Thursday, 30 June 2022
Wednesday, 29 June 2022
7 Magic Words To Stop Scope Creep
7 Magic Words To Stop Scope Creep written by Sara Nay read more at Duct Tape Marketing
About the show:
The Agency Spark Podcast, hosted by Sara Nay, is a collection of short-form interviews from thought leaders in the marketing consultancy and agency space. Each episode focuses on a single topic with actionable insights you can apply today. Check out the new Spark Lab Consulting website here!
About this episode:
In this episode of the Agency Spark Podcast, Sara talks with Karl Sakas on 7 magic words to stop scope creep.
Running an agency is complex, but it doesn’t have to be so complicated! Karl Sakas helps agency leaders make smarter decisions for smoother growth.
Drawing on his background in agency operations, Karl has directly advised hundreds of agencies on every inhabited continent. His clients call him their “agency therapist.”
Karl and his colleagues help you simplify agency life through one-on-one support, executive education, and training. He has written several books and more than 400 articles on agency management.
Outside of work, Karl volunteers as a bartender on an antique train. Get a free copy of his “Don’t Just Make the Logo Bigger” eBook when you sign up for his agency leader newsletter.
More from Karl Sakas:
- www.sakasandcompany.com
- Use code AGENCYSPARK to receive $100 off the Agency PM 101 course
- Agency Scope Creep article
This episode of the Agency Spark Podcast is brought to you by Monday.com, a powerful project management platform. Monday.com helps teams easily build, run, and scale their dream workflows on one platform. I personally am a user and big fan of Monday.com – I start my workday pulling up the platform and spend my day working within it for everything from task management to running client engagements. Learn more about Monday.com at ducttape.me/monday.
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Press Play: How Marketers Who Invest in B2B Video Earn Greater ROI
How is B2B video marketing continuing its ascendancy and generating greater return-on-investment (ROI) than ever, and where are B2B marketers finding the sweet spot when it comes to video success? With investment in B2B video having climbed, search engines showing more video answers and social media platforms continuing to place video front and center, there’s never been more vibrant and bustling video marketing activity — or possibility — than now. Let’s take a look at some of the most recent information about B2B video from the latest industry reports and surveys, and hear from some of the top subject matter experts and proponents of B2B video.
1 — Increased Video Investment
When it comes to online video advertising, brands have continued to increase investment, with spending having climbed by 30 percent during the first quarter of 2022 — to the tune of $5.5 billion — compared to the final quarter of 2021, with spending on YouTube video ads alone reaching $482 million, an increase of 57 percent, according to recently-release MediaRadar report data. Additionally, the number of businesses investing in online video in the U.S. alone rose 21 percent to some 15,500 during the first quarter of 2022 compared with the final quarter of 2021.
It’s certainly not only paid advertising where video is seeing increased investment and exposure, however, as we’ll examine.
2 — Search Engines Providing More Video Answers
Use of video has not only continued to grow among B2B firms and in both paid and organic marketing efforts, but among search engines and the content they are increasingly showing to searchers looking for answers online. “We see that people love videos and authentic images in search results, so we try to show them more,” John Mueller, senior webmaster trends analyst, recently said during the SEOday 2022 conference. Giving today’s digital-first audiences what they want has naturally surfaced more video, and B2B marketing efforts that don’t include at least some video element will face increasing difficulties as search results reserve more spots for video-only content. [bctt tweet="“We see that people love videos and authentic images in search results, so we try to show them more.” — John Mueller @JohnMu of @Google" username="toprank"]3 — Video Continues As Prime Social Format
Data from several recent surveys have strengthened the notion that video use and spending have both risen, despite fears by some that a saturation point could arise — a tipping point that may indeed someday arrive, but as B2B marketers are finding with increased use of video, there is still plenty of room for more relevant digital video content. 47 percent of social media marketers have said that they plan to increase their video activity on LinkedIn over the next year, according to recent survey data.
LinkedIn itself has continued refining and expanding its video features, including LinkedIn Live and LinkedIn Events, with the latter recently adding the ability to engage in conversations before, during and after events, as we covered recently in our weekly TopRank Marketing Friday B2B marketing news. B2B marketers looking to find the ideal social media home for their latest video content have a wealth of options available in 2022, with the old guard of video hosts being joined by a steady stream of newcomers looking to make an impact. B2B video opportunities for cross-platform engagement testing abound for marketers willing to embrace new social platforms. [bctt tweet="“B2B video opportunities for cross-platform engagement testing abound for marketers willing to embrace new social platforms.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]
4 — Brands See Video Engagement & Room For Expansion
On LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and elsewhere, B2B brands are working to meet a combination of increased demand for video content and growing digital disengagement. “Our audience is overwhelmed, distracted, and disengaged. But time spent engaging with video is higher than ever,” Heike Young, senior director, brand marketing team at Salesforce, recently observed. “B2B companies have a quickly growing number of content teams, but still relatively few video teams (and small ones), especially when compared to the opportunities that are still out there for video,” Young added. B2B marketers that capitalize on those opportunities when it comes to using video will have a conspicuous advantage in a business environment where more people are viewing video content than ever, and making buying decisions based on what they see — or don’t see. [bctt tweet="“Our audience is overwhelmed, distracted, and disengaged. But time spent engaging with video is higher than ever.” — Heike Young @YoungHeike of @Salesforce" username="toprank"]5 — B2B Video Makes Buyers More Receptive
The use of video in B2B marketing has always played a part in the sales process, however the shifts seen during the pandemic have made buyers even more receptive to B2B video. “97 percent of B2B buyers said they would be more receptive to sales communications from a business after consuming their video content,” Colin Day, managing director - EMEA at Oktopost noted recently. Day also shared some of the ways that video can be used in today’s B2B marketing efforts, including:- Webinar clips
- Podcast clips
- Tips and tricks
- Product demonstrations
- Top product features
- How-to videos
- Tutorials
- Customer success stories
- Industry trends
- A day in the life using a product
6 — What’s Hot In B2B Video Content
B2B marketers looking to find out precisely which types of video content B2B buyers are tending to watch can gain insight from recently-released survey data showing that product reviews and demonstration videos topped the list, with tutorials, training and live videos such as webinars also making a strong showing.
