Door de druk van covid-19 op de eerstelijnszorg dacht één op de drie huisartsen aan stoppen. Nu de pandemie op haar retour is, zijn de onderliggende problemen niet verdwenen. De eerste lijn is dan wel de sterkhouder van de zorg, maar ze kraakt aan alle kanten.
Is recession-proof marketing genuinely possible in the uncertain headwinds of 2023, and if not what can B2B marketers do instead to best weather the storm?
Recession-proof B2B marketing may sound reassuring, however blindly buying into it could at the very least cause unwanted surprises, and at the worst end up proving disastrous.
Thankfully, there are marketing tactics that persevere better than others during uncertainty, however none will be quite the digital panacea that some have been recently touting.
97 percent of chief marketing officers and brand managers have said that inflation and recession concerns were a top concern when it comes to what keeps them awake at night, according to the most recent “Marketing on My Mind” survey concerns that were new to the 2022 edition of the list.
“Marketers must make the case to the C-suite that a recession may actually be the most opportune time for brands to double-down on ad spending and seize market share,” Chuck Kapelke recently observed in the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) look at “How Marketers Avoid Potholes in the Road Ahead.”
[bctt tweet="“Marketers must make the case to the C-suite that a recession may actually be the most opportune time for brands to double-down on ad spending and seize market share.” Chuck Kapelke for @ANAmarketers" username="toprank"]
Let’s take a look at three helpful things B2B marketers can do to positively address economic shifts while placing the downturn in its proper long-term context.
1 Tap Trust & Authenticity
One straightforward way to armor your B2B marketing against recession-derived threats is to tap into the fundamental power of trust and authenticity.
Building trust with customers has seen an increased focus among B2B marketers.
“B2B marketers see this time as an opportunity to invest in building relationships and trust with customers (28%), and a chance to stay relevant and rethink their brand story (22%),” Tequia Burt, editor-in-chief of the LinkedIn* Collective and the LinkedIn Ads Blog, observed in “Companies Focus on Building Brand to Drive a Faster Recovery After the Downturn.”
Making an effort to better understand customers and their 2023 obstacles is another way to make the most of economic uncertainty.
“Retention rates are softening, conversion rates are lessening, and there seems to be an increase in discount seeking and a more frugal mindset,” Joanna Lord, industry chief marketing officer and advisor recently noted in “The State of Consumers in 2023: The Great Disconnection.”
“This will require us to deeply understand our customers their fears, concerns, upcoming challenges and find news and authentic ways to speak to them,” Lord added.
To help strengthen trust and authenticity in B2B marketing efforts, the following articles we’ve published feature tactics that can also prove especially helpful in 2023:
[bctt tweet="“Retention rates are softening, conversion rates are lessening, and there seems to be an increase in discount seeking and a more frugal mindset.” Joanna Lord @JoannaLord" username="toprank"]
2 Hone In On A More Human Touch
Another way that B2B marketers are successfully dealing with recent shifts in the market is by honing in on a more human touch.
“Economic uncertainty has made people more discerning about how they spend. And hybrid experiences have changed the way people connect,” the team at Google’s “Think with Google” recently observed as part of a look at its annual “Year in Search” report.
When it comes to the people who are creating the human touches in B2B marketing, we can glean some insight by looking at which jobs chief marketing officers are hiring for.
Growth and customer marketing, social customer care, and social media managers topped a recent Forrester list of expected CMO hiring.
The marketing professionals in these roles are in demand partly due to an increased demand for people who can create personalized digital experiences that humanize B2B brand experiences, and achieve both new customer and subsequent revenue growth.
32 percent of global business decision-makers have said that they are considering increasing marketing and sales activity over the next six months in order to help counteract economic uncertainty, according to recently-published survey data.
Our always-on digital work life has led increasingly to burnout for marketing executives and B2B customers alike, and fueled a shift to valuing fewer but closer brand relationships.
“There’s an increasing desire among customers to have fewer relationships and deeper relationships with brands and relationships that are more tailored to their specific wants and needs,” Andrew Frank, research vice president at Gartner recently observed.
Being able to persevere through challenging times is a hallmark of successful B2B marketers, which has led some to embrace the term "all weather marketing."
"'All Weather Marketing' is about having the resolve to remain steady and committed to your investment for the longer term, even as outside circumstances change," Ty Heath, director of market engagement at LinkedIn's B2B Institute recent examined in "Want to Drive Growth Next Year? Embrace All Weather Marketing."
[bctt tweet="“'All Weather Marketing' is about having the resolve to remain steady and committed to your investment for the longer term, even as outside circumstances change.” Ty Heath @Tyrona" username="toprank"]
In the face of record levels of content created either partially or entirely by artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot and related technology, the importance of human touch-points in B2B marketing is likely greater now than ever, and we’ve published several looks at humanizing efforts that marketers can make:
The third key element that transcends the notion of recession-proof marketing comes when we invite greater purpose and make a conscious effort to lean into purpose.
“Over the past few years, we’ve seen an uptick in more purpose-driven marketing,” Chris Byrne, president of marketing strategy and brand at UPS recently noted.
“However, today’s uncertain economic environment has many brands balancing tightening budgets with the need to drive growth. My prediction is that brands that stay the course with their purpose-driven marketing efforts will see dividends paid once we weather today’s economic storm. Purpose and profitability don’t need to be at odds with one another – in fact, when executed together, they can create an even bigger impact,” Bryne added.
[bctt tweet="“Brands that stay the course with their purpose-driven marketing efforts will see dividends paid once we weather today’s economic storm.” Chris Byrne of @UPS" username="toprank"]
“We know that recommendations from people we know, and trust directly, influence how we spend our time and money,” Doug Frisbie, vice president of global business marketing at Snap suggested recently in the same piece as Byrne. “Brands that capitalize on that influence successfully through their marketing strategies stand to win new customers and market share,” Frisbie also observed.
Leaning into purpose during economic uncertainty can help B2B brands share the type of personal digital stories that stand out in 2023.
“Building trust with neighbors is a key part of brand storytelling today. Ads no longer say it all; a company’s actions say much more,” Sadie Thoma, director of U.S. ads marketing at Google recently observed.
Brand purpose is poised to see growing importance in 2023, with 72 percent of B2B buyers having said that they are more apt to purchase from socially responsible companies, as we covered in our Friday Elevate B2B Marketing News.
[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"]
Purpose and influence go hand-in-hand, and in the following articles we’ve explored how to make each work better both separately and in tandem:
[bctt tweet="“Brands that capitalize on that influence successfully through their marketing strategies stand to win new customers and market share.” Doug Frisbie @DougFrisbie"
B2B Marketers Can Armor Up During Digital Downturns
By tapping into trust and authenticity, honing in on a more human touch, inviting greater influence and leaning into brand purpose, B2B marketers may not be able to craft 100 percent recession-proof work, however they will have the important digital armor necessary to positively address economic uncertainty and become all weather marketers.
Our current social media poll asks B2B marketers which business marketing tactic will be closest to recession-proof during 2023, and you can vote on both our LinkedIn and Twitter profiles.
We hope our myth-busting look at recession-proof B2B marketing will help with your own efforts in 2023 and beyond.
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.
Are the human touch-points we use everyday as B2B marketers taking on greater importance in the face of record levels of digital content touched only by artificial intelligence (AI)?
Facing increasing automation from ChatGPT and other AI-infused tools, B2B marketers are taking a closer look at our truly human touch-points to differentiate in the unique year that 2023 is shaping up to be.
While savvy B2B marketers are sparingly using the power of AI to do more with less, some less sophisticated strategies have turned solely to AI-generated content, making differentiation between human and AI service more important than ever.
Let's take a look at what recently-published data from industry reports and surveys can tell us about the rising importance of human touch-points in B2B marketing.
[bctt tweet="“Facing increasing automation from ChatGPT and other AI-infused tools, B2B marketers are taking a closer look at our truly human touch-points to differentiate in the unique year that 2023 is shaping up to be.” Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]
Touch-Point 1 Growing B2B Influence
During 2022 some $27.51 billion was spent on online influencer activities, which was a 20.4 percent increase year-over-year, while influencer advertising represented an impressive 4.1 percent of total digital advertising spending during 2022 a rise of 4.6 percent year-over-year with 71 percent of brands having said that they expect influencers to play a bigger role in 2023, according to newly-released data from Meltwater’s annual Digital 2023 Global Overview Report.
Increasing focus on influence was listed as one of the top four digital marketing trends in the new 465-page report, which forecast a sizable shift to brands using nano-influencer with smaller niche followings, along with a resurgence of utilizing the digital communities of these influencers to increase ambassadorship.
To learn more about the growing power of B2B influence in the face of both economic headwinds and increased use of exclusively AI-created content, check out our comprehensive free 59-page B2B Influencer Marketing Research Report, rich with survey insights, case studies from B2B brands, predictions from top B2B marketing experts, a list of 20 top influencer marketing practitioners from major B2B brands, and much more.
Touch-Point 2 Standing Out From B2B Chatbots
According to Hootsuite's most recent annual Social Media Trends 2023 report, some 26 percent of organizations surveyed said that they used chatbots on social and messaging apps, with 53 percent of those who do having implemented the technology during the pandemic.
Hootsuite's report points out that businesses focusing on digital customer service hold an advantage over those that don't, however in the B2B sector in particular with longer buying cycles and generally more touch-points than in the B2C world brands can also run the risk of relying too heavily on chatbots and other AI technology.
Recent data enforces past findings showing that larger organizations are more likely to work with influencers, with Hootsuite's latest report showing that 42 percent of organizations with more than a thousand employees work with influencers, while 35 percent of organizations with between 100 and 999 people utilize influencers, with only 28 percent of businesses with under 100 employees work with influencers.
Touch-Point 3 Putting The Human In B2B Humanization Strategy
Over the years it's been said countless times that B2B marketing is less about business and more about human-to-human relationships, and if there's one thing that the early portion of 2023 has shown us it's that there's never been a greater opportunity for brands to differentiate from AI-generated content whether it's through shining a light on employee influencers or elevating thought leadership through executive influence, as we've explored in "Inside B2B Influence: Sarita Rao of AT&T on Growing B2B Executive Influence with Social Media."
[bctt tweet="“Working with credible B2B influencers helps to build brand authority through real, human conversations and interactions.” Sarita Rao @saritasayso" username="toprank"]
A leading 91 percent of consumers have said that they trust co-workers, family, and friends for brand advice at purchase time, with some 47 percent noting significant trust, while an organization’s own employees were also seen as trusted sources of brand recommendations, along with those from subject matter experts, according to report data we covered in our Friday B2B marketing industry news and as we've explored in detail in "Inside Influence 10: Ryan Bares from IBM on Influence Inside B2B Brands with Employees."
In that interview, our CEO Lee Odden took a look at the universal nature of influence and how that can benefit B2B organizations. "I have always believed that everyone is influential about something and that sentiment is certainly true within B2B companies," Lee explained.
"In the B2B marketing world, we’ve all come to understand that buyers trust individual voices more than formal marketing and advertising messages, so finding ways to optimize influence internally is becoming a key area of focus," Lee added.
