B2B Marketing News: Instagram Stories Benchmark Report, Creator Collaboration Adds Value, LinkedIn Offers Gen Z Insight, & Twitter’s New Annual Marketing Calendar

LinkedIn is launching interactive, Clubhouse-style audio events this month in beta; a video version will come this spring Microsoft's LinkedIn will launch a new live virtual events platform, beginning with audio-only functionality, followed in time by an array of video features for the flexible hosting and management of online events, adding to the platform's creator features, LinkedIn (client) recently announced. TechCrunch Social Media Forecast to Overtake TV in Ad Spend This Year A robust 14.8 percent annual growth rate for social media advertising spending over the 2021 through 2024 period tops online video’s 14 percent and paid search’s 9.8 percent, according to newly-released global ad spending growth rate forecast data. MarketingCharts 2022 Instagram Stories Benchmark Report Instagram Stories are being utilized more than ever by brands on the social media platform, according to recently-released report data of interest to digital marketers from Rival IQ, based on an analysis of more than 60,000 Instagram Stories. Rival IQ User-Generated Content Represents 39% of Time Spent With Media: Study Digital user-generated content (UGC) has come close to surpassing traditional media consumption formats among U.S. consumers, according to newly-released survey data showing that video format UGC in particular has seen growth, especially among younger demographic groups. Variety [bctt tweet="“Utilize UGC to show how you take customer content and act on it to improve your offering. This is a genius way to show that customer feedback is important to your brand and that it can actually help drive change.” — @CharlieTerenzio" username="toprank"] Twitter Publishes 2022 Major Events Calendar to Assist with Your Marketing Plans Twitter has published the 2022 version of its annual event calendar for social media marketers, featuring both traditional and “hashtag holidays” in a handy format, the firm recently announced. Twitter’s latest offering for marketers has included key dates for the U.S. and 12 other regional calendars. Social Media Today Instagram Explains How the Return of the Chronological Feed Will Work Facebook's Instagram has initiated testing upcoming changes to how its newsfeed works, including the return and expansion of a chronological feed — a change that would allow users to select from three separate feed-viewing options, Instagram recently announced. PetaPixel Biggest 2022 Ad Issues: Integrated Media Planning/Buying, measurement 60 percent of media executives have said that integrated media improvements are needed for better advertising impact in 2022, with improved execution and better measurement of non-cookie methods also coming up among the list of most impactful issues in the coming year, according to newly-released survey data of interest to online marketers. MediaPost How to Stand Out to Gen Z on LinkedIn [Infographic] 43 percent of Gen Z users of LinkedIn have said that brands should make them feel valued, with 57 percent of the demographic looking for brands that are reliable, while 58 percent noted that they would be willing to pay more for a familiar brand — three of numerous insights of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-released infographic report data from LinkedIn (client). MarketingProfs Microsoft Advertising's Billion-Person Milestone Microsoft Advertising has surpassed the billion person benchmark, a new milestone comprised of overlapping audiences, the firm recently announced, which could help drive more B2B marketers to advertise with the Microsoft ad platform. MediaPost TikTok Shares New Data on the Value of Collaborating with Creators on Ad Campaigns Users of TikTok recorded some 27 percent greater ad recall for co-created branded content on the platform, compared to only 19 percent for ads that where no creator collaboration took place — two of several statistics of interest to digital marketers seeking to gain reach on TikTok, according to newly-released report data from the firm. Social Media Today ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: A lighthearted look at the “marketing b.s. detector” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist Man Horrified After Genealogy Test Confirms He Has No Past — The Onion TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• LinkedIn — B2B brands must embrace digital tools to thrive in ‘the great reshuffle’ — The Drum
• Nick Nelson — What’s Trending: New Year, New Priorities — LinkedIn (client)
• Lee Odden — 14 Stats That Show It’s Past Time for Brands to Ditch the PDF — Nxtbook Media
• Lee Odden — 15 of the Best Marketing Twitter Bios — John Lincoln

Have you uncovered your own favorite B2B marketing news for the week? Please drop us a line in the comments below. Thank you for taking the time to join us for this week's TopRank Marketing B2B marketing news, and we hope that you will return again next Friday for another look at the most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page, or at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.

The post B2B Marketing News: Instagram Stories Benchmark Report, Creator Collaboration Adds Value, LinkedIn Offers Gen Z Insight, & Twitter’s New Annual Marketing Calendar appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

5 Timely B2B Marketing Tips I’ve Learned From 15 Years As A Remote Worker

With hybrid and remote work here to stay and digital-first marketing on the rise, how can B2B marketers make the most of these important shifts? Although I’ve written about remote work before, in pieces including “Remote Communication Opportunities For B2B Marketers,” “Day 4,777: Remote Work Tips From 13+ Years As A Distance Marketer,” and “Hybrid & Remote Work Trends That Will Alter The Future Of B2B Marketing,” the permanent changes to where and how we work have significant implications that will affect B2B marketers forever, so it’s time to reassess. Let’s take a close look at five ways B2B marketers can make the most from remote and hybrid work and digital-first brand interactions, from the perspective of someone who’s been working entirely remotely for 15 years, and from several top voices on the future of work.

