about it? 

It’s simple:


Creating B2B Podcasts That Rise Above The Noise

Brandfluence – Why Growing Executive Influence is Essential for B2B Marketing

Brandfluence B2B Executive Influence

If there was one thing 2020 showed us in the B2B marketing world, it was the growing importance of influence in all aspects of the customer lifecycle from awareness to advocacy. People want to connect with other people, not some faceless brand.

The good news is that smart B2B marketers are putting a face to their brands through employee advocacy programs and building the visibility and influence of their key executives. But how should B2B brands approach the task of growing their brandfluence? At TopRank Marketing we deal in the business of influence and content in the B2B marketing world every day and here are 3 key trends we’re seeing drive an increase in focus on building executive influence:


Brandfluence – Why Growing Executive Influence is Essential for B2B Marketing

Choosing The Best B2B Influencers Is Key To Success — Here’s Why

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Mar 24th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Professional woman holding yes and no signs image.

Why is it important to find the right B2B influencers?

Are there right and wrong ways to approach the process of choosing the best B2B influencers?

The crucial task of selecting B2B influencers who will drive the greatest success for a brand isn’t a simple one, yet it’s one often shrouded in mystery — a question that we’ll explore utilizing a collection of do’s and don’ts.

39 percent of B2B marketers state their top challenge with influencer marketing is that the process is too manual, and only 25 percent of less successful influencer marketers use software versus half of the most successful to identify influencers, according to our State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report.


Choosing The Best B2B Influencers Is Key To Success — Here’s Why

How B2B Marketing Influencers Are Finding Success On New Social Channels

Debbie Friez
Debbie Friez on Mar 23rd, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Woman showing phone screen image.

In the world of social media, the only constant is change. Each platform continues to update and add new features, and new channels appear on a regular basis. With this change comes opportunities for B2B marketing influencers to share their thought leadership in new ways and have their voices heard.

I tapped top B2B influencers and thought leaders to see where they are finding successes on some of the newer social channels. Come along and let’s explore the social media maze with them.

Finding Business in the Clubhouse

If you are jumping on trends, don’t miss getting an invite to the audio-only Clubhouse app. TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden noted “audio and voice will continue to be a trend for information discovery, consumption and engagement in 2021.”


How B2B Marketing Influencers Are Finding Success On New Social Channels

20 Ways to Build B2B Executive Credibility and Thought Leadership

B2B thought leadership

The pandemic driven digital transformation of B2B marketing to digital first has created all new levels of competition for time, attention and trust. In this environment, the importance of building credibility is essential in order to deliver stand out customer experiences. But how?

B2B brand Thought Leadership certainly plays a role and as the trends in trust focus more on individuals over companies, the opportunity to optimize content experiences through executive thought leadership and influence are growing. The more influence B2B brand executives have, the more credibility the brand has.

But how? How can B2B marketers build awareness, credibility and influence of their key executives with content? Here are a few tried and true tactics that continue to work in today’s digital B2B environment:


20 Ways to Build B2B Executive Credibility and Thought Leadership

Break Free B2B Marketing: Nicole Brady of SAHM Reviews on the Importance of Empathy in Reaching Your Niche

Susan Misukanis
Susan Misukanis on Mar 18th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Nicole Brady Image

For over a decade our team at TopRank Marketing has fostered a strong community of leading influencers, developing close relationships with subject matter experts in a wide variety of industries.

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

In our third season of Break Free B2B Marketing video interviews, we’re continuing in-depth conversations with a selection of top B2B influencers, and taking a close look at the issues that each expert is influential about in their own industry.

Each successful B2B influencer has a rare mix of the 5 Ps — proficiency, personality, publishing, promotion, and popularity — as our CEO Lee Odden has outlined in “5 Key Traits of the Best B2B Influencers.”


Break Free B2B Marketing: Nicole Brady of SAHM Reviews on the Importance of Empathy in Reaching Your Niche

10 New Insights B2B Marketers Need To Know About LinkedIn In 2021

Lane Ellis
Lane Ellis on Mar 17th, 2021
B2B Marketing, LinkedIn

Closeup image of woman’s blue eye behind black-framed glasses.

What has changed at the world’s largest professional social media platform during the pandemic, and how will it shift for B2B marketers in the post-pandemic landscape?

LinkedIn* has already rolled out an impressive assortment of new features in 2021, and we’ve got 10 insights that B2B marketers need to know about them.

Over the course of the pandemic, LinkedIn ads have been among the marketing channels that have grown the most in importance according to report data examining B2B technology marketing strategies, as we covered in a recent edition of the TopRank Marketing news.

LinkedIn also saw a revenue increase of 23 percent during the second quarter of fiscal year 2021, according to earnings release information from parent company Microsoft, led in part by strong advertising performance.


10 New Insights B2B Marketers Need To Know About LinkedIn In 2021

B2B Influencer Marketing Strategy: 5 Questions to Ask First

5 Questions for a B2B Influencer Marketing Strategy

It’s no mystery that we’re big fans of influencer marketing where B2B brands engage with industry experts and key opinion leaders to drive conversations, consideration and conversions.

Marketing leaders at B2B companies large and small are realizing how much influence can play a role in virtually every customer communication. As 2021 picks up steam, the practice of influencer marketing presents unique opportunities to optimize digitally transformed B2B marketing.

That said, while the role of influence can be universally present in content and communications, the approach that will work for any given B2B brand is by no means cookie cutter. Influencer engagement is not simply an advertising buy or some kind of programmatic marketing tactic. It’s simultaneously dynamic and open to certain kinds of optimization and scale through process, operations and expertise.


B2B Influencer Marketing Strategy: 5 Questions to Ask First

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