How To Level Up Marketing Content From B2B Influencers

Why do you even need a content person for influencer marketing? After all, the influencers are providing the content. You just have to collect their pearls of wisdom, make them look pretty in a PDF, and you’re good to go, right? I’ll confess, on my first influencer marketing project, I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing there. Over the last few years, however, I’ve come to understand the role that content marketers can play in shaping influencer content. It’s the content lead’s job to shape the conversation with the influencer. We have to ask the right questions, and provide a structure and framework to elicit thoughtful, detailed responses. There are a few extraordinary thought leaders who will dash off a thousand-word, amazingly insightful response to the vaguest prompt. But most folks — even those who write for a living — need more to go on than “What is the biggest problem facing our industry?” The influencers you’re talking to have spent hours of time and effort learning about their subject matter, building an audience with powerful, useful content that provokes action. When you email that list of questions, or sit down for an interview, make sure you don’t leave any insight untapped. Here’s how we at TopRank are evolving our influencer approach to get at that next-level content.

How to Unleash Your Influencer Content

So you’ve identified the true influencers to your target audience, you’ve developed relationships, and now you’re ready to co-create content together. Before you start, make sure you lay the groundwork for a productive Q&A.

Ask More Specific Questions

Influencers will take their cue on how to answer based on how you ask the question.  If you start with a mile-high question like, “What challenges should leaders be aware of right now?”, you’re likely to get a high-level response, something vague and oracular. That’s not because the interviewee can’t get into specifics — it’s because you didn’t invite them to. A better approach is to find out the biggest challenges that your industry is facing, pick one, and ask what we should be doing about it: “The latest Gartner report says that 75% of managers don’t have enough donuts in the breakroom. What are the options for HR leaders to fix this problem? What do you recommend?” Limit the scope of your question, and you invite the influencer to give a more detailed response. [bctt tweet="Limit the scope of your question, and you invite the influencer to give a more detailed response. @NiteWrites on #InfluencerMarketing interviews." username="toprank"]

Don’t Ask Questions Everyone Knows the Answer To

It’s easy to fall into this particular trap. You offer the influencer softball questions that have a broad consensus for the answer, they agree with the consensus, everyone goes home happy.  I’m talking about questions like, “Do you think automation is, on the whole, a good thing or bad thing?”  And they answer, “Well, it’s a different thing. It will cost some people their jobs, but for others it will make their jobs less repetitive and more meaningful, and that will open up new opportunities to innovate.”  The above is perfectly acceptable, content-wise, but it’s a waste of your influencer’s time and talent. You don’t hire LeBron James to dunk on a 4-foot rim. Ask questions you don’t know the answer to, questions that your industry is struggling with, questions that cry out for guidance! [bctt tweet="You don’t hire LeBron James to dunk on a 4-foot rim. Ask questions you don’t know the answer to, questions that your industry is struggling with, questions that cry out for guidance! @NiteWrites on #InfluencerMarketing" username="toprank"] And, of course, give your influencer plenty of time to think about these questions and formulate thoughtful responses.

Let Your Audience Ask the Questions

One of the best ways to get at these more detailed, more challenging questions is to see what questions your audience is actually asking. There are two ways to go about soliciting audience questions for an influencer. The first is the direct one: Ask on your social media channels and your email newsletter. For example, a Twitter post could say, “If you could ask Lee Odden one question about influencer marketing, what would it be? Answer with #AskLeeO.” Collect the most pertinent questions and let them guide the interview. The second way to let your audience ask the questions is to do some keyword research. The topics your audience is searching for are the ones they need answers on. If they had the answers, they wouldn’t be searching! But don’t stop at the highest-volume keywords; those are likely to be too general. Dig into the long-tails on a tool like SEMrush to get at the burning questions.

Ask for Stories

Many of the influencers we work with are consultants, keynote speakers, or have been executives at multiple companies. These folks have a ton of practical experience — we just have to ask them to draw on it. Instead of asking, “What do you think are the three biggest challenges,” ask, “What problems are your clients coming to you with?” Or, even better, “Have you had clients with a similar problem? Tell me about how you advised them, what they did to solve it, and what success looks like.” Asking for stories like this gives your influencer a chance to demonstrate their expertise in action, and offers your audience a more grounded, relatable look at your topic.

Power Up Your B2B Influencer Content

Content planning is a crucial part of influencer marketing. It’s the content team’s job to ask questions that meet audience demand, inspire thoughtful contemplation, and make full use of the influencer’s experience and insight. Asking the right questions is the difference between good and great influencer content. If you want to level up your B2B influencer marketing content, make your questions specific, skip telling the audience what they already know, and ask for unique stories that only your influencer could tell. Want to power up your influencer marketing even more? Check out The B2B Marketing Force Multiplier: Integrated SEO and Influencer Marketing.

