Online Marketing Blog

Hiding Out: How B2B Marketers Can Adapt to Hidden Like Counts

Lane Ellis on Nov 20th, 2019 B2B Marketing, Social Media, Web Analytics

Doesn’t anyone like me? Where have all my likes gone?

Likes on Instagram are being hidden, as the Facebook-owned firm recently began expanding a test program hiding the number of likes — or more accurately the small heart buttons we click to show support — that posts on the platform receive, showing the total number only to the person or brand who authored the post.

via GIPHY

Instagram head Adam Mosseri recently appeared on CBS This Morning and said, “We don’t want Instagram to be such a competition. We want it to be a place where people spend more of their energy connecting with the people that they love and the things that they care about.”

Hiding Out: How B2B Marketers Can Adapt to Hidden Like Counts

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Break Free B2B Series: Hal Werner on the Intersection of Marketing Creativity and Analytics

Nick Nelson on Nov 19th, 2019 B2B Marketing, Video Interviews

Part art, part science, all business.

This is the credo under which Hal Werner operates. As Global Manager of Digital Marketing & Strategy for Mitel, he’s responsible for overseeing the telecommunication company’s marketing programs from a holistic view, and understanding how all the pieces fit together.

Coming from a background in copywriting and content strategy, while also possessing considerable experience with SEO, PPC, and analytics tools, Hal believes the key to unlocking success in this modern era of digital marketing resides at the intersection of creativity and data.

Break Free B2B Series: Hal Werner on the Intersection of Marketing Creativity and Analytics

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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

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Digital Marketing News: Instagram Tests Hiding Likes, Brand Trust Priorities Report, & Facebook’s New Brand Tools

Lane Ellis on Nov 15th, 2019 Online Marketing News

2019 November 15 MarketingCharts Chart

Instagram Will Begin Hiding Total Like Counts for US Users from Next Week
Instagram is slated to start hiding the number of likes that posts have acquired in a forthcoming test. In areas where it’s already been tested, total Instagram like counts have dropped, study data has shown. Social Media Today

Female marketer leadership at ‘all time high,’ says ANA study
The number of women holding leadership marketing jobs may be at an all-time high, according to recently-released study data from the Association of National Advertisers. Women accounted for 52 percent of senior-level marketers and 47 percent of CMOs among ANA member firms, the study showed. Campaign US

Digital Marketing News: Instagram Tests Hiding Likes, Brand Trust Priorities Report, & Facebook’s New Brand Tools

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Break Free B2B Series: Clare Carr on Using Data to Drive Content Marketing Success

Kelly Hogan on Nov 14th, 2019 B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Video Interviews

Intertwined from the start. For marketing executive Clare Carr, digital marketing and data have been a packaged deal since the beginning of her career. But for most marketers, while data is plentiful, leveraging that data (and deriving actionable insights to improve content strategy) is an evolving challenge. Most of us are just beginning to scratch the surface of our data’s potential.

But according to Clare, who spent more than six years at content analytics platform Parse.ly, data can do more than help us optimize performance “after the fact.” Data can help us build our brand. Data can help us become better storytellers. Data can help us grab attention.

Break Free B2B Series: Clare Carr on Using Data to Drive Content Marketing Success

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5 B2B Brands Innovating with AR & AI Marketing

Lane Ellis on Nov 13th, 2019 B2B Marketing, Interactive Marketing, Visual Marketing

Augmented reality and artificial intelligence aren’t just for B2C marketers anymore, and as we move into 2020 we’re likely to see a new decade of B2B that keeps moving farther away from “Boring-To-Boring” and towards more to B2C-like experiences. AR and AI are a key part of what consumers increasingly expect to find in those experiences.

The swiftly rising number of mixed-reality consumer app installations is expected to jump from 3 billion to 10 billion by 2024, with associated ad spending forecast to climb from $2 billion in 2019 to $11 billion, according to new Juniper Research data.

While AR and AI in consumer-facing efforts keeps expanding with a full head of steam, such as Warner Bros. first-ever embedded AR for its upcoming “Scoob!” film trailer and mobile app, many in the B2B landscape have scarcely begun to tap into the AI-infused technology available.

