The Internet Marketing Newsletter: 2020

Wednesday 23 December 2020

3 Creative Ways to Monetize Your Next Business Event

Go from breaking even to breaking the bank. 

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Thursday 17 December 2020

Why the Pandemic Has Increased the Need for Online Reputation Management

The pandemic has changed the way we shop, with an increasing number of us spending a larger proportion of our earnings with online businesses. 

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Monday 9 November 2020

5 Tips for Harnessing Social Media to Scale Your Online Business

Learn how to leverage myriad platforms to build your brand's image and bolster sales. 

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Friday 6 November 2020

There's No Such Thing as Business as Usual This Holiday Season

Three tips to enhance your brand's online revenue. 

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Thursday 5 November 2020

The PS5 Will Only Be Sold Online on Launch Day

Sony said it's a safety measure amid the pandemic. 

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Sunday 1 November 2020

Learn How To Create A Successful B2B Influencer Marketing Program with Lee Odden at #MPB2B

How can you create a successful B2B influencer marketing program that will grow brand awareness and make huge contributions to the sales pipeline? Find out on Thursday, November 5, as TopRank Marketing chief executive Lee Odden will speak at MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2020, taking place virtually. WHEN TO CATCH LEE Thursday, November 5th – 12:55pm – 1:25pm (Eastern) Solo Presentation by Lee Odden: New Research: How to be Successful With Influencer Marketing Hundreds of marketers were recently surveyed to identify strategies, tactics, best practices, and predictions for the future of influence in B2B. The findings: 60% of marketers don't have the knowledge to execute or have the right skills in house to implement ongoing influencer marketing programs. And yet, of those that do engage influencers, 96% feel they are successful. Discover what they’re doing that can help you get you influencer programs working for your brand. At the end of this session you will be able to: : <ul> <li>Understand why marketers running Always-On programs are very successful vs. those who do periodic campaigns</li> <li>Incorporate the top 5 things the most successful influencer marketers do to build brand awareness and generate leads</li> <li>Reference one B2B brand who worked with influencers to grow brand awareness and make huge contributions to their sales pipeline</li> </ul> Complete details about this insightful new session with Lee are available here. <hr /> WE’D LOVE TO SEE YOU VIRTUALLY AT #MPB2B 2020! We hope you’ll join Lee at #MPB2B 2020, which takes place from November 4 - 5. Be sure to follow our live-blogging coverage throughout the week on TopRankBlog.com, and be sure to also follow @TopRank, @leeodden on Twitter for live conference updates, and keep track of the conference hashtag #MPB2B. Prepare for Lee's MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2020 session and learn more about B2B influencer marketing in our groundbreaking new 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Research Report. The post Learn How To Create A Successful B2B Influencer Marketing Program with Lee Odden at #MPB2B appeared first on Newsroom.

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Thursday 15 October 2020

3 Tips for Buying an Online Business

Buying an existing online business could save you time and money. 

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Monday 12 October 2020

A Guide to Finding Online Deals Outside of Amazon Prime Day

Ecommerce is more competitive than ever, so don't limit yourself to one online giant's deep discounts. 

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Friday 9 October 2020

4 Tips for Taking Your Brick-and-Mortar Store to the Online Realm

Whether caused by a global pandemic, economic downturn or simply a change in business model, many stores are taking operations online. 

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Sunday 4 October 2020

Google SERP Study: Which Rich Results Get the Most Clicks? via @MattGSouthern

All rich results in Google SERPs are not created equal – at least not when it comes to click-through rate – a new study finds.The post Google SERP Study: Which Rich Results Get the Most Clicks? via @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Saturday 3 October 2020

YouTube Growing As a Source of News for Americans via @MattGSouthern

A Pew Research Center study finds about a quarter of US adults get news from YouTube, including a mix of independent and established organizations.The post YouTube Growing As a Source of News for Americans via @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Friday 2 October 2020

