B2B Marketing Blog

Mindful Marketing: 5 Uncommon Ways To Work With B2B Influencers

Lane Ellis on Jun 30th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

What are some uncommon ways B2B marketers can successfully work with influencers?

One of the many advantages of working with subject matter experts (SMEs) who are influential in their industry is the sheer variety of ways that marketers can collaborate to build a mutually beneficial partnership.

While we’ve explored many of the traditional ways B2B marketers often work with influencers, we wanted to take a look at a few of the unusual ways collaboration is taking place.

Let’s dive right in, with examples from both SMEs and marketers who’ve implemented uncommon takes on the B2B influencer partnership that can help inspire your own influencer programs.

1 — From Influencer to Long-Term Friendship

Mindful Marketing: 5 Uncommon Ways To Work With B2B Influencers

5 Tips for Empowering Enterprise SEO Success

Lee Odden on Jun 28th, 2021
Enterprise SEO, SEO

Large scale search engine optimization projects are often viewed as a golden egg career opportunity for many SEO professionals. Big budget projects and well-known brand names can look great on a resume. Unfortunately, many search marketers quickly realize that the golden egg actually came from a large, slow moving tortoise.

Many Search Marketers are accustomed to optimization projects where the advice they are paid to give is communicated directly and for the most part, actually implemented. Those same marketers may not be prepared to adapt SEO processes to accommodate the operational and communication needs of large, complex organizations. Successful enterprise SEO projects require a unique combination of creative and mechanical SEO expertise as well as large company political savvy.

5 Tips for Empowering Enterprise SEO Success

B2B Marketing News: Brand Social Media Expectations Study, Google Postpones Cookie Changes, & B2B Buyer Behavior Report

Lane Ellis on Jun 25th, 2021
Online Marketing News

Google delays blocking third-party cookies in Chrome until 2023
Google has announced that it will postpone its previously-announced abandonment of third-party tracking cookies in its Chrome web browser, a change that will now not take place until 2023, the search giant has revealed. The postponement has given marketers additional time to work on and implement alternative tracking methods. The Verge

US ranks last among 46 countries in trust in media, Reuters Institute report finds
29 percent of U.S. consumers say they trust the news media, a figure that is the lowest of any nation in the newly-released annual report from Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford. The report also showed that the pandemic has brought about rapid adoption of new digital consumption behaviors, among other insights of interest to digital marketers. The Poynter Institute

B2B Marketing News: Brand Social Media Expectations Study, Google Postpones Cookie Changes, & B2B Buyer Behavior Report

Social Significance: Why B2B Brands Value Social CX & Are Spending More

Lane Ellis on Jun 23rd, 2021
B2B Marketing, Social Media

Why are B2B brands placing greater value on social media, and why are they willing to spend more than ever before on social customer experience (CX)?

New digital marketing research reveals why B2B brands are finding a renewed passion for the expanding benefits of social media, and why they are becoming more willing than ever to spend more for the competitive advantages that social CX offers.

Let’s take a look at some of the latest report and survey data, and see how B2B brands are changing their social media strategies and outlook.

1 — Social Helps B2B Brands Meet Customer Expectations

A new report from Sprout Social reveals how customer expectations have evolved for the brands that they follow on social media.

Social Significance: Why B2B Brands Value Social CX & Are Spending More

Inside B2B Influence 14: Ann Handley of MarketingProfs on Content Marketing and Influence

Lee Odden on Jun 21st, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Inside B2B Influence is a show that goes behind the scenes of B2B marketing and showcases conversations with insiders from the world of influencer marketing. We connect with influential practitioners at B2B brands of all kinds and sizes to answer the rising number of questions about working with influencers in a business context.

In this first episode of the second season of Inside B2B Influence, I was able to catch up with the incredibly popular, talented and beloved Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs, Ann Handley. I’ve known Ann for well over 10 years and she’s been a great friend, client and source of inspiration to me about more meaningful content marketing.

Inside B2B Influence 14: Ann Handley of MarketingProfs on Content Marketing and Influence

B2B Marketing News: B2B Content Consumption Data, Digital Ad Revenue Sizzles, In-Person Events & Advertisers, & YouTube’s New Time-Savers

Lane Ellis on Jun 18th, 2021
Online Marketing News

Almost 90% of B2B Content Consumption Said to Take Place Outside the C-Suite
Nearly 90 percent of B2B content consumption involves those outside corporate executive-level management, with some 21 percent being consumer by individual contributors, according to recently-released B2B buyer breakdown by job titles survey data. MarketingCharts

Podcasts start coming to Facebook next week
Facebook will begin rolling out a new podcast feature on June 22, offering podcast creators a new distribution channel, with features such as one minute promotional clips — to appear in a forthcoming podcasts tab — the social media giant recently announced. The Verge

TikTok Owner ByteDance’s Annual Revenue Jumps to $34.3 Billion
TikTok parent ByteDance saw a 93 percent jump in gross profit during 2020, with revenue more than doubling to $30 billion, the popular short-form social video platform that has seen increasing business interest recently announced in annual employee financial performance data. Wall Street Journal

B2B Marketing News: B2B Content Consumption Data, Digital Ad Revenue Sizzles, In-Person Events & Advertisers, & YouTube’s New Time-Savers

5 Common Barriers to Marketing Project Management & How to Overcome Them

Anne Leuman on Jun 15th, 2021
B2B Marketing

As a marketer, you know how important projects are.

