Video Interviews Archives - B2B Marketing Blog

Break Free B2B Marketing: Sarah Barnes-Humphrey of Shipz and The Art of Consistent Change

Susan Misukanis on Feb 18th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Video Interviews

For more than a decade our team at TopRank Marketing has fostered a potent community of leading influencers, developing close relationships with subject matter experts in a wide variety of industries.

When it comes to B2B influencer marketing, it’s only natural to wonder just what an influencer actually looks like?

In our third season of Break Free B2B Marketing video interviews, we’re continuing in-depth conversations with a powerful selection of top B2B influencers, and taking a close look at the issues that each expert is influential about in their industry.

Every successful B2B influencer has a rare mix of the 5 Ps — proficiency, personality, publishing, promotion, and popularity — as our CEO Lee Odden has outlined in “5 Key Traits of the Best B2B Influencers.”

Break Free B2B Marketing: Sarah Barnes-Humphrey of Shipz and The Art of Consistent Change

Break Free B2B Marketing: Liam McIvor Martin of Time Doctor on The Revolutionary Power of Remote Work

Susan Misukanis on Feb 11th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Video Interviews

For over a decade TopRank Marketing has fostered a community of influencers, developing close relationships with subject matter experts in a wide variety of industries.

When it comes to B2B influencer marketing, it’s only natural to wonder what an influencer actually looks like?

In our third season of Break Free B2B Marketing video interviews we’re continuing in-depth conversations with a powerful selection of top B2B influencers, and exploring the issues that each expert is influential about.

All successful B2B influencers have a rare mix of the 5 Ps — proficiency, personality, publishing, promotion, and popularity — as our CEO Lee Odden has outlined in “5 Key Traits of the Best B2B Influencers.”

Incorporating all of these qualities and more is Liam McIvor Martin, co-founder of Time Doctor, who we’re thrilled to be profiling today.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Liam McIvor Martin of Time Doctor on The Revolutionary Power of Remote Work

Break Free B2B Marketing: Oliver Christie on Making Life Better With AI

Susan Misukanis on Jan 14th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Video Interviews

Just what is a B2B influencer, and what do they actually look like?

In our third season of Break Free B2B Marketing video interviews we’re having in-depth conversations with an impressive array of top B2B influencers, exploring the important issues that each expert is influential about.

Successful B2B influencers have a rare mix of the 5 Ps — proficiency, personality, publishing, promotion, and popularity — as our CEO Lee Odden has carefully outlined in “5 Key Traits of the Best B2B Influencers.”

Offering up all of those boxes and more is Oliver Christie, chief artificial intelligence (AI) officer at PertexaHealthTech, who we’re delighted to be profiling today.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Oliver Christie on Making Life Better With AI

Break Free B2B Marketing: Tim Crawford of AVOA on The New Normal

Susan Misukanis on Dec 10th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Video Interviews

Just what is a B2B influencer, and what do they actually look like?

In our new third season of Break Free B2B Marketing video interviews we’re having in-depth conversations with an impressive array of top B2B influencers, exploring the important issues that each expert is influential about.

Ticking all of those boxes is Tim Crawford, CIO strategic advisor at AVOA, who we’re thrilled to be profiling today.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Tim Crawford of AVOA on The New Normal

Break Free B2B Marketing: Kevin Jackson of GC GlobalNet on Cloud Computing

Susan Misukanis on Dec 3rd, 2020
B2B Marketing, Video Interviews

Kevin L. Jackson of GC GlobalNet

Cloud computing is a topic that can be mystifying for many. The fact of the matter, however, is that the global public cloud service market is projected to exceed $266 billion this year. That’s a lot of companies doing a lot of business in the cloud. When it comes to making sense of this complex creation and the way it works, there are few experts more knowledgeable than Kevin Jackson.

Breaking free from blindly accepting cloud computing and moving toward an active, knowledgeable use of the technology is something all B2B marketers and business owners need to understand. It’s also something Kevin Jackson is especially good at, which is why we invited him to be the first speaker during Season 3 of our Break Free B2B Marketing interview series.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Kevin Jackson of GC GlobalNet on Cloud Computing

Break Free Marketing Season 2 Wrap Up: Reinventing B2B Marketing

Tiffani Allen on Jun 25th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Video Interviews

Season two of TopRank Marketing’s video podcast series, “Break Free B2B,” has come to a close. We had the opportunity to interview some of the smartest B2B marketers in the industry, to find out how they’re breaking the mold and reinventing the role and function of the marketing department in B2B organizations.

The series covered three key themes:

Reinvigorating Scalable, Global ABM
Creating Online and Offline Experiences that Inspire
Reinventing B2B Marketing and How Success is Measured

One consistent message among all ten interviews is that it’s time to shake things up. B2B marketing doesn’t need more of the same. These experts are well aware of that fact. Simply repeating tactics that have ‘always been done’ and are considered industry standards is no longer enough. It’s time to push the envelope, find a way to scale your ABM program, inspire your prospects with experiences, and continue to evolve how you approach marketing and measurement.

