B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®

B2B Marketing views, news and interviews.

17 Ways to Stay Current with Search Marketing

stay current search-marketingOver the past few weeks TopRank has been conducting it’s own search of sorts, for a Senior Search Marketing Manager as well as a Search Marketing Strategist. One of the questions we ask is, “How do you stay current with tactics and strategies in the SEM space?”.  It’s a good question both for hiring agencies to ask as well as companies that are looking for SEM consultants.

Search is a changing marketplace. Whether it’s paying attention to the effect of Google infrastructure updates like Caffeine or industry aggregation like BingHoo, it’s important for companies that want to stay ahead of the competition and for SEM consultants to deliver first class services, to stay current. The question is, how to do that?  We offer 17 ways in our current Online Marketing Blog Reader Poll:


17 Ways to Stay Current with Search Marketing

Poll: Levels of Corporate Social Media Engagement

babushkaThe notion of social web and how companies can engage is as multi-faceted as anything I’ve seen in my 12+years of marketing online. The many ways for companies to involve themselves using social technologies are as varied as the reasons they may do so. Whether it’s to better connect with customers, attract more media attention or crowdsource product ideas, social web participation can offer many benefits.

This understanding of different perspectives and methods leads us to a new TopRank Reader Poll that considers the many different approaches companies may take towards social media. As a poll, it’s only a snapshot in time, but the results will be of great interest to all who participate.   Please select up to 1 “best” answer:

Please select the social media marketing tactics below that you consider "black hat".


Poll: Levels of Corporate Social Media Engagement

Poll: How Do You Measure Business Blogging Success?

I recently completed developing and recording 2 modules for a business blogging program with the DMA.  One of the most interesting portions (in my opinion) of the material addressed measuring blog success. There’s no one right answer because the purpose for business blogs can vary from branding to sales.

Since bloggers often read other blogs, I’m counting on Online Marketing Blog readers to take this quick poll to identify what the most common goals for business blogging are. There should be enough options to address whatever purpose you have for your blog. You can pick up to 3 choices.

Pick your top 3 measures of success for business blogging

  • Engagement: comments, links (12%, 65 Votes)
  • Improved brand recognition (11%, 56 Votes)
  • Build thought leadership (11%, 55 Votes)

Poll: How Do You Measure Business Blogging Success?

Reader Poll: Podcast Popularity vs Live Streaming Audio

Podcasting

I’ve had some back and forth with collegues recently about the popularity of podcasting, live audio streaming and also how podcasting fits within the social media category of communication channels.

eMarketer says podcasts are rising in popularity: “As a percentage of Internet users, podcast downloaders will grow from 9% in 2008 to 17% in 2013”.  The Pew Internet & American Life Project also indicates an uptick in podcast popularity, stating that 19% of all internet users have downloaded a podcast in 2008, up from 12% in 2006.

It seems to me that live streaming audio is likely more on the rise but I did not find any research at eMarketer or at Pew about the distinction between podcasts and streaming audio on the web. Hopefully you can help me out by taking this poll.


Reader Poll: Podcast Popularity vs Live Streaming Audio

Top Digital Marketing Tactic for 2009: Social Media Marketing

digital marketing poll 2009With concerns over the recession and its impact on marketing, we decided to run a TopRank Reader Poll to discover reader (and their networks) preferences for digital marketing tactics in 2009.  Companies world-wide are cutting costs as well as looking for creative, high impact and accountable marketing.  Our amazing readers both on Online Marketing Blog and followers at @leeodden helped uncover the top tactics.

Over the past 11 days 532 readers have cast 1559 votes for their 3 top digital marketing tactics for 2009 with Blogging, Twitter and Search Engine Optimization topping the list.  Equally interesting was that out of the top 10 tactics, 6 fall into the category of Social Media Marketing. See the full list below along with other statistics about where voters came from as well as info about the readership of Online Marketing Blog.


Top Digital Marketing Tactic for 2009: Social Media Marketing

Reader Poll: Top Digital Marketing Tactics for 2009

digital marketing tactics 2009

We’ve run several Reader Polls on favored internet marketing tactics over the past year and a half flavored by a sentiment towards recession and also as a general indication of future plans. The state of the world and certainly the marketing world is as unique and challenging as it’s ever been. Many companies and vendors are scrambling to figure out how to make most efficient/effective use of resources to grow their businesses in this uncertain economy.