[bctt tweet="“I have always believed that everyone is influential about something and that sentiment is certainly true within B2B companies.” Lee Odden @LeeOdden" username="toprank"]
In 2023 B2B marketers can benefit from AI technology, and it presents a prime opportunity to keep innovating as the technology matures, however the need for genuine human touch-points is rising, and those businesses that use them to stand out will be poised to elevate their efforts in the coming months and years.
We hope that the various aspects of human touch-points we’ve explored here will help as you navigate your own B2B marketing efforts.
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 Now Up to 900 Million Members, Continues to See ‘Record Levels’ of Engagement
Microsoft’s latest quarterly performance report has revealed that its LinkedIn (client) professional social network has topped the 900 million member mark and seen record levels of engagement, with the number of user sessions expanding by 18 percent, accompanied by revenue that grew by 10 percent during the most recent quarter year-over-year, and a ten-fold increase in newsletter creation on the platform, Microsoft recently announced. Social Media Today
2023 Global Digital Report [Meltwater / We Are Social]
During 2022 some $27.51 billion was spent on online influencer activities, which was a 20.4 percent increase year-over-year, while influencer advertising represented 4.1 percent of total digital advertising spending during 2022, a rise of 4.6 percent year-over-year, with 71 percent of brands having said that they expect influencers to play a bigger role in 2023, according to newly-released data from Meltwater's Digital 2023 Global Overview Report. Meltwater
Here’s what B2B is borrowing from B2C commerce
73 percent of B2B buyers have come to expect a B2C-type purchasing experience, as sales on B2B commerce websites climbed to over $1.6 trillion during 2021, an increase of 17 percent two of several findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in recently-published report data, and VentureBeat takes a look at the B2B-B2C crossover shifts taking place in 2023. VentureBeat
B2B Brands Urged To Use Email Signatures, Messaging [Study]
Email signatures saw click-through rates (CTR) from 0.5 percent to 0.8 percent, representing the top spot in newly-released study data, with LinkedIn ads also having recorded some of the top CTR performance, according to benchmark findings of interest to B2B marketers. MediaPost
Microsoft & OpenAI Extend Deal To Make AI Accessible To Everyone
The partnership that helped drive the popular ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot technology has been extended, with Microsoft leaning in to the partnership in the form of a multi-billion dollar investment over multiple years, OpenAI and Microsoft recently announced. Search Engine Journal
Account-Based Marketing Is On the Rise [Report]
66 percent of B2B marketers have said that their organization uses account-based marketing (ABM), and some 82 percent of those who don’t noted that they plan to start doing so over the next year two of numerous findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-published report data. ANA
The 99:1 rule: How to invest in a recession
Economic headwinds are causing B2B firms to adjust the traditional notion of 95 percent of customers being out-of-market, and shift economic demand even more to future buyers, and Marketing Week takes a look at how B2B brands are investing in advertising that is focused on driving future success. Marketing Week
[bctt tweet="“Even in good times, only 5% of customers are ready to buy right now. 95% of customers are future buyers, who won’t need to purchase anything for months, years, or decades.” Peter Weinberg of @B2BInstitute" username="toprank"]
Which Digital Platforms Are Marketers Prioritizing for Investment This Year?
46 percent of marketing executives have said that they plan to increase investment on the LinkedIn social media platform during 2023, with Twitch, Google, YouTube, and TikTok also seeing expected increases, according to nearly-published survey data of interest to digital marketers. MarketingCharts
LinkedIn’s New Feature Can Help You Find Must-Read Newsletters
Greater LinkedIn newsletter visibility has begun rolling out with LinkedIn’s latest update, which highlights the newsletters that users subscribe to on the platform, as part of the firm's efforts to expanded the audience for its growing newsletter functionality, LinkedIn recently announced. Search Engine Journal
Where is Technology Proving Most Valuable in Account-Based Marketing?
54 percent of U.S. B2B marketers at organizations with over $50 million in annual revenue have said that technology is very important in account-level advertising campaigns, especially when it comes to measurement and execution, with activation also a top area related to wielding tech in B2B ABM, according to newly-published survey data. MarketingCharts
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:
A lighthearted look at “More with Less” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne Marketoonist
Have you found your own favorite B2B marketing news item for the week that we haven't yet mentioned? If so, please don't hesitate to drop us a line in the comments below.
Thanks for joining us this week for the Elevate B2B Marketing News, and we hope you'll return again next Friday for another run-down of the most up-to-date and relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page, or at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.
As B2B marketers adjust to the changes that 2023 brings, the industry continues to offer growth opportunities as well as shifts that often seen to happen so fast that they are difficult to fully appreciate.
For more than two decades now, TopRank Marketing has had the please of helping a wide variety of the world's top B2B marketers and major global brands elevate and go beyond merely being competitive, to standing out from the crowd with creative and award-winning successes.
In 2023 we place increased focus on elevating through intelligence, relevance, and the type of humanization that allows efforts to stand out from the increasing reach of those touched more by artificial intelligence (AI) than by human hands. In this spirit, for more than a year now we have regularly made a point of taking the time to congratulate and honor B2B marketing leaders who have recently seen career advancement.
When B2B marketers take on new leadership roles, it's only natural to look for trusted resources that will help professionals in new positions hit the ground running, and TopRank Marketing is honored to have been a go-to B2B content and influencer marketing agency for so many top marketers in new leadership roles. In 2023 we are also continuing to seek out B2B technology industry influencers advancing in their careers to partner with on compelling and unique content collaborations.
We offer hearty congratulations to each of the B2B marketing leaders featured in this eighth edition of B2B Marketers on the Move, and extend our thanks for sharing their insightful B2B marketing career advice.
B2B Marketers on the Move: Elevating Top B2B Marketing Leaders
Michelle Robbins has been promoted to Manager, Decision Science at LinkedIn*.
Focus on growth opportunities, in organizations with strong leadership and access to mentors, and seek a challenge instead of a title. I’ve benefited greatly from being curious, expanding my own capabilities with continued learning, and pivoting to where that curiosity takes me.
Guliz Sicotte has been promoted to Senior Director of User Experience at Adobe.
Paul Herman has taken a new position as Senior Vice President, Global Digital Transformation Services at Sprinklr.
In the move towards creating 360-degree profiles of consumers, brands should always ask themselves: “would the customer be surprised that we know this about them?”. If the answer is yes, tread carefully. However, if brands do this well, there is a future where customers will only know that they have been on a journey if they look back and see where a brand has seamlessly served them through personal, premium experiences. So data has to evolve, become smarter, more available and actionable at the point of customer experience.
A.J. Ghergich has taken a new position as Vice President of Consulting Services at Botify.
Boundaries are shifting and, in some cases, disappearing altogether. The Covid-19 pandemic, of course, has been a great accelerant. This pivot to remote work reveals that real change can be pushed only so far by technological innovation. The other half of the change equation must be the pull of user adoption.
Randi Zuckerberg has taken a new position as CEO and Founder at HUG.
The emergence of a new internet requires a new language that's welcoming, friendly, and inclusive. I encourage you all on the front lines of building in the metaverse and web3 to adjust your vocabulary and change words and minds about having more empathy and connection in the tech world.
Andrew Jenkins has taken a new position as Demand Generation & Lifecycle Marketing Manager at NetSPI.
Thomas J. Armitage has taken a new position as Senior Marketing Manager at Smith.ai.
WHERE you work, and WHAT you do for work, matters little. HOW you work, and the CHARACTER you build, is far more important. Be hardworking. Have pride in your work. And care.
Alex White has been promoted to Social Influencer Lead at TopRank Marketing.
Don't get marketing tunnel vision. Keep an open mind and look to your peers and top thought leaders often for different routes to solving problems and overcoming challenges.
Treasa Dovander has taken a new position as Head of Internal Communications, Strategy Operations at Spotify.
“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” George Bernard Shaw. Avoid thinking communication is a one way street that is broadcasting. Today employees and customers expect authenticity and engagement - plan your activations and metrics around this and ensure you listen fully to respond wisely.
Cassandra Clark has taken a new position as Senior Director, Demand Generation at CrunchTime!
Lauren Margrave has taken a new position as Director, Executive Marketing, Americas at ServiceNow.
B2B Career Advice “I have three key philosophies to my career growth:
One Take risks and be bold. Your peers and your leaders notice individuals who step-up for the greater good; they also notice who does not. Be the one for the greater good.
Two Remember to set healthy boundaries – your career can flourish – be smart on where you invest your time.
Three Reach back to help those that follow you.”
Charlie Riley has taken a new position as Vice President of Marketing, North America at Send.
Marketers should always be curious. Asking “why?” and “how does that work?” with genuine intent to learn helps you understand your product and know how to sell it. That curiosity should spill over into helping others with an authentic interest in growing their careers.
Tameka Kee has taken a new position as Deputy Managing Director at the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM).
As our lives increasingly shift toward being more digital and virtual, the currencies, business models and laws around content must continue to evolve.
Shane McLaughlin has been promoted to Senior Content Manager at Intuit.
Ali Orlando Wert has taken a new position as Senior Director, Content Strategy at Appfire.
Focus on finding a culture that aligns with your values, with people who are enthusiastic about their work. A company can look like a great career move on paper, but it’s the day-to-day interactions with other people that will make or break the experience.
Ben Harmanus has been promoted to International Product Marketing & Storytelling Lead at HubSpot.
Think of who you want to be and what you want to do in the future, and foster personal rebranding. Internal presentations, but also repositioning on LinkedIn help being considered for your preferred role.
Crystal Williams has taken a new position as Marketing Director at Madison Energy Investments.
There's this phrase I've always loved: Il pui nell uno. "Nothing is quite beautiful alone." There's something so beautiful about duality, multiplicity...being many things. That would be the title that would fit me.
Karen McDermott has taken a new position as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Vast Bank.
Jacob Hill has taken a new position as Chief Marketing Officer at Engage AI.
Next time you're having coffee with one of your business buddies, ask them this:
"What's the best business advice you've ever gotten?"
You'll get a glimpse of their personal and professional values just from learning what words of wisdom have stuck with them.
Julia McCoy has taken a new position as Vice President of Marketing at Content at Scale.
An entrepreneur CAN become employed again! After 11 years of building my own businesses, I took a salaried, full-time VP of Marketing role at Content at Scale and I haven't had this much fun at work maybe ever – because, for the first time, I'm not responsible for everything. Just the area I truly love, which is content marketing and existing revenue growth.
Please don't let society's pressure that you "can't go backwards because you've started your own thing, and now you're unemployable," stop you from a GOOD thing. That is a myth gravely hurting the ability to breathe, feel at peace, and ENJOY what you do! A "job" can actually be the vehicle and bridge you personally need to succeed at life and in your industry. For example, I could never have the kind of reach and impact I now have in the mix of thousands of use cases as Content at Scale's marketing VP.
Alexa Rotman has taken a new position as Enterprise Business Development Manager at Meltwater.
Shashi Bellamkonda has taken a new position as Principal Research Director at SoftwareReviews.