How Google Handles Naked Links via @martinibuster

Google's John Mueller answers how Google handles bare URL inbound links that do not have an anchor text.The post How Google Handles Naked Links via @martinibuster appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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How to Catch & Fix 4 Common SEO Issues Before It’s Too Late via @lorenbaker

Taking a proactive stance in your SEO processes will help you catch and resolve problems before they impact your rankings. Here's how to do it.The post How to Catch & Fix 4 Common SEO Issues Before It’s Too Late via @lorenbaker appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Thursday 1 October 2020

Why Marketers Shouldn’t Underestimate the Value of TikTok via @brie_e_anderson

TikTok is here to stay. Have you tapped into its value yet? If not, here are four things that might convince you to reconsider.The post Why Marketers Shouldn’t Underestimate the Value of TikTok via @brie_e_anderson appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Cloudflare Announces Free Web Analytics – Even for Non-Customers via @martinibuster

Cloudflare announces a free privacy-first web analytics service. It's free to all, including publishers who are not customers.The post Cloudflare Announces Free Web Analytics – Even for Non-Customers via @martinibuster appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Wednesday 30 September 2020

What Drives Ecommerce Returns & How to Reduce Them via @rajnijjer

Is your ecommerce business facing a surge of product returns? Focus on these areas to reduce returns and protect your profit margins.The post What Drives Ecommerce Returns & How to Reduce Them via @rajnijjer appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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3 Things Online Businesses Must Consider to Grow and Thrive

Innovative marketing strategies are helping companies evolve and scale. 

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How to Increase Sales to an Ecommerce Site via @martinibuster

Are you making it easy for consumers to make decisions and check out? Here's how to remove obstacles and increase sales on your ecommerce site.The post How to Increase Sales to an Ecommerce Site via @martinibuster appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Tuesday 29 September 2020

Google Launches Mini-Site of Holiday Marketing Resources via @MattGSouthern

Google’s new small business holiday hub is full of resources marketers can use to prepare for the busiest shopping season of the year.The post Google Launches Mini-Site of Holiday Marketing Resources via @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Mastering In-House SEO: Your Must-Read Book for 2020 via @bluearrayseo

Current and aspiring in-house SEO professionals will benefit from reading these stories from 26 leading experts. Here's your sneak peek of the book.The post Mastering In-House SEO: Your Must-Read Book for 2020 via @bluearrayseo appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Monday 28 September 2020

SEJ eSummit Is Back! 5 Stages, 30+ Speakers & Workshops via @MrDannyGoodwin

Early bird tickets are now available for Day 1 of our two-day virtual conference. Here's why you should look forward to SEJ eSummit 2021.The post SEJ eSummit Is Back! 5 Stages, 30+ Speakers & Workshops via @MrDannyGoodwin appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Google Rewrites Meta Descriptions Over 70% of the Time via @MattGSouthern

Google rewrites meta descriptions for pages over 70% of the time, according to a recent study examining search results for 30,000 keywords.The post Google Rewrites Meta Descriptions Over 70% of the Time via @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Sunday 27 September 2020

15 Tips That Will Improve Your Writing Today via @ronlieback

Learning how to write well is a process that can always be improved. Apply these 15 tactics to elevate your writing to the next level.The post 15 Tips That Will Improve Your Writing Today via @ronlieback appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Tuesday 22 September 2020

TopRank Marketing Client, LinkedIn, Wins 2020 ANA B2 Award for B2B Influencer Marketing