An additional study showed that some 69 percent of marketers expect their top investment during 2022 to be for video efforts.
6 — Creative Angles & Humor Have A Place In B2B Video
Andrew Davis, keynote speaker and author, who was featured as one of the 50 top B2B content marketing influencers to follow in our list, recently created and shared a video on LinkedIn detailing how humor can play an important role in the success of B2B video content. Davis also sat down with our own Nick Nelson to share some of his insight on video marketing, in “Content Marketing Interview: Andrew Davis on Showing, Not Telling.” Those looking for other creative ideas for new takes on B2B video and other visual content elements will find 14 in the latest Forbes Agency Council Expert Panel piece, “14 Creative Ways Marketers Can Use 360-Degree Images And Other Unique Visuals.” [bctt tweet="“The number of people that make up our brand is more powerful than a logo. Get the face of the CEO, CFO, and CMO into the public eye!” — Andrew Davis @DrewDavisHere" username="toprank"]Press Play On Your Own B2B Video Success
B2B video usage is only going to grow for the foreseeable future, and those marketers that stay aware of this trend, the increasing prominence of video in search and social, and the continuing power of video to tell memorable stories, will have a significant edge on competitors unable or unwilling to expand their B2B video efforts. We hope you’ve found this brief look at some of the key shifts B2B video is undergoing helpful, and that you’ll be able to put these insights to use in your own video marketing efforts as we push ahead towards 2023 and beyond. We regularly cover how B2B marketers can put video, live-streaming, and podcasting to use, and some of our recent articles on these topics are listed here for further reading:- 6 Ways Livestreaming Video Can Boost B2B Marketing Results
- Episodic Expansion: How to Optimize B2B Experiences by Expanding Your Podcast to Full-On Video
- 5 Timely Ways B2B Brands Can Conquer Metaverse Marketing
- Visual Focus: The Digital Designs Propelling B2B Brand Success In 2022
The post Press Play: How Marketers Who Invest in B2B Video Earn Greater ROI appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
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Monday, 27 June 2022
10+ Top Content & Search Marketing Insights from MnSearch Summit 2022
When MnSearch, Minnesota’s premier collection of search marketing luminaries, held its latest big annual summit in St. Paul, we knew TopRank Marketing had to be in the house. I attended Friday’s festivities at the RiverCentre along with our search marketing manager Ryan Leighty. It was my first time attending a marketing conference in almost three years — and also my first time meeting my awesome coworker Ryan in person — which created plenty of good vibes in itself. But there was also a lot of really great content from very bright folks, making this event all the more enriching. Ryan and I divided and conquered the day’s sessions. Naturally, he dove into the more technical search topics — you’ll be shocked to hear Google Analytics 4 (GA4) was a recurring focus! — while I gravitated more toward the content-centric themes. Here I’ll share some of the most notable insights and learnings I took away from the sessions I attended at the MnSearch Summit 2022.
Jenny Halasz on Ecommerce Pitfalls & Solutions
The morning started with an opening keynote from Jenny Halasz, SEO manager at LL Flooring (formerly Lumber Liquidators). She spoke about five key search-related challenges in today’s eCommerce space and how to overcome them. 1 — Site migrations: They never go smoothly and there are a tremendous number of technical variables for which to account. What to do: Hire a seasoned SEO consultant or agency (hey, she said it, not me!) to help you navigate the complexities. And also: never do a migration during a busy season for the business. 2 — Seasonality: It’s not as simple or straightforward as some make it out to be. Some months have different numbers of days, some have holidays, and so on, making apples-to-apples comparisons misleading. What to do: Don’t always take data at face value. Analyze search trends and seek out deeper context. 3 — Speed matters: Page load speed is a key factor in driving traffic and conversions, and it’s especially critical with the continuing growth of mobile commerce. Mobile spending is expected to be three times higher in 2025 than it was in 2019, according to Halasz. What to do: Use tools that can persistently track page load speed and track them vigilantly – and “never turn your back.” Be careful of common slowdown culprits, like background images or JavaScript and cascading style sheets (CSS) loading on every page. 4 — Duplication: It’s not always just straight-up duplicated content. Halasz spoke about “duplication of purpose” affecting one area of the LL Flooring website, where the content on two vinyl flooring pages was different but addressed the same thing so users found it redundant. What to do: Test relentlessly to seek out duplicative instances in your user experience. Halasz mentioned that when her team combined the two pages mentioned above into one, overall performance improved substantially. 5 — Trusting tools: There are plenty of great SEO tools out there, but some specialize in detecting different things, and certain tools will miss certain issues. What to do: Use multiple complementary tools to avoid missing important errors and opportunities. [bctt tweet="“I cannot emphasize enough how good tests are, and the importance of testing your site constantly.” — @JennyHalasz #SEO #MnSearchSummit" username="toprank"]Niki Mosier on Building a Content Strategy for a Niche Industry
When you’re operating in a niche industry, many pillars of building a traditional content strategy need to be reconsidered. Niki Mosier has experienced this first-hand as director of digital marketing and content at AgentSync, a company operating within a niche vertical in the insurance licensing and compliance space. Mosier laid out a few of these situational challenges:- Competitive analysis is difficult because there are few other players to help understand what’s working and where the white-space is.