Each new phase in life, particularly switching careers, presents a chance to transform yourself. Keep your possibilities limitless and pick a path that will assist you in staying a lifelong learner. Create positive energy by being of service to your connections without expecting anything in return, and it will ultimately benefit you in various ways, including enhancing your happiness.
Jessica Greene has taken a new position as Director of Demand Generation at TestBox.
Travis Flak has taken a new position as Director of Marketing at Foundry.
You must use sincerity, empathy, and active listening skills. Care about your network's careers and interests. Like their posts and share their content. Comment with "congratulations" to a job promotion, or a career move to another company. These people are your friends and need to be treated as such. They will respond in kind when they hear from you, and one day you'll be in a position to pay it forward.
Travis is a TopRank Marketing alumni.
Tony Ciolino has taken a new position as Senior Director, Global Growth and Success Strategy at Sprout Social.
Thanks To Each of These Inspiring Leaders For Helping Elevate the B2B Marketing Industry In 2023
We extend many thanks to each of the talented B2B marketing professionals we've featured here, who have all recently been promoted or taken on new industry positions. We're certain that you'll elevate with intelligence, relevance and a human touch, and reach new heights in your new roles in 2023.
You can find our previous edition of B2B Marketers on the Move here.
When you were getting started in B2B marketing or selling, did you suspect you’d be selling your product more or less the same way for years at a time, or maybe for even longer?
What a sweet dream that was. But a few years in B2B shook you awake.
The truth is, the B2B consumer doesn’t just change as quickly as the B2C consumer; they actually change considerably faster. Your B2B customer’s needs are constantly morphing and evolving just as fast as their industry develops, their competition stiffens, and new technologies enter the fore.
The B2B brand that keeps its existing customers and brings in new ones has to evolve even faster than its customers. As a B2B marketer or B2B salesperson, your job is to understand what your customer’s need just as quickly (or even faster than) they realize they need it and demonstrate that you can provide it.
While there’s not exactly a foolproof, one-size-fits-all model for prognosticating your customer’s needs and speaking to them (wouldn’t that be nice), there is a generalized five step process savvy B2B marketers like you can follow to double and triple check that you understand your customer’s needs and that you’re speaking to them as directly and effectively as possible.
Let’s follow the data and break down that process:
Step 1: Reassess & prioritize your Category Entry Points
Your Category Entry Points, or CEPs, are the main, recurring pain points and motivations your buyers experience that cause them to seek out a product or service like yours in the first place. CEPs create your buyer’s initial need to find your product.
First, ask yourself if your primary CEPs are still relevant. Are customers still experiencing the pain points and motivations that cause them to seek out your category of products and services? Just as importantly, do they perceive those pain points and motivations in a way that’s still causing them to seek out products like yours, or has something shifted?
If your CEPs have shifted, why is that? Is there a new product or technology that is solving your original CEP concerns in a different way? Have your customer’s businesses changed such that their motivations and pain points aren’t what they once were? Most importantly: what is motivating your customers to seek out new products now?
Broaden your CEPs to include the new ways your customers are thinking about and approaching their pain points, then focus on addressing these newly broadened topics of concern across your marketing initiatives. As vice president of marketing at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions* Jim Habig recently shared when speaking about B2B marketing in 2023, “The key to making your promise valuable is in understanding your customer. Essentially you need to understand what they need to do, when they need to do it, why it will help them, and who needs to be on board to move forward.”
[bctt tweet="“The key to making your promise valuable is in understanding your customer. Essentially you need to understand what they need to do, when they need to do it, why it will help them, and who needs to be on board to move forward.” @JimHabig" username="toprank"]
Step 2: Contextualize CEPs according to customer pain points
Did you know that 76% of of B2B buyers now expect a personalized sales pitch that speaks directly to their specific goals and pain points? This remains true, despite the fact that the majority (57%) of B2B buyers also prefer to analyze their initial needs and identify possible solutions online before involving a sales professional.
As this graph from Gartner’s report on “The B2B Buying Journey” illustrates, the typical B2B buyer actually spends 10% more time researching solutions online independently than they do meeting with potential suppliers and sales reps.
Perhaps most eye-opening of all: a staggering 83% of B2B buyers prefer ordering or paying through digital commerce. Taken together, these stats spell it out: that “personalized sales pitch” customers are asking for can’t just happen when they’re in front of a sales rep anymore. It has to start as soon as they interact with your brand’s content online.
Figure out exactly how your customers are thinking about their pain points and create online marketing content laser-targeted toward addressing those concerns as early and often as possible.
“Investments will focus on the tech that meets a business’s need rather than bells and whistles that deliver little value,” Voss said. “We know the martech landscape is enormous with an ever-increasing long tail of solutions. This has led many businesses to purchase unnecessary tech that they think will solve all known and unknown problems. But economic stressors will help put a kibosh on any unnecessary investments that don’t show a tangible impact on marketing goals while drawing on minimal resources.”
“Tangible impact” is the key phrase here. Align your CEPs with your customer’s biggest worries and make the case for how you can solve those worries as explicitly as possible.
Step 3: Address CEPs across the entire buying cycle & for all buyer roles
Of course, in order to identify your customer’s biggest worries, you have to identify all of your customers. That’s getting harder, too. According to a Forrester Consulting and Outreach survey, 75% of B2B buyers say there are more people involved in their decision-making process than ever.
Gartner’s report finds that a typical B2B purchase now involves six to 10 decision makers, each armed with four or five pieces of information they’ve gathered independently… and, as this chart demonstrates, each with their own role in the ultimate decision.
According to Insider Intelligence, 75% of B2B buyers say that the time an average buying cycle takes is also getting longer in general.
The longer the B2B buying cycle takes and the more decision makers are involved in it, the less linear the purchase journey ultimately becomes, as this chart from Gartner demonstrates:
Frustrating though the complexity of the modern B2B buying journey may seem, however, it also represents an opportunity. Each of the members of your customer’s buying committee will be conducting their own research and contributing their findings to the group. The more you appear in their findings, the more mental availability you’ll build with the entire committee.
As you develop your brand’s marketing content, keep every member of your customer’s buying committee in mind. Hit these members with targeted content along each and every step of their buyer’s journey, from problem identification to supplier selection, repeatedly. You objective is to show up with answers to their questions and concerns no matter where they are in the process and no matter how many times they return to that point in the process.
Persistent messaging and patience are key here. Keep providing useful information, and your customer will find it eventually.
Step 4: Provide new information & contextualize existing information
B2B buyers are five times more likely to engage with a sales rep who provides new insights about their business over someone who tells them what they already know. This insight can be extended to brand marketing material, as well.
Gartner research found that customers who perceived the information they received from suppliers to be helpful in advancing across their buying jobs were 2.8 times more likely to experience a high degree of purchase ease, and three times more likely to buy a bigger deal with less regret.
Don’t underestimate today’s B2B buyer: the typical buying committee is highly-engaged with the latest studies, insights, and opinions circulating in their industry. They’ve read your content, your competitor’s content, and how their competitors feel about both. They have arrived at their own conclusions. Your job is to speak to those conclusions and make the case for your product on their terms.
As you’re creating your marketing content, pay close attention to what you – and your competition – have already told the buying committee. Don’t just repeat yourself. Contextualize and respond to the information that your committee will already be processing. Bring up the studies that they’ve seen in your own content. Provide new insights and takeaways about the stats they’ve been arguing about. Demonstrate that your brand is every bit as up to speed and interested in the contemporary challenges of their industry as they are.
Then, make the case for your product in this new context.
Step 5: Rinse & repeat
The final step in this process is the most important of all: you have to keep doing this constantly. The B2B buying committee is going to keep evolving just as quickly as their industries. The faster their industries grow and develop, the quicker your buyer’s needs and concerns will change.
Return to this five step process and reevaluate your CEPs from the ground-up every couple of months to keep ahead of a curve that’s growing ever-steeper and keep speaking to your customer’s needs no matter how quickly they change.
And remember, if you need help with any step in this process, from content ideation to creation to targeting, TopRank Marketing is ready to help.
2023 Edelman Trust Barometer: Business is only institution viewed as ethical, competent
62 percent of global respondents in Edelman's annual Trust Barometer have said that they place the most trust in businesses, topping the 59 percent achieved by second-place category non-governmental organizations (NGOs), achieving top marks for both competency and ethical factors, according to data from the newly-published survey. PRWeek
Gartner Survey: 84% Of Leaders Cite Customer Data & Analytics As ‘Very Or Extremely Important’ For Achieving Goals
84 percent of both B2B and B2C leaders have noted that they consider customer analytics and data as very or extremely important in reaching 2023 organizational goals, while 80 percent have highlighted the importance of increasing digital channel effectiveness two of several findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in recently-released report data. Demand Gen Report
New Report Shows that Time Spent Using Social Apps Rose to New Highs in 2022
Consumers spent more than 2 trillion hours using social media mobile apps during 2022 on Android devices alone, with the most gains in new U.S. users during the year coming from the BeReal app, as TikTok took in the most in-app revenue two of numerous statistics of interest to digital marketers shown in newly-published report data. Social Media Today
More core industries go hard core for B2B digital commerce
B2B buyers have pinpointed a smooth purchasing process as their most desired digital feature, while digital commerce as a whole has been growing in adoption in the B2B sector as digital-first initiatives continue to expand, according to recently-released B2B eCommerce survey data. Digital Commerce 360
What Challenges Are Brands Facing When Reaching Target Audiences?
54 percent of marketing decision-makers have said that understanding customer needs based on data is a top brand challenge, with 53 percent singling out the creation of personalized ad experiences, and 50 percent who said driving insights from customer data, according to newly-published survey data. MarketingCharts
Marketers Finally Make Digital Ads More Relevant, Data Shows
A mere six percent of overall U.S. consumers have said the digital ads they see are very relevant, while those in the Gen Z demographic noted greater ad relevance, with 56 percent of consumers noting they are either somewhat or very likely to click on a digital ad that is relevant to their interests a number that was up from 43 percent in 2021, according to findings contained in a new digital advertising relevance survey. MediaPost
Changing Customer Journeys Are Impacting CX Strategies
64 percent of primarily B2B marketers have noted that the shift to digital-first customer journeys has changed their customer experience (CX) strategy either very or extremely much, with 35 percent having said that they are very or extremely confident in their CX strategy for winning and retaining customers two of several findings of interest to online marketers contained in recently-published survey data. MarketingCharts
Google Research, 2022 & Beyond: Language, Vision and Generative Models
Google has shared updated and new details about its artificial intelligence (AI) principles, responsibilities, and future plans that are expected to have an effect on a number of the search giant's products and services, coming as ChatGPT and other AI-infused tools have been either rolled out or announced by Microsoft and others, Google recently announced. Google
[bctt tweet="“Google has some insane AI. They plan to use it and make it widely available. But they are trying to balance the need for responsibility, and wish others would do the same.” Paul Roetzer @PaulRoetzer" username="toprank"]
Cannes Lions Add Sustainability Reporting To Awards Submissions
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity has for the first time included campaign sustainability reporting as an element for its forthcoming awards event, and will this year be non-compulsory and not among the campaign elements that are judged, Cannes Lions recently announced. MediaPost
LinkedIn Shares New Data on Engagement and Ad Performance [Infographic]
Brands that had digital advertisements viewed on Microsoft's LinkedIn (client) platform resulted in a 10 to 15 percent rise in short-term sales performance, with live event content on the professional social media site seeing a 176 percent rise in the number of scheduled LinkedIn Live events year-over-year two of numerous findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-published infographic findings from LinkedIn. Social Media Today
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:
A lighthearted look at the “Definition of Marketing Insanity” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne Marketoonist
Metaverse Landlords Are Creating a New Class System Wired
Lee Odden / TopRank Marketing 100 Best Social Media Blogs and Websites Feedspot
Lee Odden / TopRank Marketing 40+ Blogs Marketers Should Be Following Ready North
Have you come across an important B2B marketing news item for the week that we haven't yet mentioned? If so, please don't hesitate to drop us a line in the comments below.
