Bath SEO Expert: November 2019

Friday, November 29, 2019

Digital Marketing News: Twitter Test Tweet Scheduling, Google’s Dynamic Gmail Refresh, Facebook’s Lookalike Changes, & Snapchat Grows

The post Digital Marketing News: Twitter Test Tweet Scheduling, Google’s Dynamic Gmail Refresh, Facebook’s Lookalike Changes, & Snapchat Grows appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Thursday, November 28, 2019

Grateful and Glad: What the TopRank Marketing Team is Most Thankful For

For centuries, American families and friends have come together on Thanksgiving Day to feast and give thanks for all of life’s beautiful gifts. But I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again—Thanksgiving isn’t limited to one day in the TopRank Marketing realm. Every day, I see attitudes of gratitude. To date in 2019, our team has typed the words “thank you” in Slack communications a whopping 7,737 times, and “thanks” 4,113 times. via GIPHY As is TopRank Marketing tradition, I’ve asked team members to share what they’re most thankful for in work and in life. Here’s what many had to say.

What the TopRank Marketing Team is Most Thankful for in 2019

Lee Odden

CEO The B2B marketing industry brings together an amazing collection of disciplines, technologies and people from the analytical to the creative. When marketing works to connect people with the right solutions, it really can have a positive impact on the world. I am very thankful to be a part of that industry and especially to be a part of the team at TopRank Marketing. The level of talent, focus and professionalism as well as awareness, empathy and curiosity amongst our team is something I am truly privileged to experience. The frequent kudos from our clients, influencers and community I hear about the work that our content, influence and search marketing teams are doing is a constant source of pride. I appreciate the opportunity we have as a team to create meaningful experiences that inspire others in so many ways and look forward to our focus on creating impact in 2020.

Annie Leuman

Content Strategist and Project Manager I feel very thankful to work with amazing colleagues, clients, and mentors. I truly believe I work with and for some of the best marketers in the game, and we're constantly elevating our skills. Whether it's learning from each other or learning from experience, we're growing our agency into a hyper-specialized team of marketers and I feel so lucky to be a part of it. I'm also thankful to TopRank for allowing me to spread my wings and take on new responsibilities. We've learned and grown a lot together in this past year and I can't wait to see where we go in 2020.

Keith Widerski

Account Manager I’m very thankful to be surrounded by the brightest minds in influencer and B2B marketing – and learning from these folks every single day. We have such an incredible team here at TopRank and I consider myself very fortunate to be a part of it. I cannot wait to see what 2020 has in store!

Josh Nite

Senior Content Marketing Manager I'm thankful for the team that makes sure the work gets done: All our project managers, Annie on task management, and Caitlin on team management. There's nothing more draining at work than a pile of unprioritized, vague tasks. I love having order, organization and direction in my workday, and that's all due to their hard work. On a personal note, I'm thankful for my wife, Jess. My best friend, best co-parent, and best partner in crime.

Ashley Zeckman

Senior Director of Digital Strategy I’m thankful for many things, both big and small. Professionally, I’m incredibly grateful that I have the opportunity to walk in the doors of TopRank Marketing each morning, where I’m given the space to learn, challenge the status quo, and collaborate with an amazing team to create meaningful experiences for our clients, their customers, and our stellar group of influencers. I’d also like to give a special shout out to my mentors, clients and marketing friends, who have always given me something to aspire to, and provided me with so much more wisdom and direction than I would have ever been able to manage on my own. Thank you especially to Lee Odden, Ann Handley, Judy Tian, Garnor Morantes, Chris Penn, Tim Washer, Robert Rose, Michael Brenner, Cathy McPhillips, and Katie Martell. You’re all amazing. Lastly, I’m thankful for my amazing boyfriend who is always my number one supporter and my misfit troop of naughty dogs (and cat) that always keep life interesting.

Birdie Zepeda

SEO Strategist I am thankful to have joined the TopRank Marketing team in early 2019. I get the opportunity to work with so many amazing clients. I couldn't have asked for a warmer welcome to the Midwest.

Jack Fitzpatrick

Influencer Marketing Strategist I’m thankful for Instagram phasing out “likes”. I’ve had my fair share of “like-envy” in the past, and it is never a great feeling. It was a bold decision of their leadership to remove such an integral feature, and I’m interested to see if it fosters a healthier culture on the platform. I’m also thankful for my newfound hobby of making bread. I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but the bread-making process, in particular, makes me feel more in touch with nature and the food I create.

Tiffani Allen

Associate Director of Search & Analytics I’m especially thankful for the search team at TopRank Marketing. We have such amazing opportunities to work with awesome clients, and really push the boundaries when it comes to strategic search marketing that gets serious results. But, of course, we couldn’t do any of it without the support of the entire TopRank team; a team of super smart marketers that we have the privilege of working with are a constant source of support and inspiration!

Elizabeth Williams

Senior Account Manager I couldn't ask for more from a workplace. I've been surrounded by such amazing mentors who have supported me and helped me stretch myself professionally. I think 2019 has been one of my biggest years for professional growth. Thank you! In my personal life, I am most thankful this year for the lifestyle transformation our family has made. From prescriptions to essential oils and homemade tinctures, and from hefty meat-eaters, to organic, to vegetarians—and onward to veganism! I'm so thankful for the improved health and energy we've all gained!

Debbie Friez

Influencer Marketing Strategist I’m thankful I have I fully embraced emojis this year, because they make my writing pop with visuals, which also makes me thankful that we have a fabulous design team at TopRank Marketing (because I would be an awful designer). As I reflect back on the year, I am reminded how important it is to stop and smell the roses, and take time for work-life balance and professional development. I’m thankful for an organization that realizes this is a priority. via GIPHY

Lane Ellis

Social and Content Marketing Manager In 2019, I'm especially thankful for my wonderful family, friends, and associates. Celebrating 18 years of marriage with my amazing wife Julie Ahasay tops my thankfulness list, along with the joy of having my parents Konnie and Bob in my life, as well as my astounding and always-inspiring 102-year-old grandma Lilly Haldorsen. I’m thankful for over 35 years of using the Internet, which recently turned 50 as I wrote about here. I’m thankful to still be able to run, mountain bike, and ski the beautiful trails of Duluth, and for our three kind cats — ZuSu Pitts, Phineas Faustus, and Kukla Francis Oliver. Now is the time to reach out and give the world and its endless opportunities a warm autumnal embrace, so here’s a big virtual hug to all of you I’m lucky enough to know, lovely family and friends. Thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving From the TopRank Marketing Team

Thank you clients, influencers, followers, and team members for coming together to drive personal, professional, and brand success. Happy Thanksgiving! Sincerely, The TopRank Marketing Team TopRank Team Boat Day 2019

The post Grateful and Glad: What the TopRank Marketing Team is Most Thankful For appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

5 Smart B2C Tactics To Boost Your B2B Brand

B2B marketing is swiftly embracing techniques that were once only for B2C, and we’ve got five smart B2C tactics to add to your B2B plans for 2020 and well beyond. Influencer marketing, engaging interactive content, awards events, chatbots, and podcasting are just some of the ways that today's savvy B2B marketers can add a healthy dose of the B2C experience to your business marketing efforts.

#1 - Influencer Marketing

Even though influencer marketing is still largely associated with the B2C world, you’ve likely noticed that it’s being increasingly used by smart marketers as a highly successful go-to B2B tactic. Influencer marketing has already accounted for over $2 billion in annual marketing spending in the U.S. alone, and annual growth rates are predicted to from 41 percent all the way to 95 percent. (AdAge) Influencer Marketing Hub Growth Chart

B2C influencer marketing has relied heavily on celebrity influencers, a combination that has faced a growing backlash and played a part in diminishing trust in marketing. B2B influencer marketing, on the other hand, incorporates industry experts who have a genuine two-way relationship with a brand, a partnership that respectfully serves both parties equally well, and boosts trust. While influencer marketing may have had its ups and downs in the B2C landscape, influencers in the B2B world may just be a perfect match. [bctt tweet="“Invite people to be in your program first and then do some brainstorming with them and see what they like, how they like to interact or what they like to do for companies.” @AmishaGandhi" username="toprank"] Amisha Gandhi is vice president of influencer marketing and communications at SAP*, and she recently shared her B2B influencer marketing insights in one of our new Break Free B2B video interviews, including creative and fun ways that add sizzle and build brand credibility. Watch and learn from Amisha in “Break Free B2B Series: Amisha Gandhi on Global B2B Influencer Marketing.” [bctt tweet="If you don’t tie your influencer marketing to business objectives, you can quickly lose track of what you’re trying to accomplish. @Konstanze" username="toprank"] Konstanze Alex of Dell* is another leader in B2B influencer marketing, and along with Amisha and Dell's Janine Wegner at the most recent MarketingProfs B2B Forum conference, she explored some of the latest trends shaping influencer marketing, in "Tales from the B2B Influencer Marketing Trenches with Leaders from Dell & SAP #MPB2B." [bctt tweet="“Influencer marketing presents an opportunity to tap into the established credibility and connections that people in your industry or niche already have with their own audiences.” @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"] Our own senior content strategist Nick Nelson and senior director of digital strategy Ashley Zeckman have also explored the subtle nuances of B2B influencer marketing, taking "A Journey Through Always-On Influencer Marketing with Ashley Zeckman #MPB2B." [bctt tweet="We pride ourselves on cultivating and nurturing long-term relationships with our influencers … which means we are always looking to establish a ‘give to get’ exchange where all parties come out ahead. @ranimani0707 @adobe" username="toprank"] Rani Mani, head of social influencer enablement at Adobe* is another leading B2B influencer marketing expert, and she has shared a number of her unique insights in "B2B Influencer Marketing Interview: Rani Mani, Adobe." Trust in marketing has been a growing concern among marketers — one that B2B influencer marketing is squarely seeking to improve — and here are five of our most recent articles that explore how marketers can build greater trust:

#2 - Engaging Interactive Content

B2C brands have spent heavily on bringing consumers engaging interactive online content as a major part of many marketing campaigns. As the B2B landscape continues to speedily depart from its dusty Boring-To-Boring roots, business customers are expecting content and experiences that are increasingly similar to what B2C efforts have long provided, and engaging interactive experiences exemplify the type of content B2B firms need to offer if they wish to successfully compete. What could be less interactive or engaging than a hundred-plus page purely text industry white paper? Today’s B2B customers expect to have access to all of the relevant information that white paper contained, but brought to life through an online interface that’s not only easy to search and navigate, but also chock full of user experience features that make interacting an entertaining experience. [bctt tweet="“You may need to take baby steps with your audience to get them warmed up to the idea of interactivity.” — Caitlin Burgess @CaitlinMBurgess" username="toprank"] Engaging and interactive content marketing is a subject near and dear to our hearts at TopRank Marketing, and here are five of the most recent pieces we’ve published to help you learn more about building your own:

#3 - Awards & Best-Of Pages

As B2B efforts become more like those in B2C, business marketers are increasingly looking for places to showcase their best work, and industry awards events can be a powerful way to share and celebrate cutting-edge work. Whether it’s physical red carpet award programs where industry professionals gather to honor the top B2B marketing work, or purely digital events that show off lists of winning campaigns, the benefits of highlighting great B2B marketing efforts can be far-reaching. LinkedIn* recently announced the winners of its "Best of LinkedIn Pages 2019," taken from submissions to its annual contest — a list that shows how building great content can lead to widespread industry recognition. We’ve examined the power of award-winning content in the following articles, including several examples from the Cannes Lions event:

#4 - Chatbots & AI-Infused Customer Interaction

B2C companies were some of the first to actively offer chatbots to consumers, however there’s been swift adoption in the B2B world, and with studies showing that people like interacting with powerful chatbots when they can quickly get the answers they seek, more B2B organizations are likely to begin using chatbot technology in 2020 and beyond. 2019 February 22 Statistics Image

For a deeper look at how chatbots, artificial intelligence, plus augmented and virtual reality can work to your B2B marketing advantage, here are five recent articles we’ve published:

#5 - Podcasting

Just a few years ago the idea of podcasting in a B2B context would likely have been seen as preposterous by most business consumers. Now however, as podcasting’s popularity has skyrocketed in general — over 62 percent of podcast listeners say they listen to more now than a year ago — more B2B firms than ever are either starting their own or studying how to do so in the near future. B2B podcasting is ripe for business marketers, with some 13 million households already including avid fans of business podcasts, and 52 million households including casual fans of business podcasts, according to Nielsen podcasting data. Our senior content marketing manager Joshua Nite recently made the case for B2B marketers to take a serious look at podcasting, and presented “B2B Podcasting: 20 Stats that Make the Marketing Case.” [bctt tweet="“B2B marketers who are creating any kind of audio content should consider podcasting as a channel to earn attention, deeply engage an audience, and ultimately drive measurable business results.” — Joshua Nite @NiteWrites" username="toprank"] When it comes to B2B podcasting, making the leap from consideration to implementation can be a hurdle, however Josh has written an insightful guide to help marketers with the process, in “10 Crucial Steps for Launching Your B2B Podcast Into the Wild.” More B2B podcasting help and examples of top marketing podcasts can be found here:

A Brighter B2B Future For 2020 and Beyond

As we’ve explored, by using influencer marketing, engaging interactive content, awards events, chatbots, and podcasting, B2B marketers can add new life to once-stale campaigns, and we hope that 2020 brings you an abundance of B2B marketing advancements to be thankful for. * Dell, SAP, Adobe, and LinkedIn are TopRank Marketing client.