- Your emerging company likely has no authority or reputation in the SERPs.
- Writer expertise is hard to come by because the subject matter is so specialized and often esoteric.
Brian Massey on Getting Started with A/B Testing
As the name of his company Conversion Sciences suggests, Brian Massey loves to geek out about optimizing conversions. When he came on stage to present at the MnSearch Summit, he was even wearing a lab coat. Massey believes that marketers can gain an almost “unfair advantage” through the savvy use of data and science, with A/B testing serving as a perfect example. He invoked a number of human instincts and psychological traits – such as anchoring, loss aversion, and causation vs. correlation ambiguity – that necessitate a more objective approach to analysis. As he put it, “three pounds of seething biases live between our ears.” A/B testing removes this bias from the equation. You can approach the practice in two ways: either a before-and-after analysis — test two variations over different time periods and compare — or split testing — serve different variations to visitors, with a 50/50 split, for live and real-time testing. Whichever route you choose, make sure you’re developing a valid sample size and understanding what the outputs mean. Massey said that you should only be looking for significant changes in conversion rate, i.e. 20% or more. An effective A/B testing approach will produce one of three outcomes for any page it’s applied to:
- Win: Conversions are improved with the variation, and the changes are put into effect.
- Save: Conversions decline, meaning you saved yourself from losing conversions.
- Inconclusive: No significant change, thus you can save yourself the efforts and resources involved with a full implementation that won’t have the desired impact. Massey said this is the most common outcome.
Bob Sparkins on the Anatomy of a High-Converting Landing Page
A fitting follow-up to the previous session from Mr. Massey, this one also focused on using data to maximize landing page conversions, except in this case the data is historical rather than first-hand. As a sales marketing manager for Leadpages, Bob Sparkins has access to a lot of this data. In his presentation he shared common traits of his company’s highest-performing landing page templates. Some best practices that emerged through this review:- Lead magnet: This refers to the asset or hook you’re using to draw people in. Resource guides, checklists and cheat sheets relating directly to a specific audience pain point tend to drive higher conversions.
- Headlines: Make sure you’re focusing less on what you’re giving away or selling, and more on the results they’ll get out of taking this journey. Aim for the intersection of emotional impact and immediacy.
- Minimalism: Ask for only the information that is essential to your lead generation process. Fewer fields means more conversions. In many cases, first name and an email address are all you really need to collect.
- Two-step opt-in: This basically means that instead of filling out form fields on the landing page itself, the user clicks a button and then the form pops up. When people click through to a landing page and see a form right away, it can put them on guard. Sparkins said that split-testing (remember that?) shows that two-step opt-ins outperform standard form fills most of the time.
- Hero image: You want the user to see themselves in their desired future state. Don’t show a graphic of a frustrated guy with his face in his palms.
Christina Garnett on Harnessing Brand Affinity Through Community
Although her subject matter veered away a bit from the usual SEO-driven lens of this event, I was nonetheless eager to see Christina Garnett of HubSpot speak on the value and impact of brand communities, since it’s something I’ve felt strongly about for some time. Garnett shared a “Hierarchy of Brand Love,” deriving from Abraham Maslow’s classic psychological model of human needs. From the most basic and necessary level of community-building to the most aspirational ideal, it goes like this:
- Survival: Your brand and its solutions meet customer expectations.
- Safety: Customer support is your front-line to deliver better experiences.
- Love/Belonging: You’re proactively increasing brand affinity with swag, acknowledgement of positive word-of-mouth, and facilitating customer connections.
- Esteem: You’re developing brand advocacy with elite care that feels exclusive (i.e. behind-the-scenes access, VIP opportunities, betas and focus groups).
- Self Actualization: You’re turning your customers into product experts, giving them opportunities to shine, and providing resources to improve knowledge.
Alina Benny on Winning with Content Operations
The final session I attended at the MnSearch Summit was of particular interest to me personally, given my role as a senior content marketing manager on a growing team. While creatives like myself might enjoy dedicating most of our energy toward devising and creating content, there’s no question that defining and refining the team’s structure and processes is essential to scalably doing that well. This was the subject of Alina Benny’s talk, drawing from her experiences as head of content SEO for Nextiva and as a growth SEO advisor at Figma. She described content ops as “the next wave of doing content marketing better.” Effective content operations, according to Benny, leads to higher-quality content, faster production cycles, improved ROI, and more. In her presentation, she shared specific examples of organization charts and workflows. Clearly there are many ways to go about it, and the specifics will vary based on the team, but her core message was this: documentation is everything. And it’s surprisingly rare to see it done comprehensively. While Benny admitted that this is a specialized skill of hers, she encouraged everyone watching to focus on strengthening their commitment. Create time for documentation and make it a priority. Shared, dependable knowledge bases are a cornerstone of smooth and sustainable content operations. That’s definitely a message that hit home with me. [bctt tweet="“#ContentOps is a key competitive advantage. Not everyone’s good at documenting repeatable processes.” — @alinacbenny #ContentMarketing #MnSearchSummit" username="toprank"]
TopRank Marketing's Nick Nelson and Ryan Leighy
The post 10+ Top Content & Search Marketing Insights from MnSearch Summit 2022 appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
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Saturday, 25 June 2022
Weekend Favs June 25
Weekend Favs June 25 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing
My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.
