B2B Marketing Blog

The State of B2B Influence Marketing – Top 10 Insights for 2021

Lane Ellis on Oct 26th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

What does the state of B2B influencer marketing look like now and in the future? How can B2B brands start a successful influencer program? Why is it more important than ever to approach B2B influencer marketing with an always-on influencer strategy?

Many of these questions are answered in the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report and yet we all know the complexity and opportunity combination of influencer marketing requires further exploration. Luckily Jason Falls connected with our CEO Lee Odden for a podcast interview to explore the answers to these questions and more, along with his most recent B2B influencer marketing insight.

After listening to the podcast, I’ve pulled out 10 of the most compelling insights about the state of B2B influencer marketing to help inspire your success in 2021 and beyond.

The State of B2B Influence Marketing – Top 10 Insights for 2021

B2B Marketing News: Google Faces Monopoly Probe, Sophisticated B2B Attribution Models Study, & LinkedIn’s New Video Meeting Options

Lane Ellis on Oct 23rd, 2020
Online Marketing News

Most B2B Demand Gen Pros Use Sophisticated Attribution Models
Some 43 percent of B2B demand generation buyers say that they use advanced attribution models with multiple touchpoints, while 21 percent don’t have a campaign attribution model at all, according to recently-released data surveying B2B technology marketing and demand generation decision-makers. Marketing Charts

LinkedIn Adds New Event Features, Rolls Out Video Meeting Options via LinkedIn Messages
LinkedIn has launched an array of new event-related features, along with rolling out private messaging access to video from Zoom and other virtual meeting providers, Microsoft-owned LinkedIn (client) recently announced. Social Media Today

Tubular Labs Launches Deduped Audience Ratings For Video On Facebook And YouTube
A new effort from video intelligence firm Tubular Labs aims to deliver a more standardized video viewing metric across the Facebook and YouTube platforms, with support for Instagram forthcoming, the firm recently announced in a move of interest to digital marketers. AdExchanger

B2B Marketing News: Google Faces Monopoly Probe, Sophisticated B2B Attribution Models Study, & LinkedIn’s New Video Meeting Options

28 B2B Marketing Insights To Energize & Humanize Your 2021

Lane Ellis on Oct 21st, 2020
B2B Marketing

What will successful B2B marketing look like in a post-pandemic world, and what can we as marketers do today to be as ready as possible?

Here are 28 quotes from some of the best in the B2B marketing business, taken from our two seasons of Break Free B2B Marketing video interview episodes, that will help keep your efforts on track, energized, and filled with the subtle humanizing elements sometimes neglected in the B2B landscape.

Keep posted for the launch of an all-new season three of Break Free B2B Marketing video interviews, and now let’s dig right in with an array of B2B marketing insights to help you prepare for a successful 2021.

1 — Hal Werner of Mitel

Hal Werner
Global Manager of Digital Marketing and Strategy
Mitel

28 B2B Marketing Insights To Energize & Humanize Your 2021

How To Move From A Pilot B2B Influencer Marketing Program to Always-On Success

Nick Nelson on Oct 20th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

It sure is a good thing that the internet turns off at 10:00 PM every night, and doesn’t flip back on until 8:00 in the morning. And thankfully, business buyers completely tune out after they finish work, which is always at 5 o’clock sharp in this world of reliable and universally consistent routine.

Marketers and brands would really have their hands full if these things weren’t true.

Wait, what’s that? None of them are remotely true?

Welcome to the World of Always-On

There is no off-switch. The internet is open for business 24 hours a day. Buyers and decision makers are engaging with content in unpredictable patterns, thrown further askew by the pandemic-driven disruption of workday archetypes. An increasingly lengthy and complex buyer’s journey challenges B2B marketing strategies to be more versatile, agile, and perpetually present than ever before.

How To Move From A Pilot B2B Influencer Marketing Program to Always-On Success

Inside Influence: Janine Wegner from Dell on Thought Leadership and Influencer Relations

Lee Odden on Oct 19th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Today marks the 4th installment in the Inside Influence: What’s working and what’s not inside the world of B2B Influencer Marketing, series. I want to thank everyone who has viewed the interviews, made comments and shared with their networks. This week we’re continuing our search to find out what’s working and what’s not within the world of B2B influencer marketing as well as further insights from the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report.

Episode 4 of Inside Influence features guest insider, Janine Wegner, Global Thought Leadership Program and Activation Manager at Dell Technologies who our agency TopRank Marketing has the pleasure of working with on influencer content marketing programs like The Zettabyte World – Securing our Data-Rich Future.

Inside Influence: Janine Wegner from Dell on Thought Leadership and Influencer Relations

B2B Marketing News: B2B Marketers Face Rising Content Demands, Google’s Mobile Voice Assistant, Performance Marketing Budgets Grow, & The Hyper-Relevant Ad Balancing Act

Lane Ellis on Oct 16th, 2020
Online Marketing News

B2B marketers are struggling to produce enough content amid the pandemic
35 percent of B2B marketers have trouble producing the content needed to reach and engage audiences, while 68 percent are confident with their approach to content marketing, and only some 8 percent said they were able to attribute return on investment (ROI) to their content plan, according to recently-released survey data. The Drum

Google Launches Updated Google Analytics, Including Improved Reporting and Data Tracking Options
Google has given a significant overhaul to its popular Google Analytics website traffic analysis platform, adding a smarter artificial intelligence (AI)-infused approach including new insights such as churn probability and a variety of additional new predictive metrics, the search giant recently announced. Social Media Today

B2B Marketing News: B2B Marketers Face Rising Content Demands, Google’s Mobile Voice Assistant, Performance Marketing Budgets Grow, & The Hyper-Relevant Ad Balancing Act

Five Can’t-Miss Sessions from Virtual Pubcon 2020

Joshua Nite on Oct 13th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Marketing PR Conferences, Pubcon

The one silver lining in our current reality is the “virtual event.” Sure, we’re all stuck at home, but at least we can have several entire marketing conferences beamed directly to our laptops.