The team at TopRank Marketing are thrilled to announce that our client LinkedIn has won the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) B2 Award for a B2B influencer marketing program! The award winning work was a “Social-First Approach to Engaging Influencers & Audiences Alike” campaign which earned a silver in the social media category, for LinkedIn. The challenge: B2B marketers and sales professionals are inundated with impersonal information and yet with over 700 million registered users, the LinkedIn platform presents an important opportunity for LinkedIn to engage its own target audience. The solution: To reach distracted decision makers in an authentic way, LinkedIn Marketing and Sales Solutions business unit aimed to better humanize LinkedIn as a brand. LinkedIn partnered with industry sales and marketing experts and featured their real-life struggles, stories and obstacles in ways every professional could relate to. The results: By surfacing the human side of work and featured authentic stories from trusted experts the program goals for audience, reach and engagement were exceeded: <ul> <li>1,000% increase in post engagements over the previous 12 months</li> <li>54.2 million potential reach from influencer mentions of the brand</li> </ul> Click here to see the full LinkedIn Influencer Marketing case study details. The ANA’s B2 Awards recognize the top performing B2B marketers with a unique focus on driving demonstrable business results, and in 2020 entrants submitted in 47 categories which have evolved to reflect the growing role of B2B marketing and rapid industry changes. LinkedIn Looks at What’s Next in Marketing Content Together “At LinkedIn, we’ve worked with the TopRank Marketing team for about two to three years now, and what I really like about working with TopRank is they really, truly come to the table as collaborative partners,” Judy Tian, marketing manager at LinkedIn observed. “I’ve worked with a number of agencies where in marketing, I’m asking for deliverable A and they just give me deliverable A. But what’s great about TopRank is they also think about B, C, and D and really try to push my thinking of what’s next,” Judy added. “I think in marketing you are only as good as the creativity of your team and your ideas. The more voices that we bring to the table and the more proactiveness and willingness of everyone contributing ideas, the better off your marketing campaigns will be, and for us at LinkedIn, TopRank has truly become an extension of our own marketing team,” Judy explained. https://youtu.be/GZqIO8yDFQM Get Your Own Award-Winning Results From TopRank Marketing We’re honored to win the ANA B2 Awards silver award for our valued client LinkedIn. Recognized in Forrester’s “B2B Marketing Agencies, North America” report, TopRank Marketing delivers award-winning content marketing work to clients including LinkedIn, AT&T, Adobe, SAP, Dell, 3M, monday.com and others. Contact us today to discover how we can help create award-winning marketing for you. To learn more about B2B influencer marketing trends, best practices and predictions for the future, be sure to access the all new 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report, which features insights from hundreds of marketers surveyed as well as expert analysis by the TopRank Marketing team and contributions from marketers at some of the top B2B brands in the world. The post TopRank Marketing Client, LinkedIn, Wins 2020 ANA B2 Award for B2B Influencer Marketing appeared first on Newsroom.

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Friday 18 September 2020

Service Businesses Need a Digital Revolution: Here's How You Do It

More people are spending time at home and buying online. Service businesses need to meet them there. 

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10 Inspiring Tips For Breaking Free of Boring B2B Marketing

