Top 5 Benefits of Influencer Marketing for B2B Brands

Despite that 96% of marketers engaging influencers for marketing deem their programs successful, there are still a very large number of B2B companies evaluating where influencer engagement fits in their marketing mix. After spending the last 8 plus years working on developing influencer marketing strategies, creating pilot projects, implementing campaigns and running ongoing influencer programs for brands that range from 3M to Dell to LinkedIn, here are some of the top benefits B2B companies of all sizes are realizing through their influencer marketing efforts. Before I get to the list, I think it's important to mention that benefits realized are directly connected to goals imagined. That may seem obvious but the application of influence to marketing is viewed in many different ways and therefore, the outcomes can be just as different. For example, a pilot is often meant to be a proof of concept and sparks connections with influencers. An integrated influencer content marketing campaign that runs over several months and across channels produces a lot of useful content and helps identify which influencers are effective. An Always-On approach over time develops a rich source of content and relationships with influencers which can accelerate the quality and promotion of the content by influencers as well as organic advocacy. So the benefits B2B brands can realize from incorporating influence into their marketing mix really depends on the approach. Here's a list of 5 of the most common and impactful benefits of working with external and internal influencers at B2B companies:

1. Influencers add credibility and authenticity to brand content

Properly identifying the topics that matter to customers that the brand needs to be more influential about leads to finding people who already have the desired influence. Collaborating with experts that are respected authorities on the topics of influence produces content, communications and often advocacy that is believable, is empathetic to the concerns and goals of real customers and is trusted by the audience the brand is trying to reach.

2. Influencers partnered with executives build brand thought leadership

Connecting external influencers with internal executives to collaborate on content, video conversations, virtual events and similar exchanges of ideas can validate key leadership messages of the brand. Whether it's running a webinar discussing the findings of the brand's most recent research or whitepaper to conducting a series of livestream video or podcast interviews between key executives and external influencers, connecting trusted industry voices with brand messaging can drive credibility, differentiation and leadership.

3. Influencers can co-create better content experiences for customers

According to research in the State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report, 74% of B2B marketers believe that collaborating on content with influencers helps improve the experience for prospects and customers. An increasing number of professional influencers in the B2B world bring both expertise as well as media creation savvy. That means the ability to produce video content, podcast content or graphical and text content that is in tune with customer expectations for more experiential content that the brand might not have the resources to produce. Alternatively, even if the B2B brand has the resources to create great video, audio, graphical and text content, adding influencer contributions "optimizes" for credibility and authenticity, which is a better experience than brand content simply pontificating its importance.

4. Influencers accelerate content production, promotion and impact

When effectively designed and planned, an influencer engagement effort can create a community of influence that the brand can tap for a variety of content creation efforts. Imagine having a group of 10, 25 or as in the case of LinkedIn or Adobe, 60-75 industry experts on-tap to engage on content projects? Developing a community of influencers means creating genuine relationships between the brand and influencers based on mutual benefit and shared values. Not only does an engaged community of influencers help create content, but they are invested in the success of content distribution and impact because it benefits their own interests and that of their audience. The reputation influencers develop on the topics of influence means trust when it matters most - making decisions about which B2B solutions to consider, evaluate and purchase.

5. Influencer collaborations can help optimize brand content for search

There is a compelling connection between the topics and keywords that people search on when looking for solutions and the topics around which industry experts are influential. Optimizing content with keywords is at the core of improving the findability of brand content on search engines. Including influencers on those same topics in the content is a way of optimizing for credibility. What good is being found in search if people don't trust what they find? Going a bit deeper into the influence and SEO connection, marketers could consider whether the influencers they are working with are recognized as entities within Google search results. When those same influencers contribute to content published by the brand, their identity imparts credibility and relevance for search. Another consideration is to evaluate the SEO effectiveness of where influencers publish - their own blog, contributed articles or columns with industry publications and elsewhere online. What is the Domain Authority of where the influencer publishes and do the links they include in their content carry weight? Does the influencer's content "rank" on search engines for the topics the brand wants to be more influential about? Is the influencer creating the kind of content that ranks? Video, audio, images, text, scholarly articles, books, etc. The SEO value of working with an influencer is not universally true across topics, but with some due diligence and research, some very valuable opportunities could be uncovered and relationships built to help brand content become findable and credible at the very moment customers are looking. Of course this is not a comprehensive list of benefits for B2B brand to work with influencers, but it is a compelling list. While many B2B marketers may skim the surface of what's possible from working with influencers, those who can look a little deeper can find tremendous upside and value that not only accelerates the impact and effectiveness of marketing for short term campaigns, but for longer term brand and thought leadership perception in the industry.

