Planning, Creation & Promotion: 5 Top Tactics For Creating Inspired B2B Content

The post Planning, Creation & Promotion: 5 Top Tactics For Creating Inspired B2B Content appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

How to Create More Authentic Influencer-Driven Content to Attract Qualified Prospects

  When you think about who is influential in your industry, you likely think about professional influencers first. These are the consultants, public speakers and authors, the ones who give keynote speeches and have huge followings on social media. These folks are absolutely essential as part of your influencer mix. Their reach, knowledge and professionalism are incredibly valuable.  However, you need more than just these folks for authentic and useful content. To create the kind of experience that earns the attention of qualified prospects, you need to expand your definition of what an influencer is — and what influencer content should look like.  Here’s how to optimize your influencer marketing to create authentic experiences that attract your most valuable audience.

#1 — Expand Your Definition of Influence

Who is an influencer? Now that Instagram models are using the word as a job title, it’s important not to forget the meaning of the word. Influencer (n.): One who has influence over a group of people. Someone whose opinion is trusted because of their experience and proven track record of success. Some of the most influential people to your prospects don’t have a huge social media following or an outsized personality. They’re the ones who quietly build a reputation for excellence in your industry.  For example, the CEO of Coca-Cola might not have millions of followers. But you can bet that when he speaks, anyone in the beverage business listens.  The problem is that many influencer identification tools are focused on audience size more than this type of practical topical relevance. Tools like Traackr are getting better with it, but for now you may need to get creative. See who the executives at your most valued accounts are following on LinkedIn. Ask your customer contacts who they admire in the industry. See whose panel at the last industry conference had everyone talking, even though it was in the small conference room. Our survey found that marketers are seeing the value of including these folks in their influencer mix. When we asked what qualities they look for in an influencer, follower count was 5th on the list. Relevance, trustworthiness and expertise all scored higher. [bctt tweet="“Some of the most influential people to your prospects don’t have a huge social media following or an outsized personality. They’re the ones who quietly build a reputation for excellence in your industry.” — Joshua Nite @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]

#2 — Look for Influence in Your Organization

When you’re looking for subject matter experts, you may find you don’t have to look too far from the office, either. Your executives and employees have practical experience that your most valued prospects want to hear.  It might be illuminating, for example, to hear a keynote speaker talk about how Red Bull built their media brand. Someone with a gift for storytelling could bring that tale to life and even mine deeper insight out of it, to boot. But someone who was in the room where these decisions were made, when Red Bull first built their content empire, could provide practical information that no one else would know. Of course, your executives, managers and workers may not be natural born storytellers. That’s okay! You can interview them, tease out their stories and insights, and polish them up without sacrificing authenticity.  In our survey, over half of respondents said they included internal executives in their influencer content. Nearly half said they included their employees as well. This is a clear opportunity to create more valuable content and build your organization’s thought leadership at the same time. [bctt tweet="“When you’re looking for subject matter experts, you may find you don’t have to look too far from the office, either. Your executives and employees have practical experience that your most valued prospects want to hear.” — @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]

#3 — Find Influential Customers (AND Prospects!)

Would you pass up a chance to praise, elevate, promote and otherwise butter up your most valuable customers? Of course not. Including your customers in your content is another win-win-win: You get more perspectives in your content, your customer gets recognized and flattered, and your audience finds your content more valuable.  Customer content doesn’t have to be limited to case studies — in fact, it shouldn’t be. Let your customers be the stars and talk about their business, the challenges they’ve faced and the successes they’ve achieved. Showcasing your happy customers as the industry experts they are will reflect well on your brand, even if they’re not making a sales pitch. And finally, we have to talk about the most jaw-dropping stat from our recent report: Only twelve percent of our respondents said they use prospects in their influencer marketing. If you asked 100 marketers: “Would you pass up a chance to interact with, build up, flatter, and build a relationship with your most valuable prospects?” How many would turn it down? How many would say, “Well, only if I can get them to give me content that will help attract even more prospects?” Surely more than 12 out of 100 would see the value if you put it that way. Including prospects in your influencer marketing is such a colossal opportunity, triply so because so few folks are doing it. Treat your prospects like rock star influencers, promote their thought leadership, and good things will happen. Think about it: How many times have you heard that your audience needs to see themselves in your content? Maybe it’s time to take that advice literally. [bctt tweet="“Including your customers in your content is another win-win-win: You get more perspectives in your content, your customer gets recognized and flattered, and your audience finds your content more valuable.” — Joshua Nite @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]