Research from HubSpot shows that 65% of buyers don't trust advertisements and 55% don't trust the companies they buy from. Unfortunately, not many marketers are responding well to this challenge. Research from eMarketer reveals that only 23% of CMOs feel they are producing the right content and delivering it at the right time and format. B2B marketers are challenged to attract, engage and inspire their customers even while further research shows that business buyers prefer content from industry experts and content that is interactive. Why not give B2B customers both? To help B2B marketers understand how to do just that, Lee Odden shared 10 inspiring tips for breaking free of boring B2B marketing during SEMrush’s 5 Hours of Content event. 1 - Find Topics That Are In-Demand & Relevant Identify a customer solution topic and find topics that are in demand, but also relevant to the customer. What is it that you want to be the best answer for? What do you want to be influential about, and what kind of experience do you want to create for the customer? Identify that customer solution, topic or topics, and then pick the interactive content type story and call to action that is relevant to the particular objective that you have — whether it's creating awareness, creating engagement, or driving sales. Then it’s time to begin the work of identifying the right influencers. 2 - Identifying the Right Influencers Identifying influencers isn't just a matter of going to your marketing department and saying, “Hey, who's influential?” It's important that you utilize software during this stage, which can crawl millions of social messages and algorithmically identify those individuals who have the combination of reach, network size, popularity, but more importantly, the topical relevance that shows an individual is indeed publishing content on the topic that you as a brand want to be the best answer for. Just as important is resonance — the data point that measures the degree to which a topic is something that resonates with the network of a particular influencer. 3 - Incorporate Memorable & Relevant Game-Like Experiences For Content Marketing Institute’s Content Marketing World conference we used a themed micro-site featuring influencers relevant to the conference, and it incorporated several games and other entertaining interactive elements to make it interesting and memorable. <ul> <li>Identify a topic and theme</li> <li>Identify associated keywords that go along with the topic and theme</li> <li>Utilize the topics to identify relevant influencers</li> </ul> 4 - Publish & Promote On The Right Channels Publishing can take place on the client website, with supporting content published on the client blog and various social channels. From a promotion standpoint special graphics can be created for influencers to drive attention to an interactive experience that people can be proud to be a part of. Multiple channels can be used to get the word out about an interactive asset, including promotional video content. 5 - Monitor, Iterate & Measure Performance Once you’ve published and promotion is underway it’s time to begin the monitoring, iteration, and measurement to report campaign performance. You can track influencer shares both with UTM codes and other coded URLs, and set up a dashboard to track blog posts performance data. Here’s a related case study showing how B2B interactive content incorporated influencers to add credibility to ad experience: 6 - Create Inspiring Content Experiences How can you create content experiences that inspire people for B2B brands like SAP, Dell, LinkedIn, and many others? Lee shared an example, showing a promo video for an interactive micro-site that we created in concert with an event, which was co-created with a variety of B2B marketing experts who shared their advice about how to break free of boring B2B. The digital asset had over 10,000 views in a week and 100K social impressions because of influencer shares, and resulted in multiple consulting requests. Other inspiring content types can include quizzes, assessments, product finders, interactive content, 360 degree videos, along with interactive formats of a variety of types including games, contests, surveys, tools, and calculators, among others. 7 - Earn Trust Using Industry Experts 65 percent of consumers in a HubSpot survey said that they don't trust advertising, and 55 percent don't even trust the companies they buy from — a harsh reality that can be overcome by giving consumers credible, engaging content that's relevant, useful, credible, trustworthy, and experiential. Another study showed that 97 percent of B2B buyers place a higher emphasis on the trustworthiness of the content source, and 95% place a higher emphasis on credible content from industry experts — so they are looking for this. With more content than anyone could ever consume in a lifetime being produced on a regular basis, however, how do you make yours stand out? It's by creating experiences that are memorable, shareable, linkable, and that deserve to show up in search. 8 - Combine The Power of Interactive with Influencers Working with influencers to co-create content delivers mutual value, and it takes on extra weight when that content is interactive, creating digital experiences that are more engaging and which inspire action. Not only for the people that are consuming the content, but also for the people who've contributed and helped co-create the content, because it inspires them to want to make it more successful by reaching even more potential customers. 9 - Inspire Influencers to Create Enjoyable Experiences Inspire influencers to share the digital content they helped make. However if the thing that they help make is foreign and unwelcome to their network, it will become a waste of time. Reach, relevance, and resonance are important data points to consider when identifying influencers. Don't be entitled when you ask an influencer to contribute content — this can be a deal breaker. Instead, be patient, always communicate with them when you're asking for quotes or tips, and create a really great experience for them, showing them that they're special and making the co-created content easy for them to promote. It’s extremely important to make the experience enjoyable and easy to do in terms of how that can facilitate the success of an entire program. Once you've published and promoted the campaign, give them feedback on how they did. You may have to not work with certain influencers anymore because of how well it went or didn't go, and similarly there may be others that you are introduced to that you’ll want to work with in the future. Continue to nurture them and don't let the communications go silent until you need them. That doesn't engender a good relationship, 10 - Don’t Overlook Repurposing Opportunities For Co-Created Content It’s relatively easy to repurpose the content that influencers helped you make, and to publish that repurpose content in the weeks or months after the initial campaign is launched. You can easily include quotes and contributed articles to industry publications, and your influencers will see this and they're going to appreciate that you're giving them that extra exposure. Learn More About Inspirational B2B Content Marketing We hope the B2B marketing tips and topics we’ve explored here, taken from Lee and Casey’s SEMrush’s 5 Hours of Content Marketing event, will help to inspire and bring success to your own efforts, whether it’s your first such program or your 1000th. You can watch Lee’s entire SEMrush’s 5 Hours of Content Marketing event presentation here: https://youtu.be/RIHt0AaJ5gQ To learn more about B2B Influencer Marketing trends, best practices and predictions for the future, be sure to access the all new 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report which features insights from hundreds of marketers surveyed as well as expert analysis by the TopRank Marketing team and contributions from top B2B influencer marketing professionals from SAP, LinkedIn, AT&T Business, Adobe, Traackr, IBM, Dell, Cherwell Software, monday.com and more. The post 10 Inspiring Tips For Breaking Free of Boring B2B Marketing appeared first on Newsroom.