The post Top 5 Benefits of Influencer Marketing for B2B Brands appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

B2B Marketing News: B2B Video Completion Rates, US Ad Spend Soars, Google’s New Starline 3D Chat, & What Makes A Brand Meaningful

Twitter Re-Opens Public Applications for Profile Verification For the first time since November, 2017 Twitter has begun allowing users to apply for verified profile status. As the new option is rolled out, a verification application option will appear within a Twitter user's account settings, allowing brands to seek a blue check-mark, the firm recently announced. Social Media Today Google Ads Has New Smart Bidding Features Google has launched new eligible search campaign recommendations, along with target impression share simulators — two of several new updates of interest to digital marketers that have been rolled out to the firm's popular Google Ads offering, the search giant recently announced. SEO Roundtable U.S. Ad Recovery Continues To Soar, Surges 52% In April April 2021 advertising spending was up 52 percent in the U.S. year-over-year, the biggest increase in more than a year, and this recovery has also been seen in more ad spending categories than previous months, according to recently-released ad spending index data. MediaPost LinkedIn introduces Event Ads and “boosted” posts LinkedIn (client) has made new post promotion features available from brand pages and rolled out a slew of new event advertising and analytics options, including custom streaming and mobile page analytics, the Microsoft-owned platform recently announced. Search Engine Land What B2B Firms Use Marketing Agencies For 31 percent of B2B firms utilize marketing agencies for brand mission, vision, and values initiatives, while 22 percent use agencies for brand purpose strategy — two of several statistics of interest to online marketers in newly-released survey data. MarketingProfs Instagram now shows creators how well their live videos and Reels are doing Facebook-owned Instagram has launched an update that reveals more data about the performance of live videos and short-form Reels content, with shares, saves, likes, plays, and comments among newly-available metrics data, the firm recently announced. Engadget Twitter Tests New 'Super Followers' Display Ahead of Program Launch Twitter has begun testing more visible integration of its forthcoming super followers feature — which allows creators to offer subscription-only bonus content on the platform — with a new super follower count likely to appear alongside traditional account follower numbers, the firm has announced. Social Media Today Havas Finds Growing Consumer 'Cynicism,' Only 25% Of Brands Even Matter Some 39 percent of brands are trusted by U.S. consumers, while consumers say that they don't care about 75 percent of brands, a slight decrease from 2019's 77 percent, according to recently-released brand meaningfulness survey data of interest to digital marketers. MediaPost Analysis: Google's Starline shows promise and perils of 3D chats Google launched its Project Starline 3D videoconferencing offering recently, its latest foray into the mixed reality communication realm, and Reuters has shared a look at some of the early impressions of the Google project. Reuters 2020 Business Video Completion Rates and Other Benchmarks 58 percent of business videos under one minute in length are viewed completely, while only 24 percent of those over 20 minutes long are watched in their entirety — two of several statistics of interest to digital marketers contained in recently-released survey data of some 760,000 business videos. MarketingCharts ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: A lighthearted look at the “creative brief” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist Man’s Cell Phone Disagrees That Alexa Is Listening to Him — Hard Drive TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — Lee Odden Masters Group Workshop on Influencer Marketing – Florida 2021 — Pubcon
• Lee Odden — 50 Best Blogging Quotes (from Top Bloggers) — Ryan Robinson
• Lee Odden — What’s Trending: The New SEO and the Case for Content Marketing — LinkedIn

Have you located your own top B2B marketing article from the past week of industry news? Please drop us a line in the comments below. Thank you for taking the time to join us for the TopRank Marketing B2B marketing news, and we hope that you will return next Friday for more of the week's most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.

The post B2B Marketing News: B2B Video Completion Rates, US Ad Spend Soars, Google’s New Starline 3D Chat, & What Makes A Brand Meaningful appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

From Finesse To Zest: 25 Powerful Qualities That Elevate Your B2B Marketing

Which qualities encompass the best that B2B marketing has to offer? Are there overlapping elements that bring success to both our professional and personal lives? How can you bring more of these qualities into your own marketing efforts? From a seemingly endless compilation of possible traits held by successful marketers, some naturally work their way to the forefront over time, yet aren’t often explored. To help answer these questions, let’s take a look at five powerful qualities that we can combine to drive not only the best B2B marketing experiences, but that we can also harness and learn from to make us better associates, business partners, and people. For each, we’ll also offer five ways you can add more of them to your own marketing — a total of 25 ways to add more determination, poise, kindness, zest, and finesse to your B2B marketing experiences.

