As we collect data for the new State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report, it remains to be seen whether last year's 96% of B2B marketers feeling confident about influencer marketing will come out, especially after the effects of the pandemic. With the shift in B2B go to market models towards digital first, influencer engagement has increased for many marketers as an alternative to spending on field marketing, real-world events and trade shows. As B2B buyers increasingly rely on digital sources of information, stats like 74% of B2B marketers say influencer marketing impacts customer and prospect experience, become even more important. While that confidence before and since the pandemic has opened doors to many more B2B brands experimenting with, piloting and becoming more familiar with influencer engagement, that increase in activity has increased competition. So how can B2B brands raise the bar on their influencer marketing efforts? Here's a pretty compelling statistic from the State of B2B Influencer Marketing Research Report:
12X more B2B marketers are very successful running Always-On influencer programs vs. those who engage periodically.
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. The importance of Always-On influence is more important than ever in a customer centric world of B2B Marketing. As Brian Solis, Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce says,In our research and survey of hundreds of B2B marketers, we found some key benefits of an Always-On approach to working with B2B influencers:“Always-On thought leadership and influence are more important now than ever because the customer never turns off.” @briansolis
- 75% Increased views of brand content
- 70% Improved credibility of brand content
- 60% Increased share of voice
- 55% Increased media mentions of brand
- 50% Increased brand advocacy
Always-On Influence Builds Momentum in B2B Marketing
The great irony of how many B2B brands work with influencers and an Always-On approach is that many marketers see influencer marketing the same as buying advertising on-demand. They want to work with influencers only when they need them to amplify content for a campaign. That's just not how it works - engaging with influencers only when you need them to do something for you. Influencers are people and Influencer Marketing is a relationship business. An Always-On approach to working with influencers still involves campaign level activations, but also a planned and persistent effort to intelligently using insights to monitor, engage and advance mutual goals between the brand and influencers. Smart B2B marketers apply Always-On best practices like ongoing nurturing, repurposing of influencer content, micro-activations, public and private influencer engagement, development of an influencer community and inspiring organic advocacy.What does Always-On B2B Influencer Marketing look like in action?
LinkedIn has built relationships with a 75+ strong sales and marketing influencer community of industry professionals using an Always-On approach to influencer engagement. Starting with an Always-On focused approach in the influencer marketing strategy, influencers were researched according to criteria, qualified and engaged. Then rather than activate them all for a short term campaign, those influencers were nurtured and activated on an ongoing basis through varying types of content tactics ranging from simple social interactions to contributions to content and eventually building up (for some) to be featured in marketing assets on the LinkedIn platform itself. LinkedIn Always-On Influencer activations:- Social First Influencer Content on LinkedIn
- Influencer Interviews
- eBook Contributions
- In-Person Event to Co-Create Content
- Conference Mixers
- Ongoing Social Nurturing
- 2,000+ brand mentions by influencers & networks
- 84 Million in social reach through influencer shares
- 200-450% above benchmark social engagement
Using an Always-On approach to engaging B2B influencers can help marketers achieve some important outcomes, especially with a digital first focus by customers on where they discover, consume and engage with credible information to make purchase decisions:“An Always-On approach means the relationship ceases to be “transactional”. Because of this foundation, we’ve been able to immediately activate influencers for external, public-facing advocacy and amplification.” Garnor Morantes, Group Marketing Manager, LinkedIn
- Strengthen brand awareness
- Improve industry credibility
- Warm the market for biz dev & sales
- Drive demand & lead gen with content
- Inspire word of mouth advocacy
- Build trust for the brand & solutions
- Become the best answer for the brand's areas of expertise
“TopRank Marketing is the Gold Standard when it comes to B2B Influencer Marketing.” @BrianSolis, Global Innovation Evangelist at Salesforce
The post How to Elevate Post Pandemic B2B Marketing with Always-On Influence appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog - TopRank®.
Article Source: http://bathseoexpert.blogspot.com/2021/08/how-to-elevate-post-pandemic-b2b.html
Ad Market Expands 43% In July, Smaller Categories Outpace Top 10 For the fifth month in a row the advertising economy in the U.S. has grown, with July seeing a 43.3 percent increase in year-over-year ad spending, according to newly-released ad tracking index data of interest to online marketers. 