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Wednesday 9 September 2020

3 Keys to Building a Highly Profitable Online Business

Global strategist Ingrid Arna explains how she built a massive online business from home. 

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Maria Wik's 5 Tips for Automating and Organizing Your Online Business

The business and lifestyle coach has mastered how to organically streamline an ecommerce shop. 

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Tuesday 25 August 2020

3 Drop Shipping Secrets Beginners Need to Know

Although drop shipping has become all the rage in the ecommerce world over the past few years, there's a right way and a wrong way to do it. 

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Friday 21 August 2020

4 Tips for Launching a Business While Working From Home

This could be the opportunity you've been waiting for. 

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Wednesday 12 August 2020

Jermaine Dupri Talks New Role With The Beet and a Lifetime of Entrepreneurial Inspirations

The legendary hip-hop producer, mogul and dedicated vegan's new role as creative advisor for the plant-based-lifestyle platform is just the latest stop on his evolving journey. 

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Tuesday 11 August 2020

B2B Influencer Marketing Report Finds “Always-On” Programs 12X More Successful Than Periodic Campaigns

74% of B2B marketers agree influencer marketing improves customer and prospect experiences, only 19% are running ongoing influencer marketing programs The 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report also includes case studies from SAP, LinkedIn, monday.com, and Cherwell Software FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE [August 11, 2020], Minneapolis, MN — Award-winning B2B marketing agency TopRank Marketing released […] The post B2B Influencer Marketing Report Finds “Always-On” Programs 12X More Successful Than Periodic Campaigns appeared first on Newsroom.

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Monday 10 August 2020

5 Things That Cause Reasonable Consumers to Abandon Their Shopping Carts

Even the most educated, reasonable online buyers bail from time to time. Does this sound familiar? Here's why. 

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Friday 7 August 2020

5 Simple Strategies to Propel Your Online Business Success

An award-winning marketer offers inside tips. 

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Saturday 1 August 2020

Analytics enabled over the network, via Matomo

The amazing open-source analytics software “Matomo” (formerly Piwik) is 100% compatible with wordpress multi-site. It works out of the box, and every site owner here can access the full features of this amazing program. Matomo is described as the “Google …

