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Top 10 B2B Digital Marketing Trends in 2020

Lee Odden on Jan 20th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Digital Marketing

B2B marketing trends 2020

As a kid I was a big fan of Science Fiction with a rich imagination about the world in 2020 with flying cars, floating cities and the possibility of aliens among us that sparked numerous ideas about what’s possible.

Of course that’s not exactly how things turned out (not so sure about those aliens) but B2B marketing is definitely entering an age of possibility.

Without question, the future is bright for digital with Forrester predicting that digital marketing spending will reach $146 billion by 2023. In B2B, there are important shifts from more B2C inspired tactics to a more focused effort to engage Millennial age buyers: 45% of B2B technology buyers are now Millennials and more than 70% of millennials are included in B2B buying decisions.

Top 10 B2B Digital Marketing Trends in 2020

10 Years of Women Who Rock in Marketing – CMO Edition 2019

Lee Odden on Dec 30th, 2019
Digital Marketing

In recent years headlines like ‘Men twice as likely to be CMOs than women’ were pretty common.

If you’ve worked in marketing for any length of time, you know that the role of CMO is already associated with high demands and turnover.

Some might argue that women in CMO roles face an even greater challenge given their underrepresentation in marketing leadership despite the marketing industry being overwhelmingly female.

While women are underrepresented as CMOs, there’s research that shows women in CMO roles are paid better (on average) than their male peers. Even more promising is that “Nearly half the marketing leadership hires in the first six months of 2019 were women“.

10 Years of Women Who Rock in Marketing – CMO Edition 2019

Grateful and Glad: What the TopRank Marketing Team is Most Thankful For

Caitlin Burgess on Nov 28th, 2019
Digital Marketing, TopRank Agency News

For centuries, American families and friends have come together on Thanksgiving Day to feast and give thanks for all of life’s beautiful gifts.

But I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again—Thanksgiving isn’t limited to one day in the TopRank Marketing realm. Every day, I see attitudes of gratitude.

To date in 2019, our team has typed the words “thank you” in Slack communications a whopping 7,737 times, and “thanks” 4,113 times.

via GIPHY

As is TopRank Marketing tradition, I’ve asked team members to share what they’re most thankful for in work and in life. Here’s what many had to say.

What the TopRank Marketing Team is Most Thankful for in 2019

Lee Odden

CEO

Grateful and Glad: What the TopRank Marketing Team is Most Thankful For

Why California’s New Data Privacy Law Matters to Marketers Everywhere

Nick Nelson on Nov 18th, 2019
B2B Marketing, Digital Marketing, Marketing Industry News

Be compliant or be complacent. These are the two options facing brands and marketers today, as data privacy laws continue to increasingly take hold.

For those paying attention, it’s been clear for some time that Europe’s GDPR regulations were only the beginning of a global effort to formalize and enforce protections for internet users and their personal data. But with California’s landmark privacy legislation, CCPA, set to become enforced in 2020, data privacy is no longer a distant foreign concern for American businesses, if it ever was.

Be compliant or be complacent. These are the two options facing brands and marketers today, as data privacy laws continue to increasingly take hold. @NickNelsonMN #dataprivacy #digitalmarketing Click To Tweet

What is the CCPA?

At a high level, the purpose of the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is quite similar to that of GDPR: It’s about giving people transparency into, and control over, how their personal data is used by companies.

Why California’s New Data Privacy Law Matters to Marketers Everywhere

Trick or Treat: The Spellbinding Marketing Sweets the TopRank Team Can’t Resist

Caitlin Burgess on Oct 31st, 2019
B2B Marketing, Digital Marketing

Admit it. On Halloween night, the fierce competitor within you sprinted from home to home to claim as much sugary bounty as your pillowcase could carry. But the loyalist and purist in you was on the hunt for a specific candy treat. A treat that put all the rest to shame; a treat that always hit the sweet spot.

via GIPHY

For me, that coveted treat was: the Almond Joy. Sweetened coconut. Crunchy almonds. Smooth milk chocolate. Devilishly delicious, but ghoulishly elusive amongst a sea of KitKat- and Snickers-purchasing households. (Here’s to you, organic reach on Facebook.)

As marketers, we all have our favorites. From tactical techniques that sweeten our marketing mix to the integration of marketing elements to tantalize our audience’s taste buds, the TopRank Marketing team weighs in on both fun- and king-size marketing treats they can’t resist.

Trick or Treat: The Spellbinding Marketing Sweets the TopRank Team Can’t Resist

Q3 Wrap-Up: What’s Changed For B2B Marketers & What’s Ahead in 2020?

Lane Ellis on Sep 30th, 2019
B2B Marketing, Digital Marketing

We’ve now reached the end of the third quarter of 2019, one filled with many significant B2B marketing changes and several surprising twists and turns that will combine to affect how the industry moves forward as we enter Q4 and push forward to 2020.

Q3 saw numerous exciting shifts in new directions, and a few seemingly slight changes in course that are nonetheless poised to make big impacts in 2020.

We’re always working to bring you the most relevant B2B marketing news, including over 180 weekly industry news videos, hosted by Tiffani Allen, Joshua Nite and others here on our blog and on our TopRank Marketing YouTube channel.

Each quarter we reflect on what’s happened in digital marketing and look ahead with key trends. Let’s examine both the challenges and opportunities the quarter’s top B2B marketing news has brought our industry.

Q3 Wrap-Up: What’s Changed For B2B Marketers & What’s Ahead in 2020?