A lighthearted look at the “this meeting could have been an email” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — 
This B2B influencer content checklist is something we've covered here extensively and that I've presented on numerous times at B2B marketing industry conferences and workshops. The exact implementation of a campaign asset like this really depends on specific goals and the organization of the effort. Of course, content marketing campaigns that involve influencers on their own are not nearly as effective as an 
Twitter is Testing a New Option Which Would Enable You to Remove Specific Followers from Your Audience Twitter has begun testing a method for users to less conspicuously remove unwanted followers from an account's audience — an alternative to a brute force blocking approach that may offer digital marketers a more subtle solution, the firm recently announced. 
A lighthearted look at the “brand fatigue and brand consistency” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — 
[bctt tweet="“Those who can be as niche, narrow, honest, credible, and authentic to their audience are going to win.” — Ramon Ray @ramonray #BreakFreeB2B" username="toprank"] Energetic keynote speaker, entrepreneur, and best-selling author Ramon Ray explored the new marketing world of the haves and have-nots, and how we can make successful shifts to carefully thread the B2B marketing needle. Ramon also pointed out how just because there's no room for errors in the new marketing era we find ourselves in, that doesn't mean we need to be fearful, especially when we can be nimble and creatively agile. “I think the biggest thing small businesses can do is be nimble,” Ramon urged. Ramon explored a fascinating array of topics surrounding how small and large businesses can think big together, and how B2B influencers can bring a face, voice, credibility, and warmth to large brands. Watch, listen to or read Ramon's full interview by checking our the full blog post "
[bctt tweet="“We have to be willing to have those courageous conversations and be courageous listeners. Once we’ve had some time to sit with ourselves and educate ourselves, then I think we allow ourselves to break free.” — Minda Harts @MindaHarts" username="toprank"] “I think in order to break free, it starts with ourselves,” Minda said in her episode of Break Free B2B Marketing. “We have to be willing to have those courageous conversations and we have to be willing to be courageous listeners, and once we’ve had some time to sit with ourselves and educate ourselves, then I think we allow ourselves to break free,” Minda added. Check out Minda's full interview and visit our full blog post "
[bctt tweet="“I’m a big believer that friction brings value at the end of the day. When — you not necessarily inject — friction, but not avoid friction, it usually brings pretty good value.” — Keith Townsend @CTOAdvisor" username="toprank"] “One of the toughest things as a leader in my own organization — what helped me break free is when I’m willing to have the difficult conversations,” Keith told us in his fascinating episode. “Things that we say are difficult conversations, because we’re fearful of the outcome — I’m a big believer that friction brings value at the end of the day. When — you not necessarily inject — friction, but not avoid friction, it usually brings pretty good value.” “When I’m willing to tell one of my employees or one of my contributors that, ‘You know what, the piece of work that you brought me just isn’t up to our standard.’ None of them just go away and don’t bring me back a revised piece of work. They usually come back with work that impresses me. Because we engage them for a reason and hire them for a reason.” “To stand out, don’t avoid those difficult conversations.” Watch Keith's full interview in "
[bctt tweet="“If you're a bank, be a bank, focus on being the best bank you can, and look for things that are going to disrupt you. But don't try to be a phone company.” — Dez Blanchfield @dez_blanchfield" username="toprank"] “My only ask is that people join the conversation. That’s all I want people to do. I think that if there was one phrase that if I was going to be buried and put in the grave, on my tombstone would be ‘Just join the conversation. If and when it suits you,’” Dez shared with us in his insightful episode. "The advice I've been giving people in the last three to five years is that it was a time when you could do it all yourself. If you were an airline, or a bank, or if you were in health care, or wealth management, if you're a telco, there was a time when you could do it all, you could run your own telephone systems, run your own technology, stack your own email servers, your own domain name servers. But the complexity is so great now and the speed at which we have to move, is so rapid, and so short, and you know that the demand is for reduced time to market," Dez added. "The advice I'm giving people now is: find the best partner choice. In each of the segments, you need to be able to address problems. So if you're a bank, be a bank, focus on being the best bank, you can, and look for things that are going to disrupt you. But don't try to be a phone company. Don't run your own PBX, don't run your voice systems. If you own a website, don't become a hosting company. Don't waste your time running web services," Dez explained. Watch, listen to or read Dez' complete interview by checking our the full blog post "
