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What can B2B marketers learn from family history research? Family history research offers a surprising number of valuable lessons for marketers looking to hone existing skills and build new ones. For starters, genealogy research can teach us about: Knowing Your Marketing Roots Sharpening Your Research Skills Building Enduring Passion Citing, Celebrating & Honoring Your Marketing Sources Learning & Networking With Fellow Professionals at Industry Events Adhering To Guidelines & Goalposts Publishing & Preserving For Posterity Sparking Interest For Future Marketers Breaking Through With Hyper-Personal Relevance Peering Inside Your B2B Marketing DNA Aside from childhood school family history projects, I first stared researching my roots in earnest in 1994, and a decade later for several years I worked as a professional genealogist. It's still a passion, and a pursuit that has for millions of people of all ages around the world become not only one of the fa...

On the heels of the release of the 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report and the announcement that several of our clients (LinkedIn and Alcatel Lucent Enterprise) have won awards for B2B influencer marketing campaigns , I am very happy to share the launch of a new video interview series: Inside Influence: Interviews with B2B Influencer Marketing Insiders . What is Inside Influence? This is a show that goes behind the scenes of B2B influencer marketing and showcases conversations with insiders from the world of B2B influencer marketing. We'll be talking with practitioners at B2B brands of all kinds and sizes to answer the rising number of questions about working with influencers in a business context. The 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report has provided data for B2B brands to benchmark some of their strategies, operations and best practices. The report has also helped drive more conversations around B2B influence and the Inside Influence series aims to answer q...

US B2B Digital Advertising 2020 B2B advertisers are relying more than ever before on paid ads, with a 22.6 percent increase for 2020 in B2B digital ad spending, contributing to a total spend that is expected to top $8 billion in the U.S. alone by the end of the year, according to newly-released forecast data of interest to digital marketers. eMarketer The 'Purpose Gap' Facing Many B2B Brands 86 percent of senior-level B2B professionals see clear brand purpose articulation as important, however just 24 percent see activated purpose within their organization — two of several insights of interest to online marketers in new survey data from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and others. MarketingProfs How Bad Data Hurts B2B Companies 88 percent of B2B marketers see quality data as important in executing a successful account-based-marketing (ABM) strategy, while some 27 percent aren't certain how much of their data is accurate, according to recently-released su...

In a time of increased competition and uncertainty, standing out is more important than ever. Of course there's plenty of B2B marketing that stands out, but what kind performs? Is it ads, content marketing, SEO, social, ABM or influence? At TopRank Marketing we make it our business to deliver on and exceed expectations for content experiences that will inspire customers through influencer marketing. But what does award-winning B2B influencer marketing look like?  How can you infuse your own campaigns with the type of powerful elements that combine to deliver stellar marketing performance? To help answer those questions, let’s take a look at two highly-successful efforts from our clients LinkedIn and Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) to find out what common elements both campaigns share to make for decidedly uncommon success. Award Winning B2B Influencer Marketing in Action We were thrilled that the Association of National Advertisers ( ANA ) B2 Awards awarded TopRank Marketing i...

Across every industry, profession, and discipline, work productivity is in peril. How could it not be? Outside distractions have mounted over the course of the year, from a global pandemic to rampant social unrest to a headline-hijacking presidential election, all in the midst of economic turmoil. Through it all, many of us have been acclimating to a remote work setting that upends our established workflows and routines. Frankly, we all deserve a pat on the back for being able to stay focused on work at all. So go ahead and give yourself one. But with plenty left to accomplish here in 2020, there’s little time to sit back and take a beat. Marketing is a field that’s especially susceptible to negative productivity impacts at a time like this. We’re scrambling to adapt to changing circumstances for our companies, clients, and strategies. We’re rewriting best practices on the fly. And in a job where creativity is often a driving force, we’re trying to keep our minds clear and energized ...

Now Is the Time for B2B Content During the pandemic, video and webinar content has seen the largest increase in views according to recently-released survey data, while views of unique content assets during March through May climbed by 40 percent compared to earlier in 2020, with the average number of sessions per visitor up some 43 percent. ANA Google Shares Exclusive Data On How B2B Buyers Changed, Adapted During COVID-19 64 percent of B2B buyers have increased their use of online video during the pandemic, with overall online marketing use rising by 88 percent including 45 percent who started using digital for the first time during the global health crisis, according to newly-released report data. MediaPost Instagram Adds 'Suggested Reels' Display in Main Feed, Launches Monthly Reels Trend Insights Instagram has expanded the visibility of its short-form vertical video feature Reels on the platform, bringing a prominent new suggested Reels section and the ability to rec...

What’s new at YouTube, and how are B2B marketers using the world’s largest video platform in creative and engaging campaigns? Let’s take a look! Google’s omnipresent YouTube brought in revenue of over $15 billion in 2019, has over two billion monthly active users (MAUs), and by some estimates is considered as the world’s number two search engine, making it nearly inescapable for B2B marketers seeking to host and promote video content. While not necessarily out of this world, YouTube’s orbit casts a wide swath in the B2B marketing universe. During the pandemic, video and webinar content has seen the largest increase in views according to recently-released PathFactory survey data, leading the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) to suggest that “ Now Is the Time for B2B Content .” 64 percent of B2B buyers have increased their use of online video during the pandemic , according to newly-released report data from Google and Ipsos, which has also showed a whopping 88 percent increa...

If the 1982 movie Blade Runner and its dystopian depiction of what the world would look like in 2019 were accurate, this is what we’d have been living through last year: via GIPHY Needless to say, our predictions of society’s future state, and technology’s long-term evolution, are not always on the money. While certain aspects of Blade Runner ’s vision might’ve been frighteningly accurate, Los Angeles is not yet inhabited by flying cars or giant video advertisements projected onto the entirety of skyscrapers. With that said, today’s marketers can much more easily look ahead to 2021 — suddenly only a few short months away — and make educated guesses about what the year will hold. Many of the marketing technologies that will transform business and drive strategies are already on the rise, if not gaining mainstream traction. Martech 2021: 5 Trends to for B2B Marketers to Watch Businesses and marketing departments might be facing spending restrictions and budget cuts amidst the turmo...