The post How To Level Up Marketing Content From B2B Influencers appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Don’t Do That: Email Marketing Lessons From My 26 Year Spam Archive

What makes for strong long-term email marketing, and what can email marketers learn from a 26 year archive of spam? In 1994 I started archiving the funniest and most outlandish spam emails I received, and throughout the rest of the ‘90s I sent out an annual holiday compendium of the year’s top unsolicited messages. Over the years friends and associates began sending me their own wild spam finds, and although I ceased my annual updates long ago, I’ve kept up my spam archive — a trove of email marketing horrors, hi-jinks, and oftentimes hilarity that I still hope to turn into a book someday. For now, I’ll crack open the archive and share five email marketing lessons taken from analyzing 26 years of spam, to help illustrate how we can adapt, grow, and innovate — and how not to follow in the footsteps of atrocious spammers. Spam usually serves as a spot-on case study for email marketers on what not to do when it comes to building genuine and meaningful email communications. Oftentimes spam is chock full of truly bizarre content, whack-a-doodle predicaments, and convoluted stories, yet from this we can still gain surprising email take-away gems for today’s marketers.

1 — Empathize With Your Email Audience

Empathizing with your audience is an important part of successful email marketing, as understanding the concerns and hopes of the people you’re connecting with is vital for providing the information your email audience is seeking. Some things to ask yourself as you seek to empathize with your email audience include:

• Why have they signed up for our email messaging?
• What are the traits common to our readers?
• If I were the recipient and not the sender, what would I change?

Empathizing with and learning more about your email marketing audience go hand-in-hand, and both open up a wide realm of possibilities to make your campaigns better. “Get to know your customers,” Val Geisler, CEO of Fix My Churn recently observed. “Do interviews, learn more about them. What keeps them up at night? What matters most to them? Ask them questions with long-form answers and record those answers. Then use that voice-of-customer copy in your emails. Put it in subject lines and body copy and CTA buttons. Fill your emails with a blend of their voice and your brand voice and your customers will instantly feel connected to your brand,” Geisler suggested. An example from my spam archive on how not to empathize includes this 2004 doozy from one Gaza F. Fussbudgets:

Subject: Hello! Date: Thu, 06 May 2004 23:31:24 -0700 From: Gaza F. Fussbudgets To: Thinking of driving in that condition, sir? New jobs: Stay-at-home manager Honest people for hire! Do you have only a part-time job? Do you have much free time? Are you a student? Does your class schedule impair working hours? Your luck has just happened! Are you outgoing and honest? We need someone just like you! This is a business that requires a only limited amounts of your time. All job applicants from Australia welcome. Vacancies are ending, don't waste time and use this super offer. YOUR ONLY CHANCE! CONSIDER THIS GREAT OFFER! Remaining questions? Check out our website. Questions? We've got answers.

Despite its reassurance that "Your luck has just happened!" and a feeble attempt to empathize by asking a few questions, this spam email fails on all accounts. Don't be like Mr. or Ms. Fussbudgets, and instead always take the extra time to learn more about your email marketing audience. [bctt tweet="“Empathizing with your audience is an important part of successful email marketing. Understanding the concerns and hopes of the people you’re connecting with are vital for providing the information they are seeking.” @lanerellis" username="toprank"]

2 — Fill Each Email With Unique Value

Savvy email marketing brings your audience something they can’t find anywhere else, whether it’s a first glimpse at a new product or service, a behind-the-scenes look at one of your team members, or even a unique report made exclusively for your email audience. One of the many reasons spam email universally misses the mark — along with tone-deaf legitimate campaigns — is that it doesn’t offer anything unique, instead relying on cookie-cutter copy or only minimally customized content, and the long-shot promise of one response from millions of emails sent out. Consider the following spam message sent to me in 2014:

Subject: Claims Prize Date: Tue, 25 Nov 2014 03:19:40 -0430 (VET) From: Fedex Delivery Company Reply-To: *We have a Fedex package containing $850,000.00 USD to be delivered to your home address as a Christmas Presentation. Send Fullname, Home address, telephone. Note: Delivery fee is $75 only.*

A scam with a promise to send a box of riches to you "as a Christmas presentation" in exchange for a small fee is the antithesis of how email marketers should go about providing value to their audiences — an effort that today is delivered in the form of digital content providing relevant information. B2B content marketing and its penchant for creating a variety of relevant re-purposed content lends itself well to email marketing efforts, and we’ve got you covered with the following looks at the types of information that can add unique value to your email marketing:

• 5 Examples of Effective B2B Content Marketing in Times of Crisis
• Where’s the Marketing in Content Marketing? 10 Essential Promotion Tactics That Drive Results
• 5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing
• A Tasty, Strategic Addition to the Content Marketing Table: ‘Repurposed Content Cobbler’

3 — Respect Your Email Recipients

Treat your email audience with respect and they’ll be more open to your messaging, and more likely to continue as long-term recipients of your email campaigns. Respect in email marketing is shown — and earned — in several ways, including:

• Practicing genuine interest by providing only the most relevant information
• Applying mindfulness when it comes to the frequency of contacting your audience
• Honoring all inquiries with a thorough and thoughtful response from your appropriate team

Don't go overboard with insincere respect, however, as the sender of the following 2005 message unfortunately did:

Subject: Palmer Berryhill I hope you like this wrist clock Date: Mon, 14 Nov 2005 18:09:07 +0400 From: Madiha To: My Dear Palmer Berryhill, Honestly, you have earned it. Take the moment and get it. Make sure while you are at the web-site, that you also get the little box to keep it in. You get a little reward today. Last night I saw you looking at these replica watches and I could tell you wanted one. Go ahead and get it. There are just so many things to handle each day, we just don't often get a little surprise. This is a good internet-site for you to find it from because they have gift trailing. I am totally aware of how many times you have looked at these quality replica watches at this internet-site. Please go and get one. I know they are duplicates and we can afford it. My love to you, Madiha

Although I never did treat myself to Madiha's replica "wrist clock" surprise or the little box to keep it in, this classic spam message does serve as a fine example of forced and ingenuine caring, despite all the love this writer claims to have sent my way 15 years ago. It's also important to respect the fact that whether you have a smallish mailing list or one numbering in the millions, maintaining your email audience’s trust is key for long-term success, as our senior content strategist Nick Nelson explored in “Return to Sender: Email Marketing Is NOT Dead, But It Needs Rejuvenation.” [bctt tweet="It’s better to write for 10 people who truly want to receive your messages than 100 who are ambivalent or worse. @NickNelsonMN #EmailMarketing" username="toprank"]

4 — Use A Healthy Dose of Character & Passion

Knowing your audience is only one important part of your email marketing efforts, however it allows you to understand the voice and tone that will best suit your brand, and will play a big part of imbibing character and passion into your email marketing campaigns. Your email marketing communications should incorporate the universal truths of your brand messaging, however that doesn’t mean it can’t use its own email-campaign-specific voice with its own energy and unique flavor. Not too unique or too full of seasoning, however, or you could end up with something like the following spam message I got in 2002, which ranks up there as one of the nuttiest emails I've received since I went online in 1984:

Subject: Chichi Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2002 13:50:01 -0500 (EST) From: Ray To: Hello, If you are a Time Traveler I am going to need the following: 1. A modified mind warping Dimensional Warp Generator # 52 4350a series wrist watch with memory adapter. 2. Reliable carbon based, or silicon based time transducing capacitor. I need a reliable source!! Please only reply if you are reliable. Send a (SEPARATE) email to me at: [redacted]

I never did send in that dimensional warp generator — with or without the wrist-watch memory adapter — however this message did certainly deliver on the unique content front, and was presented with its own wacky sort of memorable messaging. Some of the top email and newsletter marketers look at the channel as a special way to make a person-to-person rather than simply a B2B connection, such as MarketingProfs chief content officer Ann Handley, who over the years has shared a great deal of valuable email marketing insight. “Write to one person. Not a segment or customer base or persona. One. Person. At. One. Time,” Handley recently offered up in “2020 Small Business Email Marketing Statistics from AWeber.” [bctt tweet="“Write to one person. Not a segment or customer base or persona. One. Person. At. One. Time.” — Ann Handley @MarketingProfs" username="toprank"]

5 — Seek Further Connection Opportunities, Test & Refine

Email still offers a powerful way to keep in touch with the people who care most about your brand, however another part of good email communications is letting your audience know the other ways they can get your latest updates and other information. Sharing links to your various social media properties, blog, website, and any virtual events where customers can learn more from your brand is a helpful way to add value to your marketing emails. Don't, however, follow in the footsteps of the author of the following spam message I received in 2014, with a hook of "Outsource your pain to us!"

Subject: Partnership proposal : Outsource your pain to us! Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2014 02:16:43 -0400 (EDT) From: Christina Zalpa To: Hi There, I got your reference from google search. Through this mail, I would like to seek your opinion of doing some business together. We are company West Midland, UK based company.We are in business of Web Development, SEO, PPC and Chat support. We have experience of web design and SEO too. What we can do: We can reduce your expenses and increase your revenue. To discuss further, I will be available at your suitable time. Looking forward to do some mutually rewarding business together. Warm Regards Christina Zalpa Skype:

Spam such as this — although purely an unadorned scam — does serve to show us that even the lowest form of email marketing sometimes has a call-to-action (CTA), an aspect also featured in the best email campaigns. Don’t miss email marketing’s many excellent opportunities for testing, either, as send frequency, subject lines and all aspects of content can be part of A/B testing as your brand looks to find an optimal balance. [bctt tweet="“Rather than sending more, test what you already do. Then test frequency. There’s no sense sending more of that doesn’t work, nor less of what does work. Test, test, test!” — Mark Asquith @MrAsquith" username="toprank"]

Don’t Do That — Turn Your Spam Lessons Upside Down

via GIPHY By empathizing, providing unique value, respecting your email audience, using character and passion, and seeking out new connection and test opportunities, your email marketing efforts will have a leg up on much of today’s competition. Whether you're looking for professional help with your email marketing or B2B influencer marketing efforts, contact us to learn why brands from Adobe and LinkedIn to Dell and 3M have chosen TopRank Marketing.