I don’t go into depth about the finds, but I encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one that I took out there on the road.
- Linkgraph – Linkgraphs SEO content assistant helps you write better content, with less staff, in a shorter time. Their AI-powered program even includes a content planner and internal link suggestion feature which sets it apart from competitors.
- Wordable – If you write your content in Google Docs and have a WordPress site you should seriously look into this tool. Once integrations are set up you can upload your content to word press in a few simple clicks, saving tons of time.
- Invision – You guys know I love a good project and team management tool. Invision helps teams work together more naturally online. It also has built-in templates for things like brainstorming and meeting agendas as well as Loom integration, which can be very confident for a lot folks.
These are my weekend favs; I would love to hear about some of yours – Tweet me @ducttape
If you want to check out more Weekend Favs you can find them here.
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Friday, 24 June 2022
B2B Marketing News: LinkedIn’s New Event Features, B2B Customer Experience Data, Google’s Inclusive Marketing Resource, & Twitter Readies Long-Form Notes
What’s Standing in the Way of B2B Companies Providing A Great Customer Experience? When it comes to providing great customer service, 46 percent of U.S. B2B professionals have said that poor collaboration between teams was the leading challenge, followed by 42 percent who pointed to disparate team goals, and 33 percent who singled out the lack of a unified customer view — some of the statistics of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-released survey data. MarketingCharts TrustRadius' new B2B report - The age of the self-serve buyer is here [Annual Report] Nearly all B2B buyers have said they want all or at least part of their buying journeys to be self-serve — a rate up 13 percent from 2021, while 41 percent of those in the Gen Z and Millennial demographic said that their first step in buying was checking review sites — two of several findings of interest to digital marketers featured in recently-released report data. B2B Marketing LinkedIn Adds New Event Engagement Options, Simplified ‘Repost’ Process Microsoft-owned LinkedIn has launched a new feature that offers the ability to engage in conversations before, during and after events, along with a refined post-sharing experience, LinkedIn (client) recently announced. Social Media Today GfK study identifies how ‘purpose fatigue’ may be causing brand initiatives to fall short 74 percent of traditional video advertisements held viewer attention, while purpose-driven ads came in at 65 percent, with 48 percent noting that transformational ads were clear, compared to 43 percent for purpose-driven ads — some of the findings contained in newly-released purpose fatigue marketing survey data. The Drum TBWA 'Future Of Work' Report Finds Creatives Want Better Work/Life Balance Some 55 percent of creative professionals said they were satisfied with their work-life balance, significantly behind the 64 percent global benchmark, while 80 percent strongly agreed that it is important for their employer to help them achieve a healthy work-life balance, according to recently-released survey results. MediaPost LinkedIn Launches Initial Rollout of its New ‘Funny’ Reaction LinkedIn has rolled out an additional emoji that brings the ability to express the more light-hearted side of the professional social network, with a new laughing emoji, which comes as the platform has set record levels of user engagement, LinkedIn recently announced. Social Media Today 
Twitter to expand into long-form content with upcoming Twitter Notes feature Twitter is preparing to roll out a new feature that will allow article-length media-rich content — an upcoming shift that is set to change Twitter’s short-form-only modus operandi and offer B2B brands new options for using the platform, Twitter recently announced. TechCrunch Google Adds More Insights to its ‘All In’ Marketing Accessibility Resource Search giant Google has published a collection of new examples and resources aimed at providing marketers with detailed and up-to-date inclusive marketing best practices, broken down into 12 primary categories, Google recently announced. Social Media Today Meta and other tech giants form metaverse standards body, without Apple The Metaverse Standards Forum has launched as a new group intended to work towards setting industry standards when it comes to the metaverse, and includes Facebook and Instagram parent firm Meta, Microsoft and other major technology firms, along with standards organizations including the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), with a notable exception being Apple, the group recently announced. Reuters Where’s anywhere? Top 20 most popular cities for remote workers Bend, Oregon topped the list of smaller metropolitan cities where workers are applying for remote work, with Cape Coral, Florida topping the larger metro area cities — two of several findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-released survey data from Adobe, which examined the latest hot-spots for remote workers and looked at the future of work. Adobe ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: 
A lighthearted look at “social marketing hype” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist IT Guy Requests Employees Stop Placing Difficult-To-Remove Stickers On Him — The Onion TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:
- Lane R. Ellis — This Week in Marketing: B2B Creative Renaissance in Cannes — LinkedIn (client)
- Harry Mackin — B2B influencers, marketing alignment, and what you need to know about CABs — Cronycle
- TopRank Marketing — How B2B Companies Can Leverage Influencer Marketing in 2022: The Ultimate Guide — Contently
The post B2B Marketing News: LinkedIn’s New Event Features, B2B Customer Experience Data, Google’s Inclusive Marketing Resource, & Twitter Readies Long-Form Notes appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
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Thursday, 23 June 2022
Wednesday, 22 June 2022
How To Make Your Clients Successful So They Never Want To Leave
How To Make Your Clients Successful So They Never Want To Leave written by Sara Nay read more at Duct Tape Marketing
About the show:
The Agency Spark Podcast, hosted by Sara Nay, is a collection of short-form interviews from thought leaders in the marketing consultancy and agency space. Each episode focuses on a single topic with actionable insights you can apply today. Check out the new Spark Lab Consulting website here!
About this episode:
In this episode of the Agency Spark Podcast, Sara talks with Shaun Clark on how to make your clients successful so they never want to leave.
