Marketers develop and execute numerous strategies to broaden their business reach. But one critical factor that most marketers neglect is web accessibility. And this neglect leads to their business being closed off for a large majority of potential customers.

What is web accessibility?

Web accessibility ensures that the internet is accessible, usable, and beneficial for everyone alike. It considers all possible disabilities to ensure marketing messages are delivered to every kind of audience and get the most value out of the website.

As important as it may seem right now, web accessibility is often the last thing marketers think of when building a website. And then, too, it is often brushed under the rug.

Despite the World Wide Web Consortium, commonly known as W3C developing dedicated web content accessibility guidelines to make the internet more accessible, digital inclusivity remains a rarity.

And this unfortunate reality acts not only as an accessibility barrier, but a growth barrier as well.

The value of web accessibility in modern marketing initiatives

Acknowledging and adopting web accessibility enhances the customer experience, opens new doors for your business, uplifts marketing outcomes, and boosts revenue in more ways than just one.

1. Extends your market reach

15 percent of the world’s population is disabled and belongs to a highly valuable market segment with strong spending powers.

With a digitally inclusive web presence, your business interacts with an increased volume of people who it would’ve missed otherwise. In this way, web accessibility brings a whole new community of prospects you can interact with, win as customers and boost your revenue.

2. SEO benefits

Search engines prefer to rank websites that are secure, accessible, and valuable to all kinds of users. Moreover, they perceive digitally inclusive websites as authentic sources of information and favor them in rankings.

As a result, enhancing web accessibility undeviatingly supplements your online marketing with an SEO boost, helping you get to the coveted top position in SERPs. It opens another channel for web traffic that connects you with your target audience.

3. Enhanced user experience

User experience is at the heart of your digital presence as it relates directly to conversions. The basic principle of UX optimization dictates that you research what your target audience wants and deliver it.

In the case of differently-abled audiences, it’s common sense that they would want you to deliver a website they can interact with and benefit from.

By optimizing your website’s accessibility, you boost its usability which is a core element of user experience.

If all other elements of UX are optimized, enhanced usability wins customer satisfaction and gives the prospect a final push towards conversion, contributing to your revenue.

4. Positive brand perception

Web accessibility enables your brand to appear as a strong advocate of digital inclusivity and works to build positive brand perception. Now isn’t that a critical outcome of modern marketing?

Today where people seek a business’s values before engaging with it, a concrete stance on digital inclusivity reflects your values of empathy, compassion, and equal opportunities for all. This builds your community of like-minded people who then contribute to your revenue.

Five-point checklist to get started with web accessibility

For maximum effect, web accessibility should be considered a priority rather than an afterthought and must be included in your digital and marketing strategy.

Following are a few ways through which you can uplift your digital inclusivity and leave a larger impact:

1. Multilingual SEO

Web accessibility not only aims at eliminating accessibility barriers for people with permanent, temporary, or situational disabilities. It also removes linguistic barriers, so people from all cultural and ethnic backgrounds can have equal access.

Given that English is spoken by a meager 4.83 percent of the world’s population, multilingual SEO eliminates linguistic barriers and helps searchers from all linguistic backgrounds to benefit from the internet.

Here’s a guide I created on multilingual SEO to get you started.

2. Voice search

The introduction of smart assistants such as Alexa has pioneered a new era of voice search ubiquity and the consequent web accessibility.

As an excellent avenue to pursue for businesses looking to be more digitally inclusive, voice search unlocks your website’s chances of interaction with people who cannot search the conventional way.

Here are some best practices to optimize voice search SEO:

• Use long tail keywords that are specific, descriptive, and natural for users‘ language
• Serve up content that gives direct answers
• Optimize your ‘Google My Business‘ account
• Create voice search FAQ pages
• Implement schema which is a code that you can add to your website that improves search visibility

For more depth, check out this voice search SEO guide for trends and best practices.

3. Alternate (Alt) text

Alt text helps visually impaired visitors understand what a web image depicts. Hence image optimization allows web visitors to absorb the information your website offers in its totality and ties back to enhanced user experience.

