Bath SEO Expert

Monday, January 20, 2020

Top 10 B2B Digital Marketing Trends in 2020

The post Top 10 B2B Digital Marketing Trends in 2020 appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Friday, January 17, 2020

Digital Marketing News: LinkedIn’s Faster Than Expected Growth, Podcast Ads Booming, & Facebook Updates Audience Insights

The post Digital Marketing News: LinkedIn’s Faster Than Expected Growth, Podcast Ads Booming, & Facebook Updates Audience Insights appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Thursday, January 16, 2020

Break Free B2B Series: Ben Wallace on the ‘Triple Bottom Line’ in B2B Marketing

How does the air we breathe affect the work we produce? It’s not a question I’d pondered very frequently, until I had the opportunity to chat with Ben Wallace for the latest episode of Break Free B2B. But it’s one of many considerations that came to light during his illuminating interview with TopRank Marketing President Susan Misukanis and myself. As CEO of Link Positive, a clean-energy business development service, and co-founder of soon-to-launch energy optimization implementation startup Minify Energy, Ben consults companies about energy efficiencies, reducing environmental footprint, and creating a more comfortable workspace. As he explains, there are business and marketing implications that go well beyond what is apparent on the surface. To illustrate this, he urges a focus on the “Triple Bottom Line”: Planet, Productivity, Profit. All three are intertwined, and they are critical to the way B2B organizations present themselves and succeed in the marketplace today and in the critical years ahead, factoring climate change and the values of new generations defining the workforce. [bctt tweet="Planet, Productivity, Profit: These components make up the Triple Bottom Line, according to @BenWallace. #BreakFreeB2B #SustainableBusiness" username="toprank"] In our wide-ranging conversation with him, Ben explores sustainability from many angles, including how it functions as a marketing tool, practical ways to make improvements, the concrete effects on employees, and what the future holds.

Break Free B2B Interview with Ben Wallace

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

1:31 - Following in his father’s footsteps
3:27 - Moving from consumer goods to B2B
10:50 - Shifting to building management
12:11 - The influence of air quality on cognitive ability
16:56 - Equipping old building to meet new environmental challenges
22:27 - Influencing employee health when you don’t own the building
26:00 - The value of green buildings
28:45 - The ultimate in user-centric building design
29:55 - Sustainability as a marketing tool
32:55 - The role of compliance programs in sustainability
34:20 - Focusing on sustainability as a corporate value
37:13 - Have we lost the war against climate change?
42:19 - Does your company need a sustainability audit?