1 — Adjust To The Permanent Shift In How We Work

As I enter my thirty-eighth year working online, I’ve worked remotely for 5,409 days, and spent close to 40 percent of my career as a remote worker. What’s changed for us all since the pandemic has reminded me of the shifts in how we communicate that I saw when I first began operating a computer bulletin board system (BBS) on a Commodore 64 computer and a 300-baud modem. Back in 1984, relatively few people owned a home computer — and even fewer also knew what a modem or online communications were. The personal computer revolution that began in the 1970s took off like wildfire in the 1980s. Online communication was a bit slower to evolve into the mainstream, however it surely did, especially once Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented and activated his World Wide Web technology, as I explored in "Classic Marketing Insights to Celebrate the Internet’s 50th Birthday." Just as there was frustration, backlash, and confusion back then adjusting to interacting online, so too has the pandemic’s forced shift to remote and hybrid work caused global upheaval and uncertainty.

2 — Make Digital-First The New Norm

Remote and hybrid workers have not only had to adjust to the significant changes in where they work, but they’re also facing the fact of ever-more digital interactions when it comes to B2B marketing. For better or worse, the world has become a digital-first environment for most of us, which means that B2B marketers are looking to make the most of every social media, email, and mobile messaging interaction with their audiences. Each generation of B2B marketers, as well as their clients and the customers of their brands, will have had the advantage of coming of age with greater technological opportunities and ever-greater digital immersion. Our own senior content marketing manager Joshua Nite recently took a look at “Who Is the New B2B Buyer and How Do You Connect with Them?” — an article that offers five helpful ways to better understand and connect with the Millennials and Gen Zs entering the B2B workforce. [bctt tweet="“If someone can interact with the brand across multiple channels with a single seamless experience, they are more likely to choose your brand at decision-making time.” — Joshua Nite @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]

3 — Elevate With Handy Remote & Hybrid Work Tips

Here are some of the tips I’ve gathered from 15 years as a remote worker, in no particular order.

• Use Powerful & Abundant Remote Collaboration Tools. Powerful online collaboration platforms such as those offered by Slack, our client monday.com, and many others provide the type of robust remote communication that has seen dramatically-increased use since the pandemic began.
• Create your own physical workspace. Whether it’s a dedicated room in your home where you’ll be doing the bulk of your work, a co-working space in another location, or a full-on private spot in an office building as I’ve chosen, having a physical place that you can leave at the end of the workday is an ideal way to separate your personal and professional life.
• Build a regular schedule into your remote workday — one that pulls some of the best elements from your previous office location — in order to bring a similar sense of organization to your remote work.
• Learn to savor the advantages of working remotely, especially those from working at home. Especially if your remote work situation isn’t a permanent one, take time to appreciate the little things that working remotely provides, whether it’s eating lunch with your partner or children, listening to music as loud as you want to, taking a lunchtime walk in a new area, or enjoying extra time saved from not having a lengthy work commute.
• Minimize distractions as much as possible, so that you can use remote work to find newfound focus on your projects. If working from home, let the people in your home know when you’ll be working, and encourage them to connect with you only during set times such as over lunch or breaks.
• If your remote work situation is more long-term, learn to make your laptop your office. If you have freedom in the locations you work from, expand your work world to include working in different spots in your city, state, country, or even internationally. A second external monitor can also be very helpful for many remote marketers, and some also will use high-definition TVs as a second or third laptop monitor.
• Implement Remote-Friendly Tech Gadgets. As with a traditional business office, remote workers should set up the technology hardware necessary for doing your best work, whether it’s a second, third, or fourth monitor, a WiFi signal extender, or Zoom-friendly cameras, microphones, and ring lights.
• Get Closer To Your Projects Than Ever Through Remote Work. A properly set up remote work environment can provide a positive and distraction-free place to focus intensely on your projects, and research continues to emerge showing that this is a very real advantage of working outside of a traditional office environment.

4 — Excel With Always-On Digital Engagement

Going hand-in-hand with digital-first marketing is another shift B2B marketers have seen — the growing popularity of always-on marketing, which allows brands to be everywhere their audiences are anytime. In a digital world that’s never all sleeping at once, brands have turned to always-on marketing programs to never miss an opportunity to answer the questions their customers are asking, whether it’s in the form of social media monitoring and interaction, artificial intelligence (AI)-infused chatbots, the rising realm of so-called metaverse content, or more traditional methods. You can learn more about how always-on digital engagement can play a key role in your B2B marketing efforts in the following articles we've published:

• How to Elevate Post Pandemic B2B Marketing with Always-On Influence
• Inside Influence 2: Garnor Morantes from LinkedIn on the Power of Always-On Influence
• How To Move From A Pilot B2B Influencer Marketing Program to Always-On Success

[bctt tweet="“Always-on thought leadership and influence are more important now than ever because the customer never turns off.” — Brian Solis @BrianSolis" username="toprank"]

