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The New Rules & Realities of Sales & Marketing

TopRank Marketing Editor
B2B Marketing, Marketing PR Conferences

“The biggest mistake I see with marketing is companies talk too much about their own products and services.”

As the author of 7 books, David Meerman Scott brings tremendous knowledge, real-world insights and infectious energy to the stage. As yesterday’s opening keynote at Content2Conversion in Scottsdale, David challenged the audience to set the bar higher with their content marketing efforts. In his own words, “B2B doesn’t have to stand for Be-Too-Boring.” I couldn’t agree more!

Below I share a few of Scott’s New Rules, including how the B2B buying process has changed, the importance of real-time engagement, and how content marketing just might land you on an Antarctic journey.

The New Rules & Realities of Sales & Marketing

Ignite Your B2B Content Marketing Effectiveness at #C2C16

TopRank Marketing Editor
B2B Marketing

B2B Content Marketing Tips from Content2Conversion

The opportunity to surround yourself with top content thought leaders and practitioners is one that you should always take. That’s just what we will be doing February 15 -17 at the 2016 B2B Content2Conversion conference in Scottsdale Arizona.

We’ll be packing our bags and leaving the cold Minnesota climate for warmer weather and three days filled with top-notch B2B content marketing education. But before we dig into that, lets review the current state of content marketing for B2B marketers and why conferences like this are so essential.

A recent Content Marketing Institute study revealed that a full 88% of B2B marketers have adopted some form of content marketing. Go a layer deeper in this same study and you’ll discover that 55% of these same folks are unsure what B2B content marketing effectiveness really looks like. Is it time to pump the brakes on content marketing? Or, are half of B2B marketers simply missing the mark?

Ignite Your B2B Content Marketing Effectiveness at #C2C16

5 Ways Influencer Marketing Can Grow Your B2B Company

Lee Odden
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

B2B Influencer Marketing Influencer Marketing programs for B2B companies tend to focus on a handful of marketing objectives. The thing is, like many marketing focused investments, influencer marketing can yield many more benefits than the simple act of a famous person in your industry saying nice things about your product or brand.

When B2B companies focus on influencer marketing solely from a campaign perspective, they miss out on the need to maintain relationships. There’s a lot of competition for well known influencers and relationships can keep the connection strong in your brand’s favor.

The future of influencer marketing is bright and with business to business marketers, it’s even more important to include influencers in ongoing marketing because buyers are so self directed in the sales process and they trust experts more than brands (Nielsen).

5 Ways Influencer Marketing Can Grow Your B2B Company

TopRank Marketing’s 2016 Influencer Marketing Predictions

Ashley Zeckman
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

2016-Influencer-Marketing-Predictions

This year, headlines throughout the marketing blogosphere proclaimed that influencer marketing is “the next big thing.”

At TopRank Marketing, we have been refining our influencer marketing strategy for nearly a decade. It’s our past, present, and next big thing. When done well, influencer marketing can boost brand credibility, provide valuable exposure for the brand and the influencer and create killer content your audience will love.

Now that influencer marketing has officially arrived, how will it evolve in 2016? We asked our in-house experts, and some of our favorite marketers outside the TopRank Marketing team, for their opinion. Here are the influencer marketing predictions for 2016.

Steve Rayson

Steve-Rayson
Director, BuzzSumo
@steverayson

TopRank Marketing’s 2016 Influencer Marketing Predictions

Join The TopRank Marketing Book Club

Ashley Zeckman
B2B Marketing, B2C Marketing

TopRank-Marketing-Book-Club

“No two persons ever read the same book.” – Edmund Wilson

Each person that picks up a book has a different experience when they consume the information. Our team at TopRank Marketing is filled with individuals that thirst for knowledge. That is why we are so happy to announce the launch of the TopRank Marketing Book Club.

Not only is this a great opportunity for our team to consume information, bond and discuss our views on the material, but we would like to invite you to participate as well. Want to learn what it is all about?

How TopRank Marketing Book Club Works

The first rule of book club: we want everyone to talk about book club. This club wasn’t just created for our internal team; our goal is to have it made up of other people around the globe with similar interests that want to join our discussion.

