Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: D&B’s New B2B Report, Facebook in 3D, & Google’s New Discover Feed

Lane Ellis on Oct 19th, 2018     Online Marketing News

2018 October 19 Marketing Profs Image

2019 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: A First Look at New Research
For the ninth year MarketingProfs and Content Marketing Institute have released a detailed B2B content marketing report, with plenty of relevant insight for digital marketers. MarketingProfs

The 6th Annual B2B Marketing Data Report
A newly-released Dun and Bradstreet survey looks at the state of B2B marketing, as the firm has done each of the past six years, offering a slew of insights for digital marketers. Dun and Bradstreet

Facebook rolls out 3D photos that use AI to simulate depth
Facebook recently began launching the ability of create 3D photos using artificial intelligence to create the illusion of depth, a new tool in the digital marketer’s belt. TechCrunch


Digital Marketing News: D&B’s New B2B Report, Facebook in 3D, & Google’s New Discover Feed
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Tiffani Allen

Reduce Friction, Increase Loyalty: Key Insights from Roger Dooley at #Pubcon Pro

Tiffani Allen on Oct 18th, 2018     Conversion Optimization, Pubcon

Did you know, only 5% of our brain’s decision making is conscious? Leaving 95% for decisions made on a nonconscious level. As marketers, charged with increasing the quality and quantity of conversions (i.e. decisions), how do we address the 95%?

Roger Dooley, speaker and author of Brainfluence: 100 Ways to Persuade and Convince Consumers with Neuromarketing, the popular blog Neuromarketing, and Brainy Marketing at Forbes, addressed this in his session at Pubcon pro.

Here are the top three takeaways to help you increase your conversions without much more than common sense — and a little user data.

1. Friction changes behavior
Momentum is what causes us to keep moving, like sliding down a slide. Friction is what stops us from completing that motion. When it comes to your digital properties, like your website, you likely have specific actions you want prospects and visitors to take.


Reduce Friction, Increase Loyalty: Key Insights from Roger Dooley at #Pubcon Pro
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Lane Ellis

How to Optimize Customer Experience with AI – Top Tips from Microsoft’s Purna Virji

Lane Ellis on Oct 18th, 2018     Digital Marketing, Pubcon

Microsoft's Purna Virji at Pubcon Las Vegas 2018 Photo by Lane R. Ellis

Purna Virji, senior manager of global engagement at Microsoft, has spoken at the Pubcon conference several times over the years, but the main stage presentation she gave yesterday in Las Vegas was her first time taking a deep look at the ever-evolving artificial intelligence landscape and how it can bolster customer experience.

“When it comes to optimizing the customer experience, design for conversation from the start. Remember, the most important thing for the user is convenience,” Purna recently told our CEO Lee Odden in his Pubcon preview highlighting nine top speakers at the event.

Is Voice Search Living Up To The Hype?

Purna began by asking the gathered audience whether they thought that voice search was generally overrated and not living up to all the hype it has increasingly attracted as more AI-assisted devices are in our homes, cars, offices, and lives in general.


How to Optimize Customer Experience with AI – Top Tips from Microsoft’s Purna Virji
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Tiffani Allen

5 Secrets for Growing Influence in Marketing: Key Takeaways from Lee Odden at #Pubcon Pro

Tiffani Allen on Oct 18th, 2018     Content Marketing, Pubcon

Lee Odden speaking at Pubcon Pro Las Vegas 2018 Photo by Lane R. Ellis

Research has shown: consumers don’t trust the companies they buy from. They don’t trust ads. And they definitely don’t trust marketers.  Trust in marketing is on a decline – between internal stakeholders and customers. In fact, according to a study by Fournaise Group, 80% of CEOs simply don’t trust marketers at all.

Trust is the gateway to influence.

Influence plays a major role in the marketing that moves customers to make purchases. That’s why Lee Odden (our fearless leader and CEO of TopRank Marketing) is challenging marketers to take a step back from the day-to-day of marketing and recognize the trend of reduced trust and influence in marketing.