#4 — Create Valuable & Memorable Content

Now that you have the perfect mix of professional influencers, industry experts, your colleagues, customers and prospects, it’s time to create some great content experiences. There’s nothing wrong with a classic PDF-based eBook (we put out one this year!), but you can earn more attention with jazzier content formats. The simplest would be a long-scroll web page with a few animated elements, like this one from our client Prophix. It splits the difference between an eBook and a website, borrowing the strengths from each. To level up your content, an interactive and animated site (like this one from client Demandbase) is a good option. It offers your reader a more dynamic experience that compels them to spend more time with the asset. Finally, think beyond text and into multimedia. Podcasts are a natural fit for influencer content. If you’re not ready for that level of commitment, however, consider a video (either a produced short video or a livestream). I love what our client LinkedIn is doing with their LinkedIn Collective Live! Series. The first episode is all about Cannes Lions, and features a Grand Prix winner and one of the jurors. 

Industry Insiders bring Influence

As you plan your next influencer marketing campaign, it’s time to redefine influence. Your most valuable prospects are looking to industry leaders, practitioners and peers for advice. Your team can deliver all of the above with the right mix of influencers. Check out our full 2022 B2B Influencer Marketing Report to learn more.

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B2B Marketing News: B2B Brand Awareness Data, New Salesforce & HubSpot Reports, YouTube Adds Guest Streaming, & Rising Digital Ad Spend

B2B brands shouldn’t fear rejection, but being unknown 91 percent of potential customers don't actively reject any B2B brands, while increasing brand awareness remains one of the top challenge that B2B marketers face, as unawareness has significant variability by brand, according to newly-released report data from The B2B Institute. Marketing Week [bctt tweet="“The marketing industry treats B2B like it’s some weird niche that we can just ignore. But B2B isn’t a niche — it’s a goldmine. Half the economy is B2B. And it’s the better half.” — Peter Weinberg of @b2binstitute" username="toprank"] Overheard at B2B World Fest: ‘Pursue passion and purpose, and profits will follow’ B2B marketing has taken a move towards offering more experimental content including sight, sound, and motion, while B2B organization employees are increasingly seeing improvements to their well-being as more important than career advancement — two of several findings of interest to B2B marketers shared during the B2B World Fest event, as The Drum examines. The Drum YouTube Announces Expanded Roll-Out of its Live-Stream Guests Feature Google's YouTube video platform has announced that soon channels with more than 50 subscribers will have access to a variety of new live guest streaming options, offering greater engagement-building opportunities for B2B influencers and creators, as the platform rolls our its Go Live Together feature. Social Media Today HubSpot Releases The State of Partner Ops and Programs Report, Detailing the Business Impact of Partner Ecosystems 77 percent of organizations have technology partners, which were ranked as the most important type of partner overall, while 65 percent view partnerships as essential to future growth — three of numerous findings of interest to digital marketers contained in newly-publish HubSpot parner ecosystem report data. HubSpot Digital will account for 71.8% of US media ad spend this year, up 16 percentage points from 2019—and growing 71.8 percent of total U.S. media spending will be comprised of digital by the end of 2022, up from 55.6 percent in 2019, and will reach $248.7 billion — a 12.5 percent increase from 2021, while search is expected to account for 40.6 percent of digital ad spending, according to newly-published forecast data. Insider Intelligence LinkedIn Launches New Code Training Integration with GitHub, Enhanced LinkedIn Learning Options Microsoft-owned LinkedIn (client) and its LinkedIn Learning platform has implemented new integration with developer community GitHub that provides software development learning and practice options, in addition to a new career path process for technology roles, along with additional new features on the platform, LinkedIn recently announced. Social Media Today Instagram is updating its web interface to take advantage of large screens Meta's Instagram social platform has begun rolling out a web interface that better utilizes desktop screen real estate, showing more platform content in areas that previously have been white space when viewed on desktop computers, Instagram recently announced. TechCrunch Substack Sets Its Sights On Twitter With New Chat Feature Digital publishing and newsletter platform Substack has rolled out the ability for authors to chat with audiences — a move aimed at better positioning the platform to offer helpful options to consumers who have left Twitter in light of recent ownership changes, Substack recently announced. Search Engine Journal LinkedIn Shares Key Best Practices to Help Build Your Presence in the App LinkedIn has launched a newly-published 13-page guide that is focused on content creation aimed at driving positive brand association, including strategy surrounding so-called brand-to-demand and an array of thought leadership insights, the professional social media platform announced recently. Social Media Today Always look on the bright side of life! Salesforce's State of Marketing report reveals marketers glasses half full 87 percent of marketers have said that they view their efforts as providing significantly more value in 2022 than in 2021, while B2B organizations reported that advertising accounted for some 16 percent of overall marketing spending, with account-based-marketing (ABM) and content each garnering 15 percent of spending — three of numerous findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-published Salesforce report data. Diginomica ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: A lighthearted look at “Spray-and-Pray Marketing and Sales” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist Swedish engineer creates playable accordion from 2 Commodore 64 computers — Ars Technica Google plans giant AI language model supporting world’s 1,000 most spoken languages — The Verge IBM launches its most powerful quantum computer with 433 qubits — Reuters TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — The Impact of Building Long-Term Relationships with Influencers with Lee Odden — Justin Levy
• Lee Odden / TopRank Marketing — Influencer Marketing - first, catch your influencer… — diginomica
• TopRank Marketing — B2B Influencers Are On The Rise: What Does This Mean For Brands And The Future of B2B Marketing? — Martech Zone
• TopRank Marketing — 53 Best Marketing Blogs To Follow In 2022 — MarketSplash