Tips for using alt text:

• Keep it descriptive and keyword specific, this will show up in case your page loads slow or if there was an audio description needed
• For ecommerce sites, make good use of structured data to give the search engine more specific details about your products‘ color, type, size, and a lot more

If you need more details, here’s an evergreen image optimization guide.

4. Hierarchical organization or content using H tags

Hierarchical layout shapes your web content in an easy-to-read structure. A critical part of web accessibility (and SEO), a hierarchical organization can make your website usable and understandable for users with certain cognitive disabilities and people with short attention spans, boosting their satisfaction and your websites‘ overall UX.

Check out this guide on optimizing meta tags.

5. Color contrast

Color contrast involves adjusting the color of foreground web elements (for instance, fonts) against the color of the background elements to ensure that the foreground elements, which bear value, stand out and are easily readable for people with visual impairment.

The Bureau of Internet Accessibility has identified a color contrast ratio that ensures that your website is visible and readable for people with color-related visual impairments.

Conclusion

Web accessibility is a necessity, but unfortunately, it doesn’t get the same limelight as other digital marketing avenues that promise increased reach, better perception, and higher revenue.

This reality can work in your favor if you capitalize on the lack of web accessibility and gain a competitive edge by adopting digital inclusivity.

There are numerous marketing benefits of web accessibility, most significant of which may be the development of positive brand perception in an era of value-driven shoppers.

Inclusive marketing initiatives are commendable. But they are only valuable when backed by conscious efforts of enhancing your business’s digital accessibility. So, endeavoring to actualize web accessibility strategies can help you become the pioneer of an internet era where digital inclusivity is a priority.

Atul Jindal is a web design and marketing specialist, having interests in doing websites/apps optimized for SEO with a core focus on conversion optimization. He creates web experiences that bring conversations and transform web traffic into paying customers or leads.

Subscribe to the Search Engine Watch newsletter for insights on SEO, the search landscape, search marketing, digital marketing, leadership, podcasts, and more.

Join the conversation with us on LinkedIn and Twitter.

The post A must-have web accessibility checklist for digital marketers appeared first on Search Engine Watch.

Source:: searchenginewatch.com

With hybrid and remote work here to stay and digital-first marketing on the rise, how can B2B marketers make the most of these important shifts?

Although I’ve written about remote work before, in pieces including “Remote Communication Opportunities For B2B Marketers,” “Day 4,777: Remote Work Tips From 13+ Years As A Distance Marketer,” and “Hybrid & Remote Work Trends That Will Alter The Future Of B2B Marketing,” the permanent changes to where and how we work have significant implications that will affect B2B marketers forever, so it’s time to reassess.

Let’s take a close look at five ways B2B marketers can make the most from remote and hybrid work and digital-first brand interactions, from the perspective of someone who’s been working entirely remotely for 15 years, and from several top voices on the future of work.

1 — Adjust To The Permanent Shift In How We Work

As I enter my thirty-eighth year working online, I’ve worked remotely for 5,409 days, and spent close to 40 percent of my career as a remote worker.

What’s changed for us all since the pandemic has reminded me of the shifts in how we communicate that I saw when I first began operating a computer bulletin board system (BBS) on a Commodore 64 computer and a 300-baud modem.

Back in 1984, relatively few people owned a home computer — and even fewer also knew what a modem or online communications were. The personal computer revolution that began in the 1970s took off like wildfire in the 1980s. Online communication was a bit slower to evolve into the mainstream, however it surely did, especially once Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented and activated his World Wide Web technology, as I explored in „Classic Marketing Insights to Celebrate the Internet’s 50th Birthday.“

Just as there was frustration, backlash, and confusion back then adjusting to interacting online, so too has the pandemic’s forced shift to remote and hybrid work caused global upheaval and uncertainty.

2 — Make Digital-First The New Norm

Remote and hybrid workers have not only had to adjust to the significant changes in where they work, but they’re also facing the fact of ever-more digital interactions when it comes to B2B marketing.

For better or worse, the world has become a digital-first environment for most of us, which means that B2B marketers are looking to make the most of every social media, email, and mobile messaging interaction with their audiences.

