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Trust in marketing—how to build it and how to wield it for good—needs to be top of mind for every modern marketer. Why? Because nearly every decision people make, especially when it comes to purchasing decisions, has an element of trust built in. And content marketers have the opportunity to become trusty guides. “No one knows everything about everything,” Margaret Magnarelli, Executive Director of Digital Product Evolution and Growth Marketing at Morgan Stanley, shared with us in a recent Break Free B2B interview. “So, we have to be able to give our customers as much information as we can… and take them as close to the line of purchase—to the experience of purchase—as we can.” According to Margaret, understanding and leveraging the psychology of trust—the intellectual and emotional factors that guide our trust instincts—can be incredibly powerful. But building trust isn’t a solo marketing department endeavor (or ploy). “If you want to be a trustworthy company… it can’t be just a marketing philosophy. It has to be a business philosophy," she said. “People can see through fake attempts to build trust. So, I would caution brands away from being all things to all people.” [bctt tweet="If you want to be a trustworthy company… it can’t be just a marketing philosophy. It has to be a business philosophy. @mmagnarelli #BreakFreeB2B #TrustInMarketing" username="toprank"] From the four “trust factors” to engaging the C-suite around trust to key metrics, listen into Margaret’s full audio interview with TopRank Marketing President Susan Misukanis below.
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Marketing conferences offer a wealth of benefits to marketers looking to learn, network, and increase brand awareness, but how do you go about finding events that match your business and B2B marketing needs? Over the past decade the number of conferences has skyrocketed, making it harder than ever to hone in on the ones that can best help build your business, boost your networking opportunities, and offer the most relevant new industry education from top speakers, especially when it comes to B2B marketing. For 2020 we've gathered together no fewer than 50 events that place an emphasis on B2B marketing in all its facets, and we're thrilled to present the list here, in chronological order. [bctt tweet="“There really is no substitute for real-world interactions and creating a great experience for your customers or prospects.” @LeeOdden" username="toprank"] Now let's dig in and explore our collection of 50 top B2B marketing-related conferences and events for 2020.
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Star Trek is one of my favorite franchises. It’s a beacon to guide humanity to a brighter future: One without wars and scarcity, dedicated to discovery and enlightenment. (Can you tell I really loved the Picard series premiere?) [caption id="attachment_27932" align="alignnone" width="600"]
(He has a PIT BULL named NUMBER ONE.) Photo Credit: CBS[/caption] But the best tech in all of Star Trek isn’t the transporter, the replicator, or even the holodeck. It’s the universal translator, a gizmo that can process language in real-time and convey every nuance and idiom. We have a similar technology right now, but… well, it could use some work. “Shivers down my spine” turns into “chicken skin?” That kind of margin of error would cause some serious diplomatic crises in Starfleet. But we shouldn’t be too hard on Google Translate. Sometimes people speaking the same language have trouble communicating with each other. Marketers are good at speaking marketing-ese, for example. But within our team we likely have multiple dialects, and that causes communication troubles. And when we step outside of the marketing department? Well, we’re back to flipping through a phrase book, asking “Dónde está la biblioteca?” Here are a few pointers that can keep your marketing team from getting lost in translation.
Power Page [ pou-er peyj ] (n): A comprehensive, 2,000 word or more content asset that aims to be the best answer for a group of search queries.However, for account managers (the ones communicating with clients), a “power page” was a page designed to convert — what content folks would call a “landing page.” This misalignment in terminology was confusing for all of us. Once we sat down and agreed on common definitions, we were better equipped to give account managers what they were looking for, and keep our clients happy. via GIPHY I’ve found it’s valuable to have regular meetings with marketing team members in different specialties. Take a few minutes to understand what they do and the terms they use. The more your team understands each others’ roles, the better equipped you will be to work towards objectives together. [bctt tweet="The more your team understands each others’ roles, the better equipped you will be to work towards objectives together. - @NiteWrites #B2BMarketing" username="toprank"]
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We are living in the age of speed: faster connections, faster answers, faster service. People expect many things to happen instantly, in real-time, and technological advancements are increasingly making it possible. As such, it might seem counter-intuitive to suggest that we as B2B marketers are wise to slow our roll. Sometimes we tend to go through the motions too quickly, or in the wrong order, and it can hurt our results. In fact, it can prevent us from even accurately evaluating our results. Sean Callahan recently wrote a post on the LinkedIn Marketing Solutions* blog arguing that a top priority in 2020 for B2B marketers should be to slow down when measuring ROI. The case is simple and convincing: Sales cycles have grown significantly longer but analytics haven’t responded in kind. Per the post, 77% of marketers are still measuring ROI in the first month of a campaign, even though the average B2B sales cycle is now about six months long. “The reality is,” writes Callahan, “most marketers are showing up to their book club having only read a sixth of the book.” This got me thinking about the argument’s broader applicability in B2B marketing. There are a number of different areas where it’s becoming clear that practitioners might be moving too quickly and doing themselves a disservice. To be clear: We’re not suggesting that you delay making decisions or drastically cut down your content production; sometimes it’s as simple as stepping back and taking a beat. Let’s talk about four opportunities that stand out: experiences, strategies, social media, and SEO.
What’s the point? Quality over quantity is a mantra that rings throughout the digital marketing environment today, and social media is a pertinent area in which to emphasize it. Take the time to think through the purpose of each platform, and each tweet or update. Prioritize value over volume. Keep in mind that aimlessly publishing without discretion can actually hurt your visibility on social feeds by diminishing your content’s overall engagement rates and causing people to unfollow.