Thank you for taking the time to join us this week for the Elevate B2B Marketing News, and we hope you will be back next Friday for another array of the most up-to-date and relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page, or at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.
How can B2B marketers craft content that truly stands out from the growing volume of information that may be touched more by artificial intelligence (AI) than human hands?
Faced with increasing automation from ChatGPT and other AI-infused tools, B2B marketers are seeing human touch-points taking on greater importance, as they become a key differentiator in 2023.
Through the lens of intelligence, relevance, and humanization, let’s take a look at some of the areas where B2B marketers can emphasize and differentiate with those human touch-points and human-to-human relationships that AI content alone can’t outdo.
1 Humanize By Forging New B2B Relationships
The global market for AI is growing rapidly, and forecasts predict even greater adoption of the technology in coming years, with estimates from Technavio showing growth by $125.3 billion through 2027, with year-over-year growth in 2023 expected to rise by 20.48 percent.
Faced with the growth of AI, savvy B2B marketers can create content that sets brands apart by focusing on people over pixels, and one great way to accentuate this is through forging new relationships.
With distrust of brands and advertising at all time highs, human-to-human connections and networks of people are more important than ever for B2B marketers.
Finding the time to network is also a challenge as expectations of marketers to do more with less persists, heightened by rising economic concerns. So just how can marketers create new professional connections that endure and strengthen their existing business relationships?
With ostensibly more ways than ever to find new connections both online and off, the task can at times seem overwhelming.
Luckily, by setting specific goals and putting a clear strategy in place to achieve them, marketers can start truly tapping into the power of building new connections and making them along with existing ones stand the test of time.
2 Level Up By Strengthening Existing B2B Relationships
While building new relationships is a fundamental part of B2B marketing that AI can’t match, the power of strengthening and building on existing partnerships shouldn’t be overlooked.
Some of the largest firms in the world are struggling to adapt to the warp-speed change that ChatGPT and other AI technologies have brought.
Google recently shared new insight into its AI roadmap, in “Why we focus on AI (and to what end),” noting both the technology’s value and its challenges.
“We believe that AI is a foundational and transformational technology that will provide compelling and helpful benefits to people and society through its capacity to assist, complement, empower, and inspire people in almost every field of human endeavor,” James Manyika, senior vice president of technology and society at Google and his team observed.
“At the same time, we understand that AI, as a still-emerging technology, poses various and evolving complexities and risks. Our development and use of AI must address these risks. That’s why we as a company consider it an imperative to pursue AI responsibly,” Manyika added.
B2B marketers face obstacles when waiting too long to make necessary changes that drive confidence, collaboration, and trust, sometimes postponing decisions that create legitimate change, yet by focusing on nurturing existing relationships, B2B marketers can help jump-start an otherwise stalled process.
[bctt tweet="“In an era of reduced demand, the best sales organizations will invest more of their time nurturing existing relationships and mapping out new strategic relationships they need to build.” Alyssa Merwin Henderson of @LinkedIn" username="toprank"]
3 Combining It All With B2B Influencer Marketing
One of the best methods for incorporating more human elements in 2023 is by taking advantage of B2B influencer marketing.
Influencer marketing has continued to emerge as a key way that B2B brands can get the most marketing bang for their buck and help recession-proof marketing strategy. U.S. organizations are expected to spend $6.16 billion on influencer marketing during 2023, climbing from the $5 billion seen during 2022, as influencer marketing has been more resilient than other forms of marketing, with influencer marketing budgets staying strong, according to recently-published forecast data from Insider Intelligence.
Recent analysis published in the Harvard Business Review has shown that average brand boost could reach 16.6 percent by properly utilizing influencer marketing, with influencer originality alone accounting for a 15.5 percent rise in return on investment (ROI).
B2B marketers have indicated that influencer marketing will be among their three top priorities in the next three to five years, as 59 percent of marketing leaders noted that they considered B2B influencer marketing a priority today, and 64 percent pinpointing it as a top priority over the upcoming three to five years, according to recently-released survey data from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA).
"In our survey, over half of respondents said they included internal executives in their influencer content. Nearly half said they included their employees as well. This is a clear opportunity to create more valuable content and build your organization’s thought leadership at the same time," Joshua observed.
"It’s time to redefine influence. Your most valuable prospects are looking to industry leaders, practitioners and peers for advice. Your team can deliver all of the above with the right mix of influencers," Joshua added.
[bctt tweet="“It’s time to redefine influence. Your most valuable prospects are looking to industry leaders, practitioners and peers for advice. Your team can deliver all of the above with the right mix of influencers.” Joshua Nite @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]
Real Connections Increasingly Set Winning B2B Marketers Apart
By forging new relationships, strengthening existing ones, and implementing B2B influencer marketing, marketers can take advantage of key human-made differentiators that no amount of AI-generated content can output.
Crafting award-winning B2B marketing that elevates with intelligence and relevance 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.
B2B Marketers Prioritizing Data and Technology to Succeed in 2023
86 percent of B2B marketers have said they will invest more in technology during 2023 that they did in 2022, with 36 percent planning major increases, while 46 percent noted that centralizing and unifying data were their top priorities for making better use of data in the coming year, according to recently-released Association of National Advertisers (ANA) survey data. ANA
Microsoft eyes $10 billion bet on ChatGPT
Microsoft has reportedly been in talks to invest $10 billion in the OpenAI research organization the group behind the popular ChatGPT artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot technology funding that would value OpenAI at some $29 billion, and eventually see Microsoft holding a 49 percent stake in the organization. Semafor
Global advertising spend forecasts reduced by $90bn as digital slowdown bites - report
52 percent of marketers said that they plan to increase investment with creators and social media influencers, despite overall global digital advertising spending predicted to fall some $90 billion for 2023, with 65 percent having noted their focus on content creators is due to being part of communities authentically aligned with their brand, according to newly-published forecast data from the World Advertising Research Center (WARC). Mobile Marketing
YouTube Tests Suggested Hashtags For Shorts Creators
Google's YouTube has launched tests that provide creators using the Shorts video feature on the video platform a new array of hashtag finding tools and suggestions, currently limited to users of the platform's mobile app, YouTube recently announced. MediaPost
OpenAI begins piloting ChatGPT Professional, a premium version of its viral chatbot
The OpenAI research organization will begin a fee-based usage system for its forthcoming ChatGPT Professional chatbot system, with the new paid version expected to offer increased uptime and at least double the present daily limit of prompt queries, OpenAI recently announced. TechCrunch
More Americans Say They’re Engaging with Brands on Social Platforms
88 percent of U.S. consumers have said that they engaged with brands via social media during 2022, up from 82 percent in 2021, with 61.8 percent using Facebook, 54.6 percent YouTube, 45.2 percent Instagram, and 35 percent TikTok two of several findings of interest to digital marketers contained in newly-published survey results. MarketingCharts
AI For SEO: Can You Work Faster & Smarter?
AI technology once primarily available only to large organizations has become within reach for small and medium size businesses, and an increasing number are focusing the technology on multiple aspects of their search engine optimization (SEO) efforts, and Search Engine Journal recently took a look at some of the SEO-related opportunities AI now offers. Search Engine Journal
Words To Live By: Language That Engages Consumers - Or Drives Them Away
Among the words that performed the best when used in marketing email subject lines during 2022 were announcement, "Re:", dropped, scored, confirmed, and ASAP some of the findings contained in newly-published analysis derived from over 21 billion consumer impressions. MediaPost
Instagram is removing the Shop tab, moving Reels from the center spot in design overhaul next month
Meta-owned Instagram will move its Reels short-form video format content icon from the front and center position within its app, replacing it with the Compose button for content creation, while doing away with the Shop tab, in changes that are expected to roll out in February 2023, Instagram recently announced. TechCrunch
In Which Areas Are B2B Marketers Most Proficient with ABM?
When it comes to account-based-marketing (ABM), B2B marketers are most proficient at campaign planning and execution, followed by sales and marketing collaboration and integration, with cross-organizational collaboration rounding out the top three spots, according to newly-published survey data of interest to B2B marketers. MarketingCharts
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:
A lighthearted look at the “AI Tidal Wave” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne Marketoonist
Chuck E. Cheese still uses floppy disks in 2023, but not for long Ars Technica
TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:
Joshua Nite This Week in Marketing: Always-On Marketing in a New B2B World LinkedIn (client)
TopRank Marketing 10 Compelling B2B Influencer Marketing Statistics for 2023 The Social Media Hat
Have you found your own B2B marketing news item for 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 joining us this week for the Elevate B2B Marketing News, and we hope that you'll be back next Friday for another selection of the most up-to-date and relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page, or at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.
In case you’re new to the blog, our agency is pretty sold on B2B influencer marketing. Now, when we say influencer marketing, we’re not talking about tanned and toned Gen Z’ers sitting poolside, endorsing your SaaS solution. At least not for your first campaign.
No, influence in B2B is all about value and credibility:
Your brand lends credibility & new audience to influencers
Influencers lend credibility & new audience to your brand
Both audiences get trustworthy, valuable content
As our recent report shows, B2B marketers are steadily increasing their influencer marketing sophistication. But despite the progress, many still think of it as an exclusively upper-funnel tactic.
Just like content marketing, however, influencer marketing works better with a full-funnel approach.
Here’s how to tailor your influencer mix, topics and content types for each stage of the funnel.
Top of funnel: Reach & Attention
For customers at the beginning of their journey, influencer content is all about reaching as many relevant people as possible, establishing brand credibility, starting conversations, and building relationships. Aim to make a big splash with thought-provoking content from household names (at least, household names with established influence on your topic).
Influencer Mix:
While our research shows that follower counts/audience size isn’t as important as credibility and relevance are, at the top of the funnel you do need folks with a sizable network.
At TopRank, we call these folks “Brandividuals.” That’s not an insult these are people who have worked hard to build their thought leadership, credibility and audience. They’re keynote speakers, consultants, podcasters and social media geniuses. For top-of-funnel content, brandividuals should be the stars of the mix.
Topic Selection:
As with all top-of-funnel content, your topics will be more high-level, aimed at showing off your knowledge of the industry and the challenges your potential customers are facing.