Each generation of B2B marketers, as well as their clients and the customers of their brands, will have had the advantage of coming of age with greater technological opportunities and ever-greater digital immersion. Our own senior content marketing manager Joshua Nite recently took a look at “Who Is the New B2B Buyer and How Do You Connect with Them?” — an article that offers five helpful ways to better understand and connect with the Millennials and Gen Zs entering the B2B workforce.

[bctt tweet=““If someone can interact with the brand across multiple channels with a single seamless experience, they are more likely to choose your brand at decision-making time.” — Joshua Nite @NiteWrites“ username=“toprank“]

3 — Elevate With Handy Remote & Hybrid Work Tips

Here are some of the tips I’ve gathered from 15 years as a remote worker, in no particular order.

• Use Powerful & Abundant Remote Collaboration Tools. Powerful online collaboration platforms such as those offered by Slack, our client monday.com, and many others provide the type of robust remote communication that has seen dramatically-increased use since the pandemic began.
• Create your own physical workspace. Whether it’s a dedicated room in your home where you’ll be doing the bulk of your work, a co-working space in another location, or a full-on private spot in an office building as I’ve chosen, having a physical place that you can leave at the end of the workday is an ideal way to separate your personal and professional life.
• Build a regular schedule into your remote workday — one that pulls some of the best elements from your previous office location — in order to bring a similar sense of organization to your remote work.
• Learn to savor the advantages of working remotely, especially those from working at home. Especially if your remote work situation isn’t a permanent one, take time to appreciate the little things that working remotely provides, whether it’s eating lunch with your partner or children, listening to music as loud as you want to, taking a lunchtime walk in a new area, or enjoying extra time saved from not having a lengthy work commute.
• Minimize distractions as much as possible, so that you can use remote work to find newfound focus on your projects. If working from home, let the people in your home know when you’ll be working, and encourage them to connect with you only during set times such as over lunch or breaks.
• If your remote work situation is more long-term, learn to make your laptop your office. If you have freedom in the locations you work from, expand your work world to include working in different spots in your city, state, country, or even internationally. A second external monitor can also be very helpful for many remote marketers, and some also will use high-definition TVs as a second or third laptop monitor.
• Implement Remote-Friendly Tech Gadgets. As with a traditional business office, remote workers should set up the technology hardware necessary for doing your best work, whether it’s a second, third, or fourth monitor, a WiFi signal extender, or Zoom-friendly cameras, microphones, and ring lights.
• Get Closer To Your Projects Than Ever Through Remote Work. A properly set up remote work environment can provide a positive and distraction-free place to focus intensely on your projects, and research continues to emerge showing that this is a very real advantage of working outside of a traditional office environment.

4 — Excel With Always-On Digital Engagement

Going hand-in-hand with digital-first marketing is another shift B2B marketers have seen — the growing popularity of always-on marketing, which allows brands to be everywhere their audiences are anytime.

In a digital world that’s never all sleeping at once, brands have turned to always-on marketing programs to never miss an opportunity to answer the questions their customers are asking, whether it’s in the form of social media monitoring and interaction, artificial intelligence (AI)-infused chatbots, the rising realm of so-called metaverse content, or more traditional methods.

You can learn more about how always-on digital engagement can play a key role in your B2B marketing efforts in the following articles we’ve published:

• How to Elevate Post Pandemic B2B Marketing with Always-On Influence
• Inside Influence 2: Garnor Morantes from LinkedIn on the Power of Always-On Influence
• How To Move From A Pilot B2B Influencer Marketing Program to Always-On Success

[bctt tweet=““Always-on thought leadership and influence are more important now than ever because the customer never turns off.” — Brian Solis @BrianSolis“ username=“toprank“]

5 — Prepare For The Future of Marketing Work

What will hybrid and remote work look like in ten years, 100 years, or a millennium from 2022?

While there’s no way to predict with certainty, there are some technologies that will form the framework of what lies on the far distance horizon, including:

• Ever-faster computing power
• Ever-greater information storage capabilities
• Ever-speedier transfer of data between devices
• Ever-smarter computer programs and derivative algorithms

B2B marketers that are mindful of these digital backbone elements in their efforts, and who take the time to look ahead and carefully examine how to best incorporate advances in each of these areas, are likely to be the ones that will see the greatest long-term success.