Granted, there’s a distinct lack of cocktails and networking opportunities. You have to supply your own drinks and try to convince your own pets to follow you on LinkedIn (currently mine are still mulling it over).

“Sorry, we only have Facebark.”

The latest conference to go virtual is industry stalwart Pubcon, celebrating its 20th year. This search-centered event never fails to round up fascinating speakers with a ton of experience in search and content marketing.

Here are my top five can’t miss sessions for Pubcon’s Virtual 2020 Conference.

Five Can’t-Miss Sessions from Virtual Pubcon 2020

Inside Influence: Ursula Ringham from SAP on Influencer Marketing Operations

Lee Odden on Oct 12th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Welcome to the 3rd episode of Inside Influence: What’s working and what’s not inside the world of B2B Influencer Marketing. Each week we feature an interview with a B2B marketing insider on all things influence and a deeper dive into the insights found in the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report.

In this 3rd episode of Inside Influence you are in for a treat: A discussion with the force of nature and client of TopRank Marketing that is Ursula Ringham, Head of Global Influencer Marketing at SAP.

Ursula leads the Global Influencer Marketing team at SAP in collaboration with the entire SAP product portfolio to create innovative content with trusted external voices to build brand awareness and create pipeline. She is also an accomplished storyteller, author, creator, influencer marketer, digital innovator, social media maven, champion of girls education, and self described “outdoor sports freak”.

Inside Influence: Ursula Ringham from SAP on Influencer Marketing Operations

B2B Marketing News: Demand Gen Adapts, B2B Buyers Taking Longer, Microsoft Digital Marketing Center Beta

Lee Odden on Oct 9th, 2020
Marketing & PR Industry

The Gartner Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, 2020 – Chatbots are projected to see over a 100% increase in their adoption rates in the next two to five years and are the leading AI use cases in enterprises today. Forbes

Bing is now Microsoft Bing as the search engine gets a rebrand – Microsoft doesn’t go into detail about why it added the company’s name to the Bing brand, other than it reflecting “the continued integration of our search experiences across the Microsoft family. The Verge

68% of B2B buyers say the length of their purchase cycles has increased over last year – The COVID-19 pandemic has led many B2B firms to lengthen their purchase cycles and to expect more personalized attention from vendors, according to recent research from Demand Gen Report. MarketingProfs

B2B Marketing News: Demand Gen Adapts, B2B Buyers Taking Longer, Microsoft Digital Marketing Center Beta

50 Top B2B Content Marketing Influencers To Follow in 2021 #CMWorld

Lane Ellis on Oct 7th, 2020
Content Marketing, Content Marketing World

The all-virtual Content Marketing World 2020 is upon us. As the largest content marketing conference in the world, CMWorld brings together a stellar array of talented professionals who are loaded with curiosity for future trends, marketing knowledge, and aspirations for new successes in the post-pandemic world. For the past 12 years leading marketers from all over the world have gathered in Cleveland, Ohio for one of the world’s strongest content marketing events, and for this unusual year Content Marketing World is entirely virtual.

Readers of our blog know we have a long history with the conference starting at the beginning, with 10 years of speaking and attending along with seven years of partnering with the Content Marketing Institute to develop speaker and influencer content marketing campaigns.

50 Top B2B Content Marketing Influencers To Follow in 2021 #CMWorld

New Research: How B2B Content Marketers Are Impacted and Pivoting During the Pandemic

Nick Nelson on Oct 6th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

Each year, Content Marketing Institute releases a new version of its B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report, providing a timely contextual snapshot of the discipline at large and its ever-shifting landscape.

Needless to say, this year’s edition hits differently. While there is always change and evolution afoot in the annual study’s findings, 2020 has been a year of unprecedented upheaval for our profession, along with most every other.

The impact of COVID-19 on B2B content marketing is a direct and prevalent focus in CMI’s latest report, which helps leaders and practitioners in the field understand how their peers are reacting and adapting to a disruptive global event.

New Research: How B2B Content Marketers Are Impacted and Pivoting During the Pandemic

Inside Influence: Garnor Morantes from LinkedIn on the Power of Always-On Influence

Lee Odden on Oct 5th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Welcome to the second episode of Inside Influence: Interviews with B2B Influencer Marketing Insiders. Each week we feature an interview with a B2B marketing insider on all things influence and a deeper dive into the insights found in the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report.

This week, we’re talking to Garnor Morantes, Group Marketing Manager at LinkedIn. Our team at TopRank Marketing has been fortunate to work with Garnor on an award-winning, ongoing influencer marketing program for LinkedIn over several years and his leadership has been instrumental in its success.

Our conversation touches on:

What Always-On influencer marketing is and why its valuable for B2B brands
The challenges faced by campaign-focused influencer marketing efforts
Advice for B2B marketers considering influencer marketing

Inside Influence: Garnor Morantes from LinkedIn on the Power of Always-On Influence