Shaun Clark is a serial entrepreneur, multi-millionaire, and a co-founder and the CEO of HighLevel, the #1 white-label marketing platform for agencies, serving more than 20,000 agency owners.
Prior to HighLevel, Shaun founded, operated, and sold InvoiceSherpa, a SaaS company that continues to help thousands of businesses around the world get paid faster.
HighLevel is Shaun’s third successful SaaS company. Shaun studied computer science at college and is a software developer by trade.
This episode of the Agency Spark Podcast is brought to you by Monday.com, a powerful project management platform. Monday.com helps teams easily build, run, and scale their dream workflows on one platform. I personally am a user and big fan of Monday.com – I start my workday pulling up the platform and spend my day working within it for everything from task management to running client engagements. Learn more about Monday.com at ducttape.me/monday.
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Instagram’s Enhanced Creator Tags: Implications for B2B Influencer Marketing
How can B2B marketers make their content stand out and highlight the talented subject matter experts, creators, and influencers they partner with? Earlier this year Instagram rolled out new enhanced tagging features that allow digital marketers to do a much better job of indicating and crediting the various influencers and creators involved in the creation of content shared on the platform. Instagram’s addition of enhanced tagging — which is also available for use in video Reels — offers significant new exposure opportunities for B2B content that has been created by multiple professionals, often precisely the type of content that is either made or co-created by industry influencers. Let’s take a look at some of the advantages provided by Instagram’s enhanced creator tags, and how B2B marketers can best put them to use.
1 — Straightforward Setup Process
The process of using the enhanced tagging features is fairly straightforward, however there are a few caveats to be aware of as you move to incorporate them into your B2B marketing workflow on Instagram, in order to get the full effect of Instagram’s latest tagging elements.
While Instagram has moved to make more of its features available to desktop users, the enhanced tagging features were initially only available from the mobile app. Simply having content creators or co-creators tagged goes a long way, and shows a clickable link to learn more about or follow the people involved in the digital assets you find helpful on Instagram. The updated tagging feature can do more, however.
2 — Switch On A Business Or Creator Account
One aspect of the enhanced tagging system takes on even more value, and that's when the people tagged have gone through the simple process of setting up their Instagram profile as either a creator or business account. Tagging people with a creator or business account adds a second line of helpful information below the person’s username, containing a category they’ve selected, such as a few B2B-related examples listed here:- Video creator
- Digital creator
- Writer
- Author
- Advertising Agency
- Marketing Agency
- Market Research Consultant
- Advertising/Marketing
- Internet Marketing Service
- Creator accounts are best for public figures, content producers, artists and influencers
- Business accounts are best for retailers, local businesses, brands, organizations and service providers
3 — Ripe For Implementation By B2B Brands
In the B2B arena, the new Instagram enhanced tagging is ripe for implementation by brands and marketers looking to distinguish their content from the competition, and to highlight the subject matter experts and influencers they partner with. It’s still early days for implementation of the enhanced tagging, and those brands and B2B marketers willing to put them to use will be among the first to stand out as multiple contributors are highlighted in co-created content. [bctt tweet="“The new Instagram enhanced tagging is ripe for implementation by B2B brands and marketers looking to distinguish their content from the competition, and to highlight the influencers they partner with.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]4 — From One Influencer To Many Others
When Instagram’s enhanced tagging becomes more regularly utilized, it will represent a powerful way not only for influencers to have the digital work they’ve helped create gain greater exposure, but it will also be a helpful way to find new industry experts who are tagged alongside an influencer you may already be aware of. These days top performing digital content can involve a slew of talented creative professionals, from marketers and writers to video, audio, and social media specialists, and Instagram’s new enhanced tags make it easy to shine a light on everyone who had a hand in building a successful digital asset.4 — Tagging Gives Voice To Underrepresented Talent
While not unique to Instagram, the new enhanced tagging features can play a helpful role in giving a greater voice to traditionally underrepresented talent. Instagram’s augmented tagging features were brought to life through the help of three women in technology, who were each profiled in the Snobette interview, “Meet The Women In Tech Behind The Instagram-Enhanced Tagging Feature.” “In a world where online visibility directly leads to brand sponsorships and other types of monetary opportunities, crediting is more important than ever,” Alexandra Zaoui, music data analyst at Instagram-parent firm Meta, observed. [bctt tweet="“In a world where online visibility directly leads to brand sponsorships and other types of monetary opportunities, crediting is more important than ever.” — Alexandra Zaoui @ZaouiAlexandra" username="toprank"] “One of the biggest challenges about being a woman and particularly a Black woman in tech is not seeing nor working with others like you,” Cameryn Boyd, software engineer at Meta, noted. “I’m passionate about bringing other Black women and underrepresented people into tech because that is how and when some of the best and most equitable innovation happens,” Boyd added. Just as in the B2C marketing world, B2B influencer marketing can help amplify underrepresented voices, and features such as Instagram’s new enhanced tagging help expand such efforts. Our CEO Lee Odden featured efforts that give voice to talent as one of the top methods for elevating B2B marketing in 2022, in "Three of the Biggest Opportunities to Elevate B2B Marketing in 2022." [bctt tweet="“B2B marketers are in a unique position to make choices about how they represent their customers in content, who they partner with in content collaborations and the influencers they engage.” — Lee Odden @LeeOdden" username="toprank"]Instagram Enhanced Tagging For B2B Marketing Success
By fully embracing Instagram’s new enhanced tagging capabilities, savvy B2B marketers can lead the way and set a good example for the influencers, digital creators, and industry experts they work with, in a process that’s beneficial for both brands and influencers alike — not to mention both existing and potential customers. Instagram is just one of the digital menagerie of social media platforms that top B2B brands use to engage audiences, however as an increasing number of B2B firms find success on platforms including TikTok and others, having a solid cross-platform tagging strategy in place will give you an edge over those who don’t. Creating award-winning B2B marketing that elevates, gives voice to talent, and humanizes with authenticity takes considerable time and effort, which is why an increasing number of firms are choosing to work with a top digital marketing agency such as TopRank Marketing. Contact us 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 others.The post Instagram’s Enhanced Creator Tags: Implications for B2B Influencer Marketing appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
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Monday, 20 June 2022
5 Ways Influencer Marketing Builds Trust for B2B Brands
Ever notice that the people who say, “trust me,” are the least trustworthy people around? Something about those two little words immediately puts people on guard. If you were really trustworthy, we think, you wouldn’t have to ask. Right now, we have a serious trust gap in our cultural institutions. The Edelman Trust Barometer for this year shows a continued downward spiral. Nearly half of respondents view the government and the media as divisive forces in society, rather than sources of reliable information. “Trust me,” says the senator. “Trust ME,” says the pundit. And most of us say, “no, thank you.” This trust gap may seem like the perfect opportunity for business to step in. After all, B2B brands want to be trusted advisors to potential clients. The only problem is, even if consumers trust us more than the government or media… they still don’t trust us all that much. Thankfully, this is one of the many B2B marketing challenges that co-creating content with influential industry experts and thought leaders can fix. Here are five ways that B2B influencer marketing can build trust.