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Friday 31 July 2020

10 Tips To Build Trust With B2B Influencers & Buyers

How can marketers build trust with B2B influencers and buyers, and how can brands begin a pilot or expand an existing B2B influencer marketing program? Luckily, our CEO Lee Odden spent time with Dr. Ai Addyson-Zhang as a guest on her Social Media Marketing Live Streaming Show, exploring the increasingly-popular use of influencer marketing among B2B organizations. Together Lee and Ai came to a number of fascinating conclusions, and shared helpful take-aways for those looking to learn more about B2B influencer marketing. Let’s jump right in with 10 insider tips to build trust with B2B influencers and buyers. 1 — The Foundations Of B2B Influencer Marketing Influencer marketing is about the practice of activating people that are external to a brand, but also those internal to a brand who have active and engaged communities — people who are publishing and who have communities of people listening to them. It’s important to collaborate and co-create content with influencers in a way that creates mutual value for the influencer and the brand in a way that is measurable — with a measurable outcome. 2 — Micro-Influencers & The Voice Of The Customer Gone are the days of having to just go after true celebrities, inviting them to do something, and hoping for massive engagement — instead, influence has been democratized, Lee noted. Everyone is influential at some level. We're all empowered to connect with like-minded individuals to create our own communities, and people are paying attention to what we have to say. We're publishing fairly regularly, and we are creating influence, which really is something that one can view holistically in 2020. Going for a little bit from a lot of different people — that’s the niche, the micro-influencer approach is increasingly more relevant as a way to create advocacy and co-create content in a way that's really close to the voice of the customer. It’s definitely not some pre-packaged thing that a brand made and just copied and pasted and gave to a celebrity and said, “Here, publish this.” 3 — The Nature Of Influence Is Changing And Evolving TopRank Marketing did a study with data-driven influencer marketing platform Traackr and Brian Solis at Altimeter Group a couple of years ago, and at that time only some 11 percent of B2B brands were actively engaged in influencer marketing. Now that number is more likely somewhere around 50 percent. One of the big changes in the last couple of years is the advent of the E.U.’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and in the U.S. the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), along with pending updates to FTC guidelines around influencers and working with them. This means that brands really need to take compliance seriously, with disclosure and that sort of thing — it's not something to mess around with or leave to chance. There’s got to be some level of governance, especially when you're paying influencers. There are clever brands like Adidas that have started to use dark social — social that can't be tracked publicly — as a way to connect with influencers, using SMS and text messaging. They're creating things called Tango Squads (see “How Adidas is using WhatsApp as a direct marketing channel”) — clusters of youth that are advocates around soccer, and around the world they share things with them. It's not public — it's all through text messaging, or WhatsApp or similar apps. That's becoming more of a problem, as more brands are starting to understand that their audience isn't necessarily engaging in the same way publicly as they might through private messaging, Lee noted. 4 — In Influencer Marketing Specificity Rises To The Top If someone wants to know about this one thing, they know they can get all of it from the right influencer. Today we have so many more options for engaging with people that already have influence. If you can find ways to create value for them, even if it's just giving them relevant kudos, giving them feedback on something that they wrote about, giving them a reaction, or inviting them to contribute. Ask a group of people just one question, and then create a round-up post. If you can create value for people in a relevant way, you're going to start to become more influential yourself. When you can help other people become influential — as you rise in your career as an influencer — if you help other people who are coming up in the world to become influential and give them exposure, that is even more powerful at creating influence for yourself. Most of the time brands will have a fixed budget, and go “Look, this is how much money we have. Are you in or not?” However compensation comes in different forms. 5 — Identifying Influencers & Their Topic Of Influence It’s important to identify your own topic of influence. What is it that you want to be influential about that your customers also care about? You can use search engine optimization (SEO), customer relationship management (CRM), and social data to get an understanding of what it is that people are thinking about relevant to the brand and customer connection. That intersection of topics can then be used to go find the right influencers. First it’s key to look at topical relevance. Next is resonance — the degree to which that topic resonates with their audience. Once you've used data to identify a raw list of people that are candidates, you literally have to manually inspect their accounts to make sure that they are who they say they are, and that their publishing cadence is good, and not someone who hasn’t tweeted in two years, for example. 