Blogging

Continuing to create relevant content, attract a targeted audience, build customer engagement and establish authority in an industry are challenges found by many online marketers. That's why it is more important now than ever to keep your business blogging top notch and to stand out from the crowd.

Ranked as the #1 Content Marketing Blog by Content Marketing Institute and the #2 Social Media Blog by Social Media Examiner, TopRankBlog.com is here to offer you expert advice on the opportunities, best practices and current state of blogging in the digital marketing world.

Browse our blogging articles and meet our TopRank blogging team to find the answers to all your blogging questions.

Introducing the Elevate B2B Marketing Podcast

Katelyn Drake on Oct 13th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Podcasting

It’s no secret that we have made it our mission to elevate the world of B2B marketing. “Elevate B2B” has been the agency’s theme and mantra of the year, and we don’t see it going away anytime soon.

Our CEO Lee Odden shared in January, “from ‘boring-to-boring’ to being woefully behind B2C, there’s more than enough opportunity for us in the B2B marketing world to raise the bar.”

The TopRank Marketing team has been committed to elevating the industry, specifically targeting these three approaches:

1 — EXPERIENTIAL CONTENT

What good is content if the target customer is not engaged? Just like B2C audiences, B2B marketers and decision-makers want to experience brands through thoughtful, creative and innovative content. In our digital-first world, personally and professionally, marketers are drawn to messages that reach them where they are with memorial content experiences.

Introducing the Elevate B2B Marketing Podcast

How LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Uses Blogging to Power Its Growth Engine

Lee Odden on Sep 27th, 2022
B2B Marketing, Blogging Strategy, Content Marketing

It was with great pleasure that I was able to wrap up my 2022 Content Marketing World experience with a session featuring two exceptional marketers that I’ve known for many years*: Steve Kearns (LinkedIn Senior Manager, Content Marketing and Social Media) and Tequia Burt (Editor in Chief LinkedIn Ads Blog) with a topic that is near and dear: How LinkedIn Marketing Solutions is Using the Blog to Power its Growth Engine

In an age of social media with Instagram, TikTok and even LinkedIn, does blogging still matter? For LinkedIn, the answer is absolutely yes.

How LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Uses Blogging to Power Its Growth Engine

Listen Up: Why B2B Marketers Are Embracing #InternationalPodcastDay

Lane Ellis on Sep 29th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Podcasting

Why are more B2B marketers than ever before embracing podcasts?

As we celebrate #InternationalPodcastDay — which takes place on Thursday, September 30 — let’s look at the many benefits podcasting holds for B2B marketers, and explore a selection of top marketing podcasts from TopRank Marketing, plus other podcasts from a range of other great marketing leaders across the industry.

When it comes to learning, marketing podcasts are a powerful way to find new takes and tactics for your B2B marketing. They’re also good for picking up new marketing ideas and getting fresh perspectives you might not otherwise find.

Let’s explore how optimism for podcasting marketing and advertising has seen significant growth, take a look at several B2B-marketing-specific podcasts, dig in to examples of other podcasts that can help all marketers learn and grow their craft, and also learn how to go about crafting and promoting a successful B2B marketing podcast.

Listen Up: Why B2B Marketers Are Embracing #InternationalPodcastDay

Creating B2B Podcasts That Rise Above The Noise

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

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

What B2B Podcasters Need to Know About SEO

Joshua Nite
B2B Marketing, Podcasting

There are few things more satisfying than clicking “Publish” on a shiny new podcast. All the hours of planning and recording are done. You ran down your podcast launch checklist. Now it’s time for the world to enjoy the fruits of your labor.

You can sit back and watch the downloads roll in, right?

Well… it depends on whether people can find your podcast. While the podcast market isn’t oversaturated yet, it’s still a crowded playing field.

Post-launch, your podcast promotion plan will likely include a mix of paid promotion, influencer amplification, and social media marketing to help build your audience. But before you record a second of audio, your organic strategy can help ensure your podcast is found and treasured.

What B2B Podcasters Need to Know About SEO

B2B Podcasting: 20 Stats that Make the Marketing Case

Joshua Nite
B2B Marketing, Podcasting

Good grief, Josh, why can’t you shut up about B2B podcasting? Does the world really need another think piece, blog post, or webinar about the potential? Don’t people get it already?