#1: Boosting Visibility
This is influencer marketing at the simplest level. If a trusted influencer in your industry has a million followers, and your brand accounts have a couple thousand, the influencer’s participation widens your audience. Of course, influence isn’t solely about numbers. The right influencer should have a sizable audience that is immediately relevant to your brand. And they should be actively engaging with that audience, not just broadcasting. With a truly relevant, actually influential person aligned with the brand, you can boost visibility in a meaningful, useful way.#2: Boosting Credibility
In addition to amplifying your message, the right influencers can make your message—and the intent behind it—more credible. For example, our client Prophix could have written an eBook by themselves called “The Ultimate Finance Software Purchase Guide.” However, since Prophix is a Finance platform, one would suspect highly biased advice from them.
Instead, Prophix co-created three smaller assets on specific aspects of digital transformation in Finance. Each one features three respected thought leaders in the field. Now Prophix is saying, “This is the way the industry is headed, according to these experts,” rather than, “We think you should buy our solution.” Influencer co-created content shows that you genuinely care about the audience, and are committed to presenting something of value they can’t get anywhere else.
#3: Aligning with Purpose
Purpose is becoming a major differentiator for both B2B and B2C. Consumers and B2B buyers alike want to spend money with people who have the same values. That means brands need to:- Define their values
- Live those values
- Broadcast their values in a meaningful way.
#4: Amplifying Voices
We covered how influencers can help amplify your content. But what can your brand do for up-and-coming influencers? Especially those in marginalized or historically oppressed communities? Every brand should have diversity and inclusion as part of their expressed and lived values. One way to get closer to that goal is to lend your platform to promote diverse voices. When you’re looking at co-creating content with influencers, keep an eye out for up and coming folks that you can help get heard. Most importantly, don’t look for a person of color only when it’s Juneteenth or Black History Month. Don’t seek out a transgender person solely to talk about Pride Month or trans issues. Make diversity a habit for all your content. It’s an easy way to show your audience that you’re sincerely committed to inclusion.#5: Building Community
Let’s talk about building community. What do I mean by that? Well, when you have a group of influencers that you work with regularly, you can help them get to know each other. You can make mutually beneficial introductions. You can put them in conversation with each other, let them bounce ideas off one another, brainstorm and innovate and create cool stuff. When your influencers are truly a community, you’re constantly providing value three different ways:- Helping influencers meet and network
- Helping influencers come up with cool new stuff
- Generating great content for your audience
It’s Always Been a Matter of Trust
In the immortal words of the Bard himself, Billy Joel, “You can’t go the distance with too much resistance… it’s always been a matter of trust.” The Piano Man saw it way back in the 80s, and it’s far past time for B2B Marketers to catch on. The way to reduce resistance with B2B buyers is to build trust. The way to build trust is to align the brand with trusted, authoritative, influential people, and work with them to bring useful content to your audience and prove your commitment to the brand’s values. Are you ready to kickstart an influencer marketing program for your B2B brand? We can help.The post 5 Ways Influencer Marketing Builds Trust for B2B Brands appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
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Saturday, 18 June 2022
Weekend Favs June 18
Weekend Favs June 18 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing
My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.
I don’t go into depth about the finds, but I encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one that I took out there on the road.
- Claap – Another great time management tool for virtual teams. Instead of long meetings with no clear next steps, you can opt for short pre-recorded videos and clearly assigned and defined tasks for your remote teams.
- Jiffy Reader – This Chrome extension uses modern psychological principles to enhance the words on websites, articles, and blogs so you can read faster and add more time back into your day.
- Felt – A modern map maker’s dream. This collaborative map-making tool has climate features, trip planning add-ons, custom designs and so much more. You can easily share and add feedback or notes to any map.
These are my weekend favs; I would love to hear about some of yours – Tweet me @ducttape
If you want to check out more Weekend Favs you can find them here.