Think about topics like:
Industry trends. What’s happening now and what’s on the horizon? How can your audience best prepare?
Best practices. What processes need fixing in your industry? What are people falling short at?
Starting points. What is the first step towards a transformation? How can your audience get the ball rolling?
Gate or no Gate?
If at all possible, keep your ToFu influencer content ungated. Save the lead gen forms for further down the funnel.
Example: DemandBase Assembles a Marketing Superteam
I use this example a lot, but that’s only because it was a) really, really cool and b) got great results for our client, Demandbase. Together, we built an animated comic book to raise awareness of their new Smarter GTM™ solution. It’s bold, colorful, creative, and features some of the biggest names in the B2B marketing biz. And there’s not a gate in sight.
Mid-Funnel: Practical Utility
To reach people who already have the big picture, you have to get into actionable, highly useful content. This type of content helps endear your brand to your audience. If you can help a key decision maker look brilliant in front of their boss, get a raise or get promoted well, that’s worth more than gold. As such, your influencer mix will reflect a more “on the front lines” mentality.
Influencer Mix:
A brandividual or two is still a good idea for a mid-funnel campaign; you still want to reach a wide audience. But look towards adding folks with practical experience in your industry. That means either those who are actively working in your field, or those who have moved up the ranks but still keep a finger on the pulse of the industry.
For example, someone who retired as a CFO and now runs a CFO interview podcast would be a great fit for talking about the finance department. But so would a potential prospect who is doing great work and enjoying success in their job.
For these folks, it’s less about massive reach and all about useful, actionable information.
Topics:
Your content should aim to help people in specific ways that improve their business, job or employee experience. You can also bring your solution into the conversation, but sparingly. It’s fine to say, “A platform like ours makes it easy to automate this process.” Just don’t go as far as “The entirety of our advice is to buy our platform.” The latter is a bad look, especially since influencers typically shy away from outright endorsement.
Stick to content types like:
How-to guides
Checklists
Challenges & solutions
Process refinements
Gate or No Gate?
If you have a really useful offer original research, for example, or a truly comprehensive guide gating can work at this stage. Just remember to build a robust landing page that features your influencers, their head-shots, and a taste of their content; in other words, give them something they can feel good about sharing.
Example: Prophix Wants to Make You a CFO
The Finance Career Acceleration Center features expert advice from CFOs and other finance department practitioners. The multimedia content here has a singular focus: To get their potential buyers to the next stage in their careers.
Bottom-Funnel: Differentiation and Proof
When your buyer is this far into the journey, they’re not looking for famous names and industry thought leaders. They want to know why your solution is the best option, and they don’t want to take your brand’s word for it.
Here’s where the definition of influencer gets even broader, to include your in-house experts and customers.
Influencer Mix:
Most of the influence here should come from people with hands-on experience with your solution. Use these fresh voices to tell the story of what makes your brand different from the competition. Customers in particular are useful here, as they can (preferably in their own words) paint a picture of life with and without your solution.
Consultants and other brandividual types likely won’t play a role here. Two exceptions:
If they have a history with your brand and solution and are willing to speak directly to that experience, awesome!
If they are willing to write an introduction that lends credibility and sets the stage for why your solution is the right one.
Topics:
Your content for bottom-of-funnel should use influencer voices to highlight what makes your brand, your people, and your solution special. In particular, seek to:
Highlight the outcomes your solution makes possible - show what success looks like
Show off your support system. What’s it like to be your customer?
If relevant, introduce some of the people who make the company work, whether it’s engineers, contact center reps, or your CEO.
[bctt tweet="“Your content for bottom-of-funnel should use influencer voices to highlight what makes your brand, your people, and your solution special.” Joshua Nite @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]
Gate or No Gate?
Bottom-funnel content is the right place for a lead gen form, certainly. As I said above, though, make sure to offer enough value in front of the gate that your influencers feel good linking to it.
Example: Deluxe Takes Bankers from Maps to GPS
For their Off the Map asset, Deluxe wanted to highlight how their Banker’s Dashboard can help small banks and credit unions to automate processes and become more efficient. Advice from industry experts, practitioners, and customers all come together in an ungated asset.
Lead capture comes from a more promotional section on the landing page itself, leading directly to a “Contact Sales” CTA.
Remember, “influencer” without “funnel” is just “icer”
It’s true! All the letters of “funnel” appear in the word “influencer.” A coincidence? Most likely! But let it remind you that influencer marketing is a full-funnel practice, not just for raising awareness. With the right influencer mix and choice of topic, you can work with influencers to guide your buyers from awareness all the way to purchase and beyond.
The Top Strategies B2B Marketers Plan to Explore in 2023
42 percent of B2B marketers have indicated that they plan to explore artificial intelligence (AI) marketing and sales strategies more in 2023, with 32 percent pinpointing video marketing, and 30 percent influencer marketing the top three new strategies B2B marketers are looking to use more this year, according to newly-publishing survey data. MarketingProfs
LinkedIn Previews New Job and B2B Product Search Options Coming in 2023
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn has previewed an array of new features the professional social media platform plans to implement in 2023, including better search options and new job filtering criteria, LinkedIn (client) recently announced. Social Media Today
Visual Search for B2B Marketing Success: Olga Andrienko on Marketing Smarts [Podcast]
B2B marketers are increasingly looking to visual search as a brand differentiator, in a landscape that has yet to take advantage of visual search that way that B2C marketers have, and Semrush's vice president of brand marketing Olga Andrienko recently took a look at opportunities and challenges. MarketingProfs
[bctt tweet="“If you're not sure whether you need visual search, or if you're not sure and if you don't have resources internally, see it as an experiment and seek out help externally.” Olga Andrienko @Olgandrienko" username="toprank"]
Google Drops 110 Character Limit From Article Headline Structured Data
Search giant Google has made changes to its previous article headline hard limit of 110 characters, instead replacing it with a suggestion to be concise to avoid truncation on certain devices a change that potentially gives B2B marketers new options for search engine optimization (SEO), Google recently announced. Search Engine Roundtable
Microsoft Bing With ChatGPT Reportedly Launching In March
Microsoft's Bing search engine expects to incorporate the artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities of the ChatGPT chatbot software in order to deliver enhanced search results, stemming from collaboration the two organizations have had since 2019, Microsoft recently announced. Search Engine Journal
What Types of Brand Messaging Appeal to Americans?
54 percent of U.S. consumers have said that humorous brand messaging was the most appealing down from 57 percent a year ago with motivational with reassuring content seeing the biggest gains between November 2021 and November 2022, according to newly-released survey data of interest to digital marketers. MarketingCharts
Account-Based Marketing Is On the Rise [ANA]
66 percent of B2B marketers have indicated that they utilize account-based marketing (ABM) programs, while 87 percent believe that adding ABM insights to traditional lead-based strategies tops the list when it comes to maximizing revenue generation, according to recently-published findings from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). ANA
A look at the US digital audio market in 2022: How big, who’s listening, and what are they listening to [Report]
When it comes to digital audio consumption, adoption is greatest among younger demographics, rising from 84.1 percent in the first half of 2021 to 91.1 percent during the same time-frame in 2022, with the total number of listeners in the U.S. expected to climb from 222.7 million in 2022 to 234.2 million in 2026, making the format a prime target for advertisers, according to newly-released survey data. Insider Intelligence
Tumblr is launching a livestreaming feature
Microblogging and social networking platform Tumblr has begun rolling out support for live-streaming, in conjunction with video firm Livebox, offering creators and influencers a new opportunity to increase brand reach, Tumblr recently announced. The Verge
Slow fade for Google and Meta's ad dominance
For the first time since 2014 the combined revenue of Facebook and Instagram parent firm Meta and Google are expected to account for less than half of all U.S. digital advertising, as Amazon and TikTok have taken increasingly larger portions a trend that is forecast to continue through 2024, according to newly-published report findings. Axios
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:
A lighthearted look at “Reinventing Marketing” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne Marketoonist
I Named My Band “CVS Near Me” and Now We’re Impossible To Find on Google The Hard Times
TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:
Nick Nelson Lessons for B2B Marketers From the Booming Craft Brewing Scene LinkedIn (client)
Lee Odden MarTech’s B2B marketing experts to follow MarTech
Lee Odden How to Break Free of Boring B2B Content Experiences In 2023 [Podcast] Rock Content / Spotify
TopRank Marketing How the B2B Influencer Marketing Industry Is Changing [Infographic] MarketingProfs
Have you come across a B2B marketing news item for the week that we haven't mentioned? If so, please don't hesitate to drop us a line in the comments below.
Thank you for taking the time to join us this week for the Elevate B2B Marketing News, and we hope that you will return next Friday for another array of the most up-to-date and relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page, or at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.
The concept of jogging someone’s memory seems, on its surface, like an unscientific and inscrutable undertaking.
Memories and mental associations pop up at random. Right? The smell of a bakery reminds you of grandma’s cinnamon rolls. The color of a street sign invokes your old high school colors and jovial pep rallies. A friend’s choice of words causes you to blurt out a line from a classic comedy movie.
The thing is, these moments aren’t random. The memories are physically stored in your brain, and the scenarios and experiences that took place caused them to trigger in your consciousness.
Understanding this cause-and-effect relationship holds the key to effective B2B marketing that bridges brand with demand and leads to sustainable customer pipelines.
Marketing to future buyers
One of the most critical guiding principles of B2B marketing today – and one that’s been explored deeply by our clients at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions – is the 95-5 rule. In essence, it states that based on the nature of business purchasing cycles, 95% of customers in a given category at a given time are “out-market,” or not actively seeking your solution.
Obviously, that 5% of active “in-market” buyers is in high demand. There is fierce competition for their attention, engagement, and consideration. But if your marketing strategy is overwhelmingly focused on that very small subset of your audience, you’re leaving a ton of opportunity on the table – opportunity to gain a key advantage with those many future buyers.
The purpose of today’s article, then, is to explore proven and data-backed ways to gain this advantage. How? By developing a brand content strategy focused on creating positive mental associations, so when your audience moves into a solution-seeking mindset, you’re the first that comes to mind.
4 Ways to Stay Top-of-Mind in B2B Buying Situations
1 Create positive emotional response
In the 2016 Ipsos Connect report, “Emotion, Attention and Memory in Advertising,” Gailynn Nicks and Yannick Carriou explored the influence and scientific underpinnings of our subject at hand.
“The more consistent and appealing the emotional connections created and the more fitting the brand cues accompanying an emotion-based advertisement,” they wrote, “the more likely they are to be retrieved in the way that the advertiser desired at a suitable ‘relevant moment’. In behavioural psychology this is known as the ‘priming effect’.”
It’s easy to misinterpret what an “appealing” emotional connection is; taken the wrong way, that prompt could lead to a lot of sappy and fluffy content. To generate a positive emotional response, you don’t need to make someone laugh or feel happy (though you can). You just need to resonate.
The B2B Institute conducted an analysis of more than 600 B2B tech ads in the System1 database, and among their findings was this breakdown of creative elements that most strongly correlated with favorable emotional scores. I find the results interesting:
While this analysis was specific to video ads in the tech industry, we can zoom out and think about the top elements through a broader B2B content marketing lens:
Everyday Setting: In an increasingly hybrid and WFH world, audiences generally relate more to casual settings (and language) than formal business environments (and jargon).
