Online Marketing Blog

Boosting and Deepening Engagement through Empathy in B2B Marketing

Nick Nelson on Jul 30th, 2020
B2B Marketing

Empathy is more than a buzzword. It’s not a box to be checked, or an added finishing touch for content. If B2B marketers want to successfully engage human audiences and break free from the deluge of irrelevant messages swirling around today’s customers, empathy needs to be at the center of all strategic initiatives from start to finish.

What Does Empathy Mean in B2B Marketing?

Empathy is defined simply as the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. But I’m not sure that characterization fully does it justice in the context of modern marketing.

I rather like the way Zen Media CEO Shama Hyder described empathy in the better creative teamwork guide we helped our clients at monday.com put together:

Boosting and Deepening Engagement through Empathy in B2B Marketing

5 Unheralded SEO Tools for Content Marketers

Lane Ellis on Jul 29th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, SEO

Are you using the latest search engine optimization (SEO) tools to help with your content marketing efforts?

Don’t worry, as we’ve got you covered with a look at some of the most helpful SEO tools to help you refine and augment your content marketing plans.

Sorting through lists of the seemingly endless number of available SEO tools can be frustrating as well as a hit and miss proposition, however we’ve put this collection together so that you can skip the search and get right into SEO tools you can use today to help you create amazing content marketing stories.

Let’s jump in with our collection of fresh SEO tools to boost your content marketing experiences.

1 — Google Lighthouse

5 Unheralded SEO Tools for Content Marketers

How B2B Marketers Can Get the Most Out of Webinars in 2020

Joshua Nite on Jul 28th, 2020
B2B Marketing

There has to be a word for the creeping dread B2B marketers have been feeling this year, preferably something German with a ton of umlauts.

As we watched events in the spring cancel, postpone, or go virtual, we held out hope that summer would be different. Then July’s events moved out. Now it’s looking like the type of large-scale events B2B marketers depend on will have to wait until 2021… at the earliest.

But we don’t have to despair! We can close the gap with virtual events. The speaking gig at an industry conference can become a webinar, as can a planned panel discussion or product demonstration.

The good news is plenty of people have more spare time than before to watch your webinar.

How B2B Marketers Can Get the Most Out of Webinars in 2020

2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report from TopRank Marketing

Lee Odden on Jul 27th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

My team and I at TopRank Marketing are happy to announce the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report!

Influencer Marketing has fast accelerated as a topic over the past few years with B2C influencers and brands getting the majority of attention. While consumer focused influencers have been impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic, B2B is a different story.

Whether in times of crisis or in competitive markets, B2B marketers are challenged to reach distracted buyers and create meaningful experiences that inspire trust, confidence and action.

As B2B marketers search for solid insight and leadership around marketing strategies to survive and thrive during this time of uncertainty, Influencer Marketing offers businesses a welcome dose of optimism.

2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report from TopRank Marketing

B2B Marketing News: Podcast Downloads Climb, Social & Display Ad Spend Rising, Snapchat’s Brand Profiles, & Google’s Latest Ad Tools

Lane Ellis on Jul 24th, 2020
Online Marketing News

‘The downloads are back’: Podcasting finishes the first half of 2020 strong
Podcast downloads have come back to pre-pandemic numbers, increasing from 625 million in March to 825 million over the past two months, while podcast advertising is still expected to increase by 15 percent for the year, according to recently-released report data. DigiDay

LinkedIn Revenue Up 10%, Sessions Up 27%, in Latest Performance Update
Double-digit quarterly revenue growth of 10 percent over the previous quarter has been reported from LinkedIn (client), accompanied by user platform session growth of 27 percent, the Microsoft-owned firm recently announced. Social Media Today

Programmatic Advertising Trends: Top Tactics, Challenges, and Metrics
61 percent of marketers view return on investment (ROI) as their top programmatic advertising metric, while 46 percent said that their top challenge in executing programmatic strategy is audience targeting, according to newly-released survey data. MarketingProfs

B2B Marketing News: Podcast Downloads Climb, Social & Display Ad Spend Rising, Snapchat’s Brand Profiles, & Google’s Latest Ad Tools

B2B Influencer Marketing Advice from 9 Top B2B Influencers

Debbie Friez on Jul 23rd, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Top marketers understand the value of integrating influencer marketing into their marketing strategy. In fact, 55% of marketers believe they get better customers from influencer marketing according to an Influencer Marketing Hub survey. For B2B brands, influencer marketing is a way to partner with industry experts who can add value to the brand’s content.