Have you come across your own B2B marketing news for the week that we haven't yet mentioned? If so, please don't hesitate to drop us a line in the comments below. Thank you for joining us for this week's TopRank Marketing B2B marketing news, and we hope you'll return next Friday for another array of the most up-to-date and pertinent 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.

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5 New Search Opportunities B2B Marketers Need To Know In 2023

What do B2B marketers need to know about search in 2023? B2B marketing and search have always had a complex relationship, and 2023 will undoubtedly see new shifts arise in numerous areas, from how search engines deal with human versus artificial intelligence (AI)-generated content, to indexing a partially or fully-siloed metaverse, combating dwindling organic search opportunities, where to best invest paid search advertising dollars, and key SEO fine tuning challenges. Let’s turn our attention to each of these five areas of search in B2B marketing, and take a look at the changes marketers will need to adapt to in 2023 and beyond.

1 — How Will Search Engines Deal With More AI-Generated Content?

One algorithm at a time, AI has continued to play an increasingly sizable role in our lives, and search technology is one of the areas at the forefront when it comes to using and iterating on it. B2B marketers certainly find AI in search and a growing number of areas — not only search — as I recently explored in “Riding The Razor’s Edge of AI in B2B Marketing.” There’s been a proliferation of AI-generated content, from AI-powered image generation applications including DALL-E, Meta AI’s Make-A-Scene, Stability AI, and the like, to AI writing tools such as Jasper.ai, Writesonic, Article Forge, Ink, WordAI and a growing cadre of others. These AI content creation tools can produce fully automated content with very minimal human input, however most are still used to augment and fine-tune content produced by a human hand. How are search engines dealing with the proliferation of AI-generated and AI-augmented content, and do people want to be able to identify or even filter out such content? Danny Sullivan, public liaison for search at Google, has urged creators to focus on content that is primarily crafted by people and not AI. “If you're an SEO trying to figure out how AI fits in with being successful or not on Google, you're too focused on the tool not the content,” Sullivan recently tweeted. “Is the content you're producing helpful, reliable and people-first in nature?” he added, referencing Google Search Central’s guide to “Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content.” [bctt tweet="“If you're an SEO trying to figure out how AI fits in with being successful or not on Google, you're too focused on the tool not the content. Is the content you're producing helpful, reliable and people-first in nature?” — @DannySullivan" username="toprank"] One of the bigger challenges search technology faces is how to handle this type of content. Just as AI can create content, to some extent it can also help identify AI-augmented writing, images, and video. In 2023 the amount of content touched by or entirely created through the use of AI will continue to explode, and it remains to be seen whether this will create a backlash among consumers, or whether AI-generated content will forever battle it out against human-created efforts, with the best-answer content rising to the top regardless of whether it was created by a computer program. The combination of AI and search will certainly continue to evolve in 2023, as technologies such as neural search-as-a-service and others mature and expand. Stock photography giant Getty Images recently announced that it was taking a stand against AI-generated imagery, due to the unsettled nature of the myriad copyright laws that protect stock photos and the artists who created them. Another player in the stock photography business has taken a different approach altogether to AI-generated images, as Shutterstock announced an expanded partnership with OpenAI, that will see Shutterstock offering AI image generation from natural language text prompts. The expanded Shutterstock partnership with OpenAI will use the DALL-E application programming interface (API), and even allow its users to manipulate certain existing images within its massive database, while also implementing a new framework to provide compensation to the photographers and artists who have played a part in helping develop the AI models. It remains to be seen how search technology in the B2B landscape will handle ever-greater amounts of AI-generated content, however the vastly different approaches taken by the search functionality of Getty and Shutterstock show that this issue has only just begun bubbling to the surface.

