B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®

B2B Marketing views, news and interviews.

Influencer Content Marketing: The Art of Relationships and the Science of Software

Influence Content Marketing

Much of influencer marketing is about advocacy and as the industry matures and includes more digital marketing intentions than PR, I believe influencers will be viewed more as partners than simple proxies for message distribution.

Or at least as chatty dinner guests like the motley crew pictured above from a NewsCred influencer dinner (LtoR: Rohun, Bryan, Joe C., Alicianne, Joe P., Chad, Jon, Drew, Ann, Sheryl, Michael, Rebecca, Moi and Michael.)

It’s a very surreal experience sometimes being treated as an industry influencer one moment and then working on influencer marketing programs the next. But hey, I’m not complaining. Seeing both sides helps me empathize and pass those insights on to our consultants and clients.


Influencer Content Marketing: The Art of Relationships and the Science of Software

Having Trouble Connecting With Influencers? 4 Influencer Marketing Questions to Ask Before Your Next Attempt

Nick Ehrenberg
Nick Ehrenberg
Influencer Marketing

Influencer-Outreach

Does this influencer marketing scenario sound familiar? You’ve set up your initial influencer list full of high-profile names and a few up-and-comers in the industry, developed a compelling question for your outreach and just hit send on the first round.

Then, crickets.

Big, green, loud crickets.

What went wrong? Did you have the wrong list? Is there a possibility that the outreach somehow didn’t get to the influencers? Or maybe you said something wrong?

Influencer outreach has taken on a whole new meaning in 2016, and it has become crucial for brands to develop relationships with influencers. Getting the most from your influencers requires more than a simple email or InMail. You need to adopt an extended research and outreach process, cultivate the relationship, and continue it well beyond any campaign-related focus.


Having Trouble Connecting With Influencers? 4 Influencer Marketing Questions to Ask Before Your Next Attempt

5 Ways Influencer Marketing Can Grow Your B2B Company

B2B Influencer MarketingInfluencer 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

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

Content Marketing Tactics: Influencer Content Pros, Cons, Examples and Best Practices

Influencer-Marketing

While the world is more connected than ever, it’s also more cluttered than ever. Yes. It’s the age of information overload, and competition to get noticed is fierce. As a result, marketers are focusing on creating scalable content that gets shared more often and reaches more people by using influencer content programs.

Influencer marketing often refers to celebrities or brandividuals advocating for a brand. Influencer content goes beyond advocacy to focus on the actual content being produced for marketing. Influencer content isn’t something new, but the digital era has changed how it’s used. Influencer content marketing in its current form started gaining momentum in 2014, and it’s now the fastest growing and most cost effective marketing channel.


Content Marketing Tactics: Influencer Content Pros, Cons, Examples and Best Practices

Defying Gravity: Our 5 Most Shared Influencer Marketing Posts of 2015

Top-Influencer-Marketing-Posts-of-2015

If you have ever seen a space shuttle launch–and let’s pause for a moment of silence for NASA’s funding—you remember how small the shuttle itself looks on the launch pad. Even though it’s a massive vehicle, it’s dwarfed by the fuel tanks that will boost it into orbit. It takes a lot of energy to defy gravity, and the shuttle needs all the help it can get.

For marketers, influencers are the fuel that can get our content out of the gravity well and up where people can see it. We know influencer marketing gets results, and it’s great to see it emerging as a trend. Eighty-four percent of marketing and communications worldwide expect to launch at least one influencer marketing campaign in the next year, and 81% who have already tried it say influencer engagement was effective.


Defying Gravity: Our 5 Most Shared Influencer Marketing Posts of 2015

A Visual Guide to Influencer Marketing

Influencer Marketing

In 2016 there will be a significant push towards influencer marketing from all areas of digital marketing: from content marketers to public relations to SEOs.

Companies considering the role of influencers in their marketing efforts will come at it from as many different perspectives as there are benefits. Luckily, there are a growing number of useful resources on the topic, including this blog.

But there’s more to the topic than what we’ve covered here, so I’ve curated a collection of influencer marketing infographics that present a mix of statistics, best practices, research and models for planning, implementing and measuring the performance of influencer marketing. Take a look, click, download and enjoy!