6 — What Are The Maturity Levels Of Influencer Marketing Programs? It’s important to know where a company is in their maturity of working with influencers and influencer marketing, Lee urged. There's an argument to be made for beginning a pilot program. Get your feet wet in terms of understanding what it's like to work with influencers, and collaborating with them. Always-on influencer marketing doesn't take as much effort as you might think, and it all starts with a strategy. If you only have one interaction with an influencer and then you don't ever see that person until the next time you need them, that leaves the influencer feeling very transactional, and not very special. 7 — Influencers Should Feel Special When Your Brand Works With Them A lot of brands are transactional, and the result is one-off campaign situations, which arises because they failed to see the value of relationship building. Relationships require care, and it's important that you do some fundamental things to make them effective, but also in order to make it easy for you. 8 — Repurposing & Dripping B2B Influencer Micro-Content What we like to do at TopRank Marketing is to leverage the power of repurposing, Lee noted. We plan to repurpose influencer content before we ever capture it. Then we structure influencer engagement and the topic distribution amongst a group of influencers in a way so that we can make it into micro content. You can ask influencers 10 questions each, as an example, and then tag each of those contributions with keywords. You can collaborate with influencers and create content such as an interactive micro-site, which is a specialty area for us. We use a lot of interactive content, ebooks, video series, and podcasts. Some examples of interactive experiences we've created to inspire action in our client's target audiences include: <ul> <li>Adobe’s Reshaping the Customer Experience</li> <li>Cherwell Software’s Digital Transformation</li> <li>SAP’s How to Solve the Experience Economy Equation</li> <li>Prophix’ Adapt & Innovate</li> </ul> You can take that micro content and start dripping it out there for months after the original thing has launched. Think of that micro content as ingredients in a recipe or seasoning. You can season blog posts with quotes you got four months ago. You can also season a newsletter, presentation or a contributed article to an industry publication with quotes or tips that you got months ago. These will then show up on the influencer’s radar, because they've all got monitoring going on for their own names. Influencers know what brands are talking about them. 9 — The Power Of Showing Influencers Love Between Campaigns You can use these methods to programmatically show influencers some love in between your campaigns with them. Find a way to communicate with them periodically to let them know what's going on. It could be through a Slack channel, a Facebook group, a Twitter DM — whatever it is that works for your group of influencers. <ul> <li>If they're consultants, give them gigs</li> <li>If they are a potential book, author, turn them onto an acquisition editor</li> <li>If they are consultants, refer them to work</li> <li>Make this all part of a solid relationship</li> </ul> “Interactive content can augment your ability to move your audience down the purchase funnel, by engaging them more deeply, and guiding them on the path to the next answer they crave in their purchase journey,” Elizabeth Williams, TopRank Marketing account manager observed. It's also very important that you communicate expectations up front in terms of, “Here's what, when, why and how,” and, “Here's the knowledge you're going to need,” and, “Here's what we're expecting from you,” Lee noted. Give a potential influencer an example of what you're looking for. Give them a timeline, and the format you expect. It’s about educating them about what it is that you actually want. 10 — If You Don't Make It Easy — You're Making It Hard. If you’re not making it easy for your influencers, you’re making it hard. You can do things such as creating a graphic showing photos of all the people who contributed. That way the influencer can humbly say, “I'm so proud to be a part of these other esteemed professionals in this really cool asset that is going to benefit you. Please check it out.” Especially in B2B, where you actually have to be an expert to be an influencer — you can't just be good at making videos or tweeting or social messaging, as is often the case in B2C — in B2B you need to be an expert. If you want the content to be better, go ahead and invite that scientist, that engineer, that educator, that or academic to share their perspective. When they do that, it’s going to lift the quality of your content and help make it great. A part of that greatness of course, does come through visibility, because even the best content in the world isn't very good if no one sees it. Third party voices add a lot of social proof and credibility to brand content. Companies need to allocate an equal amount to creation as they do to distribution. Taking Your Own B2B Influencer Marketing To The Next Level We hope the B2B influencer marketing issues we’ve explored here, taken from Lee and Ai’s interview, will help inspire and ultimately bring success to your own efforts, whether it’s your first such program or your 100th. To learn more about B2B Influencer Marketing trends, best practices and predictions for the future, be sure to access the all new 2020 State of B2B Influencer Marketing Report https://ift.tt/2Dhj4Hn which features insights from hundreds of marketers surveyed as well as expert analysis by the TopRank Marketing team and contributions from top B2B influencer marketing professionals from SAP, LinkedIn, AT&T Business, Adobe, Traackr, IBM, Dell, Cherwell Software, Monday.com and more. The post 10 Tips To Build Trust With B2B Influencers & Buyers appeared first on Newsroom.