2 — How Will Search Technology Index The Metaverse?

The metaverse — a term coined in a 1992 novel — isn’t quite done cooking yet, but with a world that needs to eat right now and chefs who need to cook, how will search technology adapt to indexing the metaverse, and how will this affect B2B brands? A primary danger the metaverse faces is falling into the siloed social media platform trap, with walled gardens of innumerable metaverse-like instances each owned by separate entities and all not being able to — whether on purpose or otherwise — talk to one another, or even willfully trying to prevent people from leaving their particular slice of metaverse pie. I explored this danger in detail in “5 Timely Ways B2B Brands Can Conquer Metaverse Marketing,” as well as some of the powerful opportunities the metaverse holds for B2B brands. In 2023, search technology will increasingly be faced with indexing a partially or fully-siloed metaverse. Luckily, search itself seems more than up to the task, however the primary obstacles include the formation of a cohesive and unified metaverse, with each player allowing their portion to be indexed by traditional search engines such as Google and Bing, or forthcoming metaverse-specific search engines such as Hyperpeach or Nvidia's DeepSearch.

3 — How Can B2B Marketers Combat Dwindling Organic Search Opportunities?

When I first went online in 1984 operating a 300-baud bulletin board system, it would be six years before Archie’s FTP site search arrived in 1990, followed three years later by Excite and the other early web search engine innovators, and if there’s one aspect of search and SEO that has remained constant throughout the ensuing decades, it’s been unending change. The years and decades have also seen dwindling organic search opportunities, accompanied by rising search engine screen real estate dedicated to all manner of paid search placements. As we’ll look at, there are thankfully still a plenty of viable ways for B2B marketers to overcome diminished organic search visibility — through SEO, content marketing and B2B influencer marketing, to name just a few. Despite fewer organic entries appearing on today’s search engine result pages (SERPs), marketers can make the most of them by continuing to implement SEO best practices, and by making sure that B2B brands are visible on social media platforms including LinkedIn* and an ever-growing number of others.

4 — Where Should B2B Marketers Invest Paid Search Advertising Dollars?

In light of the dwindling organic search opportunities we’ve mentioned, there’s no denying that B2B brands that are able to dedicate budgets to paid search advertising do often gain increased findability in search results, however whether this is the best use of marketing dollars is not so clear-cut. Search advertising is expected to account for 40.6 percent of overall digital ad spending in the U.S. in 2022, up some 1.5 percent from 2021, according to newly-released eMarketer and Insider Intelligence forecast data. In 2023 B2B content marketing and B2B influencer marketing are both likely to continue vying for the title of the specific marketing tactic offering the greatest bang-for-the-buck, however, despite the growth of paid search spending. Influence likely holds more value in B2B marketing today than ever before, which is why growing numbers of major B2B brands have turned to influencer marketing, as shown in our comprehensive 59-page 2022 B2B Influencer Marketing Report, rich with survey insights, case studies from B2B brands, predictions from leading marketers, a list of 20 top influencer marketing practitioners from major global B2B brands, and much more. [bctt tweet="“In times like these, the importance of influence is critical for B2B brands that need to connect authentically with their buyers and create meaningful experiences.” — Lee Odden @LeeOdden" username="toprank"] That doesn’t mean that savvy B2B marketers should ignore the opportunities paid search marketing presents, however with today’s often-restrained marketing budgets, alternative methods can at the very least augment paid search strategy.

5 — Where Should B2B Marketers Focus SEO Efforts In 2023?

When Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web, as we detailed in “Classic Marketing Insights to Celebrate the Internet’s 50th Birthday,” one of his biggest goals was to make it easier for people to find information on the Internet — an ambition that has undoubtedly seen tremendous success perhaps beyond any other technology in history. I was involved in the SEO industry from the time I accessed early websites in 1993 and then began building them in 1994, until just before I joined TopRank Marketing in 2018, after spending a decade as lead editor at search conference Pubcon. During those 25 years I witnessed vast changes in the search industry, including the rise and eventual mainstreaming of SEO. SEO however isn’t a standardized practice with oversight by an administrative body, but rather a living and breathing practice that’s evolved in the back-and-forth between search engine firms and the webmasters, marketers, programmers, and others who have for decades kept SEO in a constant swirling sea of activity and change. Sometimes this sea is murky and tumultuous, and at others — at least for a brief while — clear and calm. Where SEO shifts in 2023 will likely involve some of the areas we've touched on, and others yet to surface. Certain SEO fundamentals remain, thankfully. When putting SEO to use in B2B marketing, there are a few elements to make note of when it comes to your efforts:

• Some elements of SEO are ever-changing and require ongoing attention
• Build smart SEO efforts into routine work
• Utilize process checklists to operationalize efforts
• Stay up-to-date on search industry changes

Part of what makes SEO and search compelling is that they are always changing, even as certain fundamental aspects remain the same. "Search is never guaranteed, and there are tons of sites that are trying to push their updates into Google," John Mueller, webmaster trends analyst at Google recently observed. "I think what ultimately works best is that you prove to Google — and users — that the updates you’re providing are valuable: unique, compelling, high-quality, and not something that’s already published elsewhere," Mueller added.

Adjust & Benefit From An Energized 2023 B2B Search Strategy

via GIPHY Whether you pursue one or all of the areas of search we've explored here in 2023, we hope that these insights will energize your own B2B marketing efforts on the search front. 2023 will be a fascinating year as B2B marketers see how search technology ends up dealing with AI-generated content, indexing the metaverse, combating dwindling organic search opportunities, paid search strategy, and continuing SEO challenges and opportunities. More than ever, crafting award-winning B2B marketing that elevates, gives voice to talent, and humanizes with authenticity takes considerable time and effort, which is why more brands are choosing to work with a top digital marketing agency such as TopRank Marketing. Reach out 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 many others. *LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing client.

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Why Relationship Marketing Is Essential To B2B Lead Generation

One of the oldest, and creepiest, adages about the value of content marketing is that you can’t ask someone to marry you on the first date. Weird as it might feel, there’s a good reason this metaphor has held sway. A marriage is a serious and high-stakes commitment, and nobody wants to enter one without truly feeling like they know and trust their future partner. In the business realm, purchase influencers and decision makers are under huge pressure to get it right. It’s not enough to understand the product, its price, or its features. Buyers want to believe in the brand and the people behind it. Increasingly, significant business purchases need to be buoyed by a strong relationship. (The non-romantic type, to be clear.) Smart and strategic content marketing is how those relationships are built.

What Is Relationship Marketing?

The Association of National Advertisers defines relationship marketing as “a strategy of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) that emphasizes customer retention, satisfaction, and lifetime customer value.” Personally I think that description only partially covers the breadth of the strategy and its purpose. As we’ll explore today, relationship marketing is also a powerful – even essential – tool for attracting new high-quality B2B leads that are more likely to convert. For this reason, I prefer the broader definition provided by HubSpot: “Relationship marketing refers to the marketing strategy of cultivating more meaningful relationships with customers to ensure long-term satisfaction and brand loyalty.” The process of ensuring long-term satisfaction and brand loyalty can start long before someone makes a purchase with you.

Content is the currency of relationship marketing

There are plenty of jargony definitions of content marketing out there, but what it comes down to is this: creating something of value to a specific type of audience, as a means of bringing those individuals into your brand’s orbit. Great content is what attracts the right people and sparks the journey. It’s also what sustains and builds upon these relationships. Nine out of 10 B2B buyers say online content has a major or moderate impact on vendor selection. Simply put, content marketing is your chance to make a first impression that leads to a lasting, fruitful relationship. [bctt tweet="“Content marketing is your chance to make a first impression that leads to a lasting, fruitful relationship.” — Nick Nelson @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"]

