Ideas & strategies

My Search Results were Hacked (How to Detect and Fix it)

There is a new website hack going around (well, new to me). Here is how to tell if you are hacked, and what to do to fix it! If you just want to get to the punchline, the TL;DR is…

B2B Marketers See Uptick in Business, Google’s New AI Ad Tools, Falling Instagram & Facebook Effectiveness, & LinkedIn’s Video Success

Very Few B2B Salespeople Say They Typically Deal With A Single Decision-Maker30 percent of B2B salespeople have said that their sales teams generally deal with between two and four people, with seven percent interacting with just one person, while 14…

Don’t Buy Into the Email Marketing Hype

Email marketing is amazing, don’t think for a second that I am bashing email. My frustration is around people drawing incorrect conclusions, then passing along those “learnings” as advice. Read on and I will explain. I’ve been watching a lot…

Celebrating Spring 2023 Leadership & Talent Growth

Springtime epitomizes new growth and the possibility for harvesting future successes, and as B2B marketers adjust to the changes that 2023 has brought, the industry continues to offer growth opportunities as well as shifts that often seem to happen so…

Earn More Money as a Content Creator, Without YouTube Ads

Exposure doesn’t pay content creators landlords! Are you secretly sad to see your competition seemingly swimming in ad dollars while you struggle to get more than a few clicks? Do you get frustrated with how little tangible reward you get…

3 Ways to Grow Your B2B Content Marketing Garden

For much of the world, spring has sprung. As readers may know, however, TopRank is a Minnesota-based company and — though we all work remotely now — I’ve made the somewhat-questionable decision to remain here in the land of 10,000…

3 Most Dangerous Social Media and Influencer Myths

Social Media, and in particular the “Influencer” phenomenon has generated many myths, lies and half-truths, but lately there are three huge ones that have been getting me annoyed. Yes, yet again I am posting because I have a rant to…

B2B Pipeline Study, AI’s Rising Video Use, Google’s New Verification Tools, & What B2B Buyers Want

B2B buyers want purchasing to be more social and entertaining62 percent of B2B buyers have said that they would like more entertaining online purchasing processes, with 60 percent noting that they plan to increase their use of digital purchasing channels,…

Remember, It’s Not Yours – Chris Garrett

My wife told me about three huge Instagram accounts that were shut down lately due to impersonators, where the company sided with the scammers. Only one eventually got their account back, and that was due to a follower having connections…

The Difference Between Zero-Party, First-Party & Third-Party Data

We know — and even expect — brands to understand us and offer up personalized experiences. (And at this point, isn’t it annoying when a brand obviously doesn’t “get” us?) While we’ve seen a major shift from third-party to first-party…

Blog Branding: How Niche is Too Niche for a New Blog?

We often talk about finding a niche for your project – to avoid going too wide trying to appeal to everyone, and not appealing to anybody. But how niche is too niche? Years ago I wrote a series on Blog…

How Music Can Help Elevate Your B2B Content

I asked ChatGPT to write the introduction for this post. Here’s what it gave me: In the world of B2B marketing, creating engaging and effective content is crucial for attracting and retaining customers. However, the process of brainstorming ideas and…

Where Advertising Fits with Content Marketing

There is a dangerous myth that you should do content marketing instead of advertising, or with content marketing you don’t need to pay for traffic. It’s true that there are a lot of success stories based around the idea that…

What is Search Intent and Why Is It Fundamental to SEO?

When you googled “what is search intent,” you had the informational intention to seek out an answer to your question and learn more about a topic you’ve been hearing about. As you can see, we understood that intent and wrote…

10 Reasons Your Outreach Sucks (and How to Fix it)

posted on August 16, 2021 Recently I got yet another one of those link-begging emails. You know the ones. “Hey [insert name] I want a link to my website because you wrote about [paste link here] k, bye” – Some…

CMOs Shift Priorities, Adobe’s New AI, Changing B2B Buyer Journeys, & Google Rolls Out Bard AI

B2B CMOs Make Meaningful Shifts in Priorities30 percent of B2B chief marketing officers have said that growth was tops when it comes to what they want to deliver in their role, while 21 percent pointed to better customer experiences, with…

Should you show features or benefits?

posted on September 1, 2021 Jason Cohen on Twitter Should you show features or benefits on your sales pages? Jason Cohen asked this on Twitter and I replied there but, as usual, I discovered I had more than the limited…

Feeding Today’s Hunger For Better B2B Content Marketing Experiences

It’s a great time to be a B2B content marketer. The appetite for content marketing within B2B audiences is high, and content marketers say it remains by far the best tactic in terms of ROI. But as content marketers we…

Do you have a platform, product or a business?

posted on September 27, 2021 Many people in the hobby niches I hang out in seem to be successful in business but aren’t. Not really. I’m including my own side projects in that right now, but I am hoping to…

4 Ways To Boost B2B Influencer Marketing With Generative AI

How can B2B brands best harness the power of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools to help take their influencer marketing to the next level? At this point, it seems unlikely content that has been created with at least some AI-generated…

Will you still love me on email 64?

posted on October 18, 2021 Would you rather eat chicken tonight or have fresh eggs for years? As marketers, there is a tendency to base our decision making on the next sales target, pleasing our boss, or scarcity thinking. Don’t….

Can You Really Make Money Day Trading Stocks?

Image Source: Freepik You don’t have to travel too far on the internet before you find someone claiming to have made a fortune trading the stock market, but is this actually possible for the average joe? You’d be forgiven for…

B2B Influencer Benchmarks, Top Data Leader Priorities Report, & Microsoft’s AI Ad Insights

Creative Services Professionals Are Most Concerned About AI23 percent of marketing executives have said that they are interested in artificial intelligence (AI), with the top sectors interested in AI being software development, computer engineering, electronics, and creative services, while 12…

Join me in our Mastermind?

posted on November 2, 2021 Over a decade ago I ran a course called Authority Blogger. It was a great deal more successful than I anticipated, in fact many of the students of that course are still my friends today….