One subject matter expert on the future of remote and hybrid work is Liam McIvor Martin, co-founder of Time Doctor and Staff.com. Our own senior content marketing manager Nick Nelson spoke with Liam about the future of work, in “Break Free B2B Marketing: Liam McIvor Martin of Time Doctor on The Revolutionary Power of Remote Work.”

[bctt tweet=““It’s a very interesting time for the history of work, not even just the history of remote work. I think fundamentally work is going to change, and it’s never going back to the way it was before.” — Liam McIvor Martin @liamremote“ username=“toprank“]

Caffeinate Your 2022 B2B Marketing Efforts

via GIPHY

Excelling in B2B marketing given all these changes can be a daunting proposition. However, if we adjust to the permanent shifts in how we work, make digital-first our new norm, implement our remote and hybrid work tips, and elevate with always-on digital engagement, we’ll be well-prepared for the future of marketing work, hot coffee or not.

We hope you’ve found our look at timely marketing tips for remote and hybrid work helpful, and that you’ll incorporate some of the suggestions we’ve explored into your own 2022 B2B marketing efforts.

No matter how well you’re able to caffeinate and create digital content in 2022, crafting award-winning B2B marketing takes considerable time and effort, which is why an increasing number of firms are choosing to work with a top digital marketing agency such as TopRank Marketing. Reach out to us today to learn how we can help, as we’ve done for over 20 years for businesses ranging from LinkedIn, Dell and 3M to Adobe, Oracle, monday.com and others.

The post 5 Timely B2B Marketing Tips I’ve Learned From 15 Years As A Remote Worker appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.

Source:: toprankblog.com

We all know that Millennials are out-of-control college kids doing shots on Spring Break. And Gen Z are the 10-year-olds currently being raised by TikTok, right?

Hold onto your hats: The youngest Millennials are in their late-twenties. The oldest Gen Zs are 25 — that means they’re out of school and in the workforce. These two demographics are the fastest-growing cohort of B2B buyers.

And they don’t think like Boomers or Gen Xers.

So how do B2B marketers reach these mysterious digital natives? Here are a few pointers.

How to Connect with the New B2B Buyer

You don’t need the latest slang to speak authentically to younger audiences (though I find the new slang totes yeet). Just keep in mind these preferences.

1 — Omnichannel or Bust

Digital natives grew up with the Internet and Gen Z grew up with social media. They’re used to having the answer to any question at their fingertips. They’re also accustomed to multi-threaded conversations: For example, they can start with a social media direct message, continue in text, and end with a quick call. If the only way to interact with your brand is on a phone call, you might as well insist people use semaphore.

Here’s how dramatically the landscape has changed: In 2016, the average B2B buyer used five different channels to interact with suppliers. In 2021, the average was ten channels.

But it’s not just about how many channels you’re on; it’s the experience you provide across channels. Omnichannel means that instead of thinking in terms of channels (ie, Facebook, SMS, chatbot, voice), you think in terms of a single conversation. Every person who interacts with a buyer on behalf of your brand should have access to the entire conversation history.

If someone can interact with the brand across multiple channels with a single seamless experience, they are more likely to choose your brand at decision-making time. That’s especially true for younger demographics, but it also applies across the board.

[bctt tweet=““If someone can interact with the brand across multiple channels with a single seamless experience, they are more likely to choose your brand at decision-making time.” — Joshua Nite @NiteWrites“ username=“toprank“]

2 — Multimedia Is Mandatory

In the last few years, B2B marketers have finally pulled away from the static white paper or downloadable eBook as their primary content focus. While these old standbys still have a place in the marketing mix, top-of-funnel content must be more engaging to earn attention.

Video, audio, motion graphics and interactivity all help your brand’s story to come to life for your buyer. In a way, it’s an “omnimedia” approach; Gen Z and Millennials are used to seeing all different types of media in their social feeds. They don’t think twice about, say, a video embedded in a text document — it’s the expected experience.

For inspiration: Our client Prophix wanted a futuristic-feeling asset to promote the idea of AI in Finance. The end project includes animation, video, and an interactive audio feature.