As a brand, how can you provide mutual value and a great experience for the thought leaders you engage?

I went straight to some of my top sources to ask their thoughts on the best way for B2B brands to collaborate with them. What stood out to me, was the way their key points aligned with how a brand might develop a marketing strategy.

B2B Influencer Marketing Advice from 9 Top B2B Influencers

17+ Top Virtual Marketing Conferences for Summer 2020 & Beyond

Lane Ellis on Jul 22nd, 2020
B2B Marketing, Digital Marketing

Virtual marketing conferences offer a wealth of benefits to marketers looking to learn and increase brand awareness, and in the current crisis they represent the only event opportunities for marketers.

How do you go about finding events that match your business and B2B marketing needs, however?

With in-person marketing events not likely until well into 2021, more virtual events than ever taking place, making it harder than ever to find the ones that can best help build your business, expand your communication opportunities, and offer the most relevant new industry education from top marketing industry experts.

Marketers are getting more out of virtual events, too — with 75 percent in a recent survey saying they were satisfied with their virtual event experiences. Online events also hold their own unique advantages.

17+ Top Virtual Marketing Conferences for Summer 2020 & Beyond

Always-On Influencer Marketing: Building Thought Leadership for B2B Brands

Lee Odden on Jul 20th, 2020
B2B Marketing, Influencer Marketing

Thought Leadership is often a concept associated with individuals but brands, especially in B2B, can develop their thought leadership amongst the customer community as well. Thought Leadership is important for brands and individuals alike because trust is an issue for companies as people navigate misinformation, changing sources and become more skeptical of what brands and their people say.

What is thought leadership in 2020? Beyond publishing articles, speaking and writing books, Thought Leadership is about creating a reputation for expertise and authority within an industry. The notion is that becoming known for an area of expertise creates trust which can lead to consideration, evaluation and influence purchase behavior.

“Brands that cultivate a culture of Thought Leadership reap greater reputation and sales impact than those that do not”. Edelman LinkedIn B2B Thought Leadership Impact Study

Always-On Influencer Marketing: Building Thought Leadership for B2B Brands

B2B Marketing News: B2B Marketers Challenged By Messy Data, Instagram’s Pinned Comments, Sprout Social’s Index & Top Pandemic Emotion Study

Lane Ellis on Jul 17th, 2020
Online Marketing News

More than 1 in 3 B2B Marketers Held Back from Measuring Campaigns by Messy Data
36 percent of B2B marketers say that having messy data is a top marketing performance measurement challenge, according to recently-release report data. Topping the list at 47 percent was the inability to perform cross-platform data analysis, however, followed by a lack of resources at 42 percent. MarketingCharts

‘Surprised’ emotions in video ads drive conversions during pandemic, study says
Video ad performance jumped 360 percent when showing surprised people, while there was a 64 percent drop in conversions for video ads showing happy emotions during the first three seconds — two of several findings of interest to digital marketers in newly-released pandemic marketing study data. Marketing Dive

B2B Marketing News: B2B Marketers Challenged By Messy Data, Instagram’s Pinned Comments, Sprout Social’s Index & Top Pandemic Emotion Study

Break Free B2B Marketing: Dell Outlet’s Andre Ortolon on Microinfluencers for Hyper-Relevant Content

Joshua Nite on Jul 16th, 2020
B2B Marketing

In our part of the country, there’s a phenomenon called the “Minnesota goodbye.” It’s when you’re leaving a social gathering (remember those?) and you say goodbye, walk to the door… and keep talking to your host. Then you step outside the door, and continue the conversation. Then you walk to the car while keeping up the chatter. All told, a proper Minnesota goodbye can last up to an hour.

All of which to say: We may have already wrapped up season two of the Break Free B2B series, but it’s time for the Minnesota goodbye.

Back in February, I talked to Andre Ortolon from Dell Outlet about their micro influencer program. It’s a fascinating campaign because it was something of a B2B/B2C hybrid: Their target audiences included gamers, content creators like vloggers, and small business owners. The messaging was dramatically different for each audience. But they all had to live on the same landing page.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Dell Outlet’s Andre Ortolon on Microinfluencers for Hyper-Relevant Content