Benefits of Building Relationships with B2B Content

Why make content-fueled relationship marketing a fixture in your B2B strategy? Here are five compelling reasons. 1 — Leads are more qualified and advanced The beauty of a smart SEO-driven content strategy focused on intent is this: audiences engaging with your content are inherently qualifying themselves. By searching out articles, guides, podcasts, or videos focusing on subjects and pain points pertinent to your category, they are raising their hands as the kind of people you want to create trust and awareness with. And when they find quality content from your brand that best answers their questions, you start doing just that. It’s no surprise, then, that organic search routinely drives the highest conversion rates of any traffic source. (Source) 2 — Strong relationships weather the storms of tough times Business leaders are bracing for a recession in 2023. Economic downturns force difficult decisions. The strong relationships survive. Research shows brands that continue to invest in advertising during recessions tend to come out stronger on the other end than those that don’t. Why? Because they stayed present for their audiences during a tough period, even while recognizing that purchasing activity may be scaled back. Strong relationships weather the storms of tough times … especially when they are forged during tough times. [bctt tweet="“Strong relationships weather the storms of tough times … especially when they are forged during tough times.” — Nick Nelson @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"] 3 — Lopsided focus on demand generation leads to poor results It is well understood throughout the world of marketing that strong brand awareness contributes to better lead gen ROI. People are more likely to respond to your sales activation campaigns when they’re familiar with your brand. There’s a reason why campaigns focusing on both brand and acquisition perform six times better than acquisition-only campaigns. It’s much the same reason 75% of shoppers say they’re more likely to buy from a company that knows their name and purchase history. (Source) There’s plenty more data to reinforce this idea, but you probably don’t even need it. Just think about how familiarity and affinity influence decisions in your own life. When you’re choosing a doctor, a babysitter, a financial advisor… with all other things being equal, you’re going to go with the one you already know and like. Right? Not only does a sharp relationship-focused content strategy help generate demand and convert more customers, it also makes those customers more invested in your brand, increasing the likelihood of upsells, cross-sells, and referrals. 4 — Gain deeper insight about your target audience A key byproduct of engaging more frequently and intentionally with your prospects and customers is that you learn a lot about them through the process. You find out what type of content they’re engaging with, what channels they’re showing up on, and what they really care about. The folks at Accenture put together a great playbook on “life centricity,” or the idea of driving growth through relevance. “To move toward life centricity,” the brief explains, “executives need to see their customers as multifaceted and understand the complex external forces that impact them.” Step one? “Gain a profound understanding of people.” Relationship marketing, and the data it derives, are among the most effective ways to gain this understanding. 5 — Well liked brands can charge more premium pricing One of the biggest ways an outstanding brand can add value, aside from attracting and retaining customers, is by enhancing perceived value and enabling you to charge more for goods and services. Based in consumer psychology, this approach to premium pricing can create a virtuous loop. People will pay more for products or services from a brand they think highly of; meanwhile, when other people see that the brand charges higher prices, they perceive it as being higher-quality or more luxurious than others. This is not to say anyone should be inflating prices or ripping off their customers. But when companies put real effort into building relationships through their content, service, and resources, it becomes a tangible value-add that justifies a higher price. I’ll pay more for a pair of shoes if I know their customer service department has my back. I’ll pay more for an ebook if the author automatically opts me into his secret email club. In the business world, even when a solution fits your needs, there can be real headaches down the line if the company behind it isn’t rock solid. Buyers will pay more to avoid those headaches, and they’ll be happy they did. Relationship-focused content sends that message.

Build Relationships with B2B Leads to Boost Your Pipeline

As B2B grows more complex, more digital, and more impersonal, those companies that focus on creating connections with their audience and making their brand as desirable as their offerings will be the ones that lead the way – even (or especially) in challenging economic times. It all begins with a thoughtful, audience-first B2B content marketing strategy. If you’re ready to put yours into motion and reach the next level with relationship marketing, we can help.

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B2B Marketing News: Rising B2B Content Creation Budgets, Proving ROI Is Top ABM Challenge, & Google’s Updated Business Profiles