5 — Prepare For The Future of Marketing Work

What will hybrid and remote work look like in ten years, 100 years, or a millennium from 2022? While there’s no way to predict with certainty, there are some technologies that will form the framework of what lies on the far distance horizon, including:

• Ever-faster computing power
• Ever-greater information storage capabilities
• Ever-speedier transfer of data between devices
• Ever-smarter computer programs and derivative algorithms

B2B marketers that are mindful of these digital backbone elements in their efforts, and who take the time to look ahead and carefully examine how to best incorporate advances in each of these areas, are likely to be the ones that will see the greatest long-term success. One subject matter expert on the future of remote and hybrid work is Liam McIvor Martin, co-founder of Time Doctor and Staff.com. Our own senior content marketing manager Nick Nelson spoke with Liam about the future of work, in “Break Free B2B Marketing: Liam McIvor Martin of Time Doctor on The Revolutionary Power of Remote Work.” [bctt tweet="“It’s a very interesting time for the history of work, not even just the history of remote work. I think fundamentally work is going to change, and it’s never going back to the way it was before.” — Liam McIvor Martin @liamremote" username="toprank"]

Caffeinate Your 2022 B2B Marketing Efforts

via GIPHY Excelling in B2B marketing given all these changes can be a daunting proposition. However, if we adjust to the permanent shifts in how we work, make digital-first our new norm, implement our remote and hybrid work tips, and elevate with always-on digital engagement, we'll be well-prepared for the future of marketing work, hot coffee or not. We hope you've found our look at timely marketing tips for remote and hybrid work helpful, and that you'll incorporate some of the suggestions we've explored into your own 2022 B2B marketing efforts. No matter how well you’re able to caffeinate and create digital content in 2022, crafting award-winning B2B marketing takes considerable time and effort, which is why an increasing number of firms are choosing to work with a top digital marketing agency such as TopRank Marketing. Reach out to us today to learn how we can help, as we’ve done for over 20 years for businesses ranging from LinkedIn, Dell and 3M to Adobe, Oracle, monday.com and others.

The post 5 Timely B2B Marketing Tips I’ve Learned From 15 Years As A Remote Worker appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Who Is the New B2B Buyer and How Do You Connect with Them?

We all know that Millennials are out-of-control college kids doing shots on Spring Break. And Gen Z are the 10-year-olds currently being raised by TikTok, right?  Hold onto your hats: The youngest Millennials are in their late-twenties. The oldest Gen Zs are 25 — that means they’re out of school and in the workforce. These two demographics are the fastest-growing cohort of B2B buyers.  And they don’t think like Boomers or Gen Xers. So how do B2B marketers reach these mysterious digital natives? Here are a few pointers.

How to Connect with the New B2B Buyer

You don’t need the latest slang to speak authentically to younger audiences (though I find the new slang totes yeet). Just keep in mind these preferences.

1 — Omnichannel or Bust

Digital natives grew up with the Internet and Gen Z grew up with social media. They’re used to having the answer to any question at their fingertips. They’re also accustomed to multi-threaded conversations: For example, they can start with a social media direct message, continue in text, and end with a quick call. If the only way to interact with your brand is on a phone call, you might as well insist people use semaphore. Here’s how dramatically the landscape has changed: In 2016, the average B2B buyer used five different channels to interact with suppliers. In 2021, the average was ten channels.  But it’s not just about how many channels you’re on; it’s the experience you provide across channels. Omnichannel means that instead of thinking in terms of channels (ie, Facebook, SMS, chatbot, voice), you think in terms of a single conversation. Every person who interacts with a buyer on behalf of your brand should have access to the entire conversation history. If someone can interact with the brand across multiple channels with a single seamless experience, they are more likely to choose your brand at decision-making time. That’s especially true for younger demographics, but it also applies across the board. [bctt tweet="“If someone can interact with the brand across multiple channels with a single seamless experience, they are more likely to choose your brand at decision-making time.” — Joshua Nite @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]

2 — Multimedia Is Mandatory

In the last few years, B2B marketers have finally pulled away from the static white paper or downloadable eBook as their primary content focus. While these old standbys still have a place in the marketing mix, top-of-funnel content must be more engaging to earn attention. Video, audio, motion graphics and interactivity all help your brand’s story to come to life for your buyer. In a way, it’s an “omnimedia” approach; Gen Z and Millennials are used to seeing all different types of media in their social feeds. They don’t think twice about, say, a video embedded in a text document — it’s the expected experience. For inspiration: Our client Prophix wanted a futuristic-feeling asset to promote the idea of AI in Finance. The end project includes animation, video, and an interactive audio feature.

3 — Sincerity Is the New Snark

Ironic detachment hit its peak in the 1990s. From Friends and Seinfeld to Wayne and Garth, it was all about delivering maximum sarcasm with minimal emotional investment. The Gen X motto — if we committed to something as uncool as a motto — would have been, “Oh well, whatever, never mind.” If you’re a product of the Age of Detachment, it’s time to re-engage. Caring is cool again — feeling emotions, talking about them, supporting other people and lifting them up, the whole package. Think more Ted Lasso and less Chandler Bing. In short, digital natives want to see the people behind your brand. They want to know your brand’s values and purpose, and they want to see those values in action. If your brand is too stand-offish, it won’t read as professional; it will seem impersonal.