Susan: Ben, could you talk a little bit about an “aha” moment which made you think you could help make workplaces more healthy environments? Ben: The vast majority of buildings out there don't have smart sensing and controls in them—about 15 to 20% of the buildings have smart controls, and it's mostly the class A high-rises for those who can afford it. But now, technologies are emerging with low cost sensors [such as] cloud compute—and the technology is there, especially with some of these born in the cloud, born digital, companies, making it accessible and affordable for pretty much everyone. And, also taking into account that usability factor and making it easy and so it's not as complex to deploy … I think the biggest aha there … is occupant experience. And, wellness and indoor air quality is one of the factors that has a huge impact on your cognitive ability. And there's CO 2 levels ... outside they’re around 400-500 parts per million, but in a building, they can rise up especially as people are breathing and you get a lot of occupants in a building … You know, you find you might be tired after lunch and blaming it on the pasta lunch you had, but when it's quite often the CO 2 levels rising to a point where you're really more lethargic, and have less cognitive ability. And so one of the big things that we saw there was the correlation of indoor air quality and productivity. And there's something called the Cog Effect Study that Harvard has been working on for a few years now that has shown 100% cognitive ability improvement for green buildings that have better indoor air quality. And so the sad irony about that is many schools, for instance, have really poor air circulation … So the place where you need the most cognitive ability in a learning environment is often suffering the most are those with CO 2 levels. And so that was something that really was brought to light. The people in the building that are the ultimate customers—your tenants, your employees and everyone else. [bctt tweet="You might be tired after lunch and blaming it on the pasta you had, but it's quite often the CO 2 levels rising to a point where you're more lethargic and have less cognitive ability. — @BenWallace #Productivity #BreakFreeB2B" username="toprank"] Susan: How can agencies make more sustainable choices? Ben: You can take control of your waste stream and you know, give some upward pressure to your property owners … And as well, thinking about just the smart use of scheduling. I mean, there's a lot of equipment that runs 24/7 out there and lights stay on. Buildings are the second-largest consumer of energy after transportation in the US. HVAC and lighting makes up somewhere between 40 and 60 percent of that typically. So, there's quite a bit that can be done with just some smart scheduling and smart controls. … Start looking at some [energy-saving programs]. US GGBC is a great resource for that, which is the Green Building Council. And the Department of Energy, which is where the ENERGY STAR benchmarking program exists—quite a bit of resources available there ... I think you, as marketers, and as an agency, you can do a few things. One, you can choose clients with that factor as well, just as they're looking at choosing you based on that. Maybe look at those who are in the emerging new energy economy and sustainability-oriented organizations. But I think just bringing that forward as much as possible, knowing the factors from supply chain and renewable waste stream and highlighting what your employees are doing out in their homes and in their communities as well … Recognizing what you do collectively is something that you could just conscientiously keep track of and look at how to improve your energy efficiency and good corporate citizenship from a global climate perspective. Susan: Can you speak to incorporating your sustainability efforts into company values and brand messaging? Ben: Absolutely. We've seen an even flow of sustainability messaging over the years. There's a period of kind of heavy greenwashing that was going on in the ‘80s, in the ‘90s. And so you've seen recycling programs and you've seen a little bit of energy efficiency with ENERGY STAR products and things like that. But the sustainability and corporate citizenship story can get a lot bigger ... It's really expanded and it's more and more important, widely recognized as something especially critical for us. They are sometimes considered the triple bottom line benefits. You've got profits and it’s definitely good for profits if you're saving energy, saving on maintenance, getting a better lease. You are creating a more productive environment—there's a huge set of layers of profit opportunity. Really what we come back to so much in this is: how is it supporting wellness and reduced absenteeism and, just a happy productive workforce? But then the planet impact is the third “P” of that … There’s a lot of companies and states and cities that are just plowing ahead with a path to 100% renewable or zero carbon footprint. And so it's a long haul to get there. But there are ways that you can not only save money and reduce your carbon and start measuring … to get to net zero over time—consuming less energy or producing more energy than you consume is actually going to be positive. There's opportunities around that from a corporate perspective and roadmap that will align more so with what cities and counties are doing. Stay tuned to the TopRank Marketing Blog and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Break Free B2B interviews. Here are a few interviews to whet your appetite:

The post Break Free B2B Series: Ben Wallace on the ‘Triple Bottom Line’ in B2B Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

5 Free Online Courses to Sharpen Your B2B Marketing Skills

No matter how much you already know, in 2020's always-on B2B marketing landscape there’s always more to learn. That's why savvy B2B marketers are continually seeking out new methods and research, and refining and honing their existing skills. Whether it's influencer marketing, conversion optimization, or search engine optimization (SEO), with more options available for learning new marketing skills today than ever before, choosing where to start can sometimes seem overwhelming. Online courses have proven to be an excellent way to enhance your career through learning, and by offering a work-at-your-own-pace cadence, you can fit in as much or as little instruction as your time allows, whenever and wherever you want. With more than 70 percent of companies recognizing online learning as essential to long-term strategy (Digital Marketing Institute), it's little wonder that in 2020 online courses are flourishing. [bctt tweet="“Learn everything. Later you will see that nothing is superfluous.” — Hugh of Saint-Victor" username="toprank"] To sharpen your B2B marketing skills, we’ve picked out five organizations offering a wide variety of online courses for boosting your marketing skills, and as with our previous popular list of "10 Free Online Courses to Optimize Your Marketing Skills," each is either entirely free or offers a free trial to try out content. Let's start digging in. via GIPHY

Course 1: Harvard University's Causal Diagrams — Draw Your Assumptions Before Your Conclusions