They’re your course to success. Your path to excellence. A plan of action.

You also know just how out of sorts projects can get. Without successful marketing project management, timelines may slide, quality may slip, standards may be missed, and the work experience may suffer.

So what causes marketing projects to stray off course?

Having managed many marketing projects for TopRank Marketing, I’ve come across my fair share of barriers and challenges and learned from my experience with them. Below, I’m sharing the most common barriers to marketing project management success and how to overcome them so you can, too. And to help illustrate my points, I tapped the help of Schitt’s Creek — a show I only just started and can’t get enough of. I hope you’ll excuse how late to the party I am on that show, it’s a gem.

5 Common Barriers to Marketing Project Management & How to Overcome Them

Is ABX the Next Evolution of B2B Marketing?

Lee Odden on Jun 14th, 2021
B2B Marketing

What is the next evolution of Account Based Marketing?

ABM has gained much traction in the past few years and marketers have developed the kinds of best practices around ABM to make it one of the fastest growing innovations in the B2B mix. But what’s next?

The business world has changed since the pandemic and B2B marketing has had to pivot, transform and evolve with a digital first focus. As Jon Miller, CMO at Demandbase (client) has said, “It’s time for the next evolution in B2B go to market strategies. We can’t keep doing the same things and expect different results.”

Customer expectations and preferences have changed as well – not just during the buying journey, but across the entire customer lifecycle. It is with those changes that we can see new opportunities in B2B marketing. So, what do those new opportunities look like?

Is ABX the Next Evolution of B2B Marketing?

B2B Marketing News: Most Critical B2B Challenges, Marketers Are In Demand, YouTube’s New Analytics, & Social Video Reach Grows

Lane Ellis on Jun 11th, 2021
Online Marketing News

B2B Better: Customers Vote For The Most Trusted Brands
Apple, Amazon, Adobe, LinkedIn and Google garnered the top five spots among B2B professionals as the most trusted B2B brands, followed by Microsoft, FedEx, HubSpot, UPS, and American Express, according to recently-release survey data of interest to digital marketers. MediaPost

How to Influence B2B Buyers’ Purchasing Decisions [Survey]
71 percent of B2B buyers said that the top influence on their decision to purchase was when a salesperson leads a thorough discovery of their concerns, wants, and needs, followed by 68 percent who said showing what’s possible or how to solve a problem had an significant influence on buying decisions, with the same percentage noting that a salesperson who listens to them affects their purchasing decision, according to newly-released survey data. MarketingProfs

B2B Marketing News: Most Critical B2B Challenges, Marketers Are In Demand, YouTube’s New Analytics, & Social Video Reach Grows

5 Examples of B2B Brands Rocking With Influence in 2021

Lane Ellis on Jun 9th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

How does influence help B2B brands achieve success?

Influence may be multifaceted almost to a fault, however a key essence is its role in providing smart answers to the questions your audiences have.

Reaching target audiences through digital channels was recently found to be a top-three critical challenge for B2B marketers.

A new LinkedIn* report of the most in-demand marketing skills has shown that digital marketing represented the biggest mismatch of skills in supply and demand. Influence is a vital element of successful digital marketing, and presents B2B marketers with a powerful tool to overcome this challenge, and the five brands we’ll examine here have each used influence in a variety of ways to achieve digital marketing success.

5 Examples of B2B Brands Rocking With Influence in 2021

Optimize for B2B Customers with Digital First Content Marketing

Lee Odden on Jun 7th, 2021
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

The evolution of B2B marketing has required companies to extend the transformations and pivots made during the pandemic to more permanent changes in marketing driven by evolving consumer preferences for information discovery, consumption and interaction. B2B marketing is evolved as a digital first practice and there’s no going back.

While most marketers understand it is simply not enough to rely on push marketing tactics and advertising, they still rely on these familiar and comfortable tactics.

Today’s business customers have more content choices in text, images, audio, video and interactive formats on more devices than ever. They expect more than just useful information from the brands they buy from.

Optimize for B2B Customers with Digital First Content Marketing