Crunch Time: Maximize Your Content Marketing Impact When It Matters Most

In baseball, it’s technically true that games in April matter just as much as those in September. Each win and loss ultimately carries the same weight, no matter when it’s recorded. Still: every player, coach, and person involved will tell you they feel the added pressure of late-season games in a close pennant race. More than ever, decisions are scrutinized and moments are magnified. It’s where the stars take center stage. The approaching end of the year invokes similar vibes for marketing leaders – especially here in the year 2022, as we gaze ahead into an uncertain future, burdened with the likelihood of a looming recession. Now is the time to play your best cards, make the most out of the remaining budget, and launch into 2023 with momentum. Much like a baseball team scrambling for a postseason berth, the pressure is on and focus needs to be dialed up. Here are three pointers to help you make your push and finish strong.

Home Stretch: 3 Key Content Marketing Priorities

It’s no secret: the bar is raised for B2B content experiences. Marketers must elevate their craft in kind to meet it. Here’s where the industry is setting its sights to keep brands growing and demand flowing.

1 — Take me out with the crowd: Tune into your audience

In a recent editorial at CMSwire, Integrate’s director of content strategy Marcia Trask went to bat for a buyer-driven approach, challenging B2B marketers to better adapt to shifting dynamics. “Despite all the significant changes to buyer behavior, the B2B marketing approach has remained essentially the same,” Trask wrote. “In the current purchasing climate, this is a big miss. Marketers need to pay attention to buyers, empathize with their problems or opportunities, speak their language, understand the underlying business or technical needs to be addressed and articulate how their solutions provide value to the purchasing organizations.” She urges B2B marketers to take a step back and connect the dots by asking themselves the right questions:

1. To whom do you sell?
2. Why do they buy?
3. Who makes the decision?
4. How do you reach them?
5. What do you deliver?

Answer them as honestly, objectively, and thoroughly as you can. Simply working through these thought processes can help you get realigned with your audience and its current state. When addressing 3 Trends That Will Shape B2B CMOs’ 2023 Planning at Forbes earlier this month, Forrester remarked that “CMOs must insist on rigor to connect marketing efforts designed to drive reputation, create demand, drive post-sale engagement, and provide a personalized experience.”

2 — Moneyball: Harness data to gain an edge

Once the final stretch of the season comes around, data becomes all the more powerful to a baseball team. By now, managers have almost a full season’s worth of information to guide their decisions. And they need it, because the stakes are high. Marketing leaders can’t afford to lean solely on guesswork or intuition when planning for what’s ahead. The ability to activate data in the right ways is a prime differentiator for B2B companies. New research from Anteriad found that marketers with data insights are 3X more likely to have increased revenue. And yet … Gartner now predicts that 60% of CMOs will cut marketing analytics teams by 2023. It’s a conundrum, because the coming deprecation of third-party cookies will call for greater expertise and data innovation than ever. As one example of a more evolved and data-driven approach to content, look no further than Brightcove* CMO Jennifer Griffin Smith’s presentation at INBOUND 2022, as recapped by our Lee Odden. She advocated for a more “media-company-centric measurement model” that derives greater insight and value from video content engagement. Examples of core metrics under such a model include Net View Share, Attention Index, and First Watched. That’s first-party data management built for the new age. [bctt tweet="“Marketing leaders can’t afford to lean solely on guesswork or intuition when planning for what’s ahead. The ability to activate data in the right ways is a prime differentiator for B2B companies.” — Nick Nelson @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"]