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Friday, 17 June 2022
B2B Marketing News: B2B CMOs Prove Value, Free Adobe Photoshop, B2B in Cannes, Metaverse On Track to 5 Trillion
B2B Marketers Seek Advanced Metrics to Prove Their Worth. CMOs are feeling pressure to prove their value to others in the C-suite, and that desire to show marketing’s impact on pipeline and revenue is a leading reason why B2B marketers are increasing their focus on – or need for – deeper metrics, according to a study from Demand Gen Report, in association with Align BI. MarketingCharts Why Cannes 2022 is a shining moment for B2B’s creative journey. Called The Creative B2B Lions, an official jury will award 11 winners for marketing disciplines such as cross-channel storytelling, brand experience, innovative content, and other areas between June 20 and June 24. The Drum Adobe plans to make Photoshop on the web free to everyone. Adobe has started testing a free-to-use version of Photoshop on the web and plans to open the service up to everyone as a way to introduce more users to the app. The Verge Facebook is Changing its Algorithm to Take on TikTok Leaked Memo Reveals. Rather than prioritize posts from accounts people follow, Facebook’s main feed will, like TikTok, start heavily recommending posts regardless of where they come from. The Verge YouTube Shorts Has More Than 1.5 Billion Monthly Video Viewers, Google Claims. YouTube Shorts now has more than 1.5 billion monthly logged-in users. That amounts to around three-fourths of YouTube’s total global base of upwards of 2 billion logged-in monthly users. Variety 
What’s Standing in the Way of B2B Companies Providing A Great Customer Experience? The top two responses across each function were lack of communication between teams and misaligned efforts and goals between teams. MarketingCharts Metaverse Spending to Total $5 Trillion in 2030, McKinsey Predicts. 79% of survey respondents said they have already made a purchase in the metaverse. Wall Street Journal Semrush Introduces Tools To Help Build Content, Expands Support For List Management - The Content Outline Builder helps to create detailed content briefs in seconds. Users type in the domain and the topic or keyword, and the tool returns a list of content opportunities to choose from. Users can then click on the ones they want to gain access to. MediaPost Twitter Shares New Research into the Effectiveness of its Offensive Reply Warnings. Twitter’s warning prompts use automated detection to pick up any likely offensive terms within tweet replies, which then triggers this alert to add a moment of hesitation in the process. In February 30% of cases where users were shown these prompts, they did in fact end up changing or deleting their replies. Social Media Today Pinterest Debuts Idea Ads, Paid Partnership Tool. Pinterest introduced two new ad options in the run-up to the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity: idea ads and a paid partnership tool. AdWeek ON THE LIGHTER SIDE: 
Has your business built a moat? Thoughts and cartoon from Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist If you've come across B2B marketing news stories we should know about, please don't hesitate to share in the comments below. Thank you for taking the time to join us for this week's TopRank Marketing B2B marketing news. We hope you'll return again next Friday for another collection of the most relevant research and newsworthy information about the B2B and digital marketing industry. In the meantime, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page, or at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily B2B marketing updates.
The post B2B Marketing News: B2B CMOs Prove Value, Free Adobe Photoshop, B2B in Cannes, Metaverse On Track to 5 Trillion appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
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Thursday, 16 June 2022
Wednesday, 15 June 2022
Why Strategy Before Tactics Is So Important
Why Strategy Before Tactics Is So Important written by Sara Nay read more at Duct Tape Marketing
About the show:
The Agency Spark Podcast, hosted by Sara Nay, is a collection of short-form interviews from thought leaders in the marketing consultancy and agency space. Each episode focuses on a single topic with actionable insights you can apply today. Check out the new Spark Lab Consulting website here!
About this episode:
In this episode of the Agency Spark Podcast, Sara talks with Alison Ver Halen on why strategy before tactics is so important.
Alison Ver Halen is a content marketer and SEO strategist who loves telling your story and coming up with a strategy to get it in front of your ideal clients so you can make magic together. Alison is the president of AV Writing Services. AV specializes in helping their clients improve their brand authority and online visibility using a combination of engaging content and tried-and-true SEO techniques.
More from Alison Ver Halen:
- Alison’s LinkedIn
- AV Writing Services Website
- Content Marketing Made Easy Book
- Download Free Marketing Workbook Here
This episode of the Agency Spark Podcast is brought to you by Monday.com, a powerful project management platform. Monday.com helps teams easily build, run, and scale their dream workflows on one platform. I personally am a user and big fan of Monday.com – I start my workday pulling up the platform and spend my day working within it for everything from task management to running client engagements. Learn more about Monday.com at ducttape.me/monday.