Fast Cut Scenes: Attention spans are short. Quick-hitting video cuts have the natural ability to catch the eye of a scrolling user. How else can your content create a sense of momentum?
Celebrity Character: The use of celebs plays off built-in recognition, trust, and affinity in your audience. Want a more accessible B2B use case? Think industry influencers.
2 Associate your brand with its category
Of course, an ad or piece of content being memorable isn’t really valuable for a brand on its own – only if that memory is mentally tied to the brand, and to a potential future buying situation. That’s why the key to effective content lies at the intersection of impact and relevance.
[bctt tweet="“The key to effective content lies at the intersection of impact and relevance.” Nick Nelson @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"]
For an example of what I’m talking about, look no further than the Grand Prix Award-winning ad from the B2B Creative Lion category at Cannes 2022: “Speaking in Color,” from Sherwin Williams.
The content is personalized to its audience in a very broad sense, and seamlessly illustrates myriad use cases. Even while introducing and showcasing the company’s first-ever AI color system, the ad feels more like it’s trying to make an impression with a specific buyer audience, as opposed to selling them a product directly.
3 Show up often and in the right places
Encoding your brand in the memory of your audience is partially a matter of standout creative, and partially a simple matter of frequency, repetition, and variety. The B2B Effectiveness Code – a joint report from WARC, Lions, and the B2B Institute – found that creative commitment is directly correlated with B2B campaign effectiveness.
What is creative commitment? It’s a calculation based on ad spend, campaign duration, and number of media channels. In other words, data shows that investing more robustly in creative brand campaigns pays off.
[bctt tweet="“Data shows that investing more robustly in creative brand campaigns pays off.” Nick Nelson @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"]
4 Measure the right things
If your campaigns are focused on building mental brand associations, then it is important to measure against that objective. Tracking sales conversions is a lagging indicator in a B2B world where sales cycles often span months if not years. Not to mention the challenges of attribution.
How can you gain a more real-time view of brand salience being driven by your content and ads?
Ad recognition (“cut-through”). Do people remember seeing your ad? Did it rise above the noise and grab their attention?
Ad recall. Do people who remember the ad attribute it to the right brand?
Ad likeability. If people remember the ad and associate it with your brand, did they actually like what they saw?
Ad clarity. Finally, if people saw the ad, attributed it to your brand, and liked it, did they easily understand the message you were trying to convey?
For more SEO-focused brand campaigns, you might choose a specific subset of keywords with strong intent relating to the campaign, and measure the growth of organic traffic and/or rate of conversions within them. Or you might use social monitoring tools to gauge sentiment shifts and increased awareness relating to your executive thought leadership campaign.
When possible, measuring share of voice can also be a valuable way to quantify the extent to which your brand is actually “top of mind” for your target audience.
ROI is obviously the ultimate name of the game, but waiting to get a clear picture of it can deprive B2B marketers of vital opportunities to understand and optimize how their content is performing in ways that substantially impact final results.
Make Your B2B Brand Memorable
This post is not by any means an argument against the value of lower-funnel, conversion-focused campaigns. Only a suggestion that those campaigns – and your customer pipeline as a whole – will be much more fruitful with an always-on branding strategy geared toward making your company and its content top-of-mind with relevant buyers … even if those buyers aren’t currently in the market.
5 Major Takeaways From This Year's ANA B-to-B Marketing Virtual Conference
B2B marketers can achieve market share expansion and greater outcomes when they focus on a broader reach, while a connection between data and creativity builds more emotional connectivity two of several findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-published insight from a recent Association of National Advertisers (ANA) event which featured marketers from LinkedIn (client) and other B2B organizations. Adweek
Marketers Are Adjusting Their Brand vs. Performance Budgets Amid Economic Woes
63 percent of marketers have said that the economic recession has had an impact on consumer concerns that will affect their 2023 marketing strategies, with 33 percent pinpointing diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) along with social justice issues, according to recently-released survey data. MarketingCharts
[bctt tweet="“In 2023, it is high time for B2B influencer marketing to become less of a gray area and embraced more as a solid strategy. Part of this will be the development of job titles that include 'influencer marketing' in them.” @JustinLevy" username="toprank"]
Google Analytics 4 Rolling Out Built-In Landing Page Report
Search giant Google has begun rolling out a new set of features for the latest version of its Google Analytics data analysis system, with the biggest addition being an array of new reports centered around website landing page performance, Google recently announced. Search Engine Journal
Research: Consumers Value Fate in Marketing Narratives
Marketers who tap into a product or service's component pieces to uncover and build an intriguing story of discovery may find unexpected value, according to newly-published research, with initial findings released by the Harvard Business Review. Harvard Business Review
HubSpot’s November releases: A manager’s guide
Meta-owned global messaging platform WhatsApp integration and more efficient data collection are among an array of new features added to HubSpot, joining a new email approval process and updates to HubSpot’s Campaigns 2.0 features, HubSpot recently announced. MarTech
Publishers, Ad Buyers Face Big Challenges In 2023: Study
54 percent of digital media experts who utilize programmatic advertising have said that digital audio will be a top priority in 2023, with 50 percent pinpointing digital video, 48 percent social media, and 47 percent noting mobile some of the findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-published survey data. MediaPost
Infographic Design Trends for 2023 [Infographic]
Personalized data, bright palettes, animated elements, and nostalgic visuals are three infographic ingredients that are poised to see greater implementation in 2023, according to recently-released infographic trend data, which has also predicted more visual representation of data as art. Social Media Today
The Most Important Tech and Societal Trends for Marketers in 2023 [WARC Report]
31 percent of marketers have said that they expect an increased investment in brand marketing over the next year up from 23 percent in 2021, while 46 percent expected increased investment in performance marketing, up from 41 percent in 2021, according to newly-published global marketing forecast data. MarketingProfs
New Instagram Templates: Create Year-In-Review Highlight Reels
Meta-owned Instagram has begun rolling out a new year-end feature that allows marketers to create narrated best-of highlights in the platform's Reels short video format, Instagram recently announced. Search Engine Journal
These Advertising Channels Look Set for Growth in 2023
Paid search advertisement spending is expected to rise 14.4 percent in 2023, with digital video and social media ad spend each expected to rise by 6.5 percent two of several statistics of interest to digital marketers contained in newly-published forecast data. MarketingCharts
ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:
A lighthearted look at “how to do strategic planning” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne Marketoonist
Christmas Break Nowhere Near Enough Time to Fix All of Parent’s Tech Issues The Hard Times
TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:
Lee Odden Top 50 B2B Thought Leaders & Influencers You Should Work With In 2023 (North America) Thinkers360
LinkedIn Marketing Solutions Maersk’s Anne With Damgaard on how B2B marketing can be innovative and creative The Drum
Have you found your own B2B marketing news item for the week that we haven't yet mentioned? If so, please don't hesitate to drop us a line in the comments below.
Thanks for taking the time to join us this week for the Elevate B2B Marketing News, and we hope you'll return next Friday for another selection of the most up-to-date and relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page, or at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.
Over the past few years aka "the Covid years" the role of influence in B2B marketing has grown significantly. Our 2022 research report, The State of B2B Influencer Marketing, reported that 85% of B2B marketers believe that interest in working with influencers in the coming 12 months will increase. On top of that, of the B2B marketers that do engage in influencer marketing programs, 86% consider their efforts successful.
There's a lot to be optimistic about, especially in a business environment that requires B2B marketers to find every advantage they can to grow in a potentially down market.
The rising tide of influencer marketing popularity amongst B2B brands has also seen a shift towards a more diverse group of influencers. Now don't get me wrong, the majority of influencers I'm seeing from B2B brands are still the usual suspects which doesn't exactly represent 100% of the audiences brands are trying to reach. So there has been movement towards engaging more women and people of color as influencers in the B2B space.
At TopRank Marketing we're doing our small part to shine a light on more diverse talent within the B2B marketing world and with this 13th edition of our Women Who Rock list, we're highlighting a mix of women that are influential in various B2B industries. From rising stars to north stars, from Bay Area to Zurich, we have a sample of the fast growing segment of influencer talent B2B brands should be considering as partners in their marketing programs.
Ann is a speaker, author, and member of the LinkedIn Influencer program. She is the author of the Wall Street Journal best-seller on business writing, "Everybody Writes," and the co-author of the best-selling book on content marketing, "Content Rules".
Talks about #content #contentmarketing #b2bmarketing #CavalierKingCharlesSpaniels
Chief Research Officer at PA Consulting, NY Times Bestselling Author
Charlene's role is to catalyze transformation as an expert on disruption strategy and leadership by writing books, speaking, and advising companies and their leaders.
Talks about #disruption, #leadership, #futureofwork, #digitaldisruption, and #digitaltransformation
Author, Keynote Speaker, CoFounder, Chief Product Officer at People Not Tech
London based Duena is the author of “Emotional Banking” and “People Before Tech: The Importance of Psychological Safety and Teamwork in the Digital Age”. She is a doer, an entrepreneur, an industry influencer, a blogger with cutting edge opinion style, a writer for Forbes, an international keynote speaker and the creator of the Emotional Banking™ and Human Debt™ concepts.
Talks about #teams, #devops, #humandebt, #technology, and #psychologicalsafety
Currently based in Zurich, Efi is a seasoned Wall Street professional and ex-academic who has become a Top Global Fintech and Thought Leader with a Ph.D. in Finance. She is also a prolific content creator, a Host, an Author, and a Speaker.
Talks about #fintech, #innovation, #digitalassets, and #artificialintelligence
Known as the Godmother of the Metaverse, Cathy is a globally recognized metaverse/ web3 strategist, tech futurist, sought-after business executive, speaker and media personality with deep expertise working in metaverse-related fields with companies like HTC VIVE, Magic Leap, and Amazon Web Services.
Talks about #nfts, #metaverse, #technology, #augmentedreality, and #spatialcomputing
Founder and CEO Ascend Ventures and Founder Black Girls CODE
Kimberly has been nationally recognized as a thought leader for her work to increase opportunities for women and girls in the technology industry and has received numerous awards for her work with Black Girls CODE.
Talks about #culture, #leadership, #technology, and #diversityequityandinclusion
Marketing Communications Consultant, Speaker, Host and Emcee
Leaving it up to debate whether she is a hologram or real, Katie partners with brands to amplify stories of transformation, and trends in customer experience.
Talks about #cx, #b2b, #marketing, #digitalmarketing, and #customerexperience
As a Keynote speaker, WSJ Bestselling author, What's Next Podcast host. Tiffani works with some of the most innovative companies in the world as they look to transform the way they engage with customers, grow their business and create amazing customer experiences. Her role is to look out to the future for disruptive trends while at the same time scanning the near horizon for the real world impact. Her current conversations center around 2 objectives: customer success and growth.
Talks about #sales, #growth, #leadership, #customerexperience, and #employeeexperience
Meghan is host of the #WorkTrends Podcast, Author, Speaker and a HRTech Evangelist that also contributes regularly at Forbes, Huffington Post, and several other media outlets.
