Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®

Social Media Polls For Marketers: 6 B2B Brands Winning With LinkedIn Polls

Smiling business-woman at computer image.

Polls offer a unique two-for-one value for B2B marketers, providing quality feedback on what customers want while also offering brands a powerful interactive social media content marketing element.

As we first reported in our B2B marketing news, our client LinkedIn recently launched the return of its highly-anticipated poll feature, offering marketers a new platform besides Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram for gathering community sentiment using polls — one that may be the best fit for many B2B brands.

With this and other recent changes to social media polls, we’ll take a look at the latest news about online polls, and see how B2B marketers and brands are using polls in innovative ways, including 6 B2B brands winning with LinkedIn polls.


Social Media Polls For Marketers: 6 B2B Brands Winning With LinkedIn Polls

Livestream Marketing: 5 B2B Brands Rocking LinkedIn Live

Excited smiling woman at laptop image.

How can B2B brands benefit from using LinkedIn Live, and what are some examples of businesses rocking their LinkedIn Live marketing?

LinkedIn* has seen its live-streaming LinkedIn Live feature being used by more major firms all the time, and we’ll take a look at five top B2B brands that are rocking their LinkedIn Live game.

The sky’s the limit when it comes to how B2B brands can use LinkedIn Live. Here are 12 to get you started:

  • Interviewing a Member of Your C-Suite
  • Answering Frequently-Asked Questions
  • Streaming a Keynote or Session
  • Highlighting Special Events
  • Streaming “Ask Me Anything” Episodes
  • Introducing Various Team Members
  • Deep-Dive Interviews
  • Showcasing Behind The Scenes Workplace Culture
  • Unveiling New Innovations
  • Launching Episodic Content

Livestream Marketing: 5 B2B Brands Rocking LinkedIn Live

B2B Brands Take a Stand: 5 Examples of Going Beyond Words to Action

Standing business people over reflections image.

It’s never been more important for brands to show purpose and to be connected to what’s important to customers. As our CEO Lee Odden recently observed in Marketers: We Can Do Better Than Words with Action, “We can all agree that there has to be a change and that we can all play a part in some way, large or small,” a call to action that is being taken to heart by individuals and brands alike.

Here are 5 examples of B2B brands making a difference today by going beyond words and taking action.

1 – Microsoft United For Change

Microsoft

Microsoft’s “United for Change” initiative was announced by company CEO Satya Nadella in an email to the firm’s employees, also made public in a post on its LinkedIn* page.


B2B Brands Take a Stand: 5 Examples of Going Beyond Words to Action

Break Free B2B Marketing: Sofia O’Malley of Dell Outlet on Creating a Global B2B & B2C Marketing Team

Break Free B2B - Sofia O'Malley

Okay, marketers, here’s your content marketing challenge for the day. Your target audience includes the following:

  • Small business owners
  • Gamers
  • Teachers
  • Lifestyle bloggers
  • Young professionals/Entrepreneurs

All you have to do is come up with messaging that will resonate with each of these groups, while repurposing as much content as possible for maximum efficiency. Some of these segments are B2B, some are B2C, and some ride the line between the two, so plan accordingly. 

Oh, and while you’re at it, we need versions of your content for multiple regions around the world. So make sure your Super Bowl metaphors are converted into World Cup references.


Break Free B2B Marketing: Sofia O’Malley of Dell Outlet on Creating a Global B2B & B2C Marketing Team

Break Free B2B Marketing: Julie Brown of Johnson Controls on Proving the EBIT of Your Marketing

Break Free B2B - Julie Brown Image

For decades, marketers have measured success differently than the rest of the organization. We raise awareness, increase share of voice, generate impressions, deliver MQLs to sales. 

Meanwhile, the success of the business itself is measured in….well, money. Revenue. Earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT). 

But this disparity is changing as marketers are becoming more data-driven — and being increasingly accountable for their direct contribution to revenue. It’s not enough to show a return on investment; it’s not enough for marketing to not be a cost center. The marketing department needs to be a powerful engine for generating revenue.


Break Free B2B Marketing: Julie Brown of Johnson Controls on Proving the EBIT of Your Marketing

Day 4,777: Remote Work Tips From 13+ Years As A Distance Marketer

Hand marking days on a chalkboard image.

Today is day 4,777.

Not days quarantined, but days working remotely.

On Monday, March 23, 2007 I started working remotely, and 4,777 days later I still do.

A staple aspect of my daily work life that had been the exception for most marketers is now — at least temporarily — the rule, with most people working from home due to the global health crisis.