The post 5 Smart B2C Tactics To Boost Your B2B Brand appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Break Free B2B Series: Janine Wegner on Building Brand Thought Leadership With the Help of Influencers

Break Free B2B Marketing Interview with Janine Wenger of Dell Technologies

Influencer marketing is in a state of flux. In the past 10 days alone, I’ve seen suggestions that paid influencers are out, and that “influencer marketing — in the traditional sense — is in the midst of an irreversible fail from grace.” Neither of these arguments is off the mark, per se, but they both frame the concept in outdated B2C-centric terms (the authors more or less acknowledge this with their qualifiers). No one can deny that the impact of hired celebrity influencers, transparently shilling products or services, is waning. It’s not an approach that builds trust or credibility. However, strategic B2B influencer marketing is still very much on the rise, and nowhere near its peak yet. When done right, this practice isn’t about celebrity status, nor solely about paying for influence (although that can be part of the equation). It’s about building mutually beneficial relationships with established thought leaders in your space, founded on the focus of delivering value to your audience first and foremost. In this growing field, Janine Wegner and her team at Dell Technologies* are blazing trails. Few other B2B organizations have developed a level of influencer sophistication that matches Dell, and we’ve been fortunate to partner with them on several projects. [bctt tweet="Influencer marketing comes back those voices telling the story, helping our customers understand what the future looks like, and how they can get there. @JanineWegner #InfluencerMarketing #BreakFreeB2B" username="toprank"] TopRank Marketing President Susan Misukanis recently sat down with Janine, who is in charge of global thought leadership at Dell, for a lengthy interview on the path forward for influencer marketing in the B2B space, as propelled by her area of specialization. Join us for a fun conversation that touches on the serious side of B2B influencer marketing while also incorporating lighter themes of “dating and fun games.”

Break Free B2B Marketing Interview with Janine Wegner

If you’re interested in checking out a particular portion of the discussion, you can find a quick general outline below, as well as a few excerpts that stood out to us.

0:30 — Definition of thought leadership
2:15 — Activating internal subject matter experts
4:00 — Identifying B2B influencers
6:45 — Democratization of influence
8:30 — Building relationships with macro vs. nano influencers
10:30 — Influencers at different stages of the funnel
11:45 — Challenges of getting started with influencer programs
16:30 — The future of thought leadership and influencer marketing
18:30 — How can marketers break free?

Susan: What do you think are the big gains or advancements in thought leadership and influencer marketing? Janine: What I'm really excited about and what I've been seeing over the past years is that there's this kind of democratization of influence, right? Social media provided us the tools to share our opinions, but now we advance to a stage where people are very passionate and have an incredible reach to — maybe a small subset of community — but their authenticity and their integrity are so valued that people listen to them. And I find this fascinating for society overall, let alone for us from a marketing perspective. So it's all coming back to: what do you want to achieve as a marketer and what type of influencer is the right one? [bctt tweet="There’s been a democratization of influence... Now we’re at a stage where passionate people’s authenticity and integrity are so valued that people listen to them. @JanineWegner #InfluencerMarketing #BreakFreeB2B" username="toprank"] Susan: How are the activations and partnerships different at the nano vs. macro influencer levels? Janine: Again, it goes back to your business objectives and what you want to achieve. What we're trying to do is map out throughout our campaign, what's the customer journey? And what are the content pieces we want to develop? And what are the voices we want to have in each of them, and how to then activate and amplify those? So it might be that you take into account people that don't have as much reach, but that have incredible subject matter expertise and credibility on a certain topic, that you engage in something like an eBook, or a report, or getting some quotes from them very early on a key pillar asset. But then you want people to talk about it and actually know that this exists, right? So you might want to leverage social amplifiers that are talking about this topic and are using this eBook as a resource that they recommend to their community, and really getting that reach and spreading it far and wide. And then there might be tactics when you then invite them to a webinar, or maybe a face-to-face event, to participate as part of a panel, and so forth. So there are all of those different tactics. And we usually are, what I would recommend is like, look at your business objectives. Susan: For someone thinking about digging deeper into influencer marketing, what might a pilot program look like for example? Janine: So right now, for instance, although we are already a little bit advanced, we're still testing and piloting, because we want to be smarter. We want to get better, we want to spend our resources a little bit more wisely. Right? So one area that we're testing is really leveraging the power of those social amplifiers. When we launch a certain research study, product news, or so forth, how can we then brief those influencers, give them everything that they need, you know, for the day X, the day that it launches? And then ask them to amplify and what does this look like what does a good kind of social media amplification kit and like cadence look like for these influencers? Because we need to think about the fact that most of them also serve other companies, so you don’t want to overdo it, but you also want a certain share of words. Stay tuned to the TopRank Marketing Blog and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Break Free B2B interviews. Here are a few interviews to whet your appetite:

The post Break Free B2B Series: Janine Wegner on Building Brand Thought Leadership With the Help of Influencers appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Monday, November 25, 2019

For a More Effective B2B Content Strategy, T.H.I.N.K.