Break Free Marketing Season 2 Wrap Up: Reinventing B2B Marketing

Break Free B2B Marketing: Danny Nail of SAP on Creating a Global ABM Platform

Joshua Nite
B2B Marketing, Video Interviews

I wrote a special song just for you:

Happy birthday to you

Happy birthday, dear reader of the TopRank blog,

Happy birthday to you

Are you emotionally moved or impressed by my effort? Probably not. Even if I used a little tech wizardry to insert your name in there, you likely wouldn’t be blown away by the level of customization. It’s just filling in a template, not creating something new.

In theory, account-based marketing (ABM) should mean delivering hyper-relevant, custom content to your most relevant accounts. In practice, however, it tends to mean coming up with ever-more intricate Mad Libs. We end up templatizing everything to scale up our efforts, losing the immediacy and relevance that makes ABM work.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Danny Nail of SAP on Creating a Global ABM Platform

Break Free B2B Marketing: Oracle’s Kelvin Gee on Winning with Enterprise ABM

Nick Nelson
B2B Marketing, Video Interviews

Everyone in B2B is talking about account-based marketing. And almost everyone is practicing it in some form — around 93% of organizations, according to SiriusDecisions.

“Not many are killing it though,” says Kelvin Gee. “That’s the problem. They start pilots … then they re-launch and learn from the mistakes. That’s just a natural maturation.”

This is a fundamental process in digital marketing, of course: test, assess, optimize. But in the Break Free B2B series, our goal is to help you fast-forward it by learning from the mistakes, successes, and revelations of your innovating peers in the field. And as the Senior Director of Modern Marketing Business Transformation at Oracle*, Kelvin draws from a deep well of experience at one of the powerhouse brands in enterprise technology.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Oracle’s Kelvin Gee on Winning with Enterprise ABM

Break Free B2B Marketing: Gary Gerber on Scaling ABM without Losing Focus

Nick Nelson
B2B Marketing, Video Interviews

When people think of account-based marketing (ABM), they tend to think of it as a smaller-scale practice. Since ABM is fundamentally built around focus in the aligned pursuit of high-value accounts, it’s often associated with a significant reduction in target market scope (i.e., “Let’s narrow down to our 20-30 most promising accounts).

This itself is a constraint from which B2B marketers need to break free, which is why Gary Gerber stood out as a fitting guest for the first interview in our second season of Break Free B2B. At B2B Marketing Exchange in February, he sat with TopRank Marketing President Susan Misukanis to unpack what’s needed to bring ABM to the next level.

Gary and his team at Folloze helped Cisco develop a sophisticated and highly effective ABM program that targeted 20,000 customers through one-on-one, personalized content and messaging.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Gary Gerber on Scaling ABM without Losing Focus

Break Free B2B Season 1 Wrap Up: Top Insights from the Marketing Industry’s Best and Brightest

Caitlin Burgess
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Video Interviews

Three different hosts, 19 jam-packed episodes, 20 incredible guests—countless amazing insights gained.

TopRank Marketing’s inaugural season of Break Free B2B, a video podcast series featuring the expertise, experiences, and advice of diverse marketing minds, is officially wrapped.

With the goal of delivering B2B marketers the encouragement and inspiration to break free of business-to-business norms to drive bigger, better, bolder results, we covered everything from change management to visual storytelling to what’s next in B2B influencer marketing. And of course, we’d be remiss if we didn’t take a moment to reflect and share some of our favorite tidbits from each of our incredible guests.

Throughout the season, there were a few key topical areas we honed in on:

Break Free B2B Season 1 Wrap Up: Top Insights from the Marketing Industry’s Best and Brightest

Break Free B2B Series: Margaret Magnarelli on the Psychology of Trust for Better Content Marketing

Caitlin Burgess
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Video Interviews

Trust in marketing—how to build it and how to wield it for good—needs to be top of mind for every modern marketer. Why? Because nearly every decision people make, especially when it comes to purchasing decisions, has an element of trust built in. And content marketers have the opportunity to become trusty guides.

“No one knows everything about everything,” Margaret Magnarelli, Executive Director of Digital Product Evolution and Growth Marketing at Morgan Stanley, shared with us in a recent Break Free B2B interview. “So, we have to be able to give our customers as much information as we can… and take them as close to the line of purchase—to the experience of purchase—as we can.”

Break Free B2B Series: Margaret Magnarelli on the Psychology of Trust for Better Content Marketing

Break Free B2B Series: Carol-Lyn Jardine and Heather Hurst on Effectively Managing Change in B2B Marketing

Nick Nelson
B2B Marketing, Video Interviews

The more things change, the more they stay the same. This phrase is often uttered with a negative connotation, but incidentally, it also represents an aspirational ideal for B2B marketing managers and leaders.

In an environment that is constantly shifting, brands and agencies are tasked with navigating uncertainty while remaining steadfast in their pursuit of the same ultimate goals: engaging prospects, building relationships, driving business results.

As such, change management becomes a key aspect of the job, particularly for those in leadership positions. Focusing on “how to help employees embrace, adopt and utilize a change in their day-to-day work” (as defined by Prosci), change management is oft-overlooked but clearly essential for a profession where one day can look drastically different from the last.

Break Free B2B Series: Carol-Lyn Jardine and Heather Hurst on Effectively Managing Change in B2B Marketing