3 — Rally time: Don’t let up with your strategic content efforts

The whispers of an economic downturn will likely only grow louder in the coming months, if forecasts and prognostications prove true. Last month, Metadata.io’s VP of Marketing Jason Widup offered advice to his peers on how to show your B2B marketing value in a down economy. His first tip? “Don’t freak out.” One thing the B2B marketing industry has learned, pretty convincingly, from past recessions is that the negative impact of pulling back spend (or “going dark”) becomes greater, as does the positive impact of sustaining. This owes to a simple competitive reality: when others are reactively inclined to protect budget – or “freak out” – there’s more opportunity to gain ground. As Widup explained, “The companies who don’t make knee-jerk reactions are positioned well to catapult out of tough times because everyone around them is pulling back, which creates more space in the areas you’re advertising in to get in front of the right people at a lower cost. Chances are not only will your marketing performance get better, but you’ll also come out leaner.” Consistency has always been key to effective content, and marketers should resist any pressure to pull back with that in mind. These can be pivotal moments for attracting eyeballs, gaining mindshare, and growing loyalty. Marketers will be playing under the big lights here in the final stretch of 2023. If you tune in to your audience and its changing needs, embrace a culture of data, and keep showing up in the right places with your content, then you’ll be poised to meet the challenge and wow the crowd. Learn more about TopRank Marketing’s content marketing services and how we can help your brand score big. *Brightcove is a TopRank Marketing Client

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B2B Marketing News: B2B Prioritizes Brand Purpose, Top Prospecting Social Channels, Influencers Increase Engagement, & LinkedIn’s Focused Inbox

The Role of Data in B2B Go-To-Market Strategies 59 percent of B2B marketing and sales leaders have said that they see missing or incomplete information as their biggest go-to-market data challenge, with 56 percent pointing to poor quality data, while 40 percent noted disconnected or siloed data sources — three of numerous statistics of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-released survey data. MarketingProfs What should B2B marketers prioritize in 2023? Brand purpose will see growing importance in 2023, while some 90 percent of companies in the customer-obsessed category have considered improving the employee experience as a top priority, with 72 percent of B2B buyers having said that they are more apt to purchase from socially responsible companies — some of the findings revealed in recently-published Forrester report data. SmartBrief [bctt tweet="“Brand purpose is no longer something you just message. It’s how that purpose is activated by the people inside the brand and received by people who buy it.” — Max Lenderman @MaxLenderman" username="toprank"] Influencer Collaborations Work Most of the Time, Marketers Say 32 percent of marketers and influencers have said that influencer marketing has increased engagement, with 54 percent of influencers having noted that they prefer to be known as content creators, while 65 percent of marketers said that influencer marketing works more often than it fails — some of numerous findings included in newly-released survey data of interest to B2B marketers. MarketingCharts New Report Highlights Evolving Emoji Usage, and Opportunities for Brands [Adobe Report] 79 percent of frequent U.S. emoji users have said that they view the graphical characters for conveying emotion as a way to quickly share ideas, with 62 percent having said that emoji make team decision-making more efficient, and 58 percent having noted they boost creativity — three of numerous findings of interest to digital marketers featured in survey data recently published by Adobe. Social Media Today What will social media look like in the future? Here’s What The Data Suggests. 30 percent of consumers have reported that recommendations from influencers are among the most important factors in purchase decisions — more than the 27 percent who pointed to friends or family, while an upcoming greater reliance on influencers has joined greater adoption of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in HubSpot’s latest look at the future of social media. HubSpot Adobe snaps up Figma for $20B, taking out one of its biggest rivals in digital design Adobe has added online collaborative interface design tool firm Figma for some $20 billion, Adobe recently announced. With the acquisition, integration concerns from some users have been tempered by the powerful unification possibilities the combined firms will eventually provide. TechCrunch LinkedIn Looks to Improve Messaging Interactions with ‘Focused Inbox’, Adds New Sales Analytics Tools Microsoft-owned LinkedIn has begun rolling out a new artificial intelligence-enriched account dashboard to the professional social platform's Sales Navigator product, while also launching an updated private messaging inbox meant to make it easier to find the most important messages — two of several new features LinkedIn has recently announced. Social Media Today The Best Social Media Channels for Prospecting, According to 500 Sales Professionals A leading 74 percent of sales professionals have pointed to LinkedIn as an effective social media channel for finding and engaging prospects, with 72 percent noting that LinkedIn's Sales Navigator tool brings them the greatest number of new potential customer leads — two of numerous findings in newly-released social prospecting survey data from HubSpot. HubSpot New Streamlined Google Ads Tools & Google Ad Extensions Now Assets Along with a slate of new options for better organization of its Google Ads digital advertising campaigns, search giant Google has also renamed its ad extensions to ad assets, both part of an array of new workflow tools Google recently announced. Search Engine Roundtable User trust in social platforms is falling, according to our new study Each year since 2020, U.S. social media users have identified decreased trust in social platforms, with LinkedIn faring the best every year when it comes to user privacy and data protection sentiment — two of numerous findings revealed in newly-published survey data of interest to B2B marketers. Insider Intelligence ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: A lighthearted look at “Procurement and Partnership” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist Fearing copyright issues, Getty Images bans AI-generated artwork — Ars Technica TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden / TopRank Marketing — Procurement and Partnership — Marketoonist
• TopRank Marketing — Who sees your B2B content? — TalkCMO