5 Predictions For B2B CMOs To Win In 2023 [Forrester Report] 20 percent more B2B demand teams will report to sales in 2023, with 10 percent of marketing automation budgets moving from transformation to resilience, while 40 percent of firms will shift to cloud-native-first strategies — three of numerous findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in recently-released B2B CMO report data. Forbes What’s Driving Budget Changes for B2B Marketers? [Survey] 43 percent of B2B marketers have said that their marketing budgets have increased since 2021, with 32 percent noting a decrease, with the top reasons for budget changes being inflation, the pandemic, economic recession, and world geopolitical unstability, according to newly-released survey data. MarketingCharts After Elon Musk’s antics on Twitter, advertisers may think twice for now Advertisers are maneuvering and rethinking options in the wake of Twitter's $44 billion sale to Elon Musk, weighing moves ranging from suspending use of the social media platform to reducing spending, among other choices, and CNN takes a look at how some advertisers are handling the ownership shift at Twitter. CNN [bctt tweet="“It seems like a reasonable time for advertisers to rethink things. I think advertisers are going to look at this and say, is the weak Twitter advertising product becoming a better or worse investment?” — David Karpf @davekarpf" username="toprank"] Meta Opens Up Facebook’s ‘Professional Mode’ to All Creators Globally Meta-owned Facebook has proceeded with a full rollout of its professional mode, which will allow B2B creators and influencers to expand their Facebook presence with a variety of content-promotion options, along with a variety of content monetization tools, the social media platform recently announced. Social Media Today What Changes Are B2B Marketers Anticipating to Their Budgets Next Year? 54 percent of B2B marketers have said that in 2023 they will spend more on content creation, with the same percentage pinpointing digital marketing investment, while 47 percent noted an increase in marketing operations and technology budgets, and the same percentage expecting to spend more on demand generation in 2023, according to newly-released survey data examining the biggest budget increases that B2B marketers have planned for 2023. MarketingCharts Companies face critical customer experience resource shortages More than 80 percent of customer experience (CX) leaders have said that they planned to utilize outsourcing in 2022, with only 27 percent of CX leaders reporting that they have their own budget, while 53 percent noted that they have experienced staffing shortages and labor challenges, according to recently-published CX research data of interest to B2B marketers. Insider Intelligence New Google Business Profile Web Search Menu Now Rolling Out Search giant Google has released its newest update, which has given businesses an expanded set of options and simpler access for editing business profiles. The more robust Google Business Profile capabilities allow brands to more easily access and edit their organization's profile from Google Web Search, Google recently announced. SEO Roundtable What Are ABM Practitioners’ Top Challenges? 39 percent of B2B marketing executives have indicated that proving return on investment (ROI) was their top account-based marketing (ABM) challenge, with 38 percent pinpointing sales and marketing alignment, and 34 percent noting scaled personalization for target accounts as their leading obstacle — some of the findings included in newly-released survey results. MarketingCharts YouTube Announces Interface Makeover Google's YouTube video platform has launched a user interface revamp, with new features including ambient mode background color matching, a dark mode, and description link buttons, among other changes that have rolled out with YouTube’s latest visual update, YouTube recently announced. MediaPost The Factors That Most Influence Buyers of B2B Services 30.2 percent of B2B professionals have said that a business' online and offline reputation was their top determining factor when it comes to choosing a B2B service, with 72.1 percent of B2B buyers having noted that they prefer email for communicating with B2B sellers, while a leading 26.2 percent of B2B buyers noted that finding a product's features was the number one piece of information that they looked to find on a service provider's website. MarketingProfs ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: A lighthearted look at “Decisions, Decisions” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist Redditor acquires decommissioned Netflix cache server with 262TB of storage — Ars Technica TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Nick Nelson — This Week in Marketing: All Treats, No Tricks — LinkedIn (client)
• Lee Odden — 3 lessons corporate blogs can learn from personal blogs — Arik Hanson

Have you found top B2B marketing news for the week that we haven't yet mentioned? If so, please don't hesitate to drop us a line in the comments below. Thanks for taking the time to tune in to this week's TopRank Marketing B2B marketing news, and we hope that you'ill return again next Friday for another roundup of the most up-to-date and pertinent 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.

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Community Influence: B2B Influencer Marketing & The Ascent of Digital Communities

Just how important have digital communities become today, and why does the rising trust we place in them harmonize so well with B2B influencer marketing? It’s no secret that the world has become digital-first during the pandemic, but one change that may surprise many is just how important online communities have become. People have shifted to identifying the most closely with their online communities, for the first time surpassing traditional non-digital community groups, a change borne out by recent survey data. A simultaneous pandemic change has seen trust in brands and marketers falling significantly, with 50 percent of U.S. consumers finding it difficult to trust brands since the pandemic began, according to report data from Salesforce. The public’s perception and trust of the advertising and public relations industry has fallen to new lows according to one recent Gallup poll. A scant 26 percent of U.S. adults said that they see PR and advertising in a somewhat or very positive light, bottoming out even more than the previous low of 27 percent in 2008, with net-positive ratings now even lower than during 2003’s previous record low, according to the newly-published poll data. Thankfully, just as brand and advertising trust has fallen, the ascent of the importance of digital communities has created a counter-weight — one that is well-poised to take advantage of the power of influence and trust: B2B influencer marketing. “Consumers need to be able to trust the content they engage with, so expect 2023 to show an increased demand for integrity and authenticity that brands and social media channels will have to adapt to,” Elizabeth Wiredu recently observed for PRWeek in “What are the top 10 social media trends for 2023?” “Brands will move further away from personas and target their broader brand communities. In these spaces, it’s less about the influencer broadcasting content and more about the exchange between all community members,” Wiredu added. [bctt tweet="“Consumers need to be able to trust the content they engage with, so expect 2023 to show an increased demand for integrity and authenticity that brands and social media channels will have to adapt to.” — Elizabeth Wiredu @elizasjournal" username="toprank"] B2B influencer marketing is the business-oriented cousin to the B2C Instagram entertainment and lifestyle influencer. In B2B, some influencers go by creators, subject matter experts, industry experts, or other terms that disassociate them from the B2C influencer. Whichever term is used, B2B influencer marketing provides an ideal way to combat disintegrating brand trust, especially when combined with the ascendancy of digital communities. It’s no wonder that by the end of 2022 the B2B influencer marketing vertical is expected to reach $11.7 billion in revenue, with over 38 percent of B2B firms exploring influencer marketing for lead-generation and more, according to AdAge. Let’s take a look at some of the creative ways that B2B influencer marketing is continuing to utilize digital communities to elevate brands and their audiences. [bctt tweet="“B2B influencer marketing provides an ideal way to combat disintegrating brand trust, especially when combined with the ascendancy of digital communities.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]