What would you do with an unlimited content marketing budget? Oh, the eBooks and infographics and blog posts you could make! Video and audio, whitepapers, research papers, guides galore… endless money means endless possibilities. Okay. Deep breath. Snap back to reality. James Franco Startled

We’re all working with limited resources to create a finite amount of content to fit into a crowded editorial calendar. So how can you make sure you’re making the most of what you have? How can you know for sure that a proposed content project is worth your while — worth time spent researching, creating, amplifying and optimizing? It’s simple: T.H.I.N.K.! Let me explain. My wife is a middle school teacher (a moment of silence for her service). She has this poster on prominent display in her classroom: Poster Reading Before You Speak: Think: Is It True? Is It Helpful? Is It Inspiring? Is It Necessary? Is It Kind?

Poster Reading Before You Speak: Think: Is It True? Is It Helpful? Is It Inspiring? Is It Necessary? Is It Kind?

In the classroom, it’s an attempt to get middle-schoolers to stop cyberbullying each other. But these same five criteria can make sure your content is essential, valuable, and worthy of the time it takes to create it. Let’s break it down.

T.H.I.N.K. for More Effective B2B Content Strategy

#1: Is It True?

I don’t know many marketers who set out to lie to people. Not many who keep a job long, anyway. I don’t think we have to say, “Make sure your content is factually correct and not lies.” That said, there are a few ways marketers can mislead audiences, and even mislead themselves about their content’s truthfulness. Does your content intend to keep its promise? Sometimes a “guide to solutions in X industry” is really “list of reasons our brand is best.” Sometimes “how to do X” is more, “vague instructions about X that aren’t super actionable.” Or perhaps “X statistics for 2019” is more, “collection of statistics I found on other statistics posts that are 10 years old.” If the content you’re planning can’t or won’t fulfill the promise it makes to the audience, you’re better off without it. [bctt tweet="If the content you’re planning can’t or won’t fulfill the promise it makes to the audience, you’re better off without it. @NiteWrites #B2BContentMarketing" username="toprank"]

#2: Is It Helpful?

As marketers, we’re trained to ask the question, “What is this content going to do for our brand?” And that’s a good question to ask! We’re not a publishing company; we have business objectives. But we should also be asking, “What is this content going to do for our audience?” After they consume your content, is your audience going to be:

Better at their job
Prepared for a coming change
Smarter about a crucial topic for their industry
Able to do something they couldn’t before

The list could go on, but you get the picture. Will this content be helpful in ways unrelated to your CTA at the bottom? If not… take another pass with the focus on your audience.

#3: Is It Inspirational?

The old “mad men” era of marketing frequently ran on “Do this… or else!” kinds of messaging. Pick the wrong brand of coffee, and your husband will be ashamed of you! Smoke our brand of cigarettes or you’ll get headaches (doctors recommend ours)! Drive this kind of car or your boss will think you’re a sissy! It turns out, though, that people would rather be encouraged than scolded. The central message behind all great content is “You can do this.” It might be hard, and you might not know how to do it yet, but you can do this, and our brand is here to make sure of it. If your planned content isn’t reassuring and inspiring your audience, it’s time to switch to the light side of the force. [bctt tweet="If your planned content isn’t reassuring and inspiring your audience, it’s time to switch to the light side of the force. @NiteWrites #B2BContentMarketing" username="toprank"]

#4: Is It Necessary?

If you loaded up every “Definitive Guide” to any given subject, and copy-pasted them into one document… would you ever stop scrolling? You’d get a document so long it would make a CVS receipt look like a Post-It Note. There’s a lot of content out there, I’m saying. And most new content is adding to the noise, not the signal. To make sure your content is necessary, start with making sure it meets a search demand. But let’s go deeper:

Does it meet an unmet demand?
What are you giving the audience that they can’t get anywhere else?
What makes your brand uniquely qualified to weigh in?
What negative consequences would there be if this content didn’t exist?

If your proposed content can’t answer at least three of the above questions to your satisfaction, you need more introspection about what your brand stands for, is knowledgeable about, and wants to be known for.

#5: Is It Kind?

If your content is true, helpful, inspirational, and necessary, odds are it’s kind to your audience as well. So what’s left? I translate “Is it kind?” to “How does this content contribute to society?” I get it. That’s a huge question and it’s a big ask. Does that mean your content has to cure diseases and adopt rescue dogs to earn a place in your editorial calendar? Well, no, of course not. But content can meaningfully make the world a better place, while still being marketing content written for business purposes. Carlos Abler made a compelling case for it in his Content Marketing World presentation this year. He shared examples of how content marketing could, for example, lead smoking cessation initiatives, or lower infant mortality rates in the third world. But you don’t have to start that big. Just think about your content outside of your intended audience, as part of the ebb and flow of discourse. Is it adding positivity, hope, promoting diversity? Or is it stoking negativity, fear, and division? Essentially, the last part of the process here is to give your content a ‘vibe check.’ If your content isn’t going to radiate a little positive energy into the universe at large, it’s worth retooling until you get there. Try again after a cup of coffee, if you need to.

