Ideas & strategies

Overcoming Sales Objections the Easy Way

Overcoming sales objections is an essential part of the sales process, but it seems a topic that people I speak to either neglect or are fearful of. It can be straightforward to counter customer objections, but before we get into…

Creativity’s Rising Role in B2B Marketing

Why has 2023 seen creativity come to the forefront in B2B marketing like no other year? In the face of skyrocketing use of generative AI technologies, creativity is standing out more than ever, as it represents the very essence of…

Authority Websites vs Niche Websites: Which to Start?

Authority Sites and Niche Sites have taken over the website creation conversation lately. You’ve probably heard about ‘authority websites’ and ‘niche websites’ in conversation almost interchangeably. But what exactly are niche or authority sites? How do they differ? And importantly,…

Differentiating B2B Marketing Mediocrity from Marketing Excellence

We talk a lot about elevating B2B marketing on this blog, but we don’t always provide side by side examples of what approaches work and which ones don’t. What separates mediocre marketing from marketing excellence in B2B campaigns? The short…

AI’s Rising Use In B2B & Meta’s Swift Threads Launch

Younger B2B buyers are the main reason marketers need to refresh their social media marketing strategies46.5 percent of B2B buyers use social media to connect with B2B brands, while 61.1 percent of U.S. LinkedIn users will be comprised of members…

How Content Marketing Propels B2B Brand Growth Today

It’s been 15 years since Seth Godin declared that content marketing is “the only marketing that’s left.” Amusingly, Godin had not actually heard of the term “content marketing” back in 2008 according to Joe Pulizzi, who shared the experience of…

3 B2B Marketing Lessons from the Independence Day

Happy Independence Day! It’s the middle of summer, which means we’re all feeling a little ready for a break. That had me thinking about one of the most fun parts of summer: the blockbuster movie. And what better movie to…

CMO Tech Budgets Hold Steady, Ad Index Grows, & LinkedIn’s AI Push

CMOs’ Major Resource Allocations to Remain Steady Amid Budget PressuresMarketing technology budgets have held steady from 2022 to 2023, as 75 percent of chief marketing officers say they are confronted by pressures to do more with less, while 49 percent…

Key B2B Marketing Insights From The 2023 Cannes Creative B2B Lions

As more B2B marketers than ever gathered recently for the Cannes Creative B2B Lions at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, it’s natural to wonder — just what are the key insights that emerged, and how can B2B marketers…

Unlocking the Power of Memory

Being able to attend LinkedIn’s first B2B Marketing conference, B2Believe was a real privilege and amazing experience. Hearing from the wealth and depth of B2B marketing and business expertise that exists within LinkedIn was equally informative and inspiring. One of…

4 B2B Marketing Lessons from Disney’s The Little Mermaid

Inspiration for how to be a better marketer can come from just about anywhere, including under the sea. Or should I say: Under The Sea, the best song from the 1989 Disney classic The Little Mermaid. In the song, the…

The New Kingdom of Content for B2B Marketing

As we sink into the realm of “do more with less” in B2B Marketing, the shiny sirens of generative AI content are all around us. But the way to rule a B2B brand’s content kingdom is not artificial. It is…

10 Key Take-Aways From ANA’s Masters of B2B Marketing

What can B2B marketers learn from the top presentations that were on tap during the Association of National Advertisers annual ANA Masters of B2B Marketing 2023 conference? The event, which took place in Orlando, Florida and online, was all-B2B, all…

B2B Marketers Using More AI & The B2B Creativity Formula

How B2B Marketers Feel About AI79 percent of U.S. B2B marketers plan to use more AI in their efforts during the next 12 months, with a leading 41 percent considering investment in AI over the next two years for personalizing…

What B2B Marketers Need to Know from LinkedIn’s New Benchmark Report

It is one of my great privileges as a B2B marketer to be able to collaborate with the brilliant minds at LinkedIn Marketing Solutions, who’ve been clients of TopRank Marketing for many years. As an online professional network with a…

4 B2B Marketing Take-Aways from Board Games

We don’t often think of them this way — probably because it makes them sound suspiciously like homework — but every game is a kind of teaching tool. The mechanics of the game are a metaphor for the lessons that…

Spotify Woos B2B Marketers & Google’ EU AdTech Scrutiny

LinkedIn Adds New Video Ad Options, Expands Access to Conversation and Thought Leader AdsMicrosoft-owned LinkedIn has rolled out an array of new options for video ads accompanying long-form video content on the professional social platform, along with expanding access to…

Human vs. Machine and The Future of Content for B2B Marketing

Next week, TopRank Marketing is going abroad. The first stop is in Paris for the BtoB Summit Paris 2023. This is not our CEO Lee Odden‘s first time presenting in France, but it will be his first on a large…

Summer 2023 Marking Industry Talent & Trust

As the summer solstice nears, so to do new opportunities. As B2B marketers adjust to the changes that 2023 has brought, the industry continues to offer growth opportunities as well as unexpected shifts that often seem to happen so swiftly…

Top 10 Take-Aways From Forrester’s B2B Summit North America

What can B2B marketers learn from the top presentations that were on tap during Forrester’s recent B2B Summit North America 2023 event? Forrester’s B2B Summit North America conference — which took place in Austin, Texas as well as online —…

The Secret to Elevating Your B2B Brand

If you are like me, you’ve been lost in the land of true crime documentaries, way too many zombie shows, and, of course, reality television (shoutout to the Bravo fans out there!). In the endless binging of monotony, violence, and…

B2B Resiliency, & LinkedIn’s New Direct Messaging For Brands

The B2B Marketing Benchmark [Report]42 percent of chief marketing officers believe that eagerness to adopt new technology is among the top skills for their teams to possess, with the value of AI technology expected to see a twenty-fold increase by…

Meet TopRank Marketing’s New Director of Business Development

As we work towards elevating the world of B2B marketing, a piece of that includes investing in our own team, and we’ve recently added a new team member to the agency. You may have noticed him make a quiet debut…

How Small Online Communities Are Delivering Big Brand Results With B2B Influencer Marketing

How can small online communities help large B2B brands deliver big-time results? When marketers tap into the power of B2B influence, relatively little digital communities transform into hotbeds of brand storytelling, sharing, and new connections. Let’s take a look at…