The post Don’t Do That: Email Marketing Lessons From My 26 Year Spam Archive appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Break Free B2B Marketing: Sean Crowley of Dun & Bradstreet on Cracking the Alignment Code

“Integrated marketing” is an ideal with clear appeal, but one that is often difficult to actualize in practice. Developing a truly integrated strategy — in which marketing functions in lockstep with sales, product, and other departments — is immensely challenging, especially within large and complex organizations. It’s not necessarily for a lack of trying, or a lack of good intentions from all involved. These roles simply operate and think differently from one another. Friction and disconnects are inherent. Silos are pervasive. As the Leader of Integrated Marketing for Sales and Marketing Solutions at Dun & Bradstreet, Sean Crowley tackles these barriers head-on each day. Eager to hear his philosophies on bridging these crucial gaps, and to learn what’s working at D&B, TopRank Marketing’s Joshua Nite joined Sean for a chat during B2B Marketing Exchange in February. “When you look at being able to bring people together, it’s about creating a common message, a common purpose, and a common effort with everything that you do and how you go to market,” Sean says. “Because it does take a coordinated effort. And if teams operate in silos, you lose the combined value of the efforts that they make.” [bctt tweet="“Alignment takes a coordinated effort. If teams operate in silos, you lose the combined value of the efforts that they make.” @seantcrowley on #BreakFreeB2B #SalesMarketingAlignment" username="toprank"] During the conversation, Sean explored many of the practical, nitty-gritty elements of alignment, including centralization of data, joint representation in customer meetings, and rethinking operational structures. He also cited a famous ocean buoy near Hawaii as a metaphor to make alignment more granular and manageable. Read on to find that connection explained, along with other highlights and the full interview for your viewing or listening pleasure.

Break Free B2B Interview with Sean Crowley

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

• 0:45 - Cracking the code of integrated marketing
• 1:45 - Top obstacles for sales and marketing alignment
• 3:15 - Bringing data into product development
• 4:30 - Which data streams best inform customer insight?
• 8:15 - Refining data and putting it into action
• 9:00 - Empowering people to get the most out of data
• 10:30 - Keeping data clean and consistent
• 11:30 - Where to start with creating alignment?
• 13:00 - The value of marketers joining sales meetings
• 14:45 - How to structure operationally for alignment?
• 17:00 - Keeping marketing involved throughout the customer journey
• 19:15 - What should marketing look like in five to 10 years?
• 22:30 - How can marketers break free?

Joshua: We talk a lot here about ‘don't try and boil the ocean’ but it seems like this technology can help us figure out which particular bucket of the ocean we should be picking up and boiling, right? Sean: So it's funny you mentioned boiling the ocean. What are those signals in that ocean? I'm a skier, so I like to ski. There's a buoy off the coast of Hawaii — Buoy 51101 — that the skiers know. It started off as, surfers used it to identify surf swells so they knew when big waves were coming, but then the skiers actually started to draw a correlation between when they saw the buoy pop, two weeks later there was a big storm in Utah. And it's actually proven out 70 to 80% of the time to be actually pretty accurate. So it's using this intelligence, using technology, and artificial intelligence to identify those buoy pops and create relevancy around that, to actually identify and know how to act on that data. A buoy popping doesn't cause, but is an indicator, of a storm in Utah. Joshua: So if you're, say, a marketing leader who wants to reach out to sales, wants to get that alignment, maybe even wants to start uniting under the same umbrella, where do you start? Sean: For me, it starts at the leadership level. You really need to reach across the aisle and have a common objective, which we all do but it's hard to sometimes break through that sales and marketing dichotomy at times, in terms of: marketers will say sales never follows up on the leads that we send them, and sales will say marketing doesn't send us good enough leads. I think it would be helpful for us to put ourselves in one another’s shoes. One thing that I say to people on my team is, we have an inside sales organization that's following up on the leads that we generate — let's spend a half a day on the phone following up with the leads and actually understand the challenges that those salespeople have day in and day out in their job and also hearing from the customers or prospects what their challenges are. If that's not available, I would say reach out to some sellers and say, “Hey can I join you on a couple of sales calls? I really want to understand how you position our product, how you actually are providing value to the client and to hear what they have to say.” That's a really good way to establish credibility and to say, I'm here to work with you to solve for our common objectives. [bctt tweet="“Reach out to some sellers and say, ‘Hey can I join you on a couple of sales calls?’ That's a good way to establish credibility and say, I'm here to work with you.” @seantcrowley on #BreakFreeB2B #SalesMarketingAlignment" username="toprank"] Joshua: When we're talking about alignment, do you feel there is more value in keeping sales and marketing as distinct disciplines in teams, or do you see a tiger team format working, or even a more broad blending of skill sets together? What do you think is the way to go forward? Sean: Actually Dun & Bradstreet sales and marketing report into the same leader right now, our Chief Commercial Officer. We report both up into the same leader and from that perspective, it's organizationally forcing that alignment because we felt obviously that it wasn't as tight as we would like it to be. We actually have a tiger team. I lead a tiger team of marketers within the sales and marketing line of business because the integrated marketing role sits at that nexus of sales, product, content marketing, demand generation, social media and all of those things coming together. So when we're releasing and launching campaigns, we want to make sure that we're bringing in the perspectives and the expertise of each of those functional areas so that they're well represented, that they're well integrated, and then when we go to market, we can execute in an omni-channel environment. You know, omni-channel is another big trend that we're seeing these days, and I think back to that live business identity that I was talking about earlier to ensure that you have consistency of messaging to a target persona and target audience, regardless of what channel they're choosing to interact with you on. The balance of power of information has shifted from the vendors to the consumers, to the buyers, and they can now go and search for information much more readily — much more freely — and they want that choice of how and when they choose to interact with you. So you need to make sure that your email campaign and the messaging there is aligned to the programmatic ads that you're putting out there in media, and that is aligned to the social media that you're doing and to the talk tracks that you're handing off to your sales team. So it takes a coordinated approach, and we felt that the tiger team is a valuable way for us to manage that complexity, to create alignments, and to ensure that as we go to market, we’re doing it as a team. [bctt tweet="“It takes a coordinated approach, so we felt that the tiger team is a valuable way for us to manage that complexity, to create alignments, and to ensure that as we go to market, we’re doing it as a team.” @seantcrowley on #BreakFreeB2B" username="toprank"] 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:

• Break Free B2B Series: Jon Miller on How ABM Can Help Marketers Keep Their ‘Ship’ Together
• Break Free B2B Marketing: Gary Gerber on Scaling ABM without Losing Focus
• Break Free B2B Series: Hal Werner on the Intersection of Marketing Creativity and Analytics

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How to Tap the Most Powerful Marketing Force in the World – Fanocracy

Photo: David Meerman Scott One of the most coveted things a brand can earn is the emotional investment of their customers in the brand itself. That undeniable force that can make or break a business is why the Wall Street Journal bestseller, FANOCRACY - Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans is a must read for marketers today. Co-authored by best selling author and international keynote speaker David Meerman Scott and his daughter Reiko Scott, Fanocracy was 5 years in the making. David and Reiko have developed a blueprint of 9 steps for marketers to tap in to the most powerful marketing force in the world: passionate fans. The book has a great Father / Daughter genesis story. While David's experiences surfing and passion for live music were different from Reiko's experiences with cosplay at Comic Con and as a Harry Potter fan, they realized how their ideas about fandoms were so similar. Why not explore those experiences further and write a book? So what does Fanocracy really mean? The authors put it this way: "Fanocracy means an organization that puts the needs and wishes of fans ahead of every other priority. Applying the strategies in Fanocracy will make your company more likely to dominate your category and win business. And beyond the financial benefits, a Fanocracy spreads more joy and inspiration to the world at large" I think we can all agree that the world could definitely use more joy and inspiration right now. Fanocracy makes a good case for it too: "In a digital world where our lives are increasingly cluttered and superficial, we’re missing something tremendously powerful: genuine human connection. The relationship we build with our customers is more important than the products and services we sell them." Meaningful over mechanical and relationships and customer experience over transactions is a trend we've all seen coming in the business world and Fanocracy does a great job in three parts of establishing the why, outlining in 9 steps how and in the final section about enjoying Fanocracy. There's an old expression, "Facts tell, stories sell", and this book is full of brand stories that serve as examples from Adobe and Air Jordans to Starbucks and Star Wars. Going beyond theoretical platitudes, the second section dives in to specifics, making Fanocracy a useful, practical guide.

• Get closer than usual
• Let go of your creations
• Give more than you have to
• Build identity to become more than the product
• Be smart about influencers
• Break down barriers
• Listen to rehumanize
• Tell the truth, especially when it hurts
• Develop employees who are fans

Now you can imagine given my area of marketing focus, that the influencer section was of interest and you would be right. David reached out to me to contribute insights from that chapter and he also related his personal first-hand experience working with me and my agency as an influencer himself. David was featured in our Break Free of Boring B2B campaign along with other top B2B marketing influencers like  Michael Brenner, Ardath Albee, Sangram Vajre, Masha Fingelstein, Tim Washer, Brian Fanzo, and Amanda Maksymiw. One of the things our company does to inspire fans amongst industry influencers is to create content collaboration experiences that inspire them to share and drive conversations around the topic. This kind of effort is at the core of what we do at our agency for clients: create great content experiences that inspire people. Working with influencers to create mutual value is a great way to inspire advocacy for your brand. The key is to really understand their interests and goals of the influencers so collaboration or activations can be hyper relevant. Just as it is with customers, brands that create great experiences for influencers can turn those business connections into fan connections. Not only is Fanocracy is a thoughtful exploration of what it means to tap the most powerful marketing force there is, fandom, but it's also a great example of a Father and Daughter collaboration that might just inspire you to pursue your passions as a fan. You can find out more about the book at Fanocracy.com plus a free guide, Nine Steps to Building a Fanocracy in Your Business. You can connect with both authors on Twitter at: @dmscott and @allison_reiko.  

