B2B Marketing Archives - Page 4 of 46 - Online Marketing Blog

Always On Influence: Costs Less and Better ROI – Here’s Why

Lee Odden on Jul 6th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Virtually every marketing tactic is under evaluation right now as B2B marketing departments react to the domino effect of changes in consumer spending during the pandemic. Many B2C marketers are putting a pause on their influencer marketing investments as the world of travel, hospitality, retail, sports and entertainment have changed dramatically.

In the business to business world, things have changed as well but not anywhere near as significantly and not always at the expense of lowered marketing budgets. The trend in B2B is digital and self serve from virtual events and prospect engagement to buyers now conducting the majority of their research and interactions on their own before making purchase decisions.

Always On Influence: Costs Less and Better ROI – Here’s Why

Livestream Marketing: 5 B2B Brands Rocking LinkedIn Live

Lane Ellis on Jul 1st, 2020
B2B Marketing, LinkedIn, Video

How can B2B brands benefit from using LinkedIn Live, and what are some examples of businesses rocking their LinkedIn Live marketing?

LinkedIn* has seen its live-streaming LinkedIn Live feature being used by more major firms all the time, and we’ll take a look at five top B2B brands that are rocking their LinkedIn Live game.

The sky’s the limit when it comes to how B2B brands can use LinkedIn Live. Here are 12 to get you started:

Interviewing a Member of Your C-Suite
Answering Frequently-Asked Questions
Streaming a Keynote or Session
Highlighting Special Events
Streaming “Ask Me Anything” Episodes
Introducing Various Team Members
Deep-Dive Interviews
Showcasing Behind The Scenes Workplace Culture
Unveiling New Innovations
Launching Episodic Content

Livestream Marketing: 5 B2B Brands Rocking LinkedIn Live

Why Content Marketing is More Important Than Ever for B2B Brands

Nick Nelson on Jun 30th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

In his recently published eBook, Corona Marketing, Joe Pulizzi recounts how he and his wife launched the website Content Marketing Institute in 2007 at the exact time as a devastating financial crisis was beginning to unfold in the United States.

“At the time, we believed things couldn’t have been bleaker,” Pulizzi writes. “Looking back though, this was absolutely the best time for my wife and I to start a business.”

Why is that? Because their commitment to providing useful, helpful and relevant content – even at a time where it was difficult to drive direct revenue with that content – paid major dividends as the market recovered.

Why Content Marketing is More Important Than Ever for B2B Brands

Three B2B Marketing Tactics That Will Outlast the COVID19 Pandemic

Lee Odden on Jun 29th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing, SEO

Without question, the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the B2B world with companies generally reducing marketing budgets. At the same time, many B2B companies are maintaining or increasing marketing spend as we’ve seen with most of our clients at TopRank Marketing.

While there has generally been a shift from explicit sales/push marketing content to brand messaging that is more aligned with the times and empathetic to customers, sales expectations still exist for B2B brands during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The challenge many B2B marketers are facing is to understand how to navigate both the short term changes in what works for customers in the current environment as as well as in the long term, post-crisis.

Three B2B Marketing Tactics That Will Outlast the COVID19 Pandemic

Break Free Marketing Season 2 Wrap Up: Reinventing B2B Marketing

Tiffani Allen on Jun 25th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Video Interviews

Season two of TopRank Marketing’s video podcast series, “Break Free B2B,” has come to a close. We had the opportunity to interview some of the smartest B2B marketers in the industry, to find out how they’re breaking the mold and reinventing the role and function of the marketing department in B2B organizations.

The series covered three key themes:

Reinvigorating Scalable, Global ABM
Creating Online and Offline Experiences that Inspire
Reinventing B2B Marketing and How Success is Measured

One consistent message among all ten interviews is that it’s time to shake things up. B2B marketing doesn’t need more of the same. These experts are well aware of that fact. Simply repeating tactics that have ‘always been done’ and are considered industry standards is no longer enough. It’s time to push the envelope, find a way to scale your ABM program, inspire your prospects with experiences, and continue to evolve how you approach marketing and measurement.

Break Free Marketing Season 2 Wrap Up: Reinventing B2B Marketing

Always-On Influence: Why B2B Needs Brand Research & 11 Must-Ask Questions For Marketers

Lane Ellis on Jun 24th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

What is brand research and why is it an important step in building a successful always-on B2B influencer marketing program? What are the key facts you need to learn about a brand that will lead to the creation of a strong ongoing influencer program?

Doing brand research right is crucial for always-on B2B influencer marketing success, but where do you start, especially with the increased importance of brand empathy and authenticity?

Don’t worry, as in the third part of our ongoing #AlwaysOnInfluence series — following on the heels of “Always On Influence: Short Term vs. Long Term for Success During a Crisis” — we’ll take the time to show why brand research is key to building a B2B influencer marketing program that features the most relevant influencers.

Always-On Influence: Why B2B Needs Brand Research & 11 Must-Ask Questions For Marketers

Manufacturing Runs: 9 Summer Content Marketing Tips Drawn from the Diamond

Nick Nelson on Jun 23rd, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Baseball and content marketing are two of my greatest passions. When I think about it, there are some intrinsic similarities between the two that aren’t hard to see.

