B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®

B2B Marketing views, news and interviews.

A Non-Agency Guy Reflects on His First Year at TopRank Marketing

TopRank Marketing Team

Liking where you work is not an optional luxury. At least it sure shouldn’t be.

Spending 40 hours of every week at a place you dread is a tough way to go through any stretch of life. I’ve been there and I’m sure many of you have as well — especially if you work in digital marketing, which can often be a fast-paced, demanding, and stressful field.

So last year, when I decided to pursue a new professional venture, finding the right culture fit was a huge priority for me. As I started exploring the possibility of joining the TopRank Marketing team, I had some reservations; not because of anything specific to the company, but because it’s an agency.


A Non-Agency Guy Reflects on His First Year at TopRank Marketing

4 Tips for an Out-Of-This-World B2B Marketing Agency Partnership

Elizabeth Williams
Elizabeth Williams
B2B Marketing, Integrated Marketing

Who was the first person to set foot on the moon? Of course the answer is Neil Armstrong — who else?

But, actually, the question really is “who else?” In order for Armstrong to walk the moon, there were innumerable individuals who contributed something large or small to get him there. His mom and dad, Mission Control, fellow astronaut and crew member Buzz Aldrin, a nation of taxpayers — and the list goes on.

What’s the point? Simply put, there’s no doubt that Armstrong was an amazing pioneer, but he didn’t get to the moon — or back home — alone. It took a team.

Being a marketing pioneer in the B2B technology space is no different. You need to have skills and ambition of your own, but you also need an amazing team by your side.


4 Tips for an Out-Of-This-World B2B Marketing Agency Partnership

7 Tools to Uncover Customer Needs & Map the Customer Journey to Create Better Experiences

map-the-customer-journey

Marketers have become increasingly focused on the importance of understanding the customer journey and using data to lead their marketing strategies. Salesforce recently reported that 86% of senior-level marketers say that creating a cohesive customer journey is absolutely critical.

However, knowing where to start can be a daunting endeavour. But not taking action has the potential to put companies at serious risk as Gartner estimated that nearly 90% of companies expect to compete mostly on the basis of customer experience starting this year.


7 Tools to Uncover Customer Needs & Map the Customer Journey to Create Better Experiences

Where Social Media and SEO Fit in Today’s Content Marketing Mix

Search Social Content Marketing

Whether your role is in search, social media, marketing communications or PR, the importance of content marketing is unmistakable.

Brand content budgets and participation are up with the vast majority of B2C and B2B marketers now using content marketing. The industry is coming together on best practices and organizations are evolving their structures to include roles like Chief Content Officer and Brand Journalist.

While there is growing synergy between search, social media and content marketing, they don’t often function collaboratively in organizations. There are also some misconceptions about what content marketing really is.

This post will dig in to some of the realities of incorporating an integrated approach that leverages the best of search, social media and content marketing, while dispelling some of the myths that keep integrated efforts apart.


Where Social Media and SEO Fit in Today’s Content Marketing Mix

eBook: Winning with Authority Rainmaker – Integrated Content, Search & Social Media

Henry Rollins Authority Rainmaker eBook

When faced with the seemingly insurmountable odds of information overload, 63GB per person per day in the USA, how can brands, let alone enterprising individuals stand out?

Be the best answer wherever customers are looking.

And how do you do that?

By creating authority across channels and media from search to social to wherever content can be discovered, consumed or acted on.

To provide you with a clear roadmap on creating authority through integrated marketing, our latest conference eBook project launches today for Copyblogger’s Authority Rainmaker conference.

Featuring top experts including: Dan Pink, Ann Handley, Danny Sullivan, Sally Hogshead, Joe Pulizzi, Sonia Simone and many more, this eBook is both inspirational and tactically insightful. Both the eBook and the conference are organized by 4 key areas necessary for integrated online marketing success: Design, Content, Traffic, Conversion.


eBook: Winning with Authority Rainmaker – Integrated Content, Search & Social Media

Winning With Authority Rainmaker – 15 Marketing Influencers Define Authority for Marketing Success

Winning Authority Rainmaker

“I fight authority and authority always wins”

So says the song by John Mellencamp.

In the digital marketing world, why fight authority when you can become authoritative yourself?

Today there are more tools and resources than ever for individuals, startups and even nimble divisions within large organizations to become an authority in their industry.

In the context of business and marketing, I like to think of authority as “being the best answer” wherever customers are looking. Ubiquitous in presence, contextually relevant, useful above all others and a focus on something specific – all of these traits combine in a meaningful way to create authority.

Authority that wins.

But how do you create authority? What are the practical integrated marketing steps needed when it comes to design, content, traffic and conversion?