T.H.I.N.K. Outside the Box

There are plenty of practical and technical considerations to make when you create a B2B content marketing strategy. But before you put your content plan in action, make sure you’re focusing resources on content that passes the T.H.I.N.K. test. Content that is true, helpful, inspirational, necessary and kind is going to be the most effective for your goals. T.H.I.N.K. makes content more worthy of your audience’s time, more likely to be shared, more likely to spark enthusiasm, and more likely to help build relationships with your brand. We all know that the days of creating content for content’s sake are long gone. So, how can you create content that has a meaningful impact? Find out.

The post For a More Effective B2B Content Strategy, T.H.I.N.K. appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Digital Marketing News: Twitter’s New Publisher Dashboard, Why We Follow Influencers, Snapchat’s Unskippable Ads, & TikTok’s Social Commerce

The post Digital Marketing News: Twitter’s New Publisher Dashboard, Why We Follow Influencers, Snapchat’s Unskippable Ads, & TikTok’s Social Commerce appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

B2B Podcasting: 20 Stats that Make the Marketing Case

20 Compelling Statistics About B2B Podcasting

Good grief, Josh, why can’t you shut up about B2B podcasting? Does the world really need another think piece, blog post, or webinar about the potential? Don’t people get it already? I hear you, theoretical reader. And yet, I persevere. B2B podcasting today is where content marketing was a decade ago. It’s emerging as a marketing discipline. People are starting to get sophisticated about deploying and measuring podcasts. We’re seeing new tools to make it easier to launch, promote, and monetize. And despite the thousands of hours of audio out there already, there’s no sign that the market is satiated. I believe that if you’re not already thinking about podcasting for your B2B brand, you should be. But if my beautiful words can’t convince you, let the data tell the story:

B2B Podcasting: 20 Stats that Make the Case

These statistics come from five different reports, all released in the last year. When you look at all five together, the picture is clear: We’re nowhere near peak podcast, and brand content is the next frontier.

Podcast Listenership Just Keeps Growing

Podcasting is a growth medium. More people are listening now than ever before. But what’s truly impressive is how many listeners are new to the medium. Even though podcasts have been around since the early 2000s, they have only reached a mass market audience in the past couple of years.

1: Nearly a quarter of all listeners started in the past 6 months. (2)

2: Globally, 36% of the sampled population has listened to a podcast in the last month. (1)

3: 51% of the U.S. population over 12 has listened to a podcast. (2)

4: 32% of the U.S. population over 12 has listened in the past month (90 million people). (2)

5: 22% of the U.S. population over 12 listen weekly (60 million). (2)

6: 62.6% of respondents said they listen to more podcasts now than they did a year ago. (3)

7: Only 3.1% said they listen less than they did a year ago. (3)

In summary: Podcasts continue to attract new listeners to their existing audience of 90 million people monthly. And, most promisingly, those who listen are far more likely to add new podcasts than cut down. [bctt tweet="Podcasts continue to attract new listeners... And, most promisingly, those who listen are far more likely to add new podcasts than cut down. @NiteWrites #B2BPodcasting" username="toprank"]

Podcast Listeners Are Demographically Valuable

Okay, so millions of people are listening to podcasts. But are these people a worthwhile target audience for B2B marketers? The answer may vary depending on your most valuable audience, of course. But most B2B marketers are interested in targeting millennials. A recent survey found that at least 73% of millennials are involved in product or service decision making at work, with 33% reporting they’re the sole decision maker at their company. Basically, if you’re trying to influence B2B purchases, millennials matter. And podcast listeners are disproportionately affluent, social media savvy millennials:

8: 50% of listeners under 35 have listened to a podcast in the last month. (1)

9: 41% of podcast listeners make $75k a year or more, compared to 29% of the general population. (2)

10: Podcast listeners are more likely to be active on social media across channels and more likely to follow companies and brands. (4)

Podcast Listeners Are More Likely To Follow Companies and Brands on Social

Read: How to Promote Your B2B Podcast

Podcast Fans are Devoted Listeners

According to Google’s 2018 benchmarks, the average time on page for content from most industries is between two and three minutes. Marketers can certainly make an impression in that amount of time. Even fifteen seconds is valuable to a savvy marketer with a good hook and strong CTA. But podcast listeners spend a great deal more time with audio content:

11: 76.8% listen to podcasts more than 7 hours a week. (3)

12: 61.2% spend more time listening to podcasts than watching TV. (3)

13: 52% of monthly listeners listen to the entirety of each episode. (2)

14: 70% of listeners say that, at least sometimes, they do nothing else while listening to podcasts. (2)

As that last statistic shows, podcast listeners aren’t the distracted, multi-tasking folks we might have imagined they are. If the material is engaging, they’re willing to devote their attention. Speaking of which... [bctt tweet="Podcast listeners aren’t the distracted, multi-tasking folks we might have imagined they are. If the material is engaging, they’re willing to devote their attention. @NiteWrites #B2BPodcasting" username="toprank"]

Podcast Fans Want to Learn (In a Fun Way)

Back in the early days, podcasts were — in the best sense of the word — geeky. They were for highly techy types to share knowledge, teach and learn. While purely entertaining podcasts have seen plenty of success, at the root of it podcasts are an ideal medium for learning. People don’t just listen to podcasts for fun. The overwhelming majority want to feel smarter at the end of every episode. Think of all the subject matter expertise in your company. Now multiply that by the influential guests (e.g. your customers, prospects, and industry experts and peers) you’ll invite on to share their expertise. It’s easy to see how a brand podcast can bring educational value to an audience that’s ready to learn.

15: 74% say they listen to podcasts to learn new things. (2)

16: 71% say they listen to be entertained. (2)

17: 59% say they enjoy podcasts because they make them feel smarter. (2)

74% of Podcast Listeners Listen to Learn New Things

The Business Podcast Market Is Ready for Lift-Off

There’s still a massive untapped market for helpful, informative business podcasts — exactly the type that B2B brands could develop, produce and promote. In fact, we can see that the ad revenue model for podcasting is expanding to include branded content. Right now, branded content is still a small percentage of overall podcast advertising, but it’s growing fast.

18: There are avid fans of business podcasts in 13 million households. (4)

19: There are casual fans of business podcasts in 52 million households. (4)

20: Branded content has increased from 1.5% to 10.1% of podcast advertising since 2016. (5)

What's more, podcasts offer a range of content marketing benefits, which can inform and bolster your broader digital marketing strategy.

Don’t Be (Pod) Cast Aside

The podcast boom continues unabated — and it’s grown from a strictly amateur platform to a sophisticated content marketing medium. B2B marketers who are creating any kind of audio content should consider podcasting as a channel to earn attention, deeply engage an audience, and ultimately drive measurable business results. Ready to produce your own podcast? Check out our webinar on the 4 P’s of Podcasting.

Sources:

The post B2B Podcasting: 20 Stats that Make the Marketing Case appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Hiding Out: How B2B Marketers Can Adapt to Hidden Like Counts

Colorfully painted hands waving goodbye to like counts.

Doesn't anyone like me? Where have all my likes gone? Likes on Instagram are being hidden, as the Facebook-owned firm recently began expanding a test program hiding the number of likes — or more accurately the small heart buttons we click to show support — that posts on the platform receive, showing the total number only to the person or brand who authored the post. via GIPHY Instagram head Adam Mosseri recently appeared on CBS This Morning and said, "We don't want Instagram to be such a competition. We want it to be a place where people spend more of their energy connecting with the people that they love and the things that they care about.” The change brought to some U.S. users what Instagram has had in the works since 2018, when it began testing hidden likes for certain users in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ireland, Italy, Japan and New Zealand. The tests have brought praise from some, outrage from others, and caused some to voice concern that hiding like counts could have a negative impact on marketers, especially those involved in influencer marketing. It’s no wonder that concern has been expressed by some marketers, as by 2022 brands are expected to spend as much as $15 billion on influencer marketing according to recent forecast data from Business Insider. How will hiding like and other engagement counts affect customer engagement rates, and how will it change B2B influencer marketing? Let’s look at some of the ways that B2B marketers can adjust to the new hidden Web.

Instagram Tests Hiding Like Counts — What Does it Mean?

What Does It Mean with pens and paper image.

As we mentioned, the ability to click the heart button to like an Instagram post hasn’t gone away during the test, but only a post’s author will be able to see how many likes their item has received. Exactly how this will affect the various engagement metrics brands have in place remains to be seen, however the measurement of likes now faces a sizable challenge. Although Instagram and parent company Facebook have yet to release any results from the tests, or even any indication that they may become permanent, some firms have started to look at initial results using their own data. One early study of 154,000 Instagram influencers from influencer marketing platform HypeAuditor looked at how like counts were affected in the non-U.S. test countries, showing that among influencers with between five and 20,000 followers there was an across-the-board decrease in the total number of likes, as shown in the image below. HypeAuditor chart.