The post How to Tap the Most Powerful Marketing Force in the World – Fanocracy appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

B2B Marketing News: Most Valued B2B Buyer Traits, Top B2B Content Types, LinkedIn Updates Retargeting Tools, & Mobile Ad Engagement Climbs

Key Insights: B2B content marketing decoded, top marketing technologies, and AI spotlight Demand for webinars has increased among B2B marketers during the global health crisis, with 76 percent of marketers seeing webinars as an increasingly successful method of driving leads, while the top B2B content types are eBooks, white papers and guides — two of numerous statistics of interest to digital marketers in recently-released B2B marketing survey data. ClickZ LinkedIn introduces new retargeting tools LinkedIn has expanded its retargeting feature set, with new tools for video advertising and lead generation among the latest virtual engagement additions at LinkedIn (client), the Microsoft-owned firm recently announced. TechCrunch PR Industry Survey: The Tactics and Skills Rising in Importance 50 percent of public relations and communications professionals find measuring impact the leading communications challenge, followed by 45 percent who face executive teams without sufficient understanding of communications, and 40 percent who say that cutting through clutter and noise is a primary concern, according to newly-released survey data. MarketingProfs YouTube Adds New Analytics Report, Alerts for Merchandise Sales Within Live-Streams Google-owned YouTube has rolled out new features for marketers, including an updated monthly insight report that adds a number of additional data views, while also implementing new live-stream sales alert functionality, the firm recently announced. Social Media Today Two-Thirds Of Brands Plan To Increase Their Programmatic Ad Spending, Study Finds Some 66 percent of marketers plan to boost their programmatic ad spending during the months ahead, with their leading objectives including 53 percent looking to drive sales, 47 percent to both generate leads and build awareness, and 36 percent to bolster customer retention, some of numerous statistics of interest to digital marketers contained in recently-released study data. MediaPost Facebook Looks to Prompt More Comments with New Comment Engagement Stats Insights on Facebook page comments will offer marketers a range of new engagement metrics, as the social media giant has been rolling out comment insights, which show how posts that pages have commented on compare with those they have not commented on. Social Media Today Mobile ad engagement rises 15% during pandemic, study says Engagement among mobile ads has climbed by some 15 percent during the global health crisis, with the greatest increase among women, according to recently-released report data from MobileFuse. Mobile Marketer Publishers see video ad revenue begin to rebound on Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube Some publishers have seen revenue from video ads start to turn around from pandemic-related declines, especially for social media platforms Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube, where cost per thousand rates have also begun to stabilize, and DigiDay takes a look at the rebound. DigiDay 51% of marketing professionals expect virtual events to stick around, survey finds Most media and advertising executives see virtual elements becoming an ongoing part of post-pandemic in-person events, while 27 percent don't see attendance at in-person events ever returning to levels seen before the global health crisis — two of several statistics of note for digital marketers contained in recently-released survey data. Marketing Dive B2B Buyers Value These Traits in Salespeople Active listening, problem solving, confidence and relationship-building top the list of traits B2B buyers value the most in salespeople, while top-performing salespeople report getting better leads from marketing, according to recently-released business decision-maker survey data. MarketingCharts ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: A lighthearted look at “Brands, Hashtag Activism, and a Time for Real Reflection” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist Tired Of FaceTime? Good News, Rotary Cell Phones Are Here — Cracked TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• SAP (client) — What SAP did digitally to address the COVID-19 climate — CMOAustralia
• Lee Odden — 5 Hours of Content Marketing [Video Archive] — SEMrush
• LinkedIn (client) — LinkedIn has a new CEO. Here are 30 power players and rising stars helping him lead the company — Business Insider
• Lee Odden — The Keys to Successful B2B Influencer Programs [Register For Free Webinar Replay] — MarketingProfs
• Lee Odden — Working Like a Blog: Why B2B blogging needs to be about more than just writing — MD Consulting
• Lee Odden — Why Your Blog Gets No Traffic — SME Pals

Have you found your own top B2B content marketing or digital advertising stories from the past week of news? Please let us know in the comments below. Thank you for spending time with us, and please return again next Friday for more of the most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news. Also, don't miss the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.

The post B2B Marketing News: Most Valued B2B Buyer Traits, Top B2B Content Types, LinkedIn Updates Retargeting Tools, & Mobile Ad Engagement Climbs appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Project Management FAQ: Top Questions B2B Marketers Ask About Projects and Process

What is every B2B marketer’s favorite word? Process.  Okay, I’m kidding. For people who live and work in a creative field like B2B marketing, process has a little bit of a reputation. A reputation for stifling the creative process with extra steps, procedures, and — depending on who you ask — hoops to jump through. While it’s certainly true that too much process becomes a hindrance, it’s also true that not enough process becomes chaos. We need processes to onboard new staff, establish marketing innovations, create more efficient projects, and more. With such a critical  — and controversial — role in B2B marketing, it makes sense that marketers have a lot of questions when it comes to processes and the projects they aid. You may even be one of those marketers. To help you get the answers you seek, here are the most frequently asked questions B2B marketers have about process and projects.