Harvard University offers a free course of interest to B2B marketers, designers, and more in its universally-relevant "Causal Diagrams: Draw Your Assumptions Before Your Conclusions," a nine-week course exploring methods to cleverly turn expert knowledge into everyday diagrams, and more. Harvard also offers a surprising selection of additional free online courses, including 14 relating to data science and five in the computer science category. [bctt tweet="Best practices in marketing evolve faster than mutant DNA. Don’t rely on the same old messages in the same few channels and expect your audience to respond with enthusiasm. @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]

Course 2: edX's Marketing Analytics: Competitive Analysis and Market Segmentation

The popular edX massive open online course (MOOC) organization, begun in 2012 by MIT and Harvard, offers "Marketing Analytics: Competitive Analysis and Market Segmentation," a free four-week online course in competitive analysis and market segmentation, also exploring how to analyze and structure markets. Additionally, through a wide array of educational institutions, edX offers an impressive number of free online courses of interest to B2B marketers, such as "Market Segmentation Analysis," "Strategic Social Media Marketing," and many others. [bctt tweet="“To know that we know what we know, and to know that we do not know what we do not know, that is true knowledge.” — Copernicus" username="toprank"]

Course 3: The University of California's Writing for Social Media

Operating since 2012, BerkeleyX is the University of California at Berkeley's program of free online learning resources, including "Writing for Social Media," with its business-focused look at accurately assessing your audience, relevant content customization, and the importance of telling your brand's story. Berkeley, which also utilizes the edX platform, also offers the following marketing and technology related courses:

[bctt tweet="Buyers desperately want to trust. And we can give them trust with relevant B2B content that features credible voices. - @LeeOdden " username="toprank"]

Course 4: University of Pennsylvania's Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content

Penn’s Online Learning Initiative (OLI) Screenshot Image

The University of Pennsylvania's robust Penn Online Learning Initiative offers up a healthy dose of free online courses for marketers looking to expand or augment their repertoires, including a course dedicated to exploring "Viral Marketing and How to Craft Contagious Content," delivered through another popular digital education platform, Coursera, and taught by The Wharton School's noted marketing professor Jonah Berger. [bctt tweet="“Virality isn’t born, it’s made.” — Jonah Berger" username="toprank"]

Course 5: University of Colorado's Digital Advertising Strategy Specialization

The University of Colorado offers over 130 MOOCs covering more than 25 specialized departments, including this three-month course exploring "Digital Advertising Strategy Specialization," covering search advertising, social media and native ads, and other aspects of digital advertising. Additional free online courses of interest to digital marketers offered by the University of Colorado include:

[bctt tweet="Working with influencers to co-create content delivers mutual value. When that content is interactive, it creates an experience that is more engaging and inspires action. @AmishaGandhi" username="toprank"]

Keep Growing Your B2B Marketing Skills With Free Online Courses

via GIPHY B2B marketers who focus on making learning a lifelong endeavor gain an advantage in future-proofing the work they do today, and by growing your current skills and widening your marketing repertoire with new knowledge, whether you’re a CMO or chief executive you're bound to see newfound success. We hope the insight you gain from taking any or all of these five online course offerings — or others offered by these organizations — will help to make your 2020 a banner year for your B2B marketing and content marketing campaigns. As a parting bonus list, here are three additional resources to help you expand your marketing knowledge:

The post 5 Free Online Courses to Sharpen Your B2B Marketing Skills appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Break Free B2B Series: Adi Bachar-Reske on Taking the Lead in the Evolution of B2B Content Marketing

Marketing leaders are at the forefront of a seismic transformation that continues to play out as we enter a new decade. Organizational dynamics are realigning. Power balances are shifting. Trust – both internal and external – is emerging as the most essential crux in business success. For people like Adi Bachar-Reske, it's an exhilarating time to be leading the charge. Her history in marketing dates back multiple decades, so she’s been helping shape this evolution. “Twenty years ago, everybody’s in a suit. I was the only woman in the room, always,” she says. “It has changed a lot.” Today, she finds that she no longer tends to be the only woman in the room (though the balance is still a ways from where it needs to be), and that’s far from the only change she’s observed in her marketing leadership positions — most recently at Provenir, where she served as Vice President of Marketing before moving into a solo consulting role late last year. Much of her experience, including at Provenir, has come in the financial technology (FinTech) space, so during my interview with her for the Break Free B2B series, we zeroed in on some key topics tied to the vertical: proving the revenue impact of marketing, staying on top of content consumption trends, and building trust with customers when sensitive data is in play.