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8 Tips for B2B Marketers with ADHD to Elevate the Writing Process
The post 8 Tips for B2B Marketers with ADHD to Elevate the Writing Process appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
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Monday, 13 June 2022
Four Ways B2B Influencer Content Builds Better Marketing Reach & ROI
Nearly every marketer is familiar with B2C influencer marketing, such as it is. Celebrities promoting iPhones, various alcohols and even “probiotic” yogurt. You like the celebrity, so you’re supposed to like the product. But does associating a brand or product with a popular individual really work for B2B marketing? …really? Well, in a sense, yes, as TopRank Marketing has been proving for quite awhile now with companies like LinkedIn, Dell, SAP, and many more. B2B influencer marketing represents a huge opportunity for companies of all sizes to expand their reach and generate better ROI from their content. However, activating influencers to advance B2B marketing and business goals doesn’t work exactly the same as with B2C. Instead, effective B2B marketing that includes working with influencers is all about connecting your brand with subject matter experts who have built a devoted following by really knowing their stuff. B2B influence is less about popularity and more about relevance - but both are still important. Working with industry experts raises a B2B brand's profile and makes the most of an online presence in multiple ways. Here are a few of the ways B2B brands are benefitting from B2B influencer marketing and how you can too:
Finding and sharing highly-qualified audiences
All influencers bring followers with them - that’s a big part of why they’re valuable in the first place. It’s also why B2B influencers can be particularly valuable, especially if you team up with the right one for your business. B2B influencer followers can represent highly-qualified and, often, highly-motivated prospective customers. These potential buyers follow the influencer because they have an active, ongoing interest in the subject matter that the influencer covers. They want to stay up to date and involved in the conversation. By co-creating content with the right influencer, you can make your organization a part of the ongoing industry conversation their followers are so interested in. Not only will you reach new audience segments who may not have known about you before, but those audience members will be perfectly suited to understanding the unique value proposition of your organization relative to your industry. And you’ll have impressed them by demonstrating you’re in the know, just like they are. Which brings us to another huge benefit to B2B influencer content:Demonstrating social proof
The proliferation of information broadly available on the internet has changed the way B2B marketing works forever. Simply put: about 75% of B2B deals are made… before the company’s sales team ever gets involved. How is that possible? Because of content. These days, B2B buyers devote a lot of time to researching a company before you even reach out. They’re scrutinizing every element of your website, buyer reviews, and LinkedIn profiles. They’re reading your case studies, researching your former clients and competition, and looking up your employees. All this before they even respond to your email one way or another! And, while some particularly meticulous researchers may be loath to admit it, a great deal of this research is socially-based. To borrow the old adage, “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” B2B buyers want social proof that you are who you say you are - and they want to get it from someone other than your own marketers or salespeople. Influencers are one of the best ways to give that proof to them. When an influencer works with you, they’re staking their reputation on you. Working with a highly-respected and renowned influencer shows that, at least according to them, you’re the real deal. And if your buyers follow and respect the influencer, that means they’ll respect you, too.Becoming newsworthy
Nothing stays still for long in the B2B world. Everyone’s making moves - acquiring other businesses, developing new products and services, coming up with new innovations - and everyone’s always looking for what’s next. To take advantage of this dynamic environment, it's essential that your marketing taps into what’s next. B2B Influencers do this almost inherently. After all, they didn’t pick up their following by repeating the same old spiel over and over again. They’re tuned into what’s happening in the areas of their interest and constantly finding a way to stay at the forefront of it, offering interesting insights and takes on the latest goings ons. Their audience follows them because they’re hungry for the insider scoop on whatever’s about to happen. If your B2B brand can provide that scoop with the help of one of the influencers your industry knows and respects, you won’t just have a highly-relevant and effective piece of content on your hands; you’ll be more relevant than the competition. No matter what industry you’re in, make no mistake: connecting with today's buyers is about moving fast, and there’s always news to be found. With the help of the right influencer, you can be that news.Fostering lasting relationships
Achieving marketing ROI takes place on a longer timeline in B2B than when selling consumer products. In most cases, B2B buyers aren’t one-time-only… at least, hopefully. Instead, they’re long-term clients you may enjoy a working relationship with for years. You want these clients to look to you as a trusted service provider and subject matter expert. Influencer content can help facilitate those long term customer relationships. By partnering with the movers-and-shakers of your industry to cover the hot topics of today, you’re not just extending your reach or enticing highly-qualified new prospects. You’re also showing existing (and former) clients that you’re relevant and leading the competition. Each new piece of influencer content can put your B2B brand back at the forefront of your industry’s combination. The long term, ongoing content collaboration relationships B2B brands develop with relevant and popular influencers can in turn, help create long term relationships with customers. New and old clients alike often see influencer content as proof that you’re still looking out for them. You’re still hungry, still engaged, and still actively working on finding new innovations and delivering better client experiences. At TopRank Marketing we've seen this situation happen time and time again: a B2B brand loses a customer. Months pass, or maybe years. But the lost customer still follows the B2B brand on LinkedIn while the brand's sales team considers the opportunity dead in the water. Then, the B2B brand collaborates with an industry influencer to publish new content: a video, an interview, a podcast. Someone from the lost customer company reacts to the influencer content and InMails their former contact at the B2B brand. The relationship rekindles, and the B2B brand is back in. This is the magic of Always-On influencer marketing.
If you are interested in more in-depth insights, case studies, best practices and predictions for the future of B2B influencer marketing, sign up for early access to the 2022 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Research Report. Or if you want to put our 10 years of B2B influencer marketing experience to work for your B2B brand, let's talk.
The post Four Ways B2B Influencer Content Builds Better Marketing Reach & ROI appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
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Saturday, 11 June 2022
Weekend Favs June 11
Weekend Favs June 11 written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing
My weekend blog post routine includes posting links to a handful of tools or great content I ran across during the week.
I don’t go into depth about the finds, but I encourage you to check them out if they sound interesting. The photo in the post is a favorite for the week from an online source or one that I took out there on the road.
- Switchboard App – This is a remote collaboration and virtual meeting room tool made for the remote work era. With features like shared workspaces, cloud browsing, and meeting memory your team can be more productive and feel more connected.
- Virtual Event Plan – For anyone that plans or oversees virtual events this article by Mike Allton is a must-read. He offers some of the best advice for putting together an effective and successful virtual event plan.
- 103 Bits of Advice – “When you lead, your real job is to create more leaders, not more followers.” This is just one of the 103 Bits of Advice I Wish I Had Known When I Was Young listicle on The Technium. An easy and fun ready for your Saturday morning.
These are my weekend favs; I would love to hear about some of yours – Tweet me @ducttape
If you want to check out more Weekend Favs you can find them here.
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