Join The TopRank Marketing Book Club

TopRank Marketing Top Takeaways & Words of Wisdom from MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum #MPB2B

Ashley Zeckman
B2B Marketing, Marketing PR Conferences

marketingprofs-b2b-forum-recap

Last week, the amazing Ann Handley and her team at MarketingProfs put on a phenomenal conference for B2B marketers from all over the country. The information, networking, events and even the swag were all top-notch.

On the first day, Ann set the stage and asked everyone in attendance to find their squad of other marketers at the event, and to take their work seriously, but not to take themselves too seriously. I’m so thankful to have gotten to know some familiar faces a little bit better, and to make some new fast friends in a short amount of time.

This great conference inspired me to share what I thought were the top takeaways and words of wisdom from the speakers for those of you that weren’t able to attend.

TopRank Marketing Top Takeaways & Words of Wisdom from MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum #MPB2B

How B2B Marketers Can Use Facebook to Drive Engagement & Generate Leads

Ashley Zeckman
B2B Marketing, Facebook

Time and time again, B2B marketers have heard, “Facebook doesn’t work for B2B”. That statement could not be further from the truth. What B2B marketers should ask themselves is; am I truly engaging my Facebook audience by sharing things they want to see and interact with?

Facebook can be an incredibly powerful tool, if used correctly. In fact SteamFeed found that 60% of all social media traffic to B2B websites comes from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. So, there is proof that Facebook for B2B marketers works, but now it’s time to figure out how to create better engagement and make more meaningful connections.

Last week at MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum, Andrea Vahl took the stage and shared some fantastic insights into how B2B brands can improve visibility, track leads and improve Facebook Ad targeting. Below are some of her best insights.

How B2B Marketers Can Use Facebook to Drive Engagement & Generate Leads

If you want B2B Content to be Great, Ask Your Community to Participate! #MPB2B

Ashley Zeckman
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Lee Odden MPB2B

The bar for great B2B content marketing is being raised since brands have become publishers and no longer need to rely on traditional media sources for exposure. Unfortunately, budgets and resources don’t always match the required output.

Not many B2B marketers realistically have the budget to hire journalists to compete with industry publications. Even those that do, are still struggling to create engaging content on a consistent basis, improve content effectiveness and provide a variety of content.

The wisdom of your community is a bank rich with useful marketing content and can help scale a B2B content marketing program. In his session at MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum, TopRank CEO Lee Odden made the case for why adding participation to your content can help solve the problems above, and three examples of content co-creation in action.

If you want B2B Content to be Great, Ask Your Community to Participate! #MPB2B

13 Considerations for Creating Successful Landing Pages from Oli Gardner of Unbounce #MPB2B

Ashley Zeckman
B2B Marketing, Marketing PR Conferences, Online Marketing

oli gardner unbounce mpb2b 2015

While B2B marketing KPIs such as views, shares and impressions are important in helping to determine your digital marketing strategy, conversions will always be more important. You have to provide enough value to encourage people to click on your content, and then once they reach your destination, you have to convince them again that it is worth providing their contact information.

Landing pages can be an incredibly powerful tool for moving prospects through the sales process but they are not all created equal. Oli Gardner of Unbounce provided an incredibly amount of information on the four corners of conversion for landing pages in his presentation at MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum.

13 Considerations for Creating Successful Landing Pages from Oli Gardner of Unbounce #MPB2B

Case Study: How IBM Changed Perception & Increased Revenue by 20% YOY #MPB2B

Ashley Zeckman
B2B Marketing, Marketing PR Conferences, Online Marketing

IBM mainframe

“Why not let every client who sets foot in the door know that this agency has entered the future?” – Don Draper

If you ask most people what they think a mainframe is, most will likely get visions of black and white photos of antiquated computers housed in an IBM backroom. As the Vice President of Z Systems Marketing for IBM, it’s Deon Newman’s job to change that perception.

Believe it or not, all of us are connected to a mainframe multiple times each day. The stats might actually surprise you. For example:

80% of all corporate data resides or originates on mainframes.
55% of all enterprise applications need a mainframe to complete transactions.
30 billion business transactions are processed on mainframes every day.

Case Study: How IBM Changed Perception & Increased Revenue by 20% YOY #MPB2B