Talks about #hr, #leadership, #worktrends, #workculture, and #futureofwork
CEO and Director Sally Eaves Consultancy, Keynote Speaker and Author
A member of the Forbes Technology Council, Sally is an award winning international keynote speaker, author and influencer with globally leading rankings across all advanced technology disciplines, digital transformation, future of work and social innovation aligned to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Talks about #5g, ##cloud, #techforgood, ##cybersecurity, and #artificialntelligence
Theodora is a book author, podcast host, startup advisor and public speaker on DEI, Fintech, Financial Inclusion, and Tech for Good. Talks about #ai, #fintech, #longevity, #inequality, and #financialservices
Helenn is a Board of Director; Fortune 500 Advisor; Top 50 Women in Tech; Wall Street Journal Best Selling Author; Keynote Speaker; and Host of CXO Spice among many other responsibilities.
Talks about #ai, #cybersecurity, #manufacturing, #customerexpereince, and #digitaltransformation
Principal Analyst + Founding Partner, Futurum Research and The Futurum Group
Shelly has worked with some of the world’s largest brands to help them embrace disruption and the reality of the connected customer, and to successfully understand and navigate the process of Digital Transformation (DX).
Talks about #cloud, #security, #futureofwork, #collaboration, and #cybersecurity
Swiss based Kamales is an author and keynote speaker with over 22 years of deep cross-industry experience with the latest digital and technology solutions and a strategic thinker on digital and business transformation.
Talks about #digitalacceleration, #blockchaintechnology, #emergingtechnologies, #digitaltransformation, and #artificialintelligence
Managing DirectorManaging Director at Innovate :: Grow :: Scale
As an award-winning digital, mobile, and fintech industry leader and influencer, Christina provides global corporate strategy and insights for connecting businesses with customers through unique touchpoints that grow lifetime value - living and working at the intersection of people, platforms and payments.
Talks about #web3, #fintech, #commerce, #payments, and #innovation
Sarah is host of the Tech Uncorked Podcast, Editor of Agritech Future Magazine and a leading technology evangelist, specializing in emerging technologies and covering trends in artificial intelligence, machine learning, IoT, agritech, digital transformation and mixed reality.
Talks about #5g, #iot, #agritech, #customerexperience, and #artificialintelligence
Jessie is a speaker & consultant, podcast host and community builder. She speaks on intersectionality such as women in business, women in corporate, and equality. as women in business, women in corporate, and equality
Talks about #speaker, #femaleceo, #femalefounders, and #femaleentrepreneurs
A long time B2B tech influencer, Tamara's focus is on academic research: science, technology, ethics & public purpose. She is currently a research scientist and technology ethicist and recent graduate (5/2022) of Harvard University's Kennedy School and continuing dual degree student at the Harvard Divinity School.
Talks about #science #technology #ethics #publicpurpose
Please be sure to check out the LinkedIn profiles of this impressive group of influencers in the B2B world.
In case you missed it, here are the latest findings from our research on trends, strategies and best practices for B2B Influencer Marketing to guide you into 2023.
If you're wondering about how to organize a program that effectively activates a small or large group of influencers for a project or program, look no further than the team at TopRank Marketing. We've worked with some of the influencers on this list for many years and some more recently - and we can help architect the right kind of content activations that will be as inspiring to the influencers as it will be to your customers. Ping Tony at tmascarenas@toprankmarketing.com for more information or contact us.
To see the previous 12 years of our Women Who Rock lists, check out the links below:
What were the top B2B content marketing articles that published on the TopRank Marketing blog this year?
Content encompasses nearly everything we read, watch, or listen to, and as our CEO Lee Odden said years ago, it also represents a significant part of the reason the need for search technology began in the first place.
We're proud of the continued content marketing successes our team of marketers at TopRank Marketing have achieved during another unique year, for a wide-range of major B2B clients. As 2023 draws ever closer, we wanted to take time to share our top 10 content marketing articles of the year each filled with insights, best practices, research, examples, and a look at the future.
We're also fortunate to have a wealth of talented B2B marketing professionals contributing to the TopRank B2B Marketing blog which will celebrates its 20th year in 2023.
This selection of our top 10 content marketing posts of the year can serve as a valuable resource, filled with practical examples and relevant topics for digital B2B marketing professionals from CMOs to creators and copywriters.
We hope that you'll find these articles useful well into 2023 and far beyond.
Now, sit back and join us as we move on to the top 10.
In our top content marketing post of the year, our senior content marketing manager Joshua Nite shares how content can help build relationships, purpose, empathy and more.
Businesses face unique problems connecting with buyers, and B2B content marketing is well-positioned to solve more of them that you might think.
[bctt tweet="“Be a caring companion to your audience. After all, marketers are the keepers of data we know these people and what they’re struggling with. We’re in a unique position to create uplifting content.” Joshua Nite @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]
What is the business case for creatively awesome B2B content?
In our second most popular content marketing post of the year, Joshua shares how awesome content with smart amplification gets results, including four convincing examples that show why awesome is better for B2B.
[bctt tweet="“Awesome content doesn’t overwhelm the story you’re telling the audience in fact, it makes your message more likely to stick.” Joshua Nite @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]
[bctt tweet="“The #B2BIMReport from @TopRank found that relevance and trust outweigh expertise in terms of essential influencer qualities. It’s all about connection. #B2BInfluencerMarketing.” Nick Nelson @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"]
Q: How many lead gen marketers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Please fill out the form below and we will email you the punchline.
In our fourth most-read B2B content marketing article of the year, Joshua Nite shares best practices for when you should put your best content behind a lead generation form, and when you definitely shouldn't.
[bctt tweet="“It’s not just about gated vs. ungated. It’s about how much content you gate, which content in the campaign should go behind that lead gen form, and how you bring the right audience to the content.” Joshua Nite @NiteWrites" username="toprank"]
When marketing budgets are reduced, waste can be more costly than ever.
Make sure you’re steering clear of inefficiency, as our own Nick Nelson shared in our fifth most popular content marketing post of the year, offering up five key pointers to make the most of limited resources.
[bctt tweet="“The most reliable way to drive marketing results is to smartly invest more. This can lead to more ambitious campaigns and more robust promotion. But when a big budget isn’t available, B2B marketers can still do big things.” @NickNelsonMN" username="toprank"]
In our sixth most popular content marketing article of the year, we shared 25 top B2B content marketing influencers and experts to follow and learn from, including:
Ann Handley
Tequia Burt
Jay Acunzo
Amanda Todorovich
Amber Naslund
Many thanks go to all the people who are actively sharing knowledge about content marketing by engaging and helping to elevate others with keen insight and expertise on the social web. This list is a helpful starting point to expand your own B2B content marketing universe.
[bctt tweet="“A classic TopRank Marketing tradition that has been imitated in recent years but never duplicated is our annual list of content marketing experts ranked according to their social influence.” Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]
B2B Marketing has a content problem: decision makers are starting to tune it all out. The bad news? The problem isn’t them, it’s us. The better news? We can fix it, and it won’t even be that hard.
In the seventh most read content marketing piece of the year, our own content strategist Harry Mackin shares five ways to build better B2B content that resonates with your audience, and why they work
[bctt tweet="“Great thought leadership works because it doesn’t stand alone. It’s contextual, it’s engaged with the industry and moment in which it was written, and, above all, it’s actionable.” Harry Mackin" username="toprank"]
B2B marketers have grown accustomed to selling with facts instead of stories, and leading with features instead of outcomes.
In our eighth most-read content content marketing post of the year, Nick takes a close look at one of our CEO Lee Odden's most popular presentations that illustrated why that just doesn’t work anymore.
[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"]
How can B2B marketers craft content that elevates, and what role do our preferred digital formats play in making it happen?
Recent study data looking at content formats has deep implications when it comes to creating online experiences that will not only be noticed, but delight the senses while also answering our most important questions.
By understanding how we process information, we can craft content in formats that elevate, inspire, and answer key questions.
In our ninth most popular content marketing post of the year, I dug in with data from three recent studies.
[bctt tweet="“Understanding the human brain, with its exquisitely complex computational and filtering mechanisms, can go a long way towards learning the types of content that can perform the best in B2B marketing.” Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]
What does today's best-answer B2B marketing content look like?
Providing that best solution or to use the term our CEO and co-founder Lee Odden has been using since at least 2011 being the best answer, may indeed be a singular solution, however the effort that B2B marketers need to make in 2022 to achieve it has changed in several important ways.
From expanding digital channel touch-points and collaborating with experts to elevating with authenticity, and presenting in experiential formats and more, I took a look at today's best-answer B2B content to round our our list of the top content marketing article of the year.
[bctt tweet="“If you want to be a trustworthy company, it can’t be just a marketing philosophy. It has to be a business philosophy.” Margaret Magnarelli @mmagnarelli of @MorganStanley" username="toprank"]
Thanks TopRank Marketing Readers & Writers
Thanks to you our readers, and to all of our top content marketing authors for contributing this strong group of the 10 content marketing posts of 2022.
We published dozens of posts this year specifically about the unique nature of B2B content marketing, and plan to bring you even more in 2023, so stay tuned for a new year of the latest helpful search industry research and relevant insight.
Please let us know which content marketing topics and ideas you'd like to see us focus on for 2023 we'd love to hear your suggestions. Feel free to leave those thoughts in the comments section below.
Many thanks to each of you who read our blog regularly, and to all of you who comment on and share our posts on the TopRank Marketing social media channels at Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
You don't need to be an expert in graphic design, debugging, or Django logging to understand the profit potential in digital art. What was once a strange, little-known corner of the commercial art market has gone mainstream. Take a stroll down any big-city's art walk on a cool Friday night and you'll see all sorts of interesting new items that portent huge changes in what people buy to decorate their homes.
Only a decade ago, digital art purveyors were almost unheard of in galleries, on art walks and in places where local craft people display their wares. Now, it's sometimes hard to spot the digital creators from the old-fashioned oil painters and sculptors. Here are some of the biggest areas where digital art has made inroads into the for-profit art market:
Prints
No other area of modern commercial art has been so affected by digital design as prints. Perhaps it's just common sense. Prints have been machine-pressed for decades and always involved more technology than other fields of art. When digital printing became commercially viable for large, high-quality works of art about a decade ago, there was no looking back. Even after an original print of, say, a painting is made, artist can use various digital techniques to add or subtract to what's already on the paper.
Abstract Portraits
Portraiture is one area where digital and traditional art has combined in a wonderful, mind-expanding way. Many artists begin with a digital print, blow it up to a huge size and work with it from there, adding paint or other mediums to it to create unique pieces. This trend has been most successful in portraits, works that include the human face as the focal point. Galleries have opened up to the trend as well, often combining traditional portrait showings with pure digital shows and hybrid works. For digital artists, the human face has a special sort of intrigue.
Sculpture
With the advent of digital 3D printing, many people thought the sculpture market would dry up, but it's done exactly the opposite. Now there are just more options for the art buyer. The digital art craze within the field of sculpture has taken off in Asia more than anywhere else. Designers are awash in commissions to come up with busts, abstract pieces and historical works for public and private spaces.