3 — Sincerity Is the New Snark

Ironic detachment hit its peak in the 1990s. From Friends and Seinfeld to Wayne and Garth, it was all about delivering maximum sarcasm with minimal emotional investment. The Gen X motto — if we committed to something as uncool as a motto — would have been, “Oh well, whatever, never mind.”

If you’re a product of the Age of Detachment, it’s time to re-engage. Caring is cool again — feeling emotions, talking about them, supporting other people and lifting them up, the whole package. Think more Ted Lasso and less Chandler Bing.

In short, digital natives want to see the people behind your brand. They want to know your brand’s values and purpose, and they want to see those values in action. If your brand is too stand-offish, it won’t read as professional; it will seem impersonal.

4 — Let Down Your Gates

The conventional wisdom used to be that any substantial asset should be behind a gate. Give away a few tidbits, a blog post or two, but keep the really valuable stuff behind a lead gen form. Give away the trailer and sell the movie.

That approach doesn’t fly with Gen Z and young Millennials, for one simple reason: They already have unlimited access to an enormous amount of content on any subject imaginable. The odds are slim that any brand’s new eBook would be novel and useful enough to earn a form fill.

Our agency has found consistent success by giving away the good stuff and gating an add-on. For example, client Mitel has this beautiful interactive asset that they offer without a gate: The Future Now of Work. One added benefit is that the influencers featured (more on that later) are more likely to share an ungated asset, too.

Consider making your best content as easy to access as possible. For your lead gen forms, offer a download like a checklist, template or other useful tool.

5 — Find the True Influencers

To reach younger people with influencer content, you need to go back to the original meaning of “influence.” It’s not about who has the biggest following or the most retweets — it’s who actually inspires their followers to take action.

The career “influencer” with a million followers may look enticing, but the YouTuber with just 10,000 passionate subscribers is a better bet. Look past the numbers and look at who is actively engaging with their audience, building community and trust in their thought leadership.

Even better, look for influential people who are passionate about the subject you want to cover, people who share your brand’s values and point of view. Instead of paying them to endorse a product, invite them to co-create content with the brand. The end result is bound to be more engaging, more useful, and something an influencer will be excited to promote.

The Kids Are Alright

Look, I get it: It’s still weird to me that people can be born in the 90s. Now, suddenly the 2000s kids are hitting the workforce. It’s tempting to shake my cane and demand that they get off my lawn.

As a marketer, however, I’m glad to see them. The digital natives aren’t going to settle for boring, overly promotional, or insincere content. It’s going to be a challenge to make sure our marketing meets and exceeds their expectations. But it’s a challenge that will ultimately make our marketing better for everyone — even cynical Gen Xers like me.

Subscribe to the blog for more upcoming trends in B2B marketing.

The post Who Is the New B2B Buyer and How Do You Connect with Them? appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.

Source:: toprankblog.com

Even if 2020 and 2021 didn’t throw buckets of uncertainty, accelerated digital transformation and massively shifting buyer behaviors and expectations on marketers in the business to business world, B2B marketing is not without challenges. From „boring to boring“ to woefully behind B2C, there’s more than enough opportunity for us in the B2B marketing world to raise the bar.

Stats

I think you’ll agree that what we have in 2022 is a distinct opportunity to elevate B2B marketing.

Each year at TopRank Marketing our B2B content marketing agency focuses on a specific theme. In 2022 I’m sure you’ve guessed it: Elevate.

Making a dent in the way an entire industry does what it does is an ambitious goal to say the least. But as Steve Jobs has said,

The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do. – Steve Jobs

For our part, we’re committed in 2022 to advancing the meaningfulness, the purpose and impact of B2B marketing in three ways:

Elevate B2B Marketing Experiences

B2B marketers are creating more digital content than ever with expectations of performance in the spotlight of every executive pulling the tigger on rising digital budgets. But what good is that „great content“ if it isn’t meeting the expectations of buyers? I mean, there’s a lot of thought going into creating highly relevant, useful content but expectations have changed. What B2B marketers are delivering from a marketing experience standpoint isn’t meeting the needs of today’s digital first buyer.

