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5 Key Traits of the Best B2B Influencers

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Marketers are still asking, what is B2B influencer marketing? Here’s a definition I’ve been using over the past 5 years or so: B2B influencer marketing is activating internal and external subject matter experts with engaged networks to advocate and co-create content of mutual value that drives measurable business goals. As the groundswell around influencer marketing rises and becomes a normal part of the B2B marketing mix, the volume of information and misinformation on the topic also increases. One of the most popular questions people also ask about B2B influencer marketing focuses on what makes a good business influencer? By now we all know that popularity alone does not make someone influential. It’s certainly important, it's just not the only thing. As B2B marketers mature in their understanding of the role influence plays and how the dynamic of brand content co-created with industry experts plays out with customers, they begin to realize that other factors matter. Topical r...

How Influence and SEO Can Drive Customer Experience

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Digital Marketing News: Record Influencer Spending, Google’s Gmail Shopping Ads, Pinterest’s Verified Merchant Program, & Twitter Engagement Stats

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Facebook Adds 'One-Time Notification' API to Messenger for Business Facebook has given marketers new options for contacting consumers who have agreed to notifications, with the release of an API token system that will enable expanded brand-to-customer contact choices, the social media giant recently announced. Social Media Today Twitter says ad tech and product updates will improve direct response advertising Twitter saw fourth quarter advertising revenues climb by some 12 percent to $885 million, with monetizable daily active users (mDAUs) up 21 percent to 152 million, and pointed to several updates that it expects to continue bringing better direct-response ad revenue, the firm recently reported. Marketing Land Top Twitter Stats for 2020 [Infographic] Twitter's ad engagement rates rose by 23 percent, with video ads on the platform coming in some 50 percent cheaper in cost-per-engagement, two of many statistics of interest to digital marketers contained in recent H...

5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing

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“You’ve really got to put yourself out there. Don’t be too stiff.” “Be honest and sincere!” “Be vulnerable and relatable… and it doesn’t hurt if you can make ‘em laugh.” Is this advice for a middle-aged man trying online dating for the first time? Or is it advice for B2B marketers? Given the proximity to Valentine’s Day, can’t it be both? The point is, as good as this advice may be for marketers, it’s as vague as it is omnipresent. We talk about “person-to-person” marketing and “humanizing the brand.” But what does it really mean to humanize a brand?  [caption id="attachment_28012" align="alignnone" width="474"] Yes, these were the original Michelin Tire mascots.[/caption] In some cases, apparently, it means high-octane nightmare fuel. So, maybe don’t try and make an adorable mascot for your software-as-a-service solution. Here are some better ways to “humanize” your B2B content. 5 Ways to Humanize B2B Content Marketing It can be hard to bring ...

31 DIY Marketing Tools To Create Remarkable Experiences

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Sifting through thousands of available tools is a hit and — more often than not — a miss proposition, but we’ve got you covered with 31 do-it-yourself marketing tools that are perfect for helping you create remarkable campaign experiences . It can be overwhelming even deciding which new tools to start trying out to see if they’re helpful, so to jump-start your marketing efforts in 2020 we’ve gathered a varied selection of innovative and helpful tools that can significantly enhance your marketing efforts. These tools come from a varying array of categories useful to digital marketers, from artificial intelligence (AI) content analysis bots and data manipulation utilities to video and image manipulation — a smorgasbord of helpful software that is unified in that each tool can provide immediate improvements to your marketing campaigns. Some tools are free and many offer free trials to test out and see how they mesh with the way you like to work and your particular needs. [bctt tweet=...

25 B2B Influencer Marketing Campaign & Engagement Ideas for 2020

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In the business world, you don't have to look far to see that the number of B2B companies engaged with influencer marketing is growing. As more companies are moving beyond experimentation to conducting pilots, sequential campaigns and always on programs, there is an increasing desire to expand how brands engage with business influencers. To help B2B marketers solve that problem, I'm going to share a swipe file of sorts of different business influencer campaigns and engagement opportunities. Implementing just a few of these could help a company with a substantial amount of influencer program activity. Of course just because you can, doesn't mean you should! As with all effective marketing, it's important to match up the campaign approach with the criteria for your customers and how they want to engage with influencer/brand content.  Check out the list below and hopefully some good ideas will spark and ignite your 2020 B2B influencer marketing to new levels. 25 B2B Infl...

Hungry for More: What B2B Marketers Need to Know About Episodic Content

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The cliffhanger is one of the greatest tools in entertainment. I’ll explain why later. Seriously though, we’ve all experienced the cliffhanger: It’s that tension-building moment of uncertainty at the end of a chapter or installment that leaves the audience impatiently awaiting the next one. Some of my favorite binge-worthy TV shows and page-turning novels have been defined by this quality. A perfect example from modern cinema is the conclusion of 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War . While I won’t give anything away, the movie ended with a shocking turn of events that seemed to leave little hope for the franchise’s heroic protagonists. In the 12 months that passed between Infinity War and its sequel, fans waited with rabid eagerness for answers and closure, reveling in theories and hyper-analysis. When Endgame finally arrived one year later, it delivered a hugely satisfying payoff. This helped the movie score the biggest box office opening of all time , and earned its creators high prais...