1 — Marketing with Determination

Marketing with determination springs from a passionate will power — a sometimes fierce or all-encompassing resolve that may be personified by sisu, the Finnish art of inner strength. When it comes to this kind of determination, some say you either have it or you don’t, yet even the most driven B2B marketers can make a mindful effort to bring more of this passion to our work. Here are five ways to do so. To Add More Determination to Your Marketing:

• Visualize the efforts necessary to break through barriers
• Market as a marathon and not as a sprint
• Bring your passions into your marketing
• Focus on each of the short-term goals that will combine to long-term success
• Embrace multiple angles for showing your marketing vision

[bctt tweet="“Marketing with determination springs from a passionate will power — a sometimes fierce or all-encompassing resolve that may be personified by sisu, the Finnish art of inner strength.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]

2 — Marketing with Poise

Marketing with poise stems from a certain variety of level-headedness, bringing a calm and graceful presence for whatever work is at hand. Whether it’s managing teams of hundreds or thousands, or crafting any form of digital deliverables, marketing with poise raises the overall level of quality on any project. We can cultivate some of the aspects that comprise poise. Here are five ways to start the journey. To Add More Poise to Your Marketing:

• The calming elements of your personal life can also work wonders to steady your professional presence
• Practice the art of being humble and level-headed in the face of adversity
• Focus on enhancing the essence of a marketing effort that sets it apart from the competition
• Take comfort in the preparation you’ve done and the unique experience you bring to the marketing table
• Accept and learn from setbacks and move on with grace and dignity

[bctt tweet="“Marketing with poise stems from a certain variety of level-headedness, bringing a calm and graceful presence for whatever work is at hand.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]

3 — Marketing with Kindness

Marketing with kindness offers us the chance to empathize with differing viewpoints and methods, and to bring genuine compassion and concern to any situation we encounter in our busy daily lives as marketers. Whether through seemingly small gestures or mighty acts of warm sentiment and respect, marketing with kindness has a powerful effect on our lives. Through slight adjustments we can increase the amount of kindness we broadcast out into the world — here are just a few ways to start. To Add More Kindness to Your Marketing:

• Make a conscious effort to empathize in all your communication
• Ask yourself whether your actions would have the ring of truth to your own mother, grandmother, or even Mr. Rogers
• Remember that an initial meeting with a new client or colleague will often lead to partnerships or friendships that can last decades
• Recognize and address your weaknesses and shortcomings
• Find and follow the goodness in your marketing efforts

[bctt tweet="“Marketing with kindness offers us the chance to empathize with differing viewpoints and methods, and to bring genuine compassion and concern to any situation we encounter in our busy daily lives as marketers.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]

4 — Marketing with Zest

Marketing with zest adds that “wow” factor — the type that brings unbounded zeal and enthusiasm to all our daily interactions. Zest brings delight to all our journeys, and a certain joyful eagerness in whatever marketing adventure we may currently be working on. It can also be one of the most difficult qualities to find, however it can be nurtured. Here are five ways to bring some Z2Z — zest to zeal — into your B2B marketing. To Add More Zest to Your Marketing:

• Change up a marketing environment that’s grown stale by adding new sights, sounds, scents, and tactile surroundings that rejuvenate and restore joy in your professional adventures
• Bring more of your unique qualities and strong points to your marketing efforts
• If you now find yourself with hybrid or remote work options, embrace them to the fullest by trying new work environments
• Seek out potential collaborations with people you deeply admire
• Identify the areas of your marketing life present the biggest challenges, and map out ways to infuse each with a sense of delight

[bctt tweet="“Marketing with zest adds that 'wow' factor — the type that brings unbounded zeal and enthusiasm to all our daily interactions.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]

5 — Marketing with Finesse

Marketing with finesse enters the realm of the skillfully gentle touch. It's also a quality possessed by people who seem to have a subtle knack for understated polish in all of their communications, management, and creative endeavors. Marketing finesse shows a sophisticated understanding of the audience and an ability to smoothly pivot, when necessary. Encourage your own marketing finesse by considering the following five ideas. To Add More Finesse to Your Marketing:

• Don’t bring a brute-force tree shredder to trim delicate orchids ; use your experience to choose the right tool for the marketing job at hand
• Practice marketing diplomacy in your teamwork, whether internal or client-facing
• Be generous in sharing your skills and time
• Go the extra mile to show your gratitude
• Strive to mentor and teach the next generations of marketing professionals, and continue your own lifelong learning

[bctt tweet="“Marketing with finesse enters the realm of the skillfully gentle touch, held by people who seem to have a subtle knack for understated polish in all of their communications, management, and creative endeavors.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]

Beautiful & Bold B2B Marketing Go Hand In Hand

via GIPHY When we allow the powerful qualities of determination, poise, kindness, zest, and finesse to join hands and unite, truly beautiful B2B marketing experiences spring to life. Thanks for coming along on this introductory journey to better B2B marketing through heartfelt qualities we can all work to experience more of in our lives. Contact us today and find out why top brands from LinkedIn and Dell to SAP and Oracle have chosen TopRank Marketing to create award-winning B2B marketing.