Home Decor
Ask any interior decorator and you'll learn about the commercial power of digital art. Many upscale homes now opt for digital artworks for large walls and living areas. A current sub-trend is altered photographs, both original and public domain works. This type of digital creativity has been around the office scene for a number of years but is now trickling down into the real estate market. Walls that once held abstract acrylic landscapes and portraits now feature wild scenes that test the vision and challenge the mind. Think of Escher, Dali and Einstein collaborating on a gigantic altered photo and you have a rough idea of the kind of digital works that decorators pine for.
10x populair: LinkedIn-trends, ChatGPT & tips voor je teksten Ook al zijn de meningen over de tool verdeeld, er is nog veel te ontdekken over de toepassingen (en beperkingen) van ChatGPT. Daarnaast kon je afgelopen maand lezen over LinkedIn-, Analytics- en online trends. Iets gemist? De populairste artikelen vind je terug in de top 10 Frankwatching-artikelen van januari. 1. Gaat ChatGPT zoekmachine Google vervangen? […] Wed, 01 Feb 2023 12:00:00 +0000
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10 features in Google Drive en Docs om slimmer te werken Google Drive blijft onverminderd populair voor docs, slides, spreadsheets en zelfs (enquête)formulieren. Maar je kunt er meer mee dan je denkt. Want op die deep divers daargelaten, maakt de gemiddelde gebruiker als het om slimme features gaat slechts gebruik van het topje van de ijsberg. Daarom zet ik 10 features op een rijtje waarmee je […] Mon, 30 Jan 2023 14:00:00 +0000
Inzage in je data? Dit zijn je rechten en zo gaan bedrijven ermee om De laatste jaren volg ik met veel aandacht de ontwikkelingen met betrekking tot GDPR en de publieke opinie over privacy en persoonlijke data. Zowel vakmatig, de impact op het advertising eco-systeem, als uit persoonlijke interesse als consument. Jaren geleden sprak ik al met grote bedrijven uit telecom, retail, publishing en finance over hun wens om […] Mon, 30 Jan 2023 12:00:00 +0000
Hoe bezorg je deelnemers een onvergetelijke trainingsdag? Door een training te geven kun je kennis overbrengen, mensen inspireren, activeren, verbinding versterken… Kortom: redenen genoeg om een training te geven. Of je nu als bedrijf of particulier trainingen wil organiseren: hoe zorg je dat het een succes wordt voor zowel jou als organisator als voor je deelnemers? Waar moet je voor, tijdens en […] Mon, 30 Jan 2023 10:00:00 +0000
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Slim slapen & happy hormonen: tijd voor een betere jij Aan de juiste knoppen draaien, zodat je rust en balans vindt in je leven. Klinkt heerlijk. Maar hoe dan? Ik zet in duizend woorden een mengpaneel voor je neer, vol knopjes en schuifjes. Kies jouw favorieten uit en til jezelf naar het volgende level. ‘De beste versie van jezelf zijn’ was jarenlang gekoppeld aan hoeveel […] Sun, 29 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000
Socialmedia-onderzoek 2023: 2 uur per dag op social & opkomst BeReal Hoe staat het ervoor met ons gebruik van social media in Nederland? Net als vorig jaar groeit het gebruik van TikTok en Instagram enorm. Facebook en Twitter lijden flink verlies, beide platforms raken bijna een half miljoen gebruikers kwijt. Verder speciale aandacht voor BeReal, dat op plek 9 binnenkomt in de top 10 van social […] Sat, 28 Jan 2023 13:00:29 +0000
Zo ontwikkel je zelf een explainer-video in 9 stappen [infographic] Video is een krachtige en effectieve contentvorm die je voor verschillenden doelen en kanalen kunt inzetten. Denk aan je website, in mailings, als advertentie(campagne), in een WhatsApp-bericht of via social media. In korte tijd kan je met een explainer-video een groot bereik hebben om je boodschap over te brengen of je verhaal te vertellen. Informatie […] Sat, 28 Jan 2023 08:00:00 +0000
Hoe staat jouw contentmarketing-tuintje erbij? Op het eerste gezicht is het een ietwat aparte vergelijking. Contentmarketing en tuinieren zijn immers twee heel verschillende dingen. En toch zijn er overeenkomsten tussen de twee. In dit artikel laat ik je vanuit een ander perspectief kijken naar contentmarketing. Een nieuwe invalshoek op content, puur om jou te inspireren en aan het denken te […] Fri, 27 Jan 2023 12:00:00 +0000
Zucht, elke dag een volle mailbox… Creëer rust met deze 5 mappen Voor werkgerelateerde communicatie is e-mail nog altijd het meestgebruikte communicatiemiddel. Veel werkdagen beginnen dan ook met het opstarten van je computer, om vervolgens je mailbox te openen. Het is altijd een verrassing hoeveel mailtjes er dit keer op je staan te wachten. En misschien staan er ook nog wel mailtjes van gister, of de dag […] Fri, 27 Jan 2023 07:00:00 +0000
De zoekpartners in Bing & hoe je deze target of uitsluit Microsoft Ads, voorheen ‘Bing Ads’, wordt vaak een beetje betiteld als tweede zoekmachine achter de nummer 1: Google. Mede daarom komt deze zoekmachine bij ondernemers niet snel in beeld. Dat biedt kansen! Want Microsoft Ads biedt zeker voordelen voor vele bedrijven om te adverteren. Belangrijke voordelen zijn de lagere concurrentie en CPC (cost per click). […] Thu, 26 Jan 2023 13:00:00 +0000
Een digitale identiteit beheren: kunnen we dit zelf? Op dit moment wordt er zowel in Nederland als in de Europese Unie volop gewerkt aan een nieuwe digitale infrastructuur. Er ligt nog niets definitief vast, dus je bent op tijd om als eerste te weten te komen wat er allemaal gaat gebeuren. Het is wel veel en best ingewikkeld. Ik ga je met mijn […] Thu, 26 Jan 2023 10:00:00 +0000
Succesvol online adverteren? Blijf de baas over algoritmes [4 tips] De tijd van hypertargeting is voorbij. Online advertentieplatforms zijn de laatste 2 jaar overgestapt naar artificial intelligence (AI). Dit komt onder meer door strengere privacyregels en het verdwijnen van targeting-opties op grond van anti-discriminatieregels. Voor marketeers betekent dat minder opties om bij het adverteren zelf heel precies je gewenste doelgroep te bereiken en vaker vertrouwen […] Thu, 26 Jan 2023 07:00:00 +0000
Merkbekendheid: dé socialmedia-focus van bedrijven in 2023 [onderzoek] Bedrijven zien social media als belangrijkste middel om de merkbekendheid te vergroten. Daarbij wordt de inzet van social media alsmaar belangrijker. 52% van de bedrijven geeft aan dat door de huidige economische onzekerheid, de socials een belangrijker platform zijn geworden. Met naamsbekendheid als grootste prioriteit. Dit is een van de uitkomsten uit The State of […] Wed, 25 Jan 2023 12:00:00 +0000
Ondernemen in een genetwerkte wereld: zoeken, bouwen & verbinden In een genetwerkte wereld is het van belang om altijd en overal verbonden te zijn met de omgeving. Intern met de werknemers en extern met zogenaamde stakeholders. In 2023 spelen nieuwe krachten hierin de hoofdrol, zoals verbondenheid, betrokkenheid en wederkerigheid. Dat betekent voor organisaties zoeken, bouwen en verbinden. In dit artikel onderscheid ik 6 typen […] Wed, 25 Jan 2023 07:00:00 +0000
TikTok gebruikt heating-knop om video’s viral te laten gaan Je zou denken dat het algoritme van TikTok bepaalt welke video’s viral gaan. Maar dat is niet het complete verhaal. Forbes meldt dat medewerkers van het entertainmentplatform met een druk op de knop video’s een groter bereik geven onder de noemer ‘heating’. En daarmee worden sommige influencers en merken voorgetrokken. Het ‘magische’ algoritme van TikTok […] Tue, 24 Jan 2023 13:00:00 +0000
Men predicted to outnumber women in physics until the year 2158 An analysis of nearly 5.5 million scientific papers has found that, on current trends, the proportion of women authoring research won't reach parity with men in some fields for over 100 years Wed, 11 Jan 2023 10:50:54 +0000
'Green' energy patents more focused on 'clean' conventional energy instead of renewables A new study by world leaders in patent data has revealed some unusual trends in energy tech R&D, questioning whether companies are more committed to extracting fossil fuels or in pursuing genuinely 'green', renewable energy technologies. Wed, 25 Jan 2023 09:00:54 EST
New Studies Suggest Social Isolation Is a Risk Factor for Dementia in Older Adults, Point to Ways to Reduce Risk In two studies using nationally representative data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study gathered on thousands of Americans, researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health have significantly added to evidence that social isolation is a substantial risk factor for dementia in community-dwelling (noninstitutionalized) older adults, and identified technology as an effective way to intervene. Thu, 12 Jan 2023 10:00:07 EST
American Cancer Society Releases Latest Cancer Statistics, Launches Initiative to Address Prostate Cancer Resurgence and Disparities Today, the American Cancer Society released Cancer Statistics, 2023, the organization's annual report on cancer facts and trends. According to the report, overall cancer mortality has dropped 33% since 1991, averting an estimated 3.8 million cancer deaths. Based on ACS data, in 2023 there are projected to be 1,958,310 new cancer cases and 609,820 cancer deaths in the United States. Thu, 12 Jan 2023 10:00:00 EST
What is a Password Policy and How to Create One? If you want your business to be cyber secure, a password policy is essential. But what is a password policy and how do you make one? Here's everything you need to know.
Loan Questions to Ask Before Taking the Next Step When you're looking for the best business loan, there are several loan questions you should ask before taking the next step. Wed, 25 Jan 2023 17:00:28 +0000
Shopping Basket Options for Your Retail Business Make it easier for your customers to carry more items safely by getting the best shopping basket options for your retail business. Wed, 25 Jan 2023 15:30:28 +0000
How to File Taxes for the 2022 Tax Year Come up with an amazing meta description that includes the keyword 'how to file taxes' near the beginning. Wed, 25 Jan 2023 14:00:39 +0000
A new study by world leaders in patent data has revealed some unusual trends in energy tech R&D, questioning whether companies are more committed to extracting fossil fuels or in pursuing genuinely 'green', renewable energy technologies. 
In two studies using nationally representative data from the National Health and Aging Trends Study gathered on thousands of Americans, researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health have significantly added to evidence that social isolation is a substantial risk factor for dementia in community-dwelling (noninstitutionalized) older adults, and identified technology as an effective way to intervene. 
Today, the American Cancer Society released Cancer Statistics, 2023, the organization's annual report on cancer facts and trends. According to the report, overall cancer mortality has dropped 33% since 1991, averting an estimated 3.8 million cancer deaths. Based on ACS data, in 2023 there are projected to be 1,958,310 new cancer cases and 609,820 cancer deaths in the United States. 