5 B2B Brands Innovating with AR & AI Marketing

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Break Free B2B Series: Brody Dorland on Creating Long-Lasting Content Marketing Strategy

Kelly Hogan on Nov 12th, 2019 B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Video Interviews

We’re ready to release another insightful interview as a part of our Break Free B2B series, this time with Brody Dorland, co-founder of the popular content planning platform, Divvy HQ. Brody is a self-described data geek. He believes data is a crucial component of successful content marketing.

The platform that he co-created is all about bringing data, structure, and strategy into content marketing. We feel that he’s a practitioner who is uniting that data side with the creative side within B2B content marketing. That’s why we were so excited to sit down with him for a few minutes and pick his brain.

We not only spoke about what B2B content marketers can start doing to boost the success of their content marketing initiatives, but also gain insight into where B2B content marketing is headed in the future.

Break Free B2B Series: Brody Dorland on Creating Long-Lasting Content Marketing Strategy

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5 Key ABM Trends for B2B Marketers to Track Heading into 2020

Nick Nelson on Nov 11th, 2019 B2B Marketing

I’ve attended two B2B conferences in the past few months – B2B Sales and Marketing Exchange in Boston, and MarketingProfs B2B Forum in Washington DC – and at both, account-based marketing was unmistakably top-of-mind. A majority of sessions and conversations evoked the term in some fashion, matching the trend I’ve noticed online and in client interactions.

A look at the Google Trends trajectory for “account based marketing” over the past five years reminds me a bit of the trajectory for “content marketing” in the five years prior.

It’s only natural that B2B organizations everywhere are either adopting or taking an interest in ABM, because the strategy is founded on so many key pillars of effective marketing today: personalization, organizational alignment, and the focused pursuit of high-value customers.

5 Key ABM Trends for B2B Marketers to Track Heading into 2020

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Digital Marketing News: FTC’s Influencer Guide, Twitter’s New Topic Following, Facebook’s Icebreakers, AR Tops Innovation List, & TikTok’s Easier Sharing

Lane Ellis on Nov 8th, 2019 Online Marketing News

2019 November 8 MarketingCharts Chart

B2B Marketers Are Prioritizing Measurement and Analytics Technologies
83 percent of B2B marketers expect to increase their focus on data analytics in 2020, and 69 percent plan to also make measurement technologies their top investment priority next year, according to newly-released survey data from Dun & Bradstreet and Adweek. MarketingCharts

Twitter Launches New Option to Follow Specific Topics, in Addition to User Accounts
Twitter has begun rolling out the ability to follow some 300 new curated topic lists, in the form of timeline and search prompts, with a full launch slated for November 13, the social media firm recently announced. Social Media Today

Digital Marketing News: FTC’s Influencer Guide, Twitter’s New Topic Following, Facebook’s Icebreakers, AR Tops Innovation List, & TikTok’s Easier Sharing

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Break Free B2B Series: Amisha Gandhi on Global B2B Influencer Marketing

Kelly Hogan on Nov 7th, 2019 B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Amisha Gandhi is the VP of Influencer Marketing & Communications for SAP Ariba & SAP Fieldglass. She is a sought-after speaker, and in this video — fresh off of a workshop presentation at MarketingProfs B2B Forum that absolutely rocked — she shares fascinating ideas about how to make an ongoing B2B influencer content marketing program not only work but drive organizational change and success. With that said, check out the full interview below.

Break Free B2B Marketing Interview with Amisha Gandhi

Below are some of our favorite insights from the chat between Amisha and our president and co-founder Susan Misukanis.

Sue: I’ll always get calls from B2B marketers who say they want to deploy the Kardashian model for their long-tale, B2B influencer program that is still in its infancy, and I feel like I need to redirect. What are your thoughts on that?

Break Free B2B Series: Amisha Gandhi on Global B2B Influencer Marketing

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Break Free B2B Series: Amanda Todorovich on Creating Content that Pays Off

Kelly Hogan on Nov 5th, 2019 B2B Marketing, Online Marketing

Amanda Todorovich is the Senior Director of Health Content at Cleveland Clinic. That title kind of undersells what she did over there. She turned a neglected blog into a revenue stream. That’s right – something that is generating money and is getting over 7 million visitors a month. Now Amanda is a true believer, like our agency, in the power of audience-centered content.

She is living proof that investing in this kind of content pays off. Join us in learning more from Amanda. She is one of the leading lights and is at the vanguard of next-generation content marketers, and we are thrilled to speak with her. View the entire interview below.