Tales from the Trenches: How to Transition from Marketing Doer to Marketing Leader

Alexis Hall on Sep 17th, 2019
Digital Marketing

I was roughly five years into my marketing career when I began managing my first direct report. It was the biggest challenge I faced yet. I was now being evaluated on the actions, successes, and failures of another person—and I also knew it was my responsibility to give them the support and tools they needed to have more successes than failures.

I felt as if I didn’t know how to influence, motivate, or persuade another person. But I was given the opportunity to try and to learn. I had a great group of bosses, mentors, and peers giving me advice, listening to my concerns or wins, and allowing me to make mistakes.

Tales from the Trenches: How to Transition from Marketing Doer to Marketing Leader

Trust Factors: Why Your Brand Should Take a Stand with Its Marketing Strategy

Nick Nelson on Sep 16th, 2019
B2B Marketing, Digital Marketing

Earlier this year, Salesforce made waves by announcing a policy that compelled retailers to either stop selling military-style rifles and certain accessories, or stop using its popular e-commerce software.

For a massive brand like this to take such an emphatic stand on a divisive social issue would’ve been unthinkable not so long ago. But in today’s world at large, and consequently in the business and marketing environments, it’s becoming more common. This owes to a variety of factors, ranging from generational changes among consumers to a growing need to differentiate.

But, like so many other trends and strategies we see emerging in digital marketing, I think it mostly comes back to one overarching thing: the trust factor.

Trust Factors: Why Your Brand Should Take a Stand with Its Marketing Strategy

Pantheon’s Roland Smart Details the Secret to Agile Marketing Transformation #DSMPLS

Elizabeth Williams on Aug 16th, 2019
Digital Marketing, Marketing PR Conferences, MIMA Summit

Run a Google search for “agile marketing” today and you’ll see 144 million results. It’s an insanely hot topic, which has steadily grown more applicable and desired from it’s “Scrum” beginnings.

Why are marketers today so obsessed with agility? Roland Smart, podcaster, author of “The Agile Marketer: Turning Customer Experience Into Your Competitive Advantage” and Vice President of Marketing for Pantheon*, shared his insight on the subject at Digital Summit Minneapolis this week.

For starters, the average marketer’s tenure is just 18 months. After all, we need to get results—and we need them fast. Second, while our strategies and tactics have been artfully crafted with insight and data, once we put everything into the wild, we need to be able to act fast to monitor, measure, and optimize performance—while also navigating budget and “waterfall” resourcing limitations and challenges. And finally, today’s marketers are often managing a growing tech stack, making an agile approach a match made in heaven.

Pantheon’s Roland Smart Details the Secret to Agile Marketing Transformation #DSMPLS

4 Marketing Productivity Tips from Workfront’s Mike Riding #DSMPLS

Anne Leuman on Aug 15th, 2019
Digital Marketing, Digital Summit, Marketing & PR Industry

Does work follow you home? When was the last time you had a work week that was actually 40 hours?

Marketers often feel pressed for time and overworked. In fact, according to recent Workfront research:

64% say they’re being asked to come up with new ways of working
58% are so swamped, they don’t have time to think beyond their daily tasks
56% they’re completely overwhelmed.

Mike Riding, Workfront’s Director of Digital Marketing, came to Digital Summit Minneapolis with the sole goal of helping marketers get more work done. While organizations typically turn to technology to solve the productivity problem, Mike offered four actionable, process-driven ways marketers can modernize their work and become more productive.

4 Marketing Productivity Tips from Workfront’s Mike Riding #DSMPLS

Joseph Lindberg of Land O’Lakes Outlines How to Build a Marketing Dashboarding Discipline #DSMPLS

Elizabeth Williams on Aug 15th, 2019
Digital Marketing, Digital Summit, Marketing PR Conferences

Marketing measurement. It’s absolutely essential, but perhaps one of the hardest marketing disciplines to master. Why? As Joseph Lindberg, Digital Communications Editor for Land O’Lakes, Inc., told a room of marketers at Digital Summit Minneapolis this week:

“Measurement is a loaded term. It means many things to many people.”

It’s true. Measurement can be thought of in terms of KPIs. Measurement can be raw data or data insights. Measurement can be your stack of tools.

And during his session, titled Building a Marketing Dashboarding Discipline: It’s Not About the Tool (Until It Is), Joseph challenged marketers to flip our thinking on how we measure.

Below we outline his recommended process and advice for how you can level up your measurement game, and map tactics to business objectives so you can prove value up the ladder.

Joseph Lindberg of Land O’Lakes Outlines How to Build a Marketing Dashboarding Discipline #DSMPLS

The Future of Marketing As Seen By Randi Zuckerberg #DSMPLS

Anne Leuman on Aug 15th, 2019
Digital Marketing, Digital Summit, Marketing PR Conferences

“Technology is changing the way we do business.”

Said everyone, ever.

Marketers know technology is changing how we interact with our audience. But knowing it’s happening and doing something about it are two very different things.

Randi Zuckerberg is no stranger to technology and its effects on business, daily life, and social structures. As the founder and CEO of her own media company, Zuckerberg Media, and a former marketing leader at Facebook, Randi has a unique vision for the future of marketing and how today’s marketers can adapt.

Explore that future with her insights below from the floor of Digital Summit Minneapolis.

We’re Afraid to Fail

We’ve been talking about the evolving state of marketing for years. But maybe we as marketers haven’t changed all that much. Why?

The Future of Marketing As Seen By Randi Zuckerberg #DSMPLS