Have you found your own top B2B marketing news item this week that we haven't yet mentioned? If so, please don't hesitate to drop us a line in the comments below. We thank you for joining us for this week's TopRank Marketing B2B marketing news, and hope you will return again 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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Your B2B Influencer Marketing Program Checklist

Ready to launch your B2B influencer strategy, but not sure where to start? We’ve got you covered! Get started on the journey toward boosted brand awareness (and more!) with this quick guide detailing the first steps of initiating a B2B influencer marketing program. First, identify your purpose. Dive deeper into understanding your clients, their true objectives, and how your business serves them. Through client surveys and interviews, you’ll learn how your clients feel, gain new insight into their influences, and strengthen your overall relationship. Next, it’s time to invest and execute. Use your newfound understanding of your buyers to create a small pilot program. Start by collecting new data, testing overall program effectiveness, and identifying areas for improvement. A pilot program is a learning opportunity that prepares you for long term strategy. Kind of like an hors d’oeuvre before dinner. Last (but not least) activate ROI. Take what you learned from your pilot and use it to build out a long-term B2B marketing strategy. Focus on nurturing influencers, seeking win-win collaboration opportunities, driving overall program efficiency and delivering real results. >>>Did you know that 12 times more marketers describe their programs as successful when they use an always on strategy vs. campaign based programs? Download our one-page, eight-checkbox guide to B2B influencer marketing now to get started, and as always, reach out if you’d like to connect with our team of experts to see how we can partner to elevate your content strategy together.

The post Your B2B Influencer Marketing Program Checklist appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Livestream Marketing: 5 B2B Brands Elevating With LinkedIn Live

B2B brands have increasingly turned to LinkedIn*’s live-streaming offering LinkedIn Live to elevate their messaging in creative new ways. Brands using LinkedIn Live are increasing engagement from virtually all public-facing sides of their organization, and pulling their professional communities closer than ever in real time using live-streaming. The past year has been the first that LinkedIn has offered LinkedIn Live Events, a combination of LinkedIn Live and the professional platform’s other event features, and B2B brands have increasingly found value in the combined one-two punch, as we’ll explore. The updated LinkedIn Live Events experience has allowed brands to create more robust virtual events, which have become de rigueur, must-have offerings for many brands since the pandemic began. According to LinkedIn statistics, when brands use LinkedIn Live they have seen seven times the number of reactions and 24 times more community comments than when they publish standard non-live video content. The sky’s the limit when it comes to how B2B brands can use LinkedIn Live. Here are 12 to get you started:

• Interviewing a Member of Your C-Suite
• Brand & Community-Building Events
• Answering Frequently-Asked Questions
• Talent & Career Branding Events
• Streaming a Keynote, Session, or Presentation
• Product Demonstrations
• Highlighting Special Events
• Streaming “Ask Me Anything” Episodes
• Introducing Various Team Members
• Deep-Dive Interviews
• Showcasing Behind The Scenes Workplace Culture
• Unveiling New Innovations & Product Launches
• Launching Episodic Content
• Announcing Major Brand News Live
• Sharing Tips and Tactics

Let's take the lens-cap off and take a look at five brands that are elevating customer experiences by live-streaming with LinkedIn Live.