For influencers with between 5,000 and 20,000 Instagram followers, likes dropped between three percent and 15 percent in each of the nations, the study results showed. Among influencers with between 100,000 and a million Instagram followers, total like counts were also shown as having fallen, with the exception of those in Japan, where like counts surprisingly rose nearly seven percent, as shown in the chart below. HypeAuditor chart image.

Australia’s Marketing Magazine took a look at the study results specifically in that county, in “Australian Like counts drop 15% following Instagram Like hiding test.”

Top Influencer Qualities Measurable Far Beyond Likes

Hands showing thumbs up on a background of sky image.

Research firm eMarketer recently produced a chart using data from GlobalWebIndex that shows which qualities U.S. and U.K. social media users see as the most important for influencers, as shown below. eMarketer Global Webindex Influencer Chart

eMarketer Global Webindex Influencer Chart

Trustworthiness, the ability to provide informative content, and being entertaining or humorous ranked as the top three social media influencer qualities in the study, while the total number of likes and followers an influencer has appears all the way at the bottom of the list. [bctt tweet="“Metrics that measure influencers by trust and the other qualities consumers value most will likely take on greater importance than those merely measuring likes and follower counts.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"] In a recent informal Twitter poll we asked B2B marketers which influencer quality they consider the most important in driving them to partner with an influencer on a campaign. TopRank Marketing Twitter Poll image.

Will hidden like counts be a major trend in 2020? We asked that question in our latest Twitter poll, where you can chime in with your own vote on top 2020 marketing trends. We’ve written seven recent articles about the importance of trust in marketing, which you'll find below, and with like counts increasingly being hidden, now is a good time to re-focus on engagement metrics that incorporate trust.

A Wealth of Social Engagement Measurement Tools

social media marketing influencers smmw16

There have never been as many companies offering tools and services to measure marketing campaign success and engagement online as there are now, yet serious obstacles to thoroughness and accuracy abound, with an Internet today filled largely with walled communities that only allow certain data to be gathered for analysis. Even though the Internet is now 50 years old, and has brought about incredible and profound advances in many areas, there is still a long and largely unmarked path ahead before measuring engagement will ever be broadly accurate. Hope is certainly not lost however — far from it — as many excellent tools exist that work wonders with the data they’re able to pull in. We’re fans of influencer marketing platform Traackr, which we incorporate into our research when putting out our annual lists of the industry’s top influencers involved with B2B marketing, content marketing, women in marketing, and social media marketing.

More To Hide — Shortened Snippets & The Rise of the “[...]”

via GIPHY More than likes and share counts are increasingly being hidden from our daily online excursions. I recall years ago when information online suddenly began to get hidden away in another way — not from businesses cutting off access entirely to data, but from a less-is-more minimalist Web landscape and design ethos that cut off tremendous amounts of information by truncating it and added either an ellipsis, “[...]” or a click-to-expand plus sign. This trend has continued largely unchecked for decades now, and you might be surprised if you take the time to sit back and count the sheer number of [...] occurrences you encounter online daily. I’m not the only one who’s been frustrated with webpages, services, and apps that truncate a great deal of information in the name of saving screen space, only to force us to click-to-expand sometimes dozens of times, and rarely is the helpful “expand all” option offered these days. I’ve often wondered — what percentage of the web is now hidden by default, and how many people ever click to see this hidden information? Thankfully, part of good search engine optimization (SEO) has always been knowing precisely how much text is visible to both consumers and to search-engine indexing robots and crawlers, to best take advantage of everything visible online today.

A Likeless 2020 Brings New B2B Marketing Opportunities

via GIPHY The jury is still out on whether or not 2020 will see more social platforms hiding or placing less emphasis on like, share, and follower counts, but savvy B2B marketers will be prepared to shift to other facets of measurable campaign engagement. It’s an increasingly tricky and quickly-changing landscape for marketers, requiring expertise, dedication, and time — leading some to hire a professional B2B marketing agency like TopRank Marketing, which had the honor of being named by Forrester as the only B2B marketing agency offering influencer marketing as a top capability in its “B2B Marketing Agencies, North America, Q1 2019” report.” Whether you tackle the challenges ahead in 2020 in-house, on your own, or with a top-tier agency, the year ahead is certain to bring unforeseen marketing industry changes, which we’ll cover here on our blog and in our weekly video news round-up with Joshua Nite and Tiffani Allen, set to reach a milestone 200th episode early in 2020. In closing, here are six articles we’ve published this year that aim to help B2B marketers measure engagement:

The post Hiding Out: How B2B Marketers Can Adapt to Hidden Like Counts appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.