The post From Finesse To Zest: 25 Powerful Qualities That Elevate Your B2B Marketing appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

What B2B Marketers Can Learn from Stand-Up Comedy

Stand-up comedians need to make a connection with their audience. It starts with getting attention, then stoking interest, developing a rapport, and ultimately provoking a reaction.  To do it right, you need empathy, knowledge of your audience, creativity...oh, and a spark that makes you unique. B2B marketers: Does any of the above sound familiar? I’ve been a professional marketer and an amateur comedian for over a decade, and it’s surprising how much the two inform each other.  Here are just a few lessons that B2B marketers can learn from standup.

Keep It Real

In the early 19th century, standup comedy depended on wordplay and absurdism. For example: “Take my wife...please!” or “The other night I shot an elephant in my pajamas… how he got into my pajamas, I’ll never know.”  As the art form of standup has evolved, however, personal observations with a unique point of view (more on that later) have become more popular. Here’s a classic bit from Ellen Degeneres as she dissects the minutiae of her life: For marketers, keeping it real means being honest and sincere with your audience. It could even mean not being afraid to show flaws or own up to mistakes. Look for ways to bring the audience behind the scenes to meet the people behind the brand.  I like the way Stacey Marx from AT&T Business brings her personal life into her content, as in this post, "Gold Medal Advice: SMB Lessons from a World-Class Coach." The personal touch elevates the content and makes it unique. 

Adjust to Your Audience

Telling a marketer to know their audience is like telling a comedian to… well… know their audience. It’s not a radical new technique; it’s part of the toolkit. At the same time, it’s easy to think of your own culture, background and thought processes as universal. That’s one of the reasons comedy can be so hard to translate.  One famous example is when Jimmy Carter told a joke to break the ice at a college in Japan. He was gratified when, after a brief translation from his interpreter, the crowd erupted in laughter! It wasn’t until later that the interpreter confessed that what he said was, “The president has told a funny story. Please laugh.” For marketers and comedians alike, the only way to truly get in your audience’s head is to do the research. Putting out the same message for audiences with different cultural backgrounds is a path fraught with peril.  This Jerry Seinfeld bit — a superbly clever American Express commercial — illustrates the point precisely: 

Alternate Storytelling with Quick Jabs

John Mulaney and Mitch Hedberg are two of my favorite comedians, and for wildly different reasons. John is the master at telling longer stories, taking a few minutes to set the scene, not rushing to a punchline. Here’s an example (with some strong language, be warned): On the other side of the spectrum, Mitch Hedberg is the undisputed master of the one-liner. “I don't have a girlfriend. But I do know a woman who'd be mad at me for saying that.” Or, slightly longer, “One time, this guy handed me a picture, he said ‘Here's a picture of me when I was younger.’ Every picture is of you when you were younger! ‘Here's a picture of me when I'm older.’ Woah, lemme see that camera.” Just as there’s room in comedy for the Mulaneys and Hedbergs, there’s room in marketing for both long-form narratives and short, punchy taglines. Invest the same energy into each one, and you’ll resonate with a wider audience.

Develop a Unique Voice

In the '80s, there was a brief stand-up fad of weird, extreme voices. For example… Thankfully, it was a short-lived trend, but it does illustrate how memorable a unique voice can be. Anyone who has heard Bobcat Goldthwait, Gilbert Gottfried, Judy Tenuta or Sam Kinison will never mistake them for someone else. On the flip side, the junkyard of comedy is strewn with the careers of bland comedians who were indistinguishable from each other. In marketing, it’s easy to slide into a kind of homogeneous, safe, “professional-sounding” corporate speak. Don’t make waves, use — I mean, utilize — the right jargon, and you can avoid offending anyone. The problem is, you’re also unlikely to avoid affecting anyone, too. Make your brand voice personable, lively and unique, and you will have something no competitor can copy.

Serious Business Can Be Funny

All of the above can help you as a marketer address, connect with, and affect your audience. But there’s one other thing that comedians do that marketers should do more often: Be funny. There’s plenty of room in B2B marketing for actual comedy, and those who do it well tend to be rewarded. And hey, if Intel can do it, so can you. Want more B2B marketing tips? Check out our report on the State of B2B Influencer Marketing.