Traackr Infographic
Traackr: The Many Faces of Influence also Content and Influence Framework.


A Visual Guide to Influencer Marketing

Want to Add More Participation to You Content? Follow These 5 Keys to Success [Guide]

5-keys-success-participation-marketing

By this point, there is no denying that content marketing should be an essential part of every brand’s integrated digital marketing strategy. Content enables brands to create a connection with current and potential customers that can also support many other digital marketing initiatives if optimized correctly.

Since we’re all on the same page about content, the question many marketers are wondering is: what does the next iteration of content marketing look like? Try this on for size: 84% of worldwide consumers will take action based on the reviews and recommendations of trusted sources above all other forms of advertising (Nielsen).

Based on that statistic alone, everyone reading this should have just had an “aha moment”. If consumers trust reviews and recommendations from sources that they trust, that means that you should be adding additional trusted sources outside of your brand to build credibility within your content marketing.


Want to Add More Participation to You Content? Follow These 5 Keys to Success [Guide]

How Collaborating With Influencers Generated Over 110k Views on SlideShare

Influencer-Marketing-Header

Brands large and small are searching for ways to separate themselves from the pack. At the same time, most marketers are struggling with everything from producing enough content, to measuring content effectiveness. As more and more brands become publishers, it has become increasingly difficult for brands to create a variety of engaging content on a consistent basis.

To stay relevant and continue learning, many marketers attend workshops, trainings and industry events. Unfortunately, there are so many to choose from it can be difficult to weed out those that may not be worth the investment.

Therein lies the challenge:

  • Quality conferences need to build awareness of their events
  • Influential speakers need to drive people to their presentations
  • Marketers need useful information presented in an engaging way

How Collaborating With Influencers Generated Over 110k Views on SlideShare

Rule the School: 5 Essential Lessons on Co-Creating Content with Influencers [eBook]

GroupHigh eBook CoverAh, the nostalgic memories of making new friends on the first day of class, the thrill of getting a new Trapper Keeper notebook and finding your place amongst your peers likely take most of us back to our school days.

Once you’re out of school, you realize that you don’t always have teachers by your side to help you plan for how to approach strategies like content marketing. There’s no lesson plan, pre-test or extra credit to help you figure everything out. And the true test comes from how much your audience likes (or doesn’t like) the content assets that you create. Which presents an opportunity to innovate your approach.


Rule the School: 5 Essential Lessons on Co-Creating Content with Influencers [eBook]

Influencer Marketing: Should You Pursue High Profile or Socially Authoritative Brand Advocates?

searching-for-influencers

We’ve been talking a lot about influencers lately – and with good reason. The right mix of thought leaders and valuable content can catapult any integrated marketing campaign into vast new heights and audiences. Finding and connecting with those ideal influencers, however, has always been the challenge.

While there are multiple discovery tools available for influencer marketing research, identifying your influencers is only part of the battle. The next part is reconciling them with your overall program objectives. It’s here that we’ve witnessed disconnects between marketing teams and their executive leadership – and where the need for executive buy-in is crucial for any influencer marketing campaign. Executives may crave big names – chief executives of major industry organizations who may/may not have an active social presence.


Influencer Marketing: Should You Pursue High Profile or Socially Authoritative Brand Advocates?

How to Improve Influencer Engagement? Avoid These 50 Fails

Influencer Marketing

Brands: Stop Doing These Things!

Influencer Marketing is hot and that means the value of influencer relationships is higher than ever.

Working hard to romance in-demand experts to collaborate, co-create and even advocate can be a substantial investment. The mutual benefit from these long term relationships can mean anything from hugely successful marketing programs for brands to top billing at speaking events, book deals and consulting work for the influencers.

Unfortunately, outreach communications, expectations and negotiations with influencers to work together are often so lacking of empathy, relevant context or even courtesy that the industry expert “checks out”. Losing influencers is sad and wasteful.

But it doesn’t have to be that way if you know what makes them leave. Trust me, I work on influencer outreach nearly every day (sending and receiving) and am both guilty of committing some of these influencer marketing sins and having them committed against me.


How to Improve Influencer Engagement? Avoid These 50 Fails