4 — Let Down Your Gates

The conventional wisdom used to be that any substantial asset should be behind a gate. Give away a few tidbits, a blog post or two, but keep the really valuable stuff behind a lead gen form. Give away the trailer and sell the movie. That approach doesn’t fly with Gen Z and young Millennials, for one simple reason: They already have unlimited access to an enormous amount of content on any subject imaginable. The odds are slim that any brand’s new eBook would be novel and useful enough to earn a form fill. Our agency has found consistent success by giving away the good stuff and gating an add-on. For example, client Mitel has this beautiful interactive asset that they offer without a gate: The Future Now of Work. One added benefit is that the influencers featured (more on that later) are more likely to share an ungated asset, too. Consider making your best content as easy to access as possible. For your lead gen forms, offer a download like a checklist, template or other useful tool.

5 — Find the True Influencers

To reach younger people with influencer content, you need to go back to the original meaning of “influence.” It’s not about who has the biggest following or the most retweets — it’s who actually inspires their followers to take action. The career “influencer” with a million followers may look enticing, but the YouTuber with just 10,000 passionate subscribers is a better bet. Look past the numbers and look at who is actively engaging with their audience, building community and trust in their thought leadership.  Even better, look for influential people who are passionate about the subject you want to cover, people who share your brand’s values and point of view. Instead of paying them to endorse a product, invite them to co-create content with the brand. The end result is bound to be more engaging, more useful, and something an influencer will be excited to promote.

The Kids Are Alright

Look, I get it: It’s still weird to me that people can be born in the 90s. Now, suddenly the 2000s kids are hitting the workforce. It’s tempting to shake my cane and demand that they get off my lawn. As a marketer, however, I’m glad to see them. The digital natives aren’t going to settle for boring, overly promotional, or insincere content. It’s going to be a challenge to make sure our marketing meets and exceeds their expectations. But it’s a challenge that will ultimately make our marketing better for everyone — even cynical Gen Xers like me. Subscribe to the blog for more upcoming trends in B2B marketing.

The post Who Is the New B2B Buyer and How Do You Connect with Them? appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Three of the Biggest Opportunities to Elevate B2B Marketing in 2022

Even if 2020 and 2021 didn't throw buckets of uncertainty, accelerated digital transformation and massively shifting buyer behaviors and expectations on marketers in the business to business world, B2B marketing is not without challenges. From "boring to boring" to woefully behind B2C, there's more than enough opportunity for us in the B2B marketing world to raise the bar. Stats I think you'll agree that what we have in 2022 is a distinct opportunity to elevate B2B marketing. Each year at TopRank Marketing our B2B content marketing agency focuses on a specific theme. In 2022 I'm sure you've guessed it: Elevate. Making a dent in the way an entire industry does what it does is an ambitious goal to say the least. But as Steve Jobs has said,

The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do. - Steve Jobs

For our part, we're committed in 2022 to advancing the meaningfulness, the purpose and impact of B2B marketing in three ways:

Elevate B2B Marketing Experiences

B2B marketers are creating more digital content than ever with expectations of performance in the spotlight of every executive pulling the tigger on rising digital budgets. But what good is that "great content" if it isn't meeting the expectations of buyers? I mean, there's a lot of thought going into creating highly relevant, useful content but expectations have changed. What B2B marketers are delivering from a marketing experience standpoint isn't meeting the needs of today's digital first buyer.

75% of personalized engagement strategies will not meet ROI goals - Forrester

Customer engagement is a big part of the marketing experience brands create for customers. As referenced in the Forrester article. 70% of marketers are adopting an always-on digital engagement strategy in 2022 and lack of buyer insight is a key reason why those engagement and experience efforts will fall short. Part of the solution is a smarter marketing technology, but also soft skills like empathy and the follow through of customer insight in the form of relevant topics, questions answered in content, digital content formats and signals of credibility. Our research on B2B influencer marketing found that 74% of marketers believe influencer marketing improves customer experience. With the vast majority of B2B buyers now digital first in their preferences for content discovery, consumption and engagement, we're leveraging customer insight to better inform content formats with episodic content for B2B brands as podcasts and livestream video shows as well as blog, social, interactive and thought leadership content that pairs brand executives with industry experts. Of course optimizing all of this content for search also improves the experience for customers by helping B2B brands become the best answer for the questions buyers are asking at the very moment they need solutions.

Give Voice to Talent

Without question the status quo of the B2B marketing industry is holding on as long as it can to the comfortable and familiar ways of doing things.  But doing the same things with the same people isn't going to elevate anything in B2B, so we're committed to empowering up and coming and underrepresented talent a place in the spotlight.