Traditional marketing budgets are increasingly shifting to digital marketing and why not? Internet marketing is often more cost effective, builds awareness quickly, fosters relationships and is measurable in ways traditional advertising just can’t match. Within the world of digital, there are many, many options and considerations. Situations, circumstances and objectives vary, but the commonality of digital delivery, interaction and measurement brings this poll together. We’d love your participation and insight:


Reader Poll: Top Digital Marketing Tactics for 2009

Reader Poll: Best Blog Analytics Software

There are more companies blogging now than ever. How do you measure results? Measuring the social web is a different thing than what most web analytics packages offer. It can be easy to start a blog, but making it successful requires an excellent feedback mechanism. Blog analytics is one of those sources of feedback to know what’s working and what’s not.

We’ve listed interesting blog analytics tools of various types before, but now’s your chance to vote for (up to two) of the best software focused on measuring what happens on blogs.

What are your 2 favorite blog analytics software tools?

  • Google Analytics (43%, 169 Votes)
  • Woopra (10%, 41 Votes)
  • Feedburner Stats (10%, 40 Votes)
  • StatCounter (9%, 37 Votes)
  • Wordpress Stats (7%, 28 Votes)


Reader Poll: Best Blog Analytics Software

Reader Poll: Influence Marketing with Social Networks

reader poll

Update for 2012: Here’s a list of the top 12 social networks for business:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • YouTube
  • Google+
  • Slideshare
  • Pinterest
  • FourSquare
  • StumbleUpon
  • Flickr
  • MySpace
  • Tumblr

Whether the top social network is Facebook or something new, TopRank can help your business with social network development and social media marketing.

Networking has been a core tactic for building and marketing businesses long before the internet came of age, and certainly even more so with the explosion of services such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Ning. Web technology and the mass appeal of making connections online makes social networking an attractive channel for businesses that want to extend their word of mouth reach, credibility and influence, or using influencers to market through social.


Reader Poll: Influence Marketing with Social Networks

Reader Poll: How Do You Interact With Social Boomarks?

You don’t have to look too far online to see more and more people using social bookmarking services and news sites. Content publishers from blogs to mainstream publications like Minneapolis Star Tribune are looking for ways to make it easier for readers to save and share content.

There are a variety of tactics including social bookmark links, icons, multi-purpose buttons, browser add-ons, bookmarklets, other tools and scripts that can used to encourage visitors to promote content. The question is, how are people using them?

When bookmarking or submitting a page to a social media site, do you most often:

  • Use a browser add-on. (34%, 31 Votes)
  • Click on social icons on the page. (18%, 16 Votes)
  • I don't use any of those. (15%, 14 Votes)


Reader Poll: How Do You Interact With Social Boomarks?

Poll: Your top reason for attending marketing conferences?

reader poll

With the changes last year in the search marketing conference industry there has been disappointing side-taking and rumor mongering but also a healthy dose of optimism about what more competition will do for attendees. I would think the sustainability and success of any conference is in large part dependent upon attendees needs being met. Whether your primary business is interactive marketing, public relations, advertising or SEM, online marketing and PR oriented conferences offer a variety of benefits.

Because of Online Marketing Blog readers’ varied marketing and PR related interests, this week’s Poll aims to identify the top motivations for readers to attend marketing industry conferences:

Why do you attend marketing industry conferences?

  • Maintain knowledge - stay current (36%, 63 Votes)
  • Networking (34%, 60 Votes)


Poll: Your top reason for attending marketing conferences?

Reader Poll: How do you use Twitter?

reader poll

UPDATE: Survey Results on Top 10 Uses of Twitter are here.

Without question, the microblogging platform Twitter (follow me here) is a phenomenon many of our readers are exploring or trying to figure out. Whether you’re in search marketing, advertising, interactive marketing, journalism or public relations, there are many ways to use Twitter as a communications, networking and even a socializing tool.

Some people post the most benign information such as the mass fixation on Twittering while in airports. Others produce steady streams of thoughtful goodness, insights and links to content you simply won’t find anywhere else. Twitter can even be a productive marketing tool and if you look, you’ll find an amazing number of resources on it.


Reader Poll: How do you use Twitter?

Reader Poll: 35 Online Marketing Tactics for 2008

What will you do to improve your online marketing performance in 2008? There are so many options, challenges with agency selection plus a moving target when it comes to knowledge/expertise. Without previous campaign performance statistics, it can be a real challenge deciding where to allocate marketing dollars for the web when you’re looking at expanding into new areas of promotion.

Whether your success metrics are branding, traffic, lead generation or sales, the right strategy and mix of tactics can make or break a business that relies on internet channels. What ARE the best upcoming channels? We’d like to know your opinion in this week’s Reader Poll:

What online marketing channels/tactics will you use most in 2008?

  • Blogging (29%, 55 Votes)
  • Email marketing (16%, 30 Votes)


Reader Poll: 35 Online Marketing Tactics for 2008