75% of personalized engagement strategies will not meet ROI goals – Forrester

Customer engagement is a big part of the marketing experience brands create for customers. As referenced in the Forrester article. 70% of marketers are adopting an always-on digital engagement strategy in 2022 and lack of buyer insight is a key reason why those engagement and experience efforts will fall short. Part of the solution is a smarter marketing technology, but also soft skills like empathy and the follow through of customer insight in the form of relevant topics, questions answered in content, digital content formats and signals of credibility. Our research on B2B influencer marketing found that 74% of marketers believe influencer marketing improves customer experience.

With the vast majority of B2B buyers now digital first in their preferences for content discovery, consumption and engagement, we’re leveraging customer insight to better inform content formats with episodic content for B2B brands as podcasts and livestream video shows as well as blog, social, interactive and thought leadership content that pairs brand executives with industry experts. Of course optimizing all of this content for search also improves the experience for customers by helping B2B brands become the best answer for the questions buyers are asking at the very moment they need solutions.

Give Voice to Talent

Without question the status quo of the B2B marketing industry is holding on as long as it can to the comfortable and familiar ways of doing things. But doing the same things with the same people isn’t going to elevate anything in B2B, so we’re committed to empowering up and coming and underrepresented talent a place in the spotlight.

Nearly 50% of CMOs are women but only 12% are racially or ethnically diverse – SpencerStuart

What that means specifically is an emphasis on engaging the most talented and often overlooked B2B Marketers in a variety of ways on our blog, in our social content, in presentations at events and as we select influencers to work with our agency and our clients. We know many others feel the same way and that’s why B2B marketers are in a unique position to make choices about how they represent their customers in content, who they partner with in content collaborations and the influencers they engage.

A small example of giving voice to talent that we’ve implemented has been the lists of Women Who Rock in Marketing over the past 12 years with the most recent list focusing on women of color in B2B marketing. Not only are we publishing a list honoring marketing leaders every year, but we are following through with interviews, content collaborations and building a community of diverse voices in B2B Marketing.

Humanize B2B with Authenticity

What good is your content marketing investment if it’s not believable? If it’s not trusted? Or what about if it’s not reaching, engaging and driving conversations? We’ve all heard plenty about how customers don’t trust brands or company advertising while they do trust peers and industry experts. Set aside for a moment, the misperception that popularity alone makes a person or a brand believable. Instead, we’re focused on bringing authenticity to the B2B content marketing world through brand, demand and thought leadership content co-creation and collaboration with influential subject matter experts and opinion leaders that customers actually follow, listen to and trust.

64% of buyers say that an organization’s thought leadership content is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities and competency than its marketing materials and product sheets – LinkedIn & Edelman

The deluge of content being produced in response to digital first buyer trends has increased the need for B2B brands to optimize their content for reach, engagement and trust. Our own research has found that 83% of B2B marketers consider influencer marketing because they want to be seen as thought leaders. Content collaborations between industry experts and internal subject matter experts and executives helps to humanize B2B brands by focusing on the real issues customers are dealing with.

Humanizing B2B in this way means authentic topics and voices that represent both strategic level thought leadership as well as thoughtful treatment of topics, challenges and issues buyers are facing vs. simply what marketing and sales want to push out into the marketplace.

Are you ready to help elevate the B2B Marketing Industry?

Of course there are many more ways we could help elevate the B2B marketing industry and in fact we are still holding true to the goal of creating great experiences that inspire in all the work we do for clients like LinkedIn, Dell, SAP and one of the largest telecommunications companies in the world.

We feel there are particular opportunities for our team, clients and community to drive the industry forward in the areas of giving voice to talent, humanizing B2B with authenticity and elevating B2B experiences. We believe this focus helps us elevate our work, the impact we have for clients and the business community at large. But we can’t accomplish these big changes alone.

Won’t you join us in making more meaningful and less mechanical marketing experiences? Not only are we hiring multiple B2B marketing roles, we’re also really interested in working with B2B brands that resonate with the idea that we can do better for our customers, our peers and the industry. To learn more, let’s have a conversation!

The post Three of the Biggest Opportunities to Elevate B2B Marketing in 2022 appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.