Nearly 50% of CMOs are women but only 12% are racially or ethnically diverse - SpencerStuart

What that means specifically is an emphasis on engaging the most talented and often overlooked B2B Marketers in a variety of ways on our blog, in our social content, in presentations at events and as we select influencers to work with our agency and our clients. We know many others feel the same way and that's why B2B marketers are in a unique position to make choices about how they represent their customers in content, who they partner with in content collaborations and the influencers they engage. A small example of giving voice to talent that we've implemented has been the lists of Women Who Rock in Marketing over the past 12 years with the most recent list focusing on women of color in B2B marketing. Not only are we publishing a list honoring marketing leaders every year, but we are following through with interviews, content collaborations and building a community of diverse voices in B2B Marketing.

Humanize B2B with Authenticity

What good is your content marketing investment if it's not believable? If it's not trusted? Or what about if it's not reaching, engaging and driving conversations? We've all heard plenty about how customers don't trust brands or company advertising while they do trust peers and industry experts. Set aside for a moment, the misperception that popularity alone makes a person or a brand believable. Instead, we're focused on bringing authenticity to the B2B content marketing world through brand, demand and thought leadership content co-creation and collaboration with influential subject matter experts and opinion leaders that customers actually follow, listen to and trust.

64% of buyers say that an organization's thought leadership content is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities and competency than its marketing materials and product sheets - LinkedIn & Edelman

The deluge of content being produced in response to digital first buyer trends has increased the need for B2B brands to optimize their content for reach, engagement and trust. Our own research has found that 83% of B2B marketers consider influencer marketing because they want to be seen as thought leaders. Content collaborations between industry experts and internal subject matter experts and executives helps to humanize B2B brands by focusing on the real issues customers are dealing with. Humanizing B2B in this way means authentic topics and voices that represent both strategic level thought leadership as well as thoughtful treatment of topics, challenges and issues buyers are facing vs. simply what marketing and sales want to push out into the marketplace.

Are you ready to help elevate the B2B Marketing Industry?

Of course there are many more ways we could help elevate the B2B marketing industry and in fact we are still holding true to the goal of creating great experiences that inspire in all the work we do for clients like LinkedIn, Dell, SAP and one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world. We feel there are particular opportunities for our team, clients and community to drive the industry forward in the areas of giving voice to talent, humanizing B2B with authenticity and elevating B2B experiences. We believe this focus helps us elevate our work, the impact we have for clients and the business community at large. But we can't accomplish these big changes alone. Won't you join us in making more meaningful and less mechanical marketing experiences? Not only are we hiring multiple B2B marketing roles, we're also really interested in working with B2B brands that resonate with the idea that we can do better for our customers, our peers and the industry. To learn more, let's have a conversation!      

The post Three of the Biggest Opportunities to Elevate B2B Marketing in 2022 appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

B2B Marketing News: B2B Marketers Use More Tools, Brands Turn To Empathy-Based Marketing, & eCommerce Searches Become More Informational

Can You Relate? Empathy-based marketing requires brands get to know the people behind the data 52 percent of consumers have said being treated with respect is a key way brands can show empathy to customers, followed by being treated like a human being at 50 percent, according to survey data also showing that listening and curiosity are more key for brands in 2022 than at any point during the pandemic, and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) takes a look. ANA Are Brands Investing in Social Media Communities in 2022? We Asked 1,000+ Marketers [HubSpot Survey] 51 percent of global marketers expect to build more social media communities in 2022, with some 64 percent planning to dedicate investment in social communities, while the top challenge has been managing community members — three of several findings of interests to digital marketers contained in recently-released survey data. HubSpot [bctt tweet="“Marketers need to build digital relationships and reputation before closing a sale.” — Chris Brogan @chrisbrogan" username="toprank"] Google Patent Describes How Its Technology Authorizes Transfer Of Data Without Cookies Google will incorporate a new form of packets containing authorized web browser calls as a key part of its forthcoming browser cookie replacement system for delivering advertisements and certain other types of information, the search giant recently outlined in a U.S. patent filing. MediaPost Zoom acquires video production assets from Liminal Zoom has aqcuired video technology firm Liminal, adding the video production company as part of efforts centered around helping the expansion of Zoom’s virtual large-scale event offerings, virtual communications giant Zoom recently announced. MarTech Half of E-Commerce Searches Are Informational in Nature The health sector tops the list when it comes to online searchers looking for information before making a purchase, according to recently-released survey data that highlights how search engine users in both B2B and B2C sectors are increasingly turning to digital solutions. MarketingCharts Survey: Publishers Reflect On The Ups, Downs Of A Bumpy, Change-Laden 2021 66 percent of publishers have said that they had increased numbers of digital subscriptions in 2021, accompanied by 39 percent who saw decreased traditional print subscription numbers, while 75 percent noted that the rise in remote work has been a positive change during 2021, according to newly-released survey data of interest to online marketers. MediaPost Twitter Tests New Options to Restrict Spaces Access to Smaller Groups Twitter has been testing an array of new customizable private or followers-only audio discussion options within its Twitter Spaces feature, an update that could eventually offer brands new ways to connect more closely with particular audiences or sub-sets of fans. Social Media Today Marketing’s digital skills gap could become ‘unmanageable’ as proficiency declines Marketers who specialize in data measurement and analytics have become the most scarce, with a 2021 drop of some six percent from 2020 figures, while content marketers recorded the second-highest decrease in digital skills, falling four percent — two of numerous statistics of interest to marketers contained in newly-released digital skill gap report data from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). Marketing Week Twitter completes sale of MoPub to AppLovin for $1.05 billion Twitter has completed the sale of its MoPub mobile advertising company, which it acquired in 2013 for some $350 million, to AppLovin Corp for more than $1 billion, as Twitter looks to place greater emphasis on new products with an eye towards doubling its revenue by 2023, the firm recently announced. TechCrunch 6 in 10 B2B Companies Rely on MarTech Tools from Multiple Vendors Some 44percent of B2B marketers have said that they use between five and ten marketing technology tools, with 30 percent using between 11 and 20, and six percent utilizing 21 or more such tools in their work efforts, according to recently-released marketing technology survey data. MarketingCharts ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: A lighthearted look at the “customer experience and shipping delays” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist At 9 for every 100 workers, robots are rife in Singapore – so we decided to visit them — The Register TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — B2B influencer marketing: eight fascinating personalities for your business — DMEXCO
• Lee Odden — The Age of Authenticity — Arshiya Kapadia
• Lee Odden — Growth Decoded: Delivering Marketing Best Practices to Improve the Customer Experience — ActiveCampaign
• TopRank Marketing — Emerging Digital Marketing Trends for 2022 — Net-Results