The post What B2B Marketers Can Learn from Stand-Up Comedy appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

How B2B Marketers Can Build a Community of Influence with Content

One of the most compelling scenarios for B2B marketers to build content and community is through a combination user generated content (UGC) and strategic content collaborations. To do this, many B2B brands will initiate ongoing social media content and engagement programs to stimulate dialog with customers, community and influencers to build essential relationships. With B2B marketing shifting to digital first, there is more demand for content than ever, but there are also resource challenges with the need to continuously create new content. At the same time traditional social media and content marketing can have trust issues if the brand isn’t engaging with the community or the right influencers on a regular basis. A content marketing focused solution that solves for both of those challenges that also helps build community and influence for B2B brands can be found through participation marketing - aka, user generated content in the form of content collaborations with external influencers, brand community and customers. As brands participate in social communities, asking and answering questions, engaging customers and sharing content, numerous opportunities exist to involve the community with content creation. Crowdsourcing content with the different audiences of a brand helps create new, meaningful content as well as providing an opportunity to use the act of content collaboration as a way to build relationships, community and influence. When you make a relevant ask to contribute content and then use the resulting content to create mutual credibility and exposure for the contributors, the experience can drive deeper engagement and organic advocacy amongst the influential voices your customers trust. Like all B2B marketing tactics, there are pros and cons for a crowdsourced approach to content. Some of the pros include:

• User generated content is trusted
• Contributors have an interest in helping promote the content
• UGC provides more content for search engines
• UGC provides more information sources for prospects & customers
• UGC publishing allows for critical feedback about products and services
• UGC publishing provides tools for brand evangelists
• UGC facilitates brand conversations within the marketplace

Of course there are a few cons too:

• Resources are needed for oversight and moderation
• Who owns the content?
• Where is the content published?
• What is the value exchange for contributors? If paid, it could hurt content credibility

The good news is that most of the cons can be mitigated with good communications, oversight and process. From a practical application standpoint, here are a few examples how content can be crowdsourced and repurposed 1. Interviews. Asking other people questions is one of the most basic ways to crowdsource content. There are a number of ways to implement such an approach according to the desired outcome. Asking the community for suggestions of who to interview and what questions to ask is a great way to involve people in the process. Interviewing industry thought leaders provides the brand’s audience with unique content and creates a positive association between the “brandividual” and the company. Be sure to empathize with thought leaders and their busy schedules. It will often be far more effective to ask one question of ten famous people than ten questions of one person. When you do that, you’ve made it easy for each person to answer and have also multiplied the number of potential influencers that will help promote the finished product. 2. Social Q & A – Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks can provide very useful platforms to present B2B focused questions and attract answers from a variety of people for use in your content project. Of course, your intent needs to be clear and permission for reuse should be obtained before republishing. Those familiar with the Q & A communities can word questions to attract replies from specific influentials who might not otherwise respond to a content participation pitch via email. 3. Contests Resulting in Content – Examples of contests where consumers produce their own videos or share images abound on the social web. Community members or influencers could be invited to create videos, blog posts or other media as a way to "enter" the contest run by a B2B brand. Entries hosted on the respective participant publishing channels would link back to the contest home and then the top 10 entries could be compiled into a highlight video or ebook according to the format used. 4. Comment Feedback Loop – One of the most meaningful ways for a community to engage with a brand is through comments made on social networks about a brand, in reaction to brand content or topics of mutual interest. Soliciting the community of readers to participate in a dialog by commenting can result in content that is more engaging and specific to what the audience is interested in. Brands can then recognize commenters by drawing attention to the “best of” comments in separate blog or social media post, or as we do it at our agency, on our TopRank Marketing Newsletter. 5. Print or eBook Authoring by Community – Reaching out to industry experts to share their insights as part of a larger project can be a very effective method for crowdsourcing content. Author Michael Miller did this with “Online Marketing Heroes” of which I was a part many years ago. He interviewed 25 successful marketers and the result of those interviews became a print book. Another commonly used format of crowdsourcing ebook content involves creating an outline for an ebook with portions like the premise, key points and conclusion reserved for the brand point of view and allocating specific sections for contributions for subject matter experts - industry influencers, customers, and key opinion leaders. Through progressive content collaboration experiences that result in content that is simultaneously useful to customers and great visibility for contributors, B2B brands can develop a community of influence that helps

• Relieve some of the pressure of ongoing content creation
• Creates content that is trusted and hyper relevant to audiences
• Builds credibility for the brand by association with the influencers who contributed
• Develops mutually valuable relationships with trusted voices in the industry
• Inspire organic brand advocacy on the topics engaged

While there are many upsides when done well, it's important to know that it's possible to over rely on a community for content creation too, so don’t overdo it. Also, genuine recognition inspires better work and can motivate participants to share future crowdsourced content more enthusiastically than something that is more transactional. As you look at the social networks, communities, prospects, customers and influencers that make up the ecosystem of information sources that are important to your brand, think about the gaps of information that exist in your industry that could be filled with user and influencer generated content. Looking beyond the fundamental benefit of content creation for marketing, even greater opportunities exist when the content collaboration experience helps build genuine relationships with community and industry voices that your customers trust.