Break Free B2B Interview with Adi Bachar-Reske

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

1:00 — Introduction to Adi
2:00 — Provenir’s marketing philosophies
4:00 — How are content consumption trends changing?
10:30 — Building trust in the financial industry
13:15 — How technology helps with personalization and trust
16:00 — Building trust in marketing internally
18:45 — Which types of content help sales most?
22:00 — How can B2B marketers break free?
24:00 — How to balance taking risks with playing it safe

Nick: What are you seeing from your end in terms of shifting content consumption trends and shortening attention spans? Adi: I find that myself, I don't read books anymore, my eyes get really tired and I just don't have the time to sit down and actually read, but what I do do, I got addicted to Audible right? So I walk through a long airport, or I sit down and wait for my daughter to finish her guitar lesson, and I'll just put it in my ears. I read at least two books a month that way and I love it because of the way Audible, they've changed too right? So you've got the authors now reading the story. It's a bit like a TED Talk that lasts for a few hours, which is brilliant. And the same for blogs. Blogs were the big thing a few years ago, but again, we don't have time to read, so we did this test here. We took some of the blogs and we kind of condensed them, shrank them up into a one-minute video. It was the same content, but obviously a lot less. And we captured the essence of it, and the engagement was just phenomenal. I think we're all very curious people in the same way we were 10 or 20 years ago, we just consume information differently. [bctt tweet="I think we're all very curious people in the same way we were 10 or 20 years ago, we just consume information differently. @AdiBacharReske #ContentConsumption #BreakFreeB2B" username="toprank"] Nick: Being in the finance industry, I have to imagine that trust, data security, privacy, those are big issues. What are you seeing from your perspective as far as the condition of trust between customers and brands Adi: Years ago the saying was, nobody's going to lose their job for choosing IBM. If you were a big brand, you were safe, and the financial institution had an immediate trust in you. Easy peasy. But if you were a small brand then it was difficult to get in. They didn't trust you. You were just small, maybe you'll disappear tomorrow. It's funny, things have changed. I speak to my customers, large institutions and small institutions, all the time and I ask them: why did you choose us? We're not a big player, we're not an IBM. In the past year or so, the answer I get is kind of surprising. They say, we chose you because you are small. We chose you because we wanted to work with somebody who's nimble, who can work with us, who can focus on us, because all these large businesses, you know they have other things to worry about. They may not focus on us, they may not sit down, listen to what we need, build something special for us ... So these days, the way you build the trust is showing how nimble and flexible you can be. Both in your development and your product, but also it has to be reflected in your marketing and your digital presence. You have to look accessible, you have to look open. [bctt tweet="These days, the way you build trust is showing how nimble and flexible you can be. Both in your development and your product, but also it has to be reflected in your marketing and your digital presence. @AdiBacharReske #BreakFreeB2B" username="toprank"] Nick: As a marketing leader who regularly interfaces with other leadership in the company, what are your strategies for building trust internally, across departments? Adi: Numbers, numbers, numbers. So again, I’ve been around for a long time and marketers used to be the first one — when the quota hasn't been met or something happened like that — the marketers were the first people out the door. Why? Because we couldn't really show any numbers. You know, we spend all that money on an event, or we spend all that money on a beautiful site ... What did it do for us? What did we get back for it? Nothing, nobody knows really. I mean there were anecdotes here and there but we don't really know. So over the years they created all these beautiful technologies that help us measure that, and it's up to us to create the KPIs that ensure the bottom line. So my strategy from day one was to show the bottom line. We spent X, and therefore as a result we had Y inbound leads that turned into whatever converted and whatever closed ... With management, the way I grew my team is, I was able to show the numbers and how they grew, and with that I got more investment, and I was able to show more and more and more. Stay tuned to the TopRank Marketing Blog and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Break Free B2B interviews. Here are a few interviews to whet your appetite:

The post Break Free B2B Series: Adi Bachar-Reske on Taking the Lead in the Evolution of B2B Content Marketing appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Monday, January 13, 2020

5 Old Habits B2B Marketers Should Leave Behind in the 2010s

New decade, who dis? We’ve officially turned the calendar to 201… er, 2020! First the first time in 10 years, we’ll all be writing a different numeral as that third digit. That’s a new habit that’ll take some getting used to. As B2B marketers, perhaps we can take advantage of this opportunity to form a few other new habits. Specifically, I’m talking about making adjustments to the way we approach our craft, so to align ourselves with the evolved marketplace of the 2020s. The New Year is always a fitting time for resolutions and aspirational goal-setting. With this particularly momentous milestone, I’m urging all my B2B marketing peers to think big and commit to some major shifts in mindset for the decade ahead. These five habits ought to be left in the 2010s along with fidget spinners and the Mannequin Challenge.

5 Habits for B2B Marketers to Leave Behind in the 2010s

#1. The Desktop Mentality

Chances are, you spend your days creating content or managing campaigns on a desktop computer or laptop. As such, it’s all too easy to assume your audience will consume it in the same way. But, chances are, they won’t. The explosion of mobile usage has been among the most unmistakable sea changes of the past decade. In 2010, the iPhone was still a relatively new product and mobile accounted for 2.9% of all web site traffic. By 2018, that figure was up to 52.2%. Smartphone ownership rose from 35% in 2011 to 81% in 2019. Mobile overtook desktop in 2016 and there’s been no looking back. Despite this, I still routinely encounter websites, landing pages, and content experiences that look great on desktop and clunky on a smartphone or tablet. Too often, mobile is an afterthought. Instead, it should be our first thought. Bringing a mobile-first mindset into the 2020s will position marketers to be on the same page as the people they’re trying to reach. What To Do: Scrutinize your most critical existing content assets — visuals, responsiveness, usability — on multiple different types of devices to ensure you’re delivering a quality mobile experience. Also, resolve to test all new content on mobile before desktop in 2020. via GIPHY

#2. Aimless Creation

At the start of the decade, content marketing was in a relatively nascent stage. The primary objective for marketers was simply to produce, as reflected by the first-ever B2B content marketing benchmark report from newly established Content Marketing Institute (CMI) in 2010. In this report, the top-cited challenges were:

Producing engaging content
Producing enough content
Budget to produce content

All that production, so little direction… It’s a problem that hasn’t gone away despite content marketing’s maturation over the course of a decade. In general, there’s still too much focus on the creation and not enough on the strategy. In many programs, promotion and measurement take distant back seats. In the 2020s, let’s start looking at the big picture, and channel the same enthusiasm we show for creation into all the other elements of successful content. A holistic approach to the discipline begins with documenting your content strategy and adhering to its vision, as will a robust list of content promotion tactics to draw from. [bctt tweet="In the 2020s, let’s start looking at the big picture, and channel the same enthusiasm we show for creation into all the other elements of successful content. @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"] What To Do: Create or refine your documented content strategy. Take a gander at our top B2B content marketing trends and predictions for 2020 to ensure you’re fully up to speed.

#3. Email Abandonment

It’s been an interesting decade for email marketing. The tactic’s popularity endures – email newsletters were cited as the third-most common type of content for B2B marketers in the latest CMI benchmarking report – but confidence in this channel has evidently waned. According to research by the Data & Marketing Association (DMA), only 55% of marketers believe more than half of what they send out is useful to subscribers, and more concerningly, only 14% of subscribers feel that way. I’m on record as saying email marketing is not dead, it just needs rejuvenation. I think the inbox will be in again in the 2020s, as practitioners get back into touch with the fundamentals that make it such a powerful communication channel to begin with. Through stronger segmentation, audience insight, and relationship-driven strategy, we can get back to capitalizing on a space where the average professional spends 3+ hours of their workday.