Question #1: Do we really need another process?

Easily the most asked question of the bunch. Striking the right number of processes is a real balancing act. Too many and it feels as if there is no freedom. Not enough and there’s no order keeping everything together. To get just the right mix of order and freedom, B2B marketers need to be asking this question. So, what’s the right answer? It depends. Do a gut check on your current processes. Are they helping the work or are they preventing the work? If you and your fellow marketers feel like they’re getting in the way, you should look at reinventing an existing process instead of adding another one to the mix. Too often, the impulse is to make a new process. Instead, we should put our marketing hats on and optimize the processes we have.

Question #2: Where can I find my processes?

It’s tough to find the right process. For example, here at TopRank Marketing, we have hundreds of documented processes but only a handful of them apply to our influencer marketing team. So, how are they supposed to find the processes they need without having to sort through the rest of them? It’s natural for marketers  — and everyone, really — to wonder where the processes that pertain just to them are located. For us, that meant creating a process database with segments for each team. This helps us keep our processes organized, clear, and concise. With the central hub, any team member can come, search for the action they need to perform, and find the process they need to follow. The easier we can make it to find the right process, the more likely they are to be followed.

Question #3: Are we following the process?

Speaking of following processes, a process becomes useless unless it is followed. So it makes sense that marketers are wondering how well process is being followed. However, it’s a little hard to measure and track. Whether it’s due to falling back on old habits, or forgetting a few steps, following a process to a T is tough to do. It’s much more likely that only 50 - 90% of the steps of a process are followed. And then there are the times that we ignore the process altogether. To ensure process is being followed, there are a few things every process needs:

• First, every process needs to document the steps and who is responsible for each one.
• Second, each process should have a scenario for when the process gets triggered.
• Lastly, processes need to hold someone accountable for ensuring it gets followed.

These three things ensure marketers know when they need to do a process, who needs to do what, and indicates a process owner in case the process falls off.

Question #4: How far along in the project are we?

Process and project management go hand in hand. Each marketing campaign we’re behind has a method to the madness and project management helps us keep it all organized and tracked. But oftentimes projects just become a massive list of tasks to complete, making it even harder to know what stage in a campaign you’re at. We’ve found that using milestones helps us keep track of our progress. Our campaign milestones are typically:

• Discovery - At this milestone in the process, we meet with the client and get a sense for their needs, objectives, pain points, and more.
• Strategy - Here, we formulate a strategy and marketing mix that will best help us achieve our goals.
• Execution - As the name suggests, the execution milestone is the part in the project/process where we complete the work.
• Optimization - Our last milestone is where we monitor our campaign results weekly and compile recommendations to optimize our performance.

With tasks that roll up into each of these milestones, we’re quickly able to see what’s been completed and what hasn’t, without having to check on each individual task. Using milestones also enables us to see which pieces of our campaign process are the most and least efficient, helping us optimize our processes and projects in the future. [bctt tweet="“Using milestones enables us to see which pieces of our campaign process are the most and least efficient, helping us optimize our processes and projects in the future.” @annieleuman" username="toprank"]

Question #5: How are we executing projects against scope?

The way our projects and processes are built help set our campaigns up for success, avoiding scope creep, maintaining profitability, and bolstering our bottom line. As B2B marketers, this speaks to us on a personal level. And it begs the question: how are we executing against scope? To get an accurate picture of our own execution and performance, we compare our scoped, planned, and actual project hours. This helps us reveal how much time is spent at each step of the process and how over or under scope that time was. With this data and insight, we can then alter our scopes to better match our processes and how long they take.

Trust the Process. Trust the Project.

While we don’t love it all of the time, process is a necessary part of any business, including B2B marketing. And to make sure our processes are working for us, not against us, we need to make sure we have the answers to the questions above. We need to know if more process is needed or less. We need to know where our processes and projects are. And we need to know how well we’re following them. For more tips on how to juggle process and project management for B2B marketers, read this guide. 

The post Project Management FAQ: Top Questions B2B Marketers Ask About Projects and Process appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

B2B Brands Take a Stand: 5 Examples of Going Beyond Words to Action

It’s never been more important for brands to show purpose and to be connected to what’s important to customers. As our CEO Lee Odden recently observed in Marketers: We Can Do Better Than Words with Action, "We can all agree that there has to be a change and that we can all play a part in some way, large or small," a call to action that is being taken to heart by individuals and brands alike. Here are 5 examples of B2B brands making a difference today by going beyond words and taking action.