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Thursday 30 July 2020

Learn to Optimize Marketing Performance with Influence, Trust and Authentic Content

If you you looking to optimize your content performance, navigate marketing during the pandemic or improve customer experience, you will be able to do all three by taking part in three upcoming virtual event presentations during August featuring our CEO Lee Odden and senior director of digital strategy Ashley Zeckman. ContentTECH Summit August 10 – […] The post Learn to Optimize Marketing Performance with Influence, Trust and Authentic Content appeared first on Newsroom.

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Tuesday 21 July 2020

If the Black Crowes Adapted to Ecommerce During the Pandemic, So Can You

The band's longtime manager talks about how he got the brothers Robinson to not only reunite, but make the best of this summer by opening a new digital retail shop. 

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Monday 20 July 2020

10 Signs Your Digital Marketing Strategy Needs an Overhaul via @jasonhennessey

If you’re looking for a sign that your digital marketing could use a makeover, check out this list.The post 10 Signs Your Digital Marketing Strategy Needs an Overhaul via @jasonhennessey appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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How to Market to Consumers At Home

You aren't the only business owner trying to figure it out, but here are some ways to get started. 

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Google Ads to Ban Spying Products & Software via @SusanEDub

Enforcement starts on August 11 of this year. After that, accounts will be given a 7-day warning before suspension.The post Google Ads to Ban Spying Products & Software via @SusanEDub appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Sunday 19 July 2020

How to Become an SEO Expert via @MrDannyGoodwin

Want to become an SEO expert? Awesome! Here are 21 things you need to know to truly become an SEO expert today.The post How to Become an SEO Expert via @MrDannyGoodwin appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Pinterest Updates Algorithm to Surface More Content Types via @MattGSouthern

Pinterest is introducing a new ranking model to its home feed in an effort to surface certain types of content more often.The post Pinterest Updates Algorithm to Surface More Content Types via @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Saturday 18 July 2020

Google: No Way to Optimize Content for Ranking in Google Discover via @MattGSouthern

Google says content cannot be optimized for Discover in the same way that it can be optimized for search results.The post Google: No Way to Optimize Content for Ranking in Google Discover via @MattGSouthern appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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How Would an SEO Agency Be Built Today? Part 1: Consumers & Trends via @seomonitor

To keep up with the times, SEO agencies need to consider the emerging consumer and business trends that are transforming the way people interact.The post How Would an SEO Agency Be Built Today? Part 1: Consumers & Trends via @seomonitor appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Friday 17 July 2020

Google Updates Recipe Structured Data Guidance via @martinibuster

Google updated their structured data guidelines regarding marking up multiple items. Some changes are specific to recipe structured data.The post Google Updates Recipe Structured Data Guidance via @martinibuster appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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5 Must-Have Resources for Anyone Looking to Make Money Online

Here's a quintet of books, courses and other content that will unlock the secrets to leveling up. 

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3 Traditionally Offline Industries That Are Going Online

The list features some all-star companies that did a brilliant job of digitizing on the fly. 

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How to Write for Google’s Core Algorithms, User Intent & SEO via @JuliaEMcCoy

Should you be worried about your content whenever Google releases a core algorithm update? Not if you use these user intent writing practices.The post How to Write for Google’s Core Algorithms, User Intent & SEO via @JuliaEMcCoy appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Thursday 16 July 2020

Which PPC Metrics Should You Focus On? via @navahf

Your PPC metrics will depend on your campaign goals and whether you're in testing or scale mode. Learn more here.The post Which PPC Metrics Should You Focus On? via @navahf appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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