1 — Salesforce

Salesforce has turned to LinkedIn Live to elevate multiple areas of its live-streaming efforts, such as its Futureforce: Salesforce University Recruiting, with streams including “Exploring Salesforce | US & Canada (Non-Tech),” which has explored internship roles and more. Salesforce has also creatively used LinkedIn Live to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, with “In honor of #HispanicHeritageMonth starting this week, join a conversation with J.R. Martinez,” and in a series of its BossTalks events such as “Episode #22 Owning Your Ambition - Shellye Archambeau.” Additional Salesforce content live-streamed via LinkedIn Live has included interviews with a variety of guests including Catherine Price, science journalist, author, and the founder of Screen/Life Balance, who took a look at finding a better balance and reconnecting with the things that bring joy. Other live-streams looked at embracing change, such as in “How can we embrace change, and grow through its challenges? Find out on #BWellTogether with Cassandra Worth.” LinkedIn Live events are also well-suited to playing an important role in successful B2B influencer marketing efforts, and as Salesforce global innovation evangelist Brian Solis recently noted in our 2022 B2B Influencer Marketing Research Report, businesses are seeing new levels of freedom when it comes to opportunities to innovate. “When it comes to where B2B influencer marketing can take business in the next few years, our only limitations are our imaginations,” Brian observed. During the early days of LinkedIn Live, Salesforce broadcast an 11-part series via LinkedIn Live, garnering some 600,000 organic viewers accompanied by a robust three percent engagement rate during the live-stream events, and the firm has continued to embrace LinkedIn’s streaming feature as it has matured over the past several years.

2 — Mitel

B2B telecommunications firm Mitel* has elevated its social live-streaming using LinkedIn Live for a wealth of varied online events, including a recent comprehensive discussion with company chief marketing officer Venkat Nagaswamy in, “Chatting w/ @Mitel CMO @VenkatNagaswamy,” along with a look at “Finding Your Soulmate in Business Communications,” with Daren Finney, senior vice president of global channels at Mitel. Another of Mitel’s recent LinkedIn Live broadcasts used the medium to take an eye-opening look at “Marketing that Makes a Difference,” while additional live-streams have explored “What do you do when the world turns upside-down?” and a discussion on “What it takes to create successful digital marketing,“ featuring Hal Werner, global director of digital marketing and strategy at Mitel, who also sat down with us for an episode of Break Free B2B Marketing in “Break Free B2B Series: Hal Werner on the Intersection of Marketing Creativity and Analytics.”

3 — A.P. Moller - Maersk

Embracing its 1.3-million-plus LinkedIn page followers, global transport and logistics firm A.P. Moller - Maersk has taken to LinkedIn Live events with recent offerings such as an opportunity to meet various team-members, as in “Meet the Business Platforms Team.” Maersk has also used LinkedIn Live to take a look at its hiring processes in, “Maersk Logistics & Services - Hiring Process,” along with examining how the firm addresses its array of sustainability efforts, in “Maersk Sustainability & Safety.”

4 — Demandbase

Demandbase has taken to LinkedIn Live for numerous live-streaming events, including a recent broadcast that examined some of the economic challenges that B2B organizations have been facing, with its “Current Economic Challenges & How B2B Leaders are Combating Them” event. The company utilizes the Demandbase TV branding and an accompanying #DBTV hashtag for its LinkedIn Live events, and other recent live-stream events have included a look at the role of marketing data science, featuring Christopher Penn, co-founder and chief data scientist at TrustInsights.ai, and Sana Ghazi, principal data scientist at Demandbase, in “DB Live: What Is Marketing Data Science?” Demandbase has also successfully incorporated live-streaming via LinkedIn Live into a robust online video strategy that includes regular features such as “5 Questions 4,” which asks notable B2B industry leaders five topical questions. Our CEO Lee Odden, for example, explored “5 Questions 4: Understanding Influencer Marketing and Why It's Important for B2B companies with Lee Odden,” which shows the one-two punch of turning live content in derivative digital assets that can be repurposed over time. Demandbase’s video efforts through live-streaming its DBTV content has propelled the company to several industry awards, including as a 2022 Digiday Awards finalist in the “Modernizing Video and TV” category, and as a winner in the Demand Gen Report's 2022 Killer Content Awards Winner, being the Finnys winner for packaged or bundled content.

5 — Mercer

Global professional asset management firm Mercer has taken to LinkedIn Live with broadcasts on a variety of topics, including “Building more relatable, sustainable and people-shaped organizations” — part of its MercerChats series featuring notable industry speakers such as Tamara McCleary, CEO of Thulium and Kate Bravery, advisory solutions and insights global leader at Mercer. Mercer has also used LinkedIn Live to explore “Evolving the employee experience for a new era of work,” with global experts discussing the key actions business leaders can implement to shift with changing employee experiences.