1 — The Ascent of Digital Communities

The professionals who make up the majority of B2B influencers are well aware of the importance of digital communities, as they play a major role in amplifying the voice of industry experts, and provide valuable feedback from engaged audiences that are often hyper-focused on particular topics. Digital communities, whether in the form of major social media platform public or private groups, or on brand or publisher websites, are one of the most important communication channels for B2B influencers — and for today's brand audiences and potential customers. 72 percent of U.S. consumers said they believe that publishers should host digital communities, with 91 percent having said that they actively read comments on digital communities that are hosted on publisher websites — while 84 percent said publisher communities were healthier than those hosted on dedicated social media platforms, according to OpenWeb’s 2022 Online Communities Report. Subject matter experts have often spent years or even decades actively participating in online communities or various types, and have built a history of trust among those communities. These B2B influencers know when and where it’s appropriate to share relevant content from the brands they work with — and when not to.

2 — B2B Influencer Marketing Thrives With Digital Communities

B2B influencer marketing is a many-faceted digital diamond that when done well shines brightly, however brands need to be wary of treating it like its vastly different B2C counterpart. Becoming a part of a B2B influencer’s community is a great way to find potential subject matter experts to work with, but what makes a good B2B influencer? Ursula Ringham, head of global influencer marketing at SAP, sees digital communities as an important opportunity for finding potential influencer partners.

“How do I know if an influencer is authentic, trustworthy, and credible to partner with for a campaign? First, I figure out who they are as a person. And that is when I become a detective. I like to read, watch, and listen to their content. Is their content engaging, innovative, and does it tell a story in an interesting way? What separates them from other influencers? Then I become part of their community. I discover who follows them and how those people engage. Does the influencer create an experience I want to continue to come back and learn from? Finally, I like to take them out for coffee or set up a Zoom call. You can learn so much from this one-on-one interaction.”

Ringham has shared additional insight as one of the dozens of top influencer marketing practitioners from major B2B brands who have contributed to our comprehensive free 59-page 2022 B2B Influencer Marketing Research Report, rich with survey insights, case studies from B2B brands, 2023 predictions from top B2B marketing experts, and more. [bctt tweet="“To understand if an influencer is authentic, trustworthy and credible to partner with, first figure out who they are as a person. Read, listen and watch their content. What separates them?” — UrsulaRingham @UrsulaRingham of @SAP" username="toprank"] The report also revealed that community building is a key part of a successful B2B influencer marketing strategy. An active digital community can help influencers network with each other, get to know the brand and customers better, and co-create great content, and the report found that a fifth of respondents said they maintain such a community, but an additional 50 percent said they would like to do so. For those who maintain a community, most (76 percent) said they provide a platform for connecting with the brand, and include influencers in communications between the brand and community. Only 41 percent, however, said they provide a platform or social outlet for influencers to connect with each other, representing a substantial opportunity for improvement; helping influencers network is a major way for brands to offer value.

3 — Rising Above Record Distrust With The Power Of Influence

via GIPHY In 2023 the ascent of digital communities — whether private or public — combined with the power of B2B influencer marketing, will increasingly help brands overcome and rise above the record distrust audiences have for marketing. We hope that this look at the rising reliance on trusted digital communities and how their use in B2B influencer marketing is increasingly helping brands will help you in your own efforts in 2023. More than ever, creating award-winning B2B marketing that elevates, gives voice to talent, and humanizes with authenticity takes considerable time and effort, which is why more brands are choosing to work with a top digital marketing agency such as TopRank Marketing. Contact us today and find out 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 many others.  

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