The post How B2B Marketers Can Build a Community of Influence with Content appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

B2B Marketing News: Top B2B Paint Points, Influencer Types Survey, Zoom’s New Events Platform, & The KPIs That Matter

B2B Marketer Pain Points, Performance, and Priorities for the Year Ahead: B2B Marketing Monitor 54 percent of B2B brands face difficulty connecting with customers on the emotional level needed to increase brand engagement, while only 22 percent of B2B enterprises say they excel when it comes to customer experience (CX) — two of several findings of interest to digital marketers in recently-released survey data. MarketingProfs Micro Influencers Still À La Mode in 2021 From micro and macro to mega, non-paid, affiliate and celebrity, the influencer types that enterprise marketers prefer working with runs the gamut, however the overwhelming majority — some 90 percent — want to work with micro-influencers who have between five and 100,000 followers, up from 77 percent in 2020, according to newly-released study data. [Survey]MarketingCharts ANA Releases 'KPIs That Matter,' Finds The Most Important Ones Aren't Always The Most Used Cost per mille (CPM), cost per click (CPC) and unique reach are the top three key performance indicators (KPIs) marketers use, while those found to be the most important include return on investment (ROI), exposed return on advertising spend (ROAS) and brand safety metrics, according to recently-released survey data from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). MediaPost Post-IDFA Alliance finds iOS 14.5 triggered up to 21% growth in Android ad spending Early figures have shown that between 63.5 and 83.2 percent of Apple mobile users have chosen not to be tracked for advertising, which has led to a 21 percent increase in ad spending for rival mobile operating system Android, according to recently-released mobile marketing report data. VentureBeat Social Users Demand Relevance In Advertising, Study Finds Some 59 percent of Twitter users say they remember those in-feed ads which are contextually relevant to the content surrounding them, with 46 percent preferring in-feed ads to open web alternatives — two of several findings of interest to online marketers in newly-released survey data. MediaPost How the pandemic changed worldwide ad spending Digital advertising will for the first time account for more than 60 percent of overall global ad spending, and is expected to court the 70 percent mark by 2025, according to recently-released forecast data, also showing 2021 ad spending that is predicted to be up 20.4 percent from 2020 levels. eMarketer LinkedIn Shares New Insights Into Evolving Market Shifts as a Result of COVID-19 Some 70 percent of buyers want to continue to work remotely at least half of the time, while 67 percent of sales managers have encountered unforeseen difficulties maximizing remote team efficiency — two of numerous findings of interest to digital marketers in recently released report data. Social Media Today Zoom announces all-in-one events platform Zoom has announced a summer release of its Zoom Events virtual experiences platform, which will offer an array of features for ticketed virtual events, as the firm looks to serve the ongoing virtual event market. 80 percent of U.S. users said that they expect to have virtual experiences available even when in-person options are offered, according to Zoom survey data. MarTech YouTube Previews Upcoming Improvements for YouTube Studio, Including Auto-Generated Title Suggestions Google's YouTube video platform has shared previews of forthcoming feature additions to its Creator Studio, including easier Google Drive integration, mobile publishing improvements, and multiple upload templates, the video firm recently announced. Social Media Today Google Announces New Features for App Advertisers Google has shared information about several new features aimed at mobile app advertisers, including in-app events from within Google Analytics, easier deep-linking, and new data-driven attribution (DDA) information, the search giant recently announced. Search Engine Journal ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: A lighthearted look at “the NFT bandwagon” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist Prabhakar Raghavan Isn’t CEO of Google—He Just Runs the Place — Wired TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — What’s Trending: The New SEO and the Case for Content Marketing — LinkedIn
• LinkedIn — 4 ways B2B marketers can successfully combine brand and purpose — Ad Age
• Lee Odden — Pubcon Masters Group Workshops and Trainings Florida 2021 — Pubcon

Have you come across your own top B2B marketing story from the past week of industry news? Please let us know in the comments below. Thanks for taking the time to join us for the TopRank Marketing B2B marketing news, and we hope that you'll return again next Friday for more of the week's most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.

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10 Ways to Drive Revenue through Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi

The post 10 Ways to Drive Revenue through Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Steady As She Goes: Why Consistency Builds Better Long-Term B2B Marketing

How can B2B marketers build better and more sustainable long-term marketing efforts? 88 percent of global marketers said that achieving brand consistency was crucial, in dentsu international’s recent whitepaper survey, “2021: The year of Brand Consistency, Efficiency and Agility.” Consistency is an element that’s sometimes overlooked in B2B marketing, however, so we wanted to explore some of the ways that top marketers are incorporating consistency into their efforts. Let’s get started and dig in with five ways that consistency creates better long-term B2B marketing.