Build Peak Brand Awareness Using LinkedIn Live

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Your own marketing initiatives can also benefit with the addition of a savvy LinkedIn Live strategy, and we hope that the examples we’ve seen here from Salesforce, Mitel, A.P. Moller - Maersk, Demandbase, and Mercer will prove useful in your own campaign efforts as we make the push towards 2023 and beyond. Our latest social media poll has asked whether B2B marketers plan to use LinkedIn Live over the next 12 months, and you can vote over the next week either on our LinkedIn or Twitter pages. You can learn more about how B2B brands including JPMorgan Chase, CompTIA, Microsoft, NASA, and SAP are using LinkedIn live in our additional article, “Livestream Marketing: 5 B2B Brands Rocking LinkedIn Live.” Additionally, LinkedIn offers case studies highlighting how brands have found success using LinkedIn Live, including Adobe, Dentsu Aegis Network, and others. More than ever before, 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. 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 and Mitel are TopRank Marketing clients.

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Beyond B2Sea: 5 Top Lessons B2B Marketers Can Learn from Pirate Movies

Avast, ye scurvy swabs! Today be Talk Like a Pirate Day, a holiday for landlubbers and seadogs alike. Ye don’t have to send cards or give gifts — just use your best nautical lingo and don’t forget the ARRRRs! Talk Like a Pirate Day was first celebrated in 1995, but gained popularity online in the 2010s. It’s a good opportunity to be a little silly, watch some great movies, and maybe even learn a few pointers to guide your B2B marketing.  So batten the hatches, hoist up the mizzenmast, and shiver your timbers: Here are five lessons you can learn from pirate movies.

1 — Treasure Island: Be Different to Be Remembered

Imagine you’re making a pirate movie, and your lead pirate shows up on set doing a weird, quasi-Irish accent, complete with outlandish gestures and mannerisms. I’m not talking about Johnny Depp — I’m talking about Robert Newton in Disney’s Treasure Island. Newton’s unconventional performance is the reason the stereotypical ‘pirate accent,’ and therefore Talk Like a Pirate Day, exists. It’s all there, from the ARRRs to the ye’s and be’s. I recently had the privilege of seeing the wonderfully smart and engaging Sally Hogshead speak about what makes a brand memorable. Her tagline: “Different is better than better.” In other words, don’t just strive to be better than the competition — that’s a neverending struggle for dominance. Instead, look for what makes you different, accentuate that difference, embrace it and commit to it.  Robert Newton created a timeless archetype because he committed to being different. What could your brand do if you did the same?

2 — Pirates of the Caribbean: Be Entertaining but Useful

Now let’s talk about the other weird pirate with even more strange affectations: Captain Jack Sparrow. He’s regarded as a joke by most of the crew, even if they wouldn’t say so to his face. He arrives in port on a sinking ship, walks like he’s more than three sheets to the wind, and greets the world with a befuddled squint. via GIPHY However, underneath it all, Captain Jack is a heck of a pirate. He’s great with a sword, can think on his feet, and manages to stay one step ahead of an entire navy out for his blood. Jack isn’t a memorable character because he’s weird. He’s a memorable character because he’s weird and very very good at his job.  As B2B content becomes more creative, marketers have the opportunity to be unconventional, even a little weird, in their quest to earn attention. But as we do, let’s remember what Captain Jack taught us: You can be unconventional, but you have to get the job done, too.

3 — Muppet Treasure Island: Bring in a Ringer or Two

The Muppets have proven themselves to be versatile performers over the years. They’ve starred in crime capers, sci-fi movies, a gritty reboot, and a very silly sequel to the gritty reboot. But when it came time to make Treasure Island, the creative team behind the Muppets left nothing to chance. They brought in a few heavy hitters to round out the cast. Billy Connolly kicks things off as Billy Bones, bellowing and chewing scenery. Then Tim Curry’s Long John Silver takes the stage and carries the rest of the movie. He gets Long John’s menace and charisma just right — it’s hard to imagine Kermit the Frog pulling off the role. via GIPHY B2B content marketers shouldn’t go it alone, either. Tapping industry experts and influencers for your content can increase your credibility, broaden your audience, and create lasting partnerships to make cool stuff. Our latest B2B influencer marketing report shows just how effective it can be to bring in new voices to your content.