I hear you, theoretical reader. And yet, I persevere.

B2B podcasting today is where content marketing was a decade ago. It’s emerging as a marketing discipline. People are starting to get sophisticated about deploying and measuring podcasts. We’re seeing new tools to make it easier to launch, promote, and monetize. And despite the thousands of hours of audio out there already, there’s no sign that the market is satiated.

I believe that if you’re not already thinking about podcasting for your B2B brand, you should be. But if my beautiful words can’t convince you, let the data tell the story:

B2B Podcasting: 20 Stats that Make the Marketing Case

10 Crucial Steps for Launching Your B2B Podcast Into the Wild

Joshua Nite
B2B Marketing, Podcasting

Hey, friend, have you heard the good news about podcasts?

Given the most recent stats, it’s highly likely you have. Over half of all Americans over 12 years of age have listened to at least one. Podcasts have well and truly hit the mainstream. In other words, the gold rush is on for brands looking to connect with a highly-engaged, long-attention-span audience.

However, getting a podcast up and running isn’t as simple as publishing a blog. We recently published an entire B2B podcasting webinar to walk you through the entire process, from conception to publication. This post will zero in on the choices you need to make and the steps you need to take to release your podcast into the wild.

10 Crucial Steps for Launching Your B2B Podcast Into the Wild

Help Us Celebrate 15 Years of Blogging – TopRank Marketing Blog

Lee Odden
Blogging Strategy, TopRank Agency News

15 years of marketing blogging

I think it’s safe to say that there are not many marketing blogs that have hit the 15 year mark.

However, I am happy to say that the class of 2003 includes an impressive cohort of marketing blogs including several that have become industry standards like Search Engine Roundtable by Barry Schwartz and Search Engine Journal founded by Loren Baker.

While TopRank’s Online Marketing blog started with a focus on search marketing, we’ve grown and evolved over the past 15 years just like the marketing industry has. Plus, instead of me writing 3-5 posts a week myself (over 2,400 total), I now have a great team that does most of the hard work.

Help Us Celebrate 15 Years of Blogging – TopRank Marketing Blog

Is Anybody Out There? How to Get More Eyes On Your Blog Content

Joshua Nite
Blog Marketing, Blogging Strategy, Content Marketing

What’s more important than creating great blog content? What’s more important than writing with empathy, storytelling, and research? What’s more important than even knowing your audience better than they know themselves?

Amplification.

Stay with me. If you’re a content marketing writer like me, amplification is the less sexy part of the job. The rewarding part, the part that matters, is writing that amazing, useful content. I’d much rather build glittering cathedrals of words that compel people to read by the sheer power of my prose.

The trouble is, there are thousands of people out there writing amazing blogs. There is a ton of wonderful, beautiful pieces of content out there. And the only way people will find your blog is if you bring them to it. Without amplification built into your content marketing strategy, your blog is a diamond buried five miles beneath the surface of the earth. It’s pretty! It’s valuable! But it’s not doing anyone any good.

Is Anybody Out There? How to Get More Eyes On Your Blog Content

How Amanda Todorovich and the Cleveland Clinic Monetized Their Blog (And Why the Resulting Revenue is Just Gravy)

Jane Bartel
Blogging Strategy, Content Marketing, Content Marketing World

In a room overflowing with content marketers hungry to find out how to turn a blog audience into a monetizable asset, Amanda Todorovich delivered.

Todorovich, Content Marketing World’s 2016 Content Marketer of the Year, became Director of Content Marketing at the Cleveland Clinic in 2013, when their blog was only six months old and had roughly two hundred fifty thousand views per month. Now, the Health Essentials blog gets six million views per month and is the number one most-viewed hospital blog.

So, how do Todorovich and her team continue to grow their blog and turn that traffic into revenue? “You can’t think about the money first.” She stressed that trying to answer the question “what do we need to sell today?” is no way to decide what content will be most valuable for your audience.

How Amanda Todorovich and the Cleveland Clinic Monetized Their Blog (And Why the Resulting Revenue is Just Gravy)

Blogging

1 — EXPERIENTIAL CONTENT

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