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In his recently published eBook, Corona Marketing , Joe Pulizzi recounts how he and his wife launched the website Content Marketing Institute in 2007 at the exact time as a devastating financial crisis was beginning to unfold in the United States.  “At the time, we believed things couldn’t have been bleaker,” Pulizzi writes. “Looking back though, this was absolutely the best time for my wife and I to start a business.” Why is that? Because their commitment to providing useful, helpful and relevant content – even at a time where it was difficult to drive direct revenue with that content – paid major dividends as the market recovered.  “When we were starting to come out of the recession in 2010, Content Marketing Institute quickly became the leading resource for content marketing education, not because we had some secret sauce, but simply because we invested in our audience for two years when everyone else went silent (or went out of business).” Even when times are diff...

Without question, the COVID-19 pandemic has had an impact on the B2B world with companies generally reducing marketing budgets. At the same time, many B2B companies are maintaining or increasing marketing spend as we've seen with most of our clients at TopRank Marketin g. While there has generally been a shift from explicit sales/push marketing content to brand messaging that is more aligned with the times and empathetic to customers, sales expectations still exist for B2B brands during the COVID-19 pandemic. The challenge many B2B marketers are facing is to understand how to navigate both the short term changes in what works for customers in the current environment as as well as in the long term, post-crisis. According to research from McKinsey , one of the biggest changes that has happened is the boost in importance of B2B digital over traditional means of engaging customers - 200% more than before COVID-19. This move to digital means higher expectations by B2B customers of se...

The 10 Traits B2B Buyers and Managers Value Most in Salespeople 42 percent of B2B buyers value active listening when it comes to interacting with salespeople, according to recently-released survey data from LinkedIn (client), while 38 percent value problem solving, 38 percent confidence, and 34 percent who said that they value relationship building skills. MarketingProfs Addressing the B2B void between product data and online sales [Survey] 52.8 percent of B2B professionals expect to add voice-controlled search technology to their customer experience (CX) program within the next 12 months, according to newly-released report data, while 44.8 percent plan to add live chat, and 39 percent expect to install new augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology. Digital Commerce 360 The Biggest Challenges to Aligning B2B Marketing and Sales Teams Half of marketing and sales professionals primarily at B2B firms find that their biggest challenge to aligning sales and marketing...

Season two of TopRank Marketing’s video podcast series, “Break Free B2B,” has come to a close. We had the opportunity to interview some of the smartest B2B marketers in the industry, to find out how they’re breaking the mold and reinventing the role and function of the marketing department in B2B organizations. The series covered three key themes: Reinvigorating Scalable, Global ABM Creating Online and Offline Experiences that Inspire Reinventing B2B Marketing and How Success is Measured One consistent message among all ten interviews is that it's time to shake things up. B2B marketing doesn't need more of the same. These experts are well aware of that fact. Simply repeating tactics that have 'always been done' and are considered industry standards is no longer enough. It's time to push the envelope, find a way to scale your ABM program, inspire your prospects with experiences, and continue to evolve how you approach marketing and measurement. One way to brea...

What is brand research and why is it an important step in building a successful always-on  B2B influencer marketing program? What are the key facts you need to learn about a brand that will lead to the creation of a strong ongoing influencer program? Doing brand research right is crucial for always-on B2B influencer marketing success, but where do you start, especially with the increased importance of brand empathy and authenticity ? Don’t worry, as in the third part of our ongoing #AlwaysOnInfluence series — following on the heels of “ Always On Influence: Short Term vs. Long Term for Success During a Crisis ” — we’ll take the time to show why brand research is key to building a B2B influencer marketing program that features the most relevant influencers. As a refresher, always-on influencer marketing is the practice of ongoing relationship-building, engagement and activation of a specified group of influencers to build community, content and brand advocacy . Always-on marketing...

Baseball and content marketing are two of my greatest passions. When I think about it, there are some intrinsic similarities between the two that aren't hard to see. Much like content marketing, baseball is rhythmic and methodical by design. Sure, there are the flashy home runs (and it helps when your favorite team *ahem* set the all-time record a year ago), but at its core, baseball is about strategy, patience, and sequencing: Accept the inevitability of failure and learn from it. Take good at-bats, call the right plays, string together base runners, manufacture runs. via GIPHY Sadly there is no baseball season right now, but if there was, it'd be inching toward "the dog days of summer" – a term given to those stretches in July and August where the relentless heat and daily grind start to wear on ball players as they battle their way through a marathon 162-game schedule. In content marketing, we don't typically face such seasonal stresses in the summer month...

80% of CEOs don't trust marketers. And yet 91% of CEOs do trust CIOs and CFOs Ouch! In addition to the many challenges marketers are currently facing with the COVID-19 pandemic and overall social change, a study by Fournaise Group found that CEOs felt marketing was not meeting expectations, causing a lack of confidence. Whether it was due to too much emphasis on martech or marketing "hype", the outcome is clear: the credibility of marketing is at risk. The thing is, those credibility issues are not limited to the C-Suite. Customers have trust issues with marketing as well and for good reasons: Brand vs. Customer Focus Lack of Confidence & Trust Not Delivering Value Not Meeting Expectations Lack of Authenticity What is the solution to marketing trust issues with the C-Suite and customers? One way to build trust is to understand and grow influence of marketing both internally and externally. For marketing, trust and influence are an important function of making...

B2B Wannabes: Most Brands Have A Customer-Centricity Gap, Study Finds 71 percent of B2B brands have digital experiences that don't meet customer expectations and needs, while 82 percent have implemented a digital transformation project — two of several statistics of interest to digital marketers contained in recently-released study data. MediaPost Global Advertising Market Expected to Recover in 2021 2021 will see global advertising recovering from losses brought about due to the ongoing pandemic, with 2 percent overall digital advertising growth forecast, and video growth predicted at 10 percent and social at 7 percent, according to newly-released report data from Magna Global. Adweek AppsFlyer: App Retargeting Conversions Jumped During Coronavirus Lockdowns Owned and paid re-targeting conversions rose by 31 percent and 35 percent respectively between February and April, illustrating how app installations climbed during the initial periods of the global health crisis, accor...