4 — The Princess Bride: Use Storytelling Build a Lasting Brand

There are plenty of wonderful lessons to learn from the Princess Bride, of course. The power of romantic love, the unbreakable bonds of familial love, to never go up against a Sicilian when lives are on the line… it’s a very educational movie. For marketers, however, the most important is the power of storytelling. The entire movie is a story about princesses and princes, wrapped in a story about a grandfather and his grandson.  Within the movie, we get more stories, particularly the legend of the Dread Pirate Roberts. This fearsome, mysterious masked man is more than a mere mortal; he’s a story. He can live forever, so long as there are people willing to take up the mask, and people to tell the tales of his mighty deeds. via GIPHY At the heart of it, what is a brand but an ongoing story that marketers tell? If you want to keep your audience spellbound, follow the Princess Bride’s lead: Make it a human, warm, funny, and empathetic story. Tell your audience not just what they already know they like, but what they need to hear as well. [bctt tweet="“If you want to keep your audience spellbound, follow the Princess Bride’s lead: Make it a human, warm, funny, and empathetic story.” — Joshua Nite @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]

5 — Treasure Planet: Keep Exploring New Horizons

If you get tired of old wooden pirate ships sailing the seven seas, why not take the swashbuckling adventure to outer space? Treasure Planet takes a classic tale and turns it sci-fi, giving Long John Silver a bionic leg, adding robots and rayguns, and letting its characters sail on the solar winds. The movie may not be an unassailable classic, but the change of venue unlocked new possibilities for the story and some truly awe-inspiring visuals: If your brand feels stuck telling the same stories over and over again, think of how you can take it to space — or beyond. As long as you keep the empathy and humanity, your audience will be eager to go on a new flight of fancy.

Avast World of Possibilities

I get it: Talk Like a Pirate Day is really silly. But I don’t know a single marketer who couldn’t benefit from a little more silliness. You don’t have to call your co-workers scurvy dogs or landlubbers today, but take some time to ponder how your brand can be more creative and compelling.  Need help plotting a course to next-level content? Contact us today, me hearties.

The post Beyond B2Sea: 5 Top Lessons B2B Marketers Can Learn from Pirate Movies appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

The Secrets of Creating Inspired B2B Content Experiences, Revealed

Picture this: It's mid-December and you're on a road trip through Florida. A man stands on the side of the highway, holding a sign and pointing his thumb skyward. "To Jacksonville," it reads, plainly indicating his intentions. Without a second thought, you keep driving and think of the hitch-hiker not once again. What if the scenario instead played out like this? It's mid-December and you're on a road trip through Florida. A man stands on the side of the highway, holding a sign and pointing his thumb skyward. "To Mom's for Christmas," it reads. Suddenly your heart swells, filled with memories of your own cherished holidays past, and somber thoughts of families around the world kept apart. Overcome by the emotion, you press the brakes and pull over on the side of the road, waving him in. Or maybe you still decide not to let a stranger in your car, but the memory of that man and his sign sticks with you long after. A few different word choices can make a massive difference in how your message or offer is perceived. This contrast, as depicted by a classic ad from Crispin Porter, highlights the tremendous impact of storytelling, even in its most minimal form. And it also points us toward unlocking the secrets of creating impactful B2B content experiences today. Revealing these secrets was the subject of TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden’s recent session at Content Marketing World 2022 in Cleveland. Here’s a rundown of the recipe.

3 Secrets to Creating B2B Content Experiences that Connect

The good news is that it’s not so complicated. Mounting data surfaces three critical, and rather straightforward, priorities that must take center stage if you want your B2B content marketing programs and campaigns to thrive in the modern marketing environment.