Winning With Authority Rainmaker – 15 Marketing Influencers Define Authority for Marketing Success

Traditional Media for Content Marketing: Pros, Cons, Examples and Best Practices

Traditional-Media-content-marketing

How many times has traditional media been pronounced dead in the past decade? We’ve lost count, right? While there is no denying that TV, newspapers and radio have lost a ton of ground to digital, the fact of the matter is traditional media still matters. Even to digital marketers.

In fact, some marketers are finding that traditional media is a becoming a great platform for engaging buyers. Consider brands like Doritos, Coca-Cola and others that are asking for consumers to submit short video clips via their company websites and social media channels. Those clips are curated into commercials that are airing during major events like the SuperBowl and the Academy Awards. In fact, 20% of ads in Super Bowl XLVII in 2013 included some form of crowdsourcing from major brands like Coca-Cola, Audi, Doritos, Pizza Hut and others. The incentive to participate in these contests is big for consumers willing to give up names and multiple forms of contact information just to take part.


Traditional Media for Content Marketing: Pros, Cons, Examples and Best Practices

Where Brand Journalism and Native Advertising Can Fit Within Content Marketing

integrated content marketing

Over the past year the discussions about what content marketing is and isn’t as well as the role of content within marketing and PR functions of a business have been interesting to watch. Especially the discussions around whether brand journalism and native advertising fit in the content marketing mix. Here’s my take:

Content Marketing is all about customers and providing them the information they need to inspire action. The themes that align buyer interests and brand goals as part of a content marketing strategy can inspire the focus of any content or media whether it’s part of a brand journalism effort, native advertising or content marketing program –  just in different ways.


Where Brand Journalism and Native Advertising Can Fit Within Content Marketing

For Better Integrated Marketing, Look Inside for Insights

Integrated Marketing

Integrated Marketing often means a combination of marketing tactics as part of a specific campaign tied together with a common goal and audience. As consumers become more diverse and sophisticated in how they discover, consume and interact with digital content, it only follows that marketers correspond their efforts to provide a common (yet relevant to the channel) experience for customers.

To elevate their ability to provide such an experience, many marketers are challenged to find new platforms, best practices and strategies. In many cases, the answer to improving customer experience across marketing channels is sitting right in front of them within customer service, sales, public relations and product management.


For Better Integrated Marketing, Look Inside for Insights

Integrating Search, Social Media and Email Marketing – @Shoutlet Webinar Recap

Silos Are For Farms, Not Marketing

It’s a good thing we had a team of marketing “silo busters” present for a recent webinar hosted by Shoutlet.  Not only did this triple threat of marketers help break down the barriers between SEO, social media marketing, content marketing and email marketing, but we shined a spotlight on how to integrate.

Why is integration between search, social and email important?

Simple, it works.

It works for customers and what works for customers, works for reaching your marketing goals.

The most basic of marketers have some understanding of how their customers discover information on the web. They know their buyers’ preferences for content types and topics. Most marketers also have an idea of what offers will compel those customers to take action.  When you map that customer journey out, it is inevitable in nearly ALL cases that search, social and email play a role in bringing the customer through the buying cycle.


Integrating Search, Social Media and Email Marketing – @Shoutlet Webinar Recap

Disruption in Digital Marketing and Communications – Insights from 19 Major B2C and B2B Brands

Digital Convergence Marketing PR

I recently had the pleasure of presenting at an Integrated Marketing Communications conference called INTEGRATE with an audience of Master’s Degree students and faculty at West Virginia University.

It was an impressive conference because of the passionate and talented faculty presenting but especially the students – most of whom work full time jobs as they earn their Master’s Degree in IMC.

Here is the presentation I gave: Digital Convergence: The Integrated Marketing and Public Relations Imperative – Disruption in the digital media world has reached every aspect of marketing and communications. Brands compete with publishers and consumers are empowered to publish and influence like never before. The convergence of marketing and PR creates all new opportunities for brands to build authority and grow business while competitors continue to work in silos.


Disruption in Digital Marketing and Communications – Insights from 19 Major B2C and B2B Brands

Integrate Social Media Marketing With All of Your Online Marketing Efforts

integrated marketing social media

Integrating content across channels of discovery and engagement like social networks is an important part of optimizing for the customer experience. In fact, according to the 2014 Social Media Marketing Industry Report, 83% of marketers stated they have integrated their social media and traditional marketing activities.

Social Media contributes to all aspects of the customer journey, so integrating social media marketing with overall online marketing efforts just makes sense if you want to connect the dots for customers from education to action. But how?

I recently did an interview on this topic with Roza Tsvetkova of Komfo in Denmark and thought I’d share it here:

What is new when we talk about social integration? What is key to the integration of social media with the other online marketing efforts?


Integrate Social Media Marketing With All of Your Online Marketing Efforts

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