Caitlin Burgess

Content Marketing Gold Rush: How to Unearth Content Gold at Marketing Industry Events

Caitlin Burgess on Jan 30th, 2019     Content Marketing

The promise of professional growth. The excitement of striking new connections. The anticipation of hearing and learning from industry legends and up-and-comers. The marketing industry conference and event circuit is an absolute gold mine of opportunity.

What’s one of our favorite ways to strike-it-rich at any industry event? Panning for content gold.

via GIPHY

The content marketing gold rush that started roughly a decade ago has content marketers stamping, picking, drilling, and grinding away at content creation so they can break-ground with their audience and fend off the competition. And industry events can be boomtowns, not only allowing you to make the most of your time, budget, and resources—but also ideate, create, amplify, and repurpose compelling content that will resonate with your audiences.


Content Marketing Gold Rush: How to Unearth Content Gold at Marketing Industry Events
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Lee Odden

5 Examples of B2B Influencer Marketing to Inspire You in 2019

Lee Odden on Jan 29th, 2019     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

B2B Influencer Marketing Examples 2019

B2B brands don’t have it easy when trying to attract, engage and persuade today’s increasingly distracted and distrustful buyers. Many are experimenting with influencer marketing but results without an informed plan can be a mixed bag. Trust me, I know.

We’ve been experimenting heavily with B2B influencer marketing for over 6 years, partnering with hundreds of B2B influencers and B2B brands of all sizes while also learning a lesson or two.

Fast forward to today and we understand that for successful influencer marketing in the B2B world. Relationships are key, right along with shared values and some robust validation when it comes to topical relevance, ability to create and engage on-topic with an interested community.


5 Examples of B2B Influencer Marketing to Inspire You in 2019
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Nick Nelson

A Simple Three-Point Checklist for Documenting Your B2B Content Strategy Right Now

Nick Nelson on Jan 28th, 2019     B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

On the first day of 2019, I laid out a series of New Year’s resolutions for content marketers. At the top of the list was creating a documented content strategy.

Maybe you came across the post. Maybe you nodded your head while reading that particular item and said, “Yup, I’m gonna do that.” But most likely, you still haven’t yet. I’m not trying to be presumptive, just speaking in probabilities: research tells us that documenting a content strategy has been the subject of pervasive and perpetual procrastination across our field for some time.

What gives? Why do we keep putting it off?

“Usually procrastination happens because the task seems too difficult,” according to psychiatrist A. Chris Heath, MD (via PsyCom). Makes sense, based on my personal experience.


A Simple Three-Point Checklist for Documenting Your B2B Content Strategy Right Now
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Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: Buffer’s State of Social Report, LinkedIn’s Interest Targeting, Consumer Trust & Twitter’s Emojis

Lane Ellis on Jan 25th, 2019     Online Marketing News

2019 January 25 Buffer Chart

Buffer’s 2019 State of Social Report
Buffer recently released its 2019 State of Social report, offering an in-depth look at what digital marketers are focusing on and an examination of trends and how the industry is changing. Buffer

Twitter Releases its Official Marketing Calendar for 2019
Twitter has put out its 2019 version of so-called hashtag holidays, a handy calendar for digital marketers including traditional mainstream holidays as well as “Talk Like A Pirate Day” and others. Search Engine Journal

Legal tips for managing your influencer relationships
Protecting brand and influencer relationships has become a greater concern among marketers as the use of social influencers has risen, and AdAge takes a look at some legal safeguards and practices that can pay off in the long run. AdAge


Digital Marketing News: Buffer’s State of Social Report, LinkedIn’s Interest Targeting, Consumer Trust & Twitter’s Emojis
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Caitlin Burgess

How Can B2B Brands Benefit from Collaborating with Influencers? Let’s Get the Scoop from the Experts

Caitlin Burgess on Jan 24th, 2019     B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Top Benefits of Influencer Collaboration

Spokespeople. Brand advocates. Experts. Sponsors. Thought Leaders. Influencers. Call them what you will, but leveraging the voices, expertise, appeal, and reach of influential people has been a standard marketing and advertising practice for at least a century. In the B2C realm, that is.

As TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden recently pointed out: “B2B brands are running a little behind B2C in terms of influencer marketing sophistication and have not been investing as much in technology, staff or the influencers themselves.”

In fact, recent research shows that an impressive 48% of B2C influencer programs are ongoing, however, just 11% of B2B influencer programs are always-on. But on the flip side, research also shows that interest and commitment are growing. In fact, 65% of multinational brands will increase influencer marketing spending in the next 12 months, reaching $10 billion over the next five years.


How Can B2B Brands Benefit from Collaborating with Influencers? Let’s Get the Scoop from the Experts
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Joshua Nite

How Marketers Can Improve the Customer Experience (And Why They Should Want To)

Joshua Nite on Jan 23rd, 2019     Online Marketing

How Marketers Can Improve the Customer Experience

Recent research from Gartner shows that 89% of companies compete primarily on customer experience. The way your brand makes customers feel can mean the difference between advocating for the brand or going with a competitor.

So, who owns customer experience?

It’s not just the customer service team or the Chief Experience Officer or any other dedicated department. Every touch point with a customer or potential customer is an opportunity to enhance the experience. It’s everyone’s responsibility.

As customer experience futurist, keynote speaker, and author Blake Morgan puts it:

“Today, companies are thinking about customer experience in everything they do, from hiring and leadership development to marketing, supply chain, logistics, IT infrastructure, product design and continuous improvement for the entire business.”


How Marketers Can Improve the Customer Experience (And Why They Should Want To)
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Anne Leuman

5 Marvelous B2B Content Marketing Lessons From Mrs. Maisel

Anne Leuman on Jan 22nd, 2019     B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

WARNING: This post contains spoilers for Season 1 of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” If you haven’t seen Season 1, please do so immediately. Oh, and read at your own risk.

The year is 1958. You’ve been an amazing wife. You’ve dedicated your entire life’s purpose to your husband—only to find out he’s leaving you for his secretary.

That is the situation that Miriam “Midge” Maisel finds herself in as the first season of Amazon Prime’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” kicks off.

via GIPHY

However, her reaction is not what you’d expect from a “traditional” 1950’s housewife. While outside forces are pushing her to reconcile with her husband, Midge is firm in putting her own happiness first for once in her life. It’s this decision that leads her to a career (gasp!) in stand-up comedy.


5 Marvelous B2B Content Marketing Lessons From Mrs. Maisel
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Lee Odden

Top Marketing Resources for CMOs in 2019

Lee Odden on Jan 21st, 2019     Digital Marketing

Marketing Resources CMO

A seat at the executive table for marketers in the form of the CMO role has not come without costs. CMOs have half the tenure of CEOs and the spotlight is on marketing leadership like never before.

While it’s undoubtedly a tough job, there’s plenty of opportunity. More than 25% of CEOs at large publicly traded companies have a marketing background. A CMO title has become the ultimate goal for many marketers and those that make the grade have to continue working hard on advancing their knowledge, skills and staying on top of industry trends.

To help CMOs and aspiring CMOs connect to strategic, useful and engaging information, here are 5 of the top resources worthy of a CMOs time.


Top Marketing Resources for CMOs in 2019
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Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: YouTube’s Bubble-Under Suggestions, New B2B Studies, & Making Marketing More Human

Lane Ellis on Jan 18th, 2019     Online Marketing News

2019 January 18 Digital Vidya Chart Image

Best B2B Content: Analysis and Insights from Over 50,000 Articles
B2B content marketing produced some shining examples and strong results during 2018, and BuzzSumo has parsed through more than 50,000 posts to find examples of the best, along with an examination of some of the factors that helped the strongest B2B content rise. BuzzSumo

YouTube is testing new, blue recommendation bubbles that appear under videos
YouTube has begun testing a new type of video recommendation and filtering system, with under-video suggestion bubbles for both mobile and desktop users, a move aimed at improving the video giant’s often-maligned automated recommendations. The Verge

Study: Two-Thirds Of B2B Brands Are Pushing Digital Transformation
Nearly two-thirds of B2B brands are making efforts to implement the type of digital transformation that improves the customer experience, according to recent survey data, one of several insights of interest to digital marketers. MediaPost


Digital Marketing News: YouTube’s Bubble-Under Suggestions, New B2B Studies, & Making Marketing More Human
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Lee Odden

How A Best Answer Content Strategy Drives B2B Marketing Results

Lee Odden on Jan 17th, 2019     B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Best Answer Content B2B Marketing

For many B2B marketers content is a numbers game, especially as the number of channels for discovery and engagement grow right along with competition for attention.

We all know how the information overload story ends: buyers disconnect, they start to ignore marketing content and they lose trust in the brands trying so desperately to reach them.

Smart voices like Ann Handley in the B2B marketing industry have called for a focus on quality and even brevity over the hamster wheel of content mediocrity. Many have listened and yet many more B2B marketers are still fighting the uphill battle of creating uninspired blog post after blog post, ebooks, white papers, case studies and who knows how many social messages – and to what end?


How A Best Answer Content Strategy Drives B2B Marketing Results
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Joshua Nite

The Next Level of Influence: 30 Essential Influencer Marketing Statistics

Joshua Nite on Jan 16th, 2019     Online Marketing

30 Essential Influencer Marketing Statistics

Pop Quiz: When influencer marketing is done right, who wins?

a) Your brand
b) The influencers
c) Your audience
d) All of the above

In case you missed the last few classes, the answer is D. In the ideal influencer marketing engagement, your brand gets a boost in credibility, authority, and exposure to a new audience. The influencer gets a cool content asset to promote, association with other thought leaders, and is able to grow their influence in their niche. And the audience gets awesome content neither the influencer nor the brand could have produced on their own.

Getting to that “everyone wins” stage requires strategic planning and execution, though. You can’t just throw money at someone with a big Instagram following and expect results.


The Next Level of Influence: 30 Essential Influencer Marketing Statistics
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Alexis Hall

How to Choose a B2B Marketing Agency that Can Evolve with Your Needs

Alexis Hall on Jan 15th, 2019     B2B Marketing, Digital Marketing

How to Choose an Agency That Will Evolve with Your Needs

B2B brands’ marketing departments are constantly evolving. Over the past 10 years, marketing teams have undergone a seismic shift to accommodate changing technology, millennial consumers and employees, and to breakdown silos between marketing and the rest of the business.

To keep pace with the changing marketplace, many B2B brands are working to find the perfect balance between growing out their in-house digital marketing team and partnering with an external digital marketing agency. Most brands are seeking agency partners to provide a spectrum of services, from tactical support to creative strategy and content innovation. And they need a partner that can adapt and evolve along with their marketing needs and opportunities.

So, the question is: To find that partner that can grow and adapt to your needs, what should you be looking for?


How to Choose a B2B Marketing Agency that Can Evolve with Your Needs
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