(Source) What To Do: Subscribe to a few newsletters from leading brands to do some recon, and adopt the subscriber-centric practices you like best.

#4. Influence for the Sake of Influence

I wonder if we’ll all look back at the 2017 Fyre Festival fiasco – and the documentaries it yielded – as a turning point for influencer marketing. In a way, that whole ordeal was damaging, casting a light on the total fraudulence of paid Instagram celebrities hawking products they had no connection to, or understanding of, merely to seem hip and raise awareness. But I view it as more of a positive: That seedy side of “influencer marketing” needed to be exposed, enabling us all to acknowledge it and move past it. Fyre Festival didn’t prove that influencer marketing is ineffective; it proved that prioritizing reach and status above all else is the wrong way to do it. At TopRank Marketing, we have long asserted that relying on popularity metrics alone is a mistake, while aligning influencer type and topic is critical. [bctt tweet="Fyre Festival didn’t prove that influencer marketing is ineffective; it proved that prioritizing reach and status above all else is the wrong way to do it. @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"] LinkedIn’s* Judy Tian recently shared her views on this essential nuance: “Even though I think reach is part of the equation, and we want to work with influencers who have a substantial amount of reach ... the relevancy and engagement are what’s important. Are the influencers actually experts in the areas you wanna talk about? And are they gonna have credibility with their end users? And then are they going to shed credibility onto your brand as a result?” These are the true objectives of B2B influencer marketing. It’s influence with a purpose. And that mindset should drive our strategies in the years ahead. What To Do: Review influencer lists to make sure expertise and credibility aligns with the audience for your campaigns, and start prioritizing relevance over reach for future initiatives.

#5. Talking About Ourselves

I’ll close with perhaps the single most important shift for B2B marketers in 2020 and beyond: Moving the spotlight from our own products and services to our customers. This is a crucial area where data tells us we’re coming up short. A recent report from Forrester, titled Customer-Centered Messaging Helps Boost B2B Revenues By Motivating Buyer Action, shows that:

88% of B2B marketers admit their homepages talk primarily about their companies, products, and services
13% of B2B marketers use narrative to tell a story, walk buyers through a persuasive argument, or show some empathy with customer concerns
28% of B2B marketers mirror the language that their target audiences and decision makers use when talking about those problems

These are troubling numbers. In the 2020s, we need to take the next step in customer-centricity, going beyond connecting our solutions to the audience by doing so from their point of view. It’s not an easy thing to master – as the Forrester report indicates – but it is a very worthy pursuit. We should all be striving to develop empathy, as it’s defined by Intuit’s Brian Hood: “Having such a strong understanding that it’s hard to tell the line between us and our customers.” And our content should convey it. What To Do: Walk the walk when it comes to being customer-centric. Put customer insight in the driver’s seat for everything you create in 2020. Be cognizant of how often you’re centering the conversation on your brand and its solutions.

Here’s to a Decade of Dazzling Results

The next 10 years are going to be exciting and invigorating. Technology, creativity, and data-driven insight will commingle in new ways to reinvent what is possible for digital customer experiences. We’re excited to venture into this great unknown alongside all of our clients, partners, and peers. From my view, B2B marketers who are best-prepared for what lies ahead will be:

Mobile-first
Thoroughly strategic with creation
Adamant about energizing email engagement
Focused on influencer relevance
Keenly customer-centered in approach

Want to further ready yourself for the year and decade ahead? Check out our robust pieces on 2020 trends and predictions:

*Disclosure: LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing client.

The post 5 Old Habits B2B Marketers Should Leave Behind in the 2010s appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Digital Marketing News: B2B Marketing Outlook Study, Twitter Axes Audience Insights, Influencer Marketing Sees Growth, & TikTok’s Rising Revenue

The post Digital Marketing News: B2B Marketing Outlook Study, Twitter Axes Audience Insights, Influencer Marketing Sees Growth, & TikTok’s Rising Revenue appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.