[bctt tweet="“Be gentle and kind to yourself, because all the stress and pressure you’re under right now — you’re not alone. It’s a new world for all of us, where the paradigm has shifted.” — @TamaraMcCleary" username="toprank"] “It’s tough right now for B2B leaders, and I have a heart for B2B leaders. I have a huge heart for B2B marketing leadership, because marketing budgets are being hacked away — with COVID, 2020 was a huge shake-up, we didn’t even have those live events anymore — think of all the marketing dollars that were going around big events,” Tamara shared with our president and co-founder Susan Misukanis in her far-reaching episode. “It’s always been difficult for the B2B enterprise — whether you were in marketing, sales, IT, or HR — it doesn’t matter. What you’ve been tasked with is, ‘Hurry up and digitally transform yourself to meet the future,’ but you have limited resources to do that, and oh, by the way, continue doing everything you were already doing, under budget.’” “Be gentle and kind to yourself, because all the stress and pressure you’re under right now — you’re not alone. It’s a new world for all of us, where the paradigm has shifted, and although you have to be mindful of this particular quarter that you’re in, don’t become myopic and focus your thinking only about this quarter. You absolutely owe it to yourself — you’re worth it — to be able to think, ‘What do I need to do to learn how to stay ahead in this technologically advanced world?’ Where in the very near future brands will not own the relationship with the customer — platforms will.” "How are we creating an ecosystem of partners with platforms out there — whether that’s the Googles, the Amazons, or the Microsofts of the world — how are we creating partnerships so that our products and services are offered through those intermediary digital assistants that will become the primary person functioning and giving all the information? Your digital assistant — your little Echo or any other device you would like to use, is going to become more sophisticated very soon, and that is going to be what your customer — your human — is going to for information and to handle all of its mundane tasks.” “If you don’t have relationships with the platforms that house these digital assistant devices, you’re out.” Watch Tamara's full episode, "
[bctt tweet="“Find out what makes you different and what makes people want to talk to you, and then leverage it. Share those details, and create content around those details.” — Nicole Brady @SahmReviews" username="toprank"] “Think outside the box — if you see your competitors doing something, don’t do it — do something else,” Nicole suggested as a starting point in her energetic and insightful episode. “You have to really make a name for yourself — whatever it is — whether it’s sharing your flaws, creating interviews, asking for real feedback from the people who are your consumers, whether it is on a B2B or B2C basis — the people who are utilizing your product or service, and talking to them to find out why they’re dealing with you and why they’re buying your product or using your service instead of somebody else’s." “Find out what makes you different and what makes people want to talk to you, and then leverage it. Share those details, and create content around those details. As more and more people are on social media, being able to find those out-of-the-box environmental things that make you tick — that you might not have known — showing them off, that’s the way to do it.” Watch, listen to or read Nicole's full interview by checking our the full blog post "
[bctt tweet="“Stop looking at security as something that’s going to hold you back, or as this big cost factor, and start looking at it as something that will free you.” — Eric Vanberburg @vtamethodman" username="toprank"] “Stop looking at security as something that’s going to hold you back, or as this big cost factor, and start looking at it as something that will free you. When you talk about breaking free — many companies are held back right now, because of fear,” Eric urged our readers in his episode. “They may not enter that market or do business in this space, or they may not collect this private information, because they’re afraid that it may be exposed — that they may subject themselves to additional liability, and all these other fears — rather than looking at this and saying, ‘OK, I want to do this business.’” “Certainly it comes at a cost, right — I need to invest in so many different ways, and security is another way to invest. Invest in that and now it allows me to move forward with confidence, rather than shoring up my defenses and only doing what I’m comfortable with.” Explore all of Eric's episode in "