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The more things change, the more they stay the same. This phrase is often uttered with a negative connotation, but incidentally, it also represents an aspirational ideal for B2B marketing managers and leaders. In an environment that is constantly shifting, brands and agencies are tasked with navigating uncertainty while remaining steadfast in their pursuit of the same ultimate goals: engaging prospects, building relationships, driving business results. As such, change management becomes a key aspect of the job, particularly for those in leadership positions. Focusing on “how to help employees embrace, adopt and utilize a change in their day-to-day work” (as defined by Prosci), change management is oft-overlooked but clearly essential for a profession where one day can look drastically different from the last. Carol-Lyn Jardine, who now serves as Vice President of Marketing Operations and Productivity at Alteryx, says she’s had the opportunity to enter new organizations multiple times in recent years, and one of the consistent themes she encounters is that employees are unsettled by the amount of change happening. “As I have kind of unlayered that conversation, what really comes out is that they're not necessarily saying that they're unhappy with change, what they're actually saying is that they're unhappy with how change has been rolled out.” Carol-Lyn has experienced plenty of change in her winding career journey, which crossed paths with Heather Hurst at Workfront a few years back. Heather, now Senior Director of Digital Engagement at Vivint Solar, has also witnessed a substantial amount of change — and the pains it can bring about — during her career. “I think we tend to forget that the first question that an employee is really asking is, ‘How does this impact me?’” Heather says of major organizational shifts. “They are concerned with their place in the company.” Heather and Carol-Lyn were kind enough to join me for the latest episode of Break Free B2B — our first with multiple guests! Getting both of their varied perspectives felt fitting for the topic. Scroll forth to uncover them.
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Experiential content will help drive 2020’s digital agenda, and savvy B2B marketers should take notice. Experiential is a word with subtly differing meanings depending on which setting it’s used in, however at the core of each definition is the fact that it all boils down to experiences. Experiential content makes us a central part of a story, and not just a passive subject receiving a one-way brand message. 
Use of experiential content has grown over the past several years as online technologies have reached a level capable delivering vibrant and engaging motion and sounds alongside clickable, swipable, and all other manner of interactivity to put you front and center. TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden recently mentioned experiential content in his annual list of the top ten B2B digital marketing trends for 2020. [bctt tweet="“Visual, experiential content that is easy to find and satisfies business buyer’s needs to be informed, entertained and inspired will continue to be areas of focus.” @LeeOdden" username="toprank"] With 98 percent of consumers more likely to make a purchase after an experience (Limelight), and 77 percent having chosen, recommended, or paid more for a brand that delivers a personalized service or experience (Forrester), why haven’t more B2B marketers begun to use experiential content?
Indeed, among the survey’s respondents — almost 800 global client and agency-side executives — one of the top elements comprising experiential content, VR and AR, was seen as being one of the most important emerging technologies in 2020. Another big part of experiential content is online video, a near-unanimous selection on most top marketing trend lists, as it continues to receive the type of swift growth in ad spend dollars that has helped make online video a big success for Instagram, YouTube, and increasingly TikTok. Over 80 percent of marketers plan to increase spending for online video in 2020, with 33 percent planning to boost spending on TikTok this year, according to the WARC survey. In the U.S. alone digital video spedning is expected to increase by over 31 percent in 2020, to $5 billion. (Winterberry Group) [bctt tweet="“Being creative while retaining consistency of brand is key to unlocking the benefits of brand-building: from forging emotional attachments, to driving long-term brand equity and sales influences.” — Simon Cook @Cannes_Lions" username="toprank"] Cloud-based experiential content platform Ceros offers both an overview guide and an on-demand webinar for learning more about the technology, and offers up their own take on just what the term means. “Experiential content is digital content that is purposefully designed to create an immersive experience for its consumers through some combination of interactions, animations, embedded media, and storytelling. It encourages active participation in an effort to form memorable, emotional connections between the consumer and the brand or creator,” Ceros notes. [bctt tweet="“Experiential content makes us a central part of a story, and not just a passive subject receiving a one-way brand message.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis" username="toprank"]
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Trust is the linchpin of modern marketing. It plays a crucial role in every vertical, industry, or niche. But nowhere is trust a more essential crux than in health care, where the personal stakes are immense. “We're in an industry where, you know, it's serious,” says Emily Thompson in her interview for Break Free B2B. “This is about people's health and well being, and a lot of times people get very nervous — they're scared, they're sick.” As a Boston-based freelance writer and content strategist who primarily focuses on the health care sector, where she has worked with a wide variety of clients ranging from startups to enterprise, Emily acutely understands the impactful nuances of messaging. She says seeing things from the other side — as a first-time mother who frequently sought information online — helped her develop a more empathetic view. She incorporates this into her craft, creating patient-focused copy designed to build trust and confidence, and offers valuable insight for B2B marketers everywhere. In the interview, she shares some tactics and techniques that are being used effectively in her industry to achieve this rapport, from smartphone apps to user-generated content to data-driven personalization and beyond. [bctt tweet="Research says that 93 million Americans have searched for a health-related topic online. So If we know people are going online, we have to be there too. @BosCreativeCopy #HealthcareMarketing #BreakFreeB2B" username="toprank"] Watch my conversation with Emily below, and let her experiences and perspectives help guide you toward building healthier relationships with your B2B customers.
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