1 - Microsoft United For Change

Microsoft’s “United for Change” initiative was announced by company CEO Satya Nadella in an email to the firm’s employees, also made public in a post on its LinkedIn* page. “We all have a role to play. I will do the work. The company will do the work. I am asking each of you to do the work. And together, we will help make the difference we want to see in the world,” Nadella said, while offering solidarity and quarter million dollar donations to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, the Black Lives Matter Foundation, the Equal Justice Initiative, the Innocence Project, The Leadership Conference, and the NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund. “We have to act. And our actions must reflect the values of our company and be directly informed by the needs of the Black and African American community,” Nadella urged. Microsoft has also publicly taken a stand and shared its purpose on the global health crisis front, from an extensive COVID-19 response resource page detailing numerous ways the company is taking action facing the pandemic, to special messaging on its social media profiles. “At Microsoft, we’re working to do our part by ensuring the safety of our employees, striving to protect the health and well-being of the communities in which we operate, and providing technology, tips, and resources to our customers to help them do their best work while remote,” the company shared front-and-center on its LinkedIn profile. Microsoft turned its pandemic-shuttered headquarters Commons dining facilities and re-purposed them into a hub that’s now made over 120,000 lunches for kids and families through programs including the Boys and Girls Clubs, YMCA, Hopelink, and Northwest Harvest — a move that also helps support the firm’s many local growers and food suppliers, using up to 65 Microsoft volunteers daily. Microsoft-owned LinkedIn also issued a strong statement of support for those calling for change, and followed up with action by making a series of LinkedIn Learning courses on diversity and inclusion available for free. The company is also sharing perspectives from Black employees on its various social media profiles, stating “Being a strong ally begins with listening, so we are sharing stories to amplify perspectives from the Black community.” [bctt tweet="“We have to act. And our actions must reflect the values of our company and be directly informed by the needs of the Black and African American community.” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella @satyanadella" username="toprank"]

2 - IBM Emb(race)

IBM CEO Arvind Krishna sent a letter to Congress on June 8th with a strongly worded offer to work with the Senate and House of Representatives on three key policy areas:

• Police reform
• Responsible technology policies
• Expanding opportunities

The last two are particularly noteworthy. IBM was involved in the development of facial recognition and analysis software, but as Krishna notes, is no longer offering that technology. He states, “IBM firmly opposes and will not condone uses of any technology, including facial recognition technology offered by other vendors, for mass surveillance, racial profiling, violations of basic human rights or freedoms, or any purpose which is not consistent with our values and Principals of Trust and Transparency.” Additionally, he calls for a national dialogue on whether or how the technology should be used by law enforcement and calls for advancement of technology that “brings greater transparency and accountability to policing such as body camera and modern data analytics techniques.” Finally, Krishna urges Congress to support training and education in “new collar” jobs that require specialized skills, but not necessarily a traditional 4-year college degree. He provides as an example P-Tech, a grade 9-14 model developed by IBM, currently at work in 220 schools serving some 150,000 students.

3 - Dropbox Black Lives Matter

Dropbox CEO Drew Houston donated $500,000 to the Black Lives Matter Foundation, praising that organization’s “direct work to eliminate violence and systemic violence against Black people.” He also pledged to match every donation made by a Dropboxer in June to the BLM Foundation, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and the National Urban League. Dropbox has held Town Halls to address issues of racial inequality, and to explore actionable ways individuals can be part of a solution. The company also took a half day pause on June 5th so employees could volunteer, read, and reflect on recent events.

4 - HP Leading With Values

HP has offered up a number of initiatives that focus on turning listening efforts into action for the entirety of the organization, and has also explored how companies can best take this opportunity to build sustainable and scalable future movements. "Don't mistake good communication for action," Karen Kahn, HP's chief brand and communications officer recently said. "There is a really big difference. Writing well on behalf of our companies and executives is very different from corporate policies, procedures and actions on behalf of our brands," Kahn observed. Kahn and Lesley Slaton Brown, HP's chief diversity officer, explored a variety of ways HP is going beyond communication into the realm of action in a recent hour-plus interview with Aarti Shah, executive editor at Provoke. By opening up the core values of the company, HP reminds both employees and customers what the company stands for — at a time today when brand purpose is likely more vital than ever before. [bctt tweet="“Don't mistake good communication for action. There is a really big difference.” Karen Kahn of @HP" username="toprank"]

5 - Citrix

In addition to a variety of diversity programs outlined recently by CEO David J. Henshall and on the firm's "You Below at Citrix" page, Citrix has presented a multi-tiered approach to taking action in light of the global health crisis, including $17 million to support communities, doubling up on the company's employee matching charitable donations to COVID-19 related causes, and two new paid days off annually for employees to volunteer and the non-profit of their choice, including new virtual volunteering options. During the pandemic Citrix has also expanded its partnership with the Girls Who Code program, including matching donations from employees, customers, and other partners in an effort to continue paving the way to a more equal and empowered future for the project, with new "Code at Home" activities for millions of students and educators while schools remain closed. Citrix's COVID-19 resource page includes statements from Henshall,  plus a variety of helpful resources for customers wishing to take action.

B2B Brands Benefit From Showing Purpose Now More Than Ever

Now more than ever it's important for brands to have and actionably demonstrate purpose, and to be connected to what’s important to customers. The examples we've looked at from Microsoft, IBM, Dropbox, HP, and Citrix show a small sample of how brands are going beyond words and taking action, and we hope they will serve to inspire you to move beyond words in both your professional and personal lives. * LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing client.

The post B2B Brands Take a Stand: 5 Examples of Going Beyond Words to Action appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.