Having been a remote worker for a long time, I wanted to share the helpful practices that I wish I’d known when first starting out, and expand on my previous article “Remote Communication Opportunities For B2B Marketers.”

Many have been working remotely much longer than me, and each one will have their own stories of remote work successes and snafus.


Day 4,777: Remote Work Tips From 13+ Years As A Distance Marketer

B2B Marketing Mythbusters: Dispelling 10 Common Myths with Extraordinary Marketing

Wrecking ball busting through wall image.

B2B marketing is boring, doesn’t feature influencers, and uses only monotonous white papers and lifeless case studies — we’ve all heard these stereotypes, but what is the reality of B2B marketing in 2020?

The traditional image of dull B2B marketing has been turned on its head in recent years, and we wanted to explore 10 top myths and show how the state of B2B marketing has gone from bland to unforgettable.

Let’s dig in and break down the biggest B2B marketing myths, and look at how your brand can benefit from the new era of business marketing.

1 — B2B Marketing Goes From Boring-2-Boringest

The Myth:

The grand-daddy of all B2B marketing myths — dating back nearly to when the term business-to-business was coined — is the notion that it stands for boring-to-boring, with marketing about as exciting as forty shades of dreary gray.


B2B Marketing Mythbusters: Dispelling 10 Common Myths with Extraordinary Marketing

Should B2B Marketers Embrace Ephemeral Content?

Burning Matches Emphemeral Content Image

One great thing about being a young Gen X’er: There was no social media during my junior high and high school years. 

Young millennials weren’t so lucky. They chronicled their adolescence in excruciating detail on Myspace, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, every half-formed thought and laundry-detergent-eating stunt preserved forever.

So it’s no surprise that the youngest social media users leapt on Snapchat when it launched. Snapchat Stories provided the feeling of togetherness that social media’s good at, without the potential to embarrass your future self.

Other platforms were quick to buy into the idea of ephemeral content — content that expires and is deleted after a set period of time, usually 24 hours. Instagram’s creatively-named offering, Instagram Stories, boasts 500 million daily users. That’s more daily users for a single feature on Instagram than there are for the entirety of Twitter. 


Should B2B Marketers Embrace Ephemeral Content?

Break Free B2B Marketing: Sruthi Kumar on Creating Memorable Experiences

Break Free B2B with Sruthi Kumar

Marketers are in the business of attracting attention. All of our tactics, our strategies, our goals boil down to: Did we get someone’s attention and inspire them to take action?

The key to modern marketing is that we have to earn that attention. There will always be someone on who is louder, funnier, more talented, or just less shameless than your brand is willing to be. The only way to truly capture and sustain someone’s focus is to earn the right to their time. 

How do you earn attention? By providing remarkable experiences. By showing you care about your audience, you know who they are, and that your brand is here to help and to entertain them. 


Break Free B2B Marketing: Sruthi Kumar on Creating Memorable Experiences

6 Unconventional Social Channels for B2B Marketing

Hand Holding Phone At Urban Overlook

This just in: B2B doesn’t have to be boring! People who are on B2B buying committees like to be entertained just as much as everyone else. They use the same social media sites as B2C consumers do, too. 

Sorry to drop so many knowledge bombs in one paragraph. Take a minute to let it all sink in.

Okay, so maybe self-isolation is making me more snarky than usual. I’m glad that we don’t have to constantly explain why B2B marketing not only can be, but must be relatable and creative.

But there’s one mental obstacle most of us are still struggling with: The idea that social media marketing (outside of LinkedIn) is mostly for our B2C colleagues. We’ve accepted that we should have a Twitter account or a Facebook page, but that’s where a lot of organizations draw the line.


6 Unconventional Social Channels for B2B Marketing

5 Ways SEO Can Shine a Light on Your Unseen B2B Content

Hidden Content Image

“Look, marketers. Everywhere the light touches is content beloved by customers.”

“But what about that shadowy place over there?”

“That’s our unseen content. We worked hard to create it, but nobody ever visits it.”

“That’s really depressing.”

“That’s life.”

Okay, sorry to bring the room down. And I’m also sorry to say that it gets worse. A recent study found that 69% of all web content is not seen by consumers.

Hidden Content Image
The remaining 31% is our kingdom.

Fortunately, there are many ways to create content that beats the odds. For example, you can co-create with influencers, or experiment with interactive content that inspires social media sharing. But what about the content you have already created? The really good stuff that never caught on with an audience?


5 Ways SEO Can Shine a Light on Your Unseen B2B Content