Much like content marketing, baseball is rhythmic and methodical by design. Sure, there are the flashy home runs (and it helps when your favorite team *ahem* set the all-time record a year ago), but at its core, baseball is about strategy, patience, and sequencing: Accept the inevitability of failure and learn from it. Take good at-bats, call the right plays, string together base runners, manufacture runs.

via GIPHY

Sadly there is no baseball season right now, but if there was, it’d be inching toward “the dog days of summer” – a term given to those stretches in July and August where the relentless heat and daily grind start to wear on ball players as they battle their way through a marathon 162-game schedule.

Manufacturing Runs: 9 Summer Content Marketing Tips Drawn from the Diamond

Trust in Marketing: How to Build Influence with the C-Suite and on the Street with Customers

Lee Odden on Jun 22nd, 2020
B2B Marketing

80% of CEOs don’t trust marketers.

And yet 91% of CEOs do trust CIOs and CFOs

Ouch!

In addition to the many challenges marketers are currently facing with the COVID-19 pandemic and overall social change, a study by Fournaise Group found that CEOs felt marketing was not meeting expectations, causing a lack of confidence. Whether it was due to too much emphasis on martech or marketing “hype”, the outcome is clear: the credibility of marketing is at risk.

The thing is, those credibility issues are not limited to the C-Suite. Customers have trust issues with marketing as well and for good reasons:

Brand vs. Customer Focus
Lack of Confidence & Trust
Not Delivering Value
Not Meeting Expectations
Lack of Authenticity

Trust in Marketing: How to Build Influence with the C-Suite and on the Street with Customers

How To Level Up Marketing Content From B2B Influencers

Joshua Nite on Jun 18th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Why do you even need a content person for influencer marketing?

After all, the influencers are providing the content. You just have to collect their pearls of wisdom, make them look pretty in a PDF, and you’re good to go, right?

I’ll confess, on my first influencer marketing project, I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing there. Over the last few years, however, I’ve come to understand the role that content marketers can play in shaping influencer content.

It’s the content lead’s job to shape the conversation with the influencer. We have to ask the right questions, and provide a structure and framework to elicit thoughtful, detailed responses.

How To Level Up Marketing Content From B2B Influencers

Don’t Do That: Email Marketing Lessons From My 26 Year Spam Archive

Lane Ellis on Jun 17th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Email Marketing

What makes for strong long-term email marketing, and what can email marketers learn from a 26 year archive of spam?

In 1994 I started archiving the funniest and most outlandish spam emails I received, and throughout the rest of the ‘90s I sent out an annual holiday compendium of the year’s top unsolicited messages.

Over the years friends and associates began sending me their own wild spam finds, and although I ceased my annual updates long ago, I’ve kept up my spam archive — a trove of email marketing horrors, hi-jinks, and oftentimes hilarity that I still hope to turn into a book someday.

For now, I’ll crack open the archive and share five email marketing lessons taken from analyzing 26 years of spam, to help illustrate how we can adapt, grow, and innovate — and how not to follow in the footsteps of atrocious spammers.

Don’t Do That: Email Marketing Lessons From My 26 Year Spam Archive

Break Free B2B Marketing: Sean Crowley of Dun & Bradstreet on Cracking the Alignment Code

Nick Nelson on Jun 16th, 2020
B2B Marketing

“Integrated marketing” is an ideal with clear appeal, but one that is often difficult to actualize in practice. Developing a truly integrated strategy — in which marketing functions in lockstep with sales, product, and other departments — is immensely challenging, especially within large and complex organizations.

It’s not necessarily for a lack of trying, or a lack of good intentions from all involved. These roles simply operate and think differently from one another. Friction and disconnects are inherent. Silos are pervasive.

As the Leader of Integrated Marketing for Sales and Marketing Solutions at Dun & Bradstreet, Sean Crowley tackles these barriers head-on each day. Eager to hear his philosophies on bridging these crucial gaps, and to learn what’s working at D&B, TopRank Marketing’s Joshua Nite joined Sean for a chat during B2B Marketing Exchange in February.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Sean Crowley of Dun & Bradstreet on Cracking the Alignment Code

Project Management FAQ: Top Questions B2B Marketers Ask About Projects and Process

Anne Leuman on Jun 11th, 2020
B2B Marketing

What is every B2B marketer’s favorite word?

Process.

Okay, I’m kidding. For people who live and work in a creative field like B2B marketing, process has a little bit of a reputation. A reputation for stifling the creative process with extra steps, procedures, and — depending on who you ask — hoops to jump through.

While it’s certainly true that too much process becomes a hindrance, it’s also true that not enough process becomes chaos. We need processes to onboard new staff, establish marketing innovations, create more efficient projects, and more.

With such a critical — and controversial — role in B2B marketing, it makes sense that marketers have a lot of questions when it comes to processes and the projects they aid. You may even be one of those marketers. To help you get the answers you seek, here are the most frequently asked questions B2B marketers have about process and projects.

Project Management FAQ: Top Questions B2B Marketers Ask About Projects and Process