Have you located your own top B2B marketing news for the week? Please drop us a line in the comments below. Thanks so much for taking the time to join us for this week's TopRank Marketing B2B marketing news, and please return again next Friday for another selection of the most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page, or at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.

The post B2B Marketing News: B2B Marketers Use More Tools, Brands Turn To Empathy-Based Marketing, & eCommerce Searches Become More Informational appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

5 Micro-Scale B2B Influencer Marketing Moves That Can Make A Monumental Impact

Can seemingly minute marketing maneuvers combine to make a truly monumental impact? When you’re talking about the power of influence in B2B marketing, even some of the tiniest digital interactions can — when done smartly — lead to the loftiest of business successes. These tiny digital touches can create enduring relationships, amplify talent, feed the increasing need for unique B2B content experiences, and even supercharge our connections with more compelling stories. Just as a single small stone joins others to form huge mountains including K2 and Mount Everest, sometimes it’s the smallest moves marketers make that end up on the highest summits of B2B marketing success. Let’s start our trek together and explore five micro-scale marketing moves that can make a monumental impact on your B2B influencer marketing success in 2022 and beyond.

1 — Tiny Digital Touches Create Enduring Relationships

As I enter my thirty-eighth year using online communications, it strikes me how important the tiny digital touches we can make with each other — no matter how small they may seem at the time — form part of a tapestry of connection, that over time can add up to become the type of enduring relationships that energize our professional business networks. It begins with the mere act of recognizing that focus placed solely on large steps ignores the many benefits offered by embracing the many small ways that we can nurture business relationships. Whether it's reacting to, sharing, or commenting on an associate's social media post, sending a private message of support or gratitude, or introducing like-minded people in your network to one another, each little step works to strengthen our professional relationships, as I outlined in "5 Ways To Inspire Your Marketing With Gratitude." A million small digital touches can have far greater impact than a one-and-done interaction, which is why B2B marketers have found increasing success working with always-on programs, such as those built on influence, as our CEO Lee Odden outlined in “How to Elevate Post Pandemic B2B Marketing with Always-On Influence.” [bctt tweet="“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It's about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let our true selves be seen.” @BreneBrown" username="toprank"]

2 — Amplifying Talent To Drive Meaningful Change

B2B influencer marketing is also an ideal avenue for amplifying talent to drive meaningful engagement and affect significant change, especially when it comes to talent that’s under-represented in marketing technology and related areas. Just look at the recent example from our own twelfth-annual celebration of influential women in digital marketing, which serves to amplify powerful yet under-represented industry voices, in the form of “25 Women of Color Who Rocked B2B Marketing in 2021.” One of the grass-roots level advantages influence has in marketing is its ability to expand the power of one to the power of many, in this case focusing on women of color in senior level roles creating inspiring efforts in the B2B marketing industry. If you're interested in learning about the rising power of influence in B2B, watch our comprehensive free new webinar “How to Accelerate B2B Marketing Results by Working With Influencers,” and learn how to create greater content marketing impact with influence.

3 — Feed The Need For Unique B2B Content Experiences

The majority of today’s B2B buyers are digital-first, driven by the pandemic’s effect on how the world conducts business, and in the digital realm there’s certainly more competition than ever for attention. It’s now imperative to feed the growing need for unique and compelling B2B content experiences, to deliver what today’s B2B buyers are looking for, where they’re seeking it, and in the formats that inspire and inform them. Some marketers get one of these three cornerstones right, or perhaps two, however it’s only when all three elements come together that marketing efforts truly blossom. It’s not easy being a B2B marketer in 2022, with buyers often running the gamut from old-school traditional audiences who look for answers from the same sources they did a decade or more in the past — company websites and the longstanding social media platform giants LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram — to newly-minted buyers looking for answers in a wider array of formats and digital hangouts, from Reddit, Discord, and TikTok to Twitch, YouTube, and countless other communication channels. Knowing your audience is more important than ever, in order to reach them and provide the answers they’re looking for, however that’s only one element, as creating compelling and unique stories is also needed to truly make valuable and long-lasting connections.