Consistency Case #1 — Content Creation Persistence

For digital futurist and keynote speaker Brian Fanzo, consistency is everything when it comes to successful content creation. “Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. When it comes to content creation and growing within the #CreatorEconomy, consistency is everything,” Fanzo recently noted. Beyond content, Fanzo sees consistency as key in many important areas of our professional lives, and one that can also be a personal challenge. “Consistency is the key to almost every aspect of marketing and entrepreneurship. Consistency is also a massive struggle for those of us with #ADHD,” he shared. “Surround yourself [with people] who are good at being consistent and empower them by being transparent with your need to be nudged,” Fanzo also suggested. [bctt tweet="“Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. When it comes to content creation and growing within the #CreatorEconomy, consistency is everything.” — Brian Fanzo @iSocialFanz" username="toprank"]

Consistency Case #2 — Get Data Strategies on Track

As with content, marketers must also ensure that the ever-growing amount of data we collect is both relevant and consistent. “The most common reason AI and ML fail in the marketing sector is that there’s little consistency to the data across all campaigns and strategies,” Louis Columbus, principal at Dassault Systèmes, recently observed in “Is poor data quality undermining your marketing AI?” Indeed, numerous surveys published over the past year indicate that a leading pain point for marketers is data inconsistency. 36 percent of B2B marketers say that having messy data is a top marketing performance measurement challenge, as we shared in the TopRank Marketing weekly B2B marketing news. [bctt tweet="“The most common reason AI and ML fail in the marketing sector is that there’s little consistency to the data across all campaigns and strategies.” — Louis Columbus @LouisColumbus" username="toprank"]

Consistency Case #3 — Messaging That’s on the Same Page

Sean Crowley, vice president of portfolio marketing at Dun & Bradstreet, recognizes the importance of delivering consistency in messaging no matter which digital channel is being used. “When you look at being able to bring people together, it’s about creating a common message, a common purpose, and a common effort with everything that you do and how you go to market,” Crowley told us. “Ensure that you have consistency of messaging to a target persona and target audience, regardless of what channel they’re choosing to interact with you on,” Crowley added. Explore more with Sean in our full video interview,  “Break Free B2B Marketing: Sean Crowley of Dun & Bradstreet on Cracking the Alignment Code.” [bctt tweet="“Ensure that you have consistency of messaging to a target persona and target audience, regardless of what channel they’re choosing to interact with you on.” — Sean Crowley @seantcrowley" username="toprank"]

Consistency Case #4 — Solid Conversion Methodology

For Sky Cassidy, CEO of MountainTop Data, creating repeatable efforts is a key element over time — and one that certain marketers struggle to maintain. “Some marketers have these flashes of brilliance but they’re not consistent with it, they don’t have a patented, repeatable methodology,” Cassidy noted. “Consistency wins,” he explained recently for MarTech Series. [bctt tweet="“Some marketers have these flashes of brilliance but they’re not consistent with it, they don’t have a patented, repeatable methodology. Consistency wins.” — Sky Cassidy @mountaintopdata" username="toprank"]

Consistency Case #5 — Well-Aligned SEO Signals

Aleyda Solis, international SEO consultant and the founder of Orainti, sees consistency as a strength that even smaller brands can use to drive search strategy. “Despite how competitive some sectors are, there’s still a place for new players that execute fast and consistently a well-aligned SEO strategy,” Solis noted. “The small fast and consistent player will end up eating the big slow and inconsistent one in the long run. The big brand advantage has limits,” Solis explained. When it comes to building a successful SEO strategy, consistency also plays an important part. “Identify potential cannibalization issues we might have with many different pages of the same type that could be mapped with the same queries, allowing us to consolidate/clean and better align our Web structure for a more consistent experience and better chances to rank, and give a better experience with our pages,” Solis recently urged, in her “The Keywords Mapping Cheatsheet For Different Types of Sites.” [bctt tweet="“The small fast and consistent player will end up eating the big slow and inconsistent one in the long run.” — Aleyda Solis @aleyda" username="toprank"]

Keep Steady On The High Seas of B2B Marketing

via GIPHY Keeping steady even in the high seas frequently encountered in B2B marketing is possible for marketers who implement the ideas and insights outlined here by Brian, Louis, Sean, Sky, and Aleyda. To learn more about how consistent and always-on efforts can help build successful B2B marketing campaigns, check out these additional resources we’ve published on the subject:

• Inside Influence 2: Garnor Morantes from LinkedIn on the Power of Always-On Influence
• How to Elevate B2B Marketing with Always-On Influence
• Break Free B2B Marketing: Sarah Barnes-Humphrey of Shipz and The Art of Consistent Change
• How To Move From A Pilot B2B Influencer Marketing Program to Always-On Success
• The Content Marketing Juggling Act: How to Consistently Create Quality, Engaging Content

Consistent B2B marketing can take considerable time and effort, which is why many top brands choose to work with an award-winning digital marketing agency like TopRank Marketing. Contact us today and let us know how we can help, as we’ve done for businesses ranging from LinkedIn, Dell and 3M to Adobe, Oracle, monday.com and others.