Marketing Influence Pubcon


5 Secrets for Growing Influence in Marketing: Key Takeaways from Lee Odden at #Pubcon Pro
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Tiffani Allen

Joe Pulizzi Shares What it Takes to be a Content Brand at #Pubcon Pro

Tiffani Allen on Oct 17th, 2018     Content Marketing, Pubcon

Joe Pulizzi at Pubcon 2018 Photo by Lane R. Ellis

When it comes to any trade, the best practice is to learn from the best. So, who better to learn about content marketing from than Joe Pulizzi — the Founder of Content Marketing Institute — when it comes to turning your content into revenue?

Joe’s keynote presentation at Pubcon Pro in Las Vegas today focused on becoming a content brand and all that it entails.

Nine Content Brand Takeaways from the Godfather of Content Marketing:

1. Find a niche where you can be the leading expert in the world

This is what Joe calls ‘The Sweet Spot.’ It’s located at the intersection between knowledge or a skill area that you have and your key customer’s pain point. He used the example of John Deere, where they created content around agriculture and technology specifically for farmer’s trying to improve their operation.


Joe Pulizzi Shares What it Takes to be a Content Brand at #Pubcon Pro
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Nick Nelson

Twitter Has Renewed its Live Video Push & Here’s What You Need to Know

Nick Nelson on Oct 17th, 2018     Social Media, Twitter, Video

Once a pioneer in bringing live video to the social media world, Twitter fell behind the likes of Facebook, LinkedIn, and others as this format rose to mainstream prominence. However, the platform’s recent move to make live video more easily discoverable shows Twitter is recommitting to video.

But the question is: Can Twitter recapture the magnetic energy of live video?

When I attended Jane Weedon’s keynote speech at Content Marketing World last month, I was deeply struck by this remark from Twitch’s Director of Business Development:

“Authentic and real-time video can be better than immaculately produced when it comes to engaging an audience.”

Her company’s model serves as proof of this assertion. Twitch welcomed more than 15 million daily visitors last year, and continues to see explosive growth, largely because of this dynamic.


Twitter Has Renewed its Live Video Push & Here’s What You Need to Know
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Lane Ellis

The Art Of Crafting More Powerful Content: 5 Top Tactics from the Experts

Lane Ellis on Oct 16th, 2018     Content Marketing

Craftsperson working and creating.

Welcome to the second piece in our new multi-part “Collective Wisdom” series of content marketing strategy articles, where you’ll learn proven methods taking you from the beginning of the content planning cycle to its final post-publication conclusion, and featuring insight from some of the world’s most respected and successful digital marketers.

Previously in “How to Boost Your Content Marketing Efforts By Planning Ahead,” we looked at implementing a smart and robust content planning strategy. Now it’s time to take a look at the intrinsically important content creation stage of any successful content marketing campaign.

Crafting Powerful Content

As we’ll explore, skillfully crafting content is one of the most important steps on a successful content marketing journey. After all, content is the centerpiece you present to the digital world — so let’s examine some of the strongest tactics to incorporate in your next campaign.


The Art Of Crafting More Powerful Content: 5 Top Tactics from the Experts
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Lee Odden

16 Ways to Be More Efficient with Content Creation

Lee Odden on Oct 15th, 2018     Content Marketing

Content Creation Efficiency

Last minute scrambling to crank out another blog post is hardly the origin story for most great content. Falling behind on content production happens for a variety of reasons from poor planning to lack of resources.

Solutions will vary, but one thing I’ve found that helps with the creation of quality content on a consistent basis is a combination of efficiency and creativity. Process and technology are a certainly a big part of efficiency but so is thinking beyond your own capabilities (creativity).

Knowing you should do a thing and being able to do it well are not the same thing, so while some of these types of ideas are familiar, it is in their implementation that you’ll find new content creation productivity.