4 — Supercharge B2B Marketing With Compelling Stories

An important element of best-answer B2B content experiences comes in the form of building connections through the use of compelling storytelling, which is often most effective when approached with a touch that’s much more human and a whole lot less corporate. Miri Rodriguez, senior storyteller at Microsoft’s Future of Work, has been an outspoken advocate of the power of storytelling in B2B marketing. “Storytelling isn’t the mere telling of story, it’s the intentional design of story structure, attributes and elements that conjure emotion, drive inclusion and lead with empathy,” Miri has observed. Telling B2B technology marketing stories and creating relationships that add value can also be key in new approaches to B2B marketing, according to Carla Piñyero Sublett, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at IBM. “Since the advent of ad tech, B2B marketers have lost their way,” Carla told Campaign Asia. “We forgot that our No. 1 responsibility is to create relationships and add value. That's not going to happen by peppering LinkedIn inboxes, chasing with banner ads or flooding emails. I want to create more of a pull than a push by educating and inspiring customers through rich storytelling,” she added. Take a deeper dive into Miri’s take on digital storytelling in my piece, “Microsoft’s Miri Rodriguez on How B2B Marketers Are Embracing Empathy For Better Customer Storytelling #B2BMX,” and for new ideas on infusing the best humanizing elements of storytelling into your marketing, the following articles we’ve published can also be a helpful starting point:

• Why There’s a Need for Creative Storytelling in B2B Tech and How Influencer Marketing Can Accelerate Results
• Your Guide to Effective Storytelling in B2B Content Marketing
• From Tech to Human: Three Post Pandemic B2B Marketing Trends
• 5 Ways to Humanize Your B2B Content Marketing – And Why It Matters

[bctt tweet="“Brands want to transact with people who are showing high levels of empathy.” — Miri Rodriguez @MiriRod #B2BMX" username="toprank"]

5 — From A Single Stone To Mount Everest

American folk music icon Pete Seeger for many decades told a story about the power of a single grain of sand, which offers a lesson that applies just as much to digital marketing as to any important challenge in life. “I honestly believe that the future is going to be millions of little things saving us,” Pete shared. “I imagine a big seesaw, and one end of this seesaw is on the ground with a basket half-full of big rocks in it. The other end is up in the air. It’s got a basket one-quarter full of sand. And some of us got teaspoons, and we’re trying to fill up sand… One of these years, you’ll see that whole seesaw go zooop in the other direction. And people will say, ‘Gee, how did it happen so suddenly?’ Us and all our little teaspoons,” Pete observed. B2B influencer marketing is also about the power of joining together individual voices to produce mighty outcomes that outweigh the sum of their individual parts.

B2B Marketing That’s More Than The Sum Of Its Influencer Ingredients

via GIPHY By using tiny digital touches to create enduring relationships, amplifying talent to drive meaningful change, feeding the need for unique content experiences with compelling storytelling, B2B marketers can turn their single teaspoon of marketing sand into efforts powerful enough to shape the world. We hope you've enjoyed our look at the power of micro-scale marketing moves that together can make a monumental impact, and that you'll incorporate some of the suggestions we've explored into your own 2022 B2B marketing efforts. No matter how well you’re able to implement digital content both small and large, crafting award-winning B2B marketing takes considerable time and effort, which is why an increasing number of firms are choosing to work with a top digital marketing agency such as TopRank Marketing. Reach out to us today to learn how we can help, as we’ve done for over 20 years for businesses ranging from LinkedIn, Dell and 3M to Adobe, Oracle, monday.com and others.

The post 5 Micro-Scale B2B Influencer Marketing Moves That Can Make A Monumental Impact appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Broadcast Your B2B Marketing with a Brand Voice that Rings True

Last month, the sports world mourned the loss of John Madden, an iconic broadcaster who – for many of us – became the voice of NFL football. Overshadowing his illustrious career as a head coach, which included a Super Bowl victory, Madden is best known as a legendary color commentator – likely the most recognizable and beloved in the history of football, if not all of professional sports. What is it about Madden that made his voice and narration so resonant with fans? If you read through some of the various tributes to emerge since his passing, a few recurring themes stand out.

• He made things simple for his audience, while still managing to educate them on the nuances of the game.
• He connected with viewers and fans through enthusiasm, empathy and a distinctly human persona.
• He reached people in different ways, going beyond the television broadcast to become a figurehead for a video game franchise that helped engage a new generation with the NFL product.
• He plainly had fun, and made sure that everyone watching did too.
• Through it all, he brought a level of expertise and credibility that couldn’t be denied or overlooked.

For B2B marketers who wish to develop an effective and impactful brand voice for their business, there are important lessons to be drawn from the way Mr. Madden went about his.