Source:: toprankblog.com

Can You Relate? Empathy-based marketing requires brands get to know the people behind the data
52 percent of consumers have said being treated with respect is a key way brands can show empathy to customers, followed by being treated like a human being at 50 percent, according to survey data also showing that listening and curiosity are more key for brands in 2022 than at any point during the pandemic, and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) takes a look. ANA

Are Brands Investing in Social Media Communities in 2022? We Asked 1,000+ Marketers [HubSpot Survey]
51 percent of global marketers expect to build more social media communities in 2022, with some 64 percent planning to dedicate investment in social communities, while the top challenge has been managing community members — three of several findings of interests to digital marketers contained in recently-released survey data. HubSpot

[bctt tweet=““Marketers need to build digital relationships and reputation before closing a sale.” — Chris Brogan @chrisbrogan“ username=“toprank“]

Google Patent Describes How Its Technology Authorizes Transfer Of Data Without Cookies
Google will incorporate a new form of packets containing authorized web browser calls as a key part of its forthcoming browser cookie replacement system for delivering advertisements and certain other types of information, the search giant recently outlined in a U.S. patent filing. MediaPost

Zoom acquires video production assets from Liminal
Zoom has aqcuired video technology firm Liminal, adding the video production company as part of efforts centered around helping the expansion of Zoom’s virtual large-scale event offerings, virtual communications giant Zoom recently announced. MarTech

Half of E-Commerce Searches Are Informational in Nature
The health sector tops the list when it comes to online searchers looking for information before making a purchase, according to recently-released survey data that highlights how search engine users in both B2B and B2C sectors are increasingly turning to digital solutions. MarketingCharts

Survey: Publishers Reflect On The Ups, Downs Of A Bumpy, Change-Laden 2021
66 percent of publishers have said that they had increased numbers of digital subscriptions in 2021, accompanied by 39 percent who saw decreased traditional print subscription numbers, while 75 percent noted that the rise in remote work has been a positive change during 2021, according to newly-released survey data of interest to online marketers. MediaPost

Twitter Tests New Options to Restrict Spaces Access to Smaller Groups
Twitter has been testing an array of new customizable private or followers-only audio discussion options within its Twitter Spaces feature, an update that could eventually offer brands new ways to connect more closely with particular audiences or sub-sets of fans. Social Media Today

Marketing’s digital skills gap could become ‘unmanageable‘ as proficiency declines
Marketers who specialize in data measurement and analytics have become the most scarce, with a 2021 drop of some six percent from 2020 figures, while content marketers recorded the second-highest decrease in digital skills, falling four percent — two of numerous statistics of interest to marketers contained in newly-released digital skill gap report data from the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM). Marketing Week

Twitter completes sale of MoPub to AppLovin for $1.05 billion
Twitter has completed the sale of its MoPub mobile advertising company, which it acquired in 2013 for some $350 million, to AppLovin Corp for more than $1 billion, as Twitter looks to place greater emphasis on new products with an eye towards doubling its revenue by 2023, the firm recently announced. TechCrunch

6 in 10 B2B Companies Rely on MarTech Tools from Multiple Vendors
Some 44percent of B2B marketers have said that they use between five and ten marketing technology tools, with 30 percent using between 11 and 20, and six percent utilizing 21 or more such tools in their work efforts, according to recently-released marketing technology survey data. MarketingCharts

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at the “customer experience and shipping delays” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

At 9 for every 100 workers, robots are rife in Singapore – so we decided to visit them — The Register

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — B2B influencer marketing: eight fascinating personalities for your business — DMEXCO
• Lee Odden — The Age of Authenticity — Arshiya Kapadia
• Lee Odden — Growth Decoded: Delivering Marketing Best Practices to Improve the Customer Experience — ActiveCampaign
• TopRank Marketing — Emerging Digital Marketing Trends for 2022 — Net-Results

Have you located your own top B2B marketing news for the week? Please drop us a line in the comments below.

Thanks so much for taking the time to join us for this week’s TopRank Marketing B2B marketing news, and please return again next Friday for another selection of the most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page, or at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.

The post B2B Marketing News: B2B Marketers Use More Tools, Brands Turn To Empathy-Based Marketing, & eCommerce Searches Become More Informational appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.

Source:: toprankblog.com