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The influencer identification, validation, and recruitment process is time consuming, resource intensive, and high stakes. Without the right mix of influencers to drive awareness, intrigue, conversation, and action, your marketing initiatives will miss the mark with your audience and fall short of expectations. But how? How do you artfully and strategically find, vet, and entice industry experts to partner with you? You need to do your homework—and fortunately, insights from several seasoned B2B influencer marketing experts can provide some great guidance. Read on to get perspectives and advice from leaders serving a range of B2B brands, as well as some of our own resident experts. #1 - Set the bar for quality—not quantity of audience reach. Analyzing an influencer’s social reach and following is certainly par for the influencer identification and qualification course. Amplification and reaching new audiences are primary objectives for most marketers’ influencer marketing efforts. ...

Trust is a currency. It’s arguably the most valuable currency in today’s B2B marketing environment. And much like real money, it needs to be earned; the risks of attempting to counterfeit trust are grave. In the first installment of our Trust Factor series, we discussed how creating best-answer content serves a long-term trust-building strategy . Today we’ll examine the ways in which partnering with influencers can provide a dramatic boost to your brand’s credibility and authority in the eyes of your audience. We’ll also share some examples of companies that are already doing this effectively, and the lessons we can draw from them. There are no shortcuts when it comes to developing genuine trust with your customers. But that doesn’t mean you can’t take the shortest possible path, so long as you know where you’re going. Walking this road with the right influencers at your side can expedite the journey. Coordinating Content, Co-opting Trust In the past, we have defined influencer...

Following scandal, criticism, and calls for more privacy and relevancy, social media giants are working hard to recapture their original allure as safe communities and conversation destinations. And while platforms are ardently focused on heightening the everyday user’s experience, the movements we’ve seen so far in 2019 signals that B2B brands will still have some things to look forward to. This is a teeny sampling of the social media headlines we saw in the first quarter of 2019 alone: LinkedIn* launches its much-anticipated live video platform . Twitter reveals its developing new tools to help publishers understand the type of content that’s resonating most with readers. Facebook announces its testing a new feature that would allow Pages to archive and share stories . Now just 6 weeks into Q2, important announcements and shifts abound—which of course present opportunities and challenges for B2B marketers. Below we dive into a handful of the latest and greatest chang...

What's Most Annoying About Brand Content? Consumers Weigh In Adobe’s* 2019 Brand Content Survey asked 1,000 consumers what they found the most annoying in brand content. The results showed that wordy content or poorly written content takes the cake with 39% of the vote. It’s also important to note that lack of personalization and too much personalization are both annoying pain points for consumers. Adobe ? Image credit: Facebook Video Is the Fastest Growing Type of Content on LinkedIn and Starts the Most Conversations LinkedIn* posted a new infographic this week sharing the most surprising statistics about the platform. For example, the number of messages sent on the platform has increased 35% year over year. Plus, millions of LinkedIn members have already created video on the platform, making it the fastest growing type of content on the site. Their statistics also show that video starts the most conversations, making it a great engagement tool. LinkedIn Nearly 75% of...

When it comes to the craft of writing, my favorite luminary is the late William Zinsser. His book, On Writing Well , is — in my opinion — the definitive work covering its stated subject. On Writing Well is an essential read for anyone who wants to elevate their prose. Zinsser’s primary focal area is word economy. “Look for the clutter in your writing and prune it ruthlessly,” he implores. “Be grateful for everything you can throw away. Reexamine each sentence you put on paper. Is every word doing new work?” That last question is especially pertinent to B2B marketing writers. The reader should always be our top concern when penning copy, but in this case, the stakes are even higher. Attention is at a premium with business professionals, so wasted words are especially costly. Content bloat leads to audience abandonment. via GIPHY In the spirit of Mr. Zinsser, we’re offering up tips on trimming down your writing to make it more punchy and concise. And to do so, we’ll curate advi...

Over 1/4th of the entire population of the United States listens to podcasts at least monthly. That's over 81 million people. What's more, the most avid listeners log six and a half hours a week of listening time. Eighty percent finish every episode in its entirety. There's enormous potential here for engaging an audience. Think about how long someone might stick with a 1,000 word blog post (like this one). Five minutes? Ten? But they might listen to a 25-30 minute podcast on the same topic. Podcasting holds a lot of promise for marketers , especially in the B2B space . Our agency has helped multiple B2B Fortune 500 companies produce and find an audience for their podcasts. It takes strategy and coordination, but the barrier to entry is relatively low. Of course, "making" the podcast is the easy part. As with any content, the challenge is successfully getting it to your target audience. Here are a few things we've learned about B2B podcasting promot...

Is your B2B marketing on the boring side? Here’s how you can ignite a powder-keg of inspiration and burst forth with new content marketing energy to bring more boom and less boring to future B2B marketing efforts. We have six boom-including content marketing antidotes to replace the status quo with inspiration, joy, laughter, energy, enchantment and other powerful marketing elixirs that can help you create relevant, informative, and — above all — memorable content. #1 — Get An Inspiration Infusion From Experts via GIPHY Oftentimes you don’t have far to go to find inspiration for your B2B content marketing. Inspiration abounds if you look to your heroes, past mentors, and the industry influencers and business associates whose work you admire the most. We occasionally research and publish lists of top experts in several areas of marketing, which are great starting points for finding examples of marketers who inspire. Here are a few of our most recent compendiums: This robust r...