1 – Make Things Simple for Your Audience

Football can be a complicated and esoteric sport, especially when viewed through the lens of a former NFL head coach. But Madden didn’t fall into the trap of making viewers’ eyes gloss over with nitty-gritty X’s and O’s details. He translated things in a way that even the most casual fans could easily understand. As his former broadcast partner James Brown put it, Madden “made the game fun and simple to understand.” Likewise, the takeaway here for B2B marketers is simple to understand: don’t drown your audience in complexity and jargon. A recent global survey found that 76% of consumers are more likely to recommend brands delivering simple experiences, up from 64% in 2018.

2 – Be Human, and Humorous

Madden had some interesting quirks. Among them: he was afraid of flying. While traveling all around the country to cover NFL games in various cities, week after week, he would opt for long bus or train rides over airplanes. It’s one of those things that made you see the human side in a larger-than-life figure. There was no shortage of them. As a headline in the LA Times last week put it: “John Madden’s greatest gifts were humor, warmth.” He had a way of talking to his audience, not at them. “What made him so popular was that he was so genuine and so accessible,” said Al Michaels, another former broadcasting partner. The article mentions that Madden was a “fount of funny stories and Jerry Seinfeld-type observations about human behavior.” Humanity and humor have clearly emerged as key traits for winning brands. In a new “Trust in Advertising” study from Nielsen, humor joined brand values as top drivers of advertising response rates.

3 – Meet Your Customers Across Channels

Many members of the millennial and Gen Z cohorts didn’t become familiar with John Madden through his broadcasting work, but through his involvement with one of the best-selling video game franchises ever: Madden NFL. His name and face on the cover lent crucial credibility to this breakthrough football sim, which debuted in the late 1980s. Releasing new editions each year, Madden NFL drew in young audiences and helped them learn about the sport interactively, through channels that were popular with these emerging generations. As one newspaper column puts it, the “Madden video game changed football fandom forever.” B2B marketers far and wide are grappling with the realities of a changing audience comprising younger generations with different habits and preferences. Millennials currently make up the largest buying audience, and Gen Z will quickly start claiming a larger share as these young adults (born between roughly 1995 and 2005) rise in the professional ranks. In this environment, it’s critical for marketers to think beyond traditional static content and blog posts as ways to make their brand voices heard. We need to connect with them on their terms. That might not mean making video games, but it probably does mean more video, more interactive content, and more tailored digital experiences. Variety and versatility are key. According to recent research from McKinsey, “B2B customers now regularly use ten or more channels to interact with suppliers (up from just five in 2016).” [bctt tweet="“It’s critical for B2B marketers to think beyond traditional static content and blog posts as ways to make their brand voices heard.” – Nick Nelson @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"]

4 – Have Some Fun

Sports – and football – are inherently about having fun. Sometimes people lose sight of this in the seriousness of competition and win/loss ultimatums. Madden did a great job of keeping things light and reminding his audience why they tuned in to begin with. The casual, conversational language helped. So did his boisterous and energetic vibe. Madden’s catchphrase as a commentator was “BOOM!” – an exclamation he’d excitedly belt after a big hit on the field. He used his telestrator to almost comedic effect. He championed the “Turducken,” a strange turkey-duck hybrid that became a staple of Thanksgiving Day football. I mean, just listen to how gleeful and hilarious the man was riffing about Gatorade buckets on the sideline. One might not characterize the B2B research process as “fun,” but why can’t it be? Everyone understands the stakes and implications involved, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyable. Don’t be afraid to lighten your tone, inject some levity, and remind customers why your brand is a different breed: it’s not business as usual.

5 – Know Your Stuff

His simplicity, his humanity, and his knack for having fun wouldn’t have mattered much if not for this core trait of John Madden: he knew football. He knew it deeply and exhaustively, as well as anyone. Viewers implicitly trusted his insights because of this. And they learned from him because of how he conveyed his knowledge. An excellent write-up by Bryan Curtis at The Ringer sums it up perfectly: “Madden’s genius was how he taught football. Those booms, that unbuttoned aura of regular guy-dom — all of that was an invitation. It made Madden’s classroom feel like a safe place, where you’d get a little smarter and the professor would never act like he was smarter than you.” When it comes to establishing a stellar B2B brand voice, that really is what it’s all about. You want to demonstrate your authority and expertise to potential clients, who need to believe in these things to justify a major investment with your company. But you don’t want to rub how smart or great you are in people’s faces. Invite them along for the journey. Talk to them, not at them. All of the qualities we’ve covered in this piece tie back to striking that crucial balance between relatable and reputable. The payoff will be there in the end, because if you successfully and consistently harness such a brand voice, customers will come to like and trust you, which will lead to sales. On that note, it bears noting as we conclude that in addition to his achievements on the field and in the booth, Madden was also a premier product pitchman. People were literally buying what he was selling. Adopt the principles that made him great with your B2B brand voice, and you’ll be on your way to the same outcome.

The post Broadcast Your B2B Marketing with a Brand Voice that Rings True appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.