Facts tell, stories sell

This is the core content marketing directive illustrated by our hitch-hiker sign dichotomy. B2B marketing has long been stuck in the mode of serious business: Selling with facts instead of stories. Pitching features instead of outcomes. Focusing on ourselves instead of our audience. We’re kidding ourselves if we think sales is the only side guilty of this. There is of course a place for getting across the important details and promises of what your company provides, but in an ultra-crowded content environment (eMarketer once estimated there are 4.6 billion pieces of content created each day) you’ve got to earn the right to make buyers care, via experiences that break through. Stanford University found that stories are 22 times more memorable than facts. Is it any wonder that, according to the latest Content Preferences Survey from Demand Gen Report, 41% of B2B buyers seek content to share that tells a strong story and will resonate with the buying committee? Not only does using stories as the framework for your B2B content help make the substance more cohesive, memorable, and shareable, it also – when done well – helps your audience relate and connect to it. “Storytelling is the language of emotion,” wrote Rooster Punk founders Paul Cash and James Trezona at MarketingProfs recently. “When you tell a story, you invite audiences to be in touch with their feelings, to get personally invested and to be swept along in the narrative. Great brands, like great stories, explore what makes us human.” Indeed, research by Think with Google and CEB showed that B2B buyers are 50% more likely to make a purchase if they connect to a brand on an emotional level. “Use emotion, storytelling, and soundtrack to grab attention in a way that will resonate with all category buyers and make the most of that earned attention by conveying a message that will link your brand to a specific buying situation,” advises LinkedIn’s Tyrona Heath*, whose B2B Institute has conducted eye-opening research and analysis around the measurable impact of emotional messaging in B2B marketing. [bctt tweet="“Use emotion, storytelling, and soundtrack to grab attention in a way that will resonate with all category buyers.” — @Tyrona #B2Bcontent #storytelling #CMworld" username="toprank"]

Third-party content can be extremely powerful for planning

When it comes to shifting focus from your brand’s solutions to your audience’s wants and needs, there are obvious challenges at play. How do you truly know what they care about? How do you deliver legitimate value and add credibility to your message? According to Lee, the key lies in OPC: Other People’s Content. Tap into existing tools, topics, and experts to elevate your brand beyond its own platform and resources. For example, you can:

• Find topics your customers care about with Semrush.
• Discover questions your customers want answered with StoryBase.
• Identify industry experts on those topics with Traackr.
• Partner with experts to answer buyer questions with Nimble.
• Create an experience combining expert and brand content with Ceros.
• Inspire experts to share stories where buyers are influenced with SparkToro.

Through the melding of your brand’s expertise with respected influencers already known to your audience, you can create easy-to-find best answer content that inspires. Best of all, you can do it scalably.

Without proper promotion and amplification, it’s all for naught

This doesn’t seem like much of a secret, but apparently it is — because too many marketers haven’t gotten hip: You’re wasting tons of energy and resources on content creation if you aren’t backing it with a sustained, strategic promotion plan. Consider these findings, via the Converge B2B Content Amplification Report:

• 93% of B2B marketers say content amplification has had a positive impact on their content marketing strategy, BUT…
• 75% of B2B marketers say they don’t spend enough time on content amplification.

(Lee Odden, Ann Handley & Joe Pulizzi at #CMWorld22) Jenn VandeZande, Head of Digital Engagement Strategy for SAP Customer Experience says: "The greatest content in the world won’t get clicks unless you consider ALL aspects of that content when it comes to organic sharing: The image, meta data/social copy, and of course, SEO for long-term views. (Assuming you’ve already made sure your content offers value and drives to a helpful next step for the reader).” [bctt tweet="“The greatest content in the world won’t get clicks unless you consider ALL aspects of that content when it comes to organic sharing.” — @jennvzande #B2Bcontent #amplification #CMworld" username="toprank"] TopRank’s campaign with B2B telecommunications firm Mitel exemplifies the impact of a thoughtful promotional strategy behind valuable content. Boosted via sponsored influencer placements, their “The Now of Work” ebook reached millions through organic earned media. Feeling inspired to learn more about the secrets to creating B2B content experiences that elevate your brand and forge lasting connections with your audience? You can click here to download Lee’s full CM World 2022 presentation, and we’ll even toss in the full 2022 B2B Influencer Marketing Report. * Disclosure: LinkedIn Marketing Solutions is a longtime client of TopRank Marketing