16 Ways to Be More Efficient with Content Creation
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Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: Google Shutters Plus, B2B Chatbots, Facebook’s Shiny New Pixel, & the Voice Search Bonanza

Lane Ellis on Oct 12th, 2018     Online Marketing News

2018 October 12 News Adode Image

Google+ for G Suite lives on and gets new features
Despite Google shutting down Google+ after an API glitch allowed access to user data, its business version lives on and has even bene given new features. TechCrunch

Marketers struggle to keep up with content creation demand for their personalization efforts
New Adobe survey data shows the content scaling challenges digital marketers are increasingly facing as demand for content creation and personalization has risen. Marketing Land

Should You Entrust Chatbots With B2B Customer Communication?
With some predicting that by 2020 85 percent of customer interactions will be with chatbots, Forbes takes a look at their expanding role in B2B communications. Forbes


Digital Marketing News: Google Shutters Plus, B2B Chatbots, Facebook’s Shiny New Pixel, & the Voice Search Bonanza
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Lane Ellis

Prepping for #Pubcon Pro Las Vegas 2018: 11 Presentations We’re Looking Forward to Most

Lane Ellis on Oct 11th, 2018     Marketing PR Conferences, Pubcon

Pubcon Pro

Pubcon Pro Las Vegas 2018 — the search marketing industry’s longest-running conference under the same name — will soon be upon us, and TopRank Marketing will be there speaking and giving you a diverse selection of live-blogging and social media coverage throughout the October 17 – 18 event.

Our chief executive Lee Odden will be a featured main-stage speaker on Wednesday, October 17 from 3:55 – 4:50 p.m., while senior account manager Tiffani Allen and I will be covering the event by liveblogging sessions and sharing useful tips through our social networks.

You can read all about Lee’s much-anticipated presentation in our “Learn to Grow Influence and Trust in Marketing with Lee Odden at #Pubcon Pro 2018” piece, and then dig in and get the inside scoop on 10 of the top speakers who’ll be presenting at Pubcon, in Lee’s “Stop Gambling with Your Marketing and Go Pro with Tips from Ten Pubcon Pro Speakers” conference preview and guide.


Prepping for #Pubcon Pro Las Vegas 2018: 11 Presentations We’re Looking Forward to Most
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Joshua Nite

2019 B2B Content Marketing Trends: The 10 Biggest Opportunities for Marketers

Joshua Nite on Oct 10th, 2018     B2B Marketing, Content Marketing

B2B content marketing research

For content marketers, each year’s publication of the B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Report should be truly exciting. Even more than the latest iPhone announcement. In fact, especially more than the latest iPhone announcement.

Don’t get me wrong: I love a slightly bigger screen, creepy new camera features and a higher price tag as much as the next guy. But the annual report from Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs can actually make marketers better at our jobs.

The 2019 edition has officially been released, and there are plenty of thought-provoking stats in just the first couple of pages; high-level attributes of top performers and clear opportunities for improvement.


2019 B2B Content Marketing Trends: The 10 Biggest Opportunities for Marketers
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Nick Nelson

What You Need to Know About Instagram Stories for B2B Marketing

Nick Nelson on Oct 9th, 2018     Social Media

Instagram Stories for B2B Marketing

Why would B2B brands be interested in using Instagram Stories as a marketing channel?

It starts with a very simple premise: B2B customers are people, and people use Instagram, which eclipsed 1 billion active monthly users over the summer. And when it comes to the platform’s “Stories” format, it surpassed the similarly oriented Snapchat in users within a year of its 2016 launch.

Instagram Active Users

Of course, the issue here is more one of context. Can business-focused content really succeed on a social network that slants so strongly toward casual, leisure surfing?

As we’ll see, B2B companies are showing that yes, it can. And there’s plenty of opportunity to take it a step further.


What You Need to Know About Instagram Stories for B2B Marketing
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