The post Steady As She Goes: Why Consistency Builds Better Long-Term B2B Marketing appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Content Marketing Optimization Audits – Find Where SEO Can Boost Content Marketing Success

SEO and content marketing intersect in more ways than optimizing web pages with keywords. Answering the question, “How does SEO and content marketing strategy interact?” starts with understanding customers, behaviors and preferences for information discovery, consumption and sharing. Knowing what customers care about and how those concerns and interests manifest as search keywords and social topics folds very well into the keyword research practiced by professional SEOs. Keyword Glossaries and Editorial Plans can be valuable tools for marketers to aid in creating relevant content that is inherently optimized for customers and target audiences alike. Specific keyword optimization is appropriate as well, but the end content product becomes much easier to find, consume and share if an understanding of customer questions is translated into topics and keywords from the start. This is the core of how brands can become the best answer for what customers are looking for. The role of a content plan is to outlines content types, topics and the keywords they’re optimized for. Content plans also show where and if the content will be re-published and re-purposed, plus which channels of distribution will be used to promote the content. Search engine optimization also applies to social media content that emphasizes popular and relevant social topics vs. search keywords. Planning, creating, optimizing, promoting and engaging with content on topics that customers and target audiences care about is where SEO has evolved as Content Marketing Optimization. SEO expertise, which also includes knowledge of how search engines crawl and index websites, content management systems, the impact of how websites are coded and organized, provides a powerful ally to Content Marketers when goals and objectives are in alignment. To understand where SEO can create performance optimization opportunities for content marketers, it's important to evaluate the current situation and uncover the gaps that represent opportunities for improvement through a series of audits.

5 Fundamental SEO Research and Audit Reports

Keyword Research - Customers often speak a different language when it comes to using search engines to find answers or solutions. So, it’s important to identify what phrases represent the mix of reasons for using a search engine to find solutions like those offered by your company. Of course, people search for more reasons than to buy products and services, so keyword research can provide essential insight into the demand for topics that customers might have across the entire journey from awareness of a problem, to consideration of options to choosing specific solutions. A Keyword Research audit will asses your website, competitors, consumers, web analytics and keyword research tools to identify, organize and manage your target search keyword phrases. From the audit, you can then discover what keywords will best motivate customer actions from top of mind consideration to leads and sales. Content Audit - Once target keyword phrases and topics have been identified, a comparison with current website content is made to determine optimization opportunities as well as to recommend new content creation. It's pretty tough to be found in search for topics that do not exist on your website. In competitive categories, a website must be the best resource for a topic to stand out. Content optimization takes inventory of all content and digital assets that could be a potential entry point via search and recommends SEO copywriting tactics to showcase those pages as the best answer. Technical SEO Audit - If search engines have difficulty with finding, crawling and indexing your content then it may put your site at a disadvantage. Search engines are far from perfect, so the more website owners and marketers can do to help the engines do their job, the more advantage we can create for desired visibility in search. From core web vitals and performance of individual pages to structured data, xml sitemaps, duplicate content, mobile friendliness and many other aspects of how web page content is delivered to search engine bots when they crawl, a technical SEO audit will reveal a prioritized list of fixes that can result in both better search engine visibility and a better experience for your customers. Inbound and Internal Linking Audit - Links help search engines and customers alike find your content. Links from one page to another serve as a signal that can be factored by search engines as they decide the best answers to display in the search results. A Link Audit identifies the quantity and quality of links from web sources pointing to your content. A comparison with top performing websites in your industry and keyword category can reveal numerous opportunities to attract more high quality links to your content.  Additionally, the site architecture of your website and how pages link to each other using anchor text is important for both search engines and user experience. Social Media Audit - The influence of social media on search engine visibility may be more indirect due to the use of nofollow in links but the inclusion of social content within search results represents an opportunity for brands to earn substantial real estate in search results beyond the brand domain name. Assessing a brand’s social presence, engagement and distribution through social channels is as much an audit with SEO implications as it is for social media marketing. Understanding a brand’s social authority and content distribution can lead to a much improved approach with benefits to customers as well as to the business. If there’s a market demand through search for solutions offered by a company, then search engine optimization solutions are essential for maximizing that opportunity. But SEO doesn't work on it's own. Content is the reason search engines were created and it is content that represents the best optimization opportunity that impact discovery, consumption and action by customers. Optimizing for better search visibility goes beyond driving sales. People use search engines to find the best resources in a variety of ways that benefit businesses. For companies that expect to gain new business, protect their online reputation, grow social networks, attract new employees and provide a great user experience with online customer support, then SEO is an essential tool in the content marketing mix.

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B2B Marketing News: Optimizing CX Study, AI Disrupts B2B Sales, B2B Influencer Marketing on the Rise

The post B2B Marketing News: Optimizing CX Study, AI Disrupts B2B Sales, B2B Influencer Marketing on the Rise appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.