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B2B Marketing News: B2B Lead Nurturing, Rising Influencer Spending, Cannes Creativity Report

Cannes Lions Issues Annual Creativity Report The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity recently published its annual creativity report, showcasing 76 pages of branded marketing and communications trends from this year's event, which for the first time featured dedicated B2B marketing categories in the form of 11 Cannes Creative B2B Lions awards. MediaPost Instagram remains the undefeated champ of influencer spend U.S. influencer marketing spending has been forecast to hit $6 billion by 2023, an increase from this year's $4.6 billion estimate, driven by digital marketers looking to turn towards more cost effective solutions, according to newly-released forecast data. Insider Intelligence [bctt tweet="“There is an opportunity for B2B marketers to leverage both micro-influencers AND community with 'community led growth' initiatives.” — Dominique Lahaix @Dominiq" username="toprank"] Microsoft Platform Allows Advertisers To Run Ads On Bing, Google, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter Microsoft has rolled out the ability for marketers to spread advertising budgets across an array of social and search channels — notably including Google Search — with the launch of its new Smart Campaigns multi-platform, Microsoft recently announced. MediaPost Meta Adds ‘Community Chats’ on Messenger as it Searches for New Ways to Prop Up Falling Engagement Facebook parent firm Meta has begun rolling out a new feature that is a conglomerate hybrid of Facebook Groups and Messenger, offering marketers and brands new topically-related chatting options, Meta announced recently. Social Media Today Google-Kantar Study Defines 'Budget Agile,' Finds Strategy Improves Campaign Performance 31 percent of marketers that possess budget agility have said that they incorporate formal marketing planning monthly in order to align strategy and budget allocation, a process that only 18 percent of non-budget-agile marketers follow — one of several findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-released Google report data. MediaPost As ad budgets are slashed in the absence of cash, marketers are ‘bartering’ influencers Some marketers are finding additional flexibility and opportunities when working with influencers during a period that has seen reduced advertising budgets for some, and DigiDay takes are look at some of the implications, opportunities, and challenges affecting influencer partnerships. DigiDay The new HTTPS report in Search Console Search giant Google has begun rolling out a new Search Console feature aimed at pinpointing which of a website’s pages use the HTTPS secure protocol for transfers, and which don’t — a helpful addition for marketers and brands seeking to adhere to Google's page experience guidelines, Google recently announced. Google Search Central Amazon Now Consumers' Most-Preferred Ad Environment, While Instagram Is Marketers' When it comes to the online destinations where customers are the most receptive to advertising, Amazon has garnered the top spot, having surpassed TikTok, Spotify, Google, and Snapchat, according to newly-published survey data of interest to digital marketers. MediaPost Twitter Will Now Let You Schedule Up to 10 Spaces Broadcasts at a Time Twitter has rolled out a new feature that will allow users to natively schedule up to 10 Twitter Spaces audio broadcasts and events, up to a month in advance — replacing a previous system that only allowed one at a time, Twitter recently announced. Social Media Today B2B Marketers Are Employing A Variety of Lead Nurturing Campaigns 43 percent of B2B marketers have said that they use early-stage lead nurturing campaigns, with 42 percent using new customer and on-boarding campaigns, while 34 percent utilize advanced-stage tactics, according to newly-released survey data. Building campaign timing and workflow and developing targeted content for each buyer stage are top nurturing challenges, the survey also showed. MarketingCharts ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: A lighthearted look at “Competitor Myopia” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist Apple Announces New iPhones Will No Longer Be Compatible With Human Hand — The Onion TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — How To Avoid Going Down Google’s Instant Answer Search Trap — Content Marketing Institute
• Lee Odden / TopRank Marketing — What Does Conference Season Mean For Your Marketing? — Heidi Cohen
• TopRank Marketing — Strategies to Leverage B2B Influencer Marketing — TalkCMO

Have you across your own favorite B2B marketing news item this 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 join us for the week's TopRank Marketing B2B marketing news, and we hope you'll return next Friday for another selection 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.

The post B2B Marketing News: B2B Lead Nurturing, Rising Influencer Spending, Cannes Creativity Report appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.