[bctt tweet="“I want to make sure that supply chain leaders and marketing leaders are taking time for themselves and making sure that they are not only checking in on their teams, but checking on each other and themselves as well.” @bevictoryus" username="toprank"] “Lean into your teams and allow them to really shine from a social media perspective. I say that from a LinkedIn perspective, because I think we need more voices on a platform like LinkedIn — interacting, sharing thoughts, and really supporting teams, and being able to share those thoughts,” Sarah shared in her Break Free B2B Marketing episode. “I also think that teams are handling a lot of things right now — there are a lot of things coming at them — they’re handling a lot of emotions when it comes to their teams. I want to make sure that supply chain leaders and marketing leaders are taking time for themselves and making sure that they are not only checking in on their teams, but checking on each other and themselves as well.” Watch, listen to or read Sarah's full interview by checking our the full blog post "
[bctt tweet="“My estimate is that after COVID is over, we're probably going to float to around 50% of the US workforce working remotely.” — Liam McIvor Martin @vtamethodman" username="toprank"] When it comes to remote and hybrid work, Liam has both years of first-hand experience and plenty of helpful and timely advice. “Do it. Try it. Pre-COVID I would have told everyone, ‘Hey, you know what — why don’t you make a couple people remote?’ Or why don’t you make a department remote? You can’t do that right now — you have to jump in full-on. If you’re not already remote, you’re probably not going to do that, because of how long we’ve already been in COVID — but fundamentally, measure your metrics, create very clear documentation of all of your processes, and communicate effectively with your team,” Liam shared in his episode. “If you can do those three things, and people can continuously report metrics to you, regardless of whether you’re using a tool like Time Doctor or even if you’re using an Excel spreadsheet — defining those metrics and saying, ‘I got X amount of leads today, and this is on target for my Q3 goal.’ That’s going to be great — you’re going to be doing better than 90 percent of people.” “Even if you choose to go back inside of an office, those things that you’ve done are fundamentally going to make your company run faster.” Watch Liam's full interview, "
[bctt tweet="“I think that the next big leap is going to be our products and services are going to be much more reactive to who we are.” — Oliver Christie @OliverChristie" username="toprank"] “I think it’s about asking a big question, and some of it is quite challenging — where could your company or industry go if you have a blank slate? We need that big question. We need leadership to get the artificial intelligence (AI), the tools, and the data — that’s all secondary — but what is that big question? I think that’s the best that any leader could ask,” Oliver explained and expanded on in his in-depth Break Free B2B Marketing interview. Tune in to Oliver's complete episode, "
[bctt tweet="“The big thing is understanding your customer and their customer. Once you understand that second degree of separation — not just the first degree — it really puts you in a differentiated position.” — Tim Crawford @tcrawford" username="toprank"] “The big thing is understanding your customer and their customer. Once you understand that second degree of separation — not just the first degree — it really puts you in a differentiated position,” Tim explained in his powerful episode. “Understand what’s in your wheelhouse and what’s not, but never, ever forget to always look at it from the customer’s lens. Don’t just look at it from your lens of ‘Hey, this is what we do. This is what we sell. Our product can do X for you.’ That’s a bad place to start." “A better place to start, and a place I look for as a customer is, ‘Who are you in the relationship for?’ If you start with understanding me, and have shown you’ve done a little bit of homework, that’s going to take my wall down a little bit, and start to build trust.” “Building that trust in those relationships is key to success moving forward. Authenticity, experience — add it to the list.” Watch, listen to or read Tim's complete interview by checking our the full blog post "
[bctt tweet="“You operate in a global and interconnected industry. Realize that you contribute most to your industry when you build and contribute to that global network.” — Kevin Jackson @Kevin_Jackson" username="toprank"] “You operate in a global and interconnected industry. Realize that you contribute most to your industry when you build and contribute to that global network,” Kevin observed in his insightful and entertaining episode. “You really break free through collaboration and open dialogue with your colleagues and partners.” Learn more from Kevin and see his full interview in "
Email Ranks Second As A Customer Support Channel, Study Finds 23 percent of U.S. customer support professionals said that email was their busiest channel, being utilized by some 77 percent, and behind only phone communication — one of several statistics of interest to online marketers contained in recently-released survey data. 
A lighthearted look at the “sea of sameness” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — 