Podcasts about toprank marketing

Let's discuss Advertising Awareness and how aware the general public is about who is selling to them, how they are doing it, and the impact it has on all of us. A survey conducted by OAAA-Harris Poll in 2021 revealed a resurgence of mobility, with 83% of respondents noting their awareness of billboards during highway travel and 82% during local driving within the town. An overwhelming 83% of consumers expressed their attentiveness to Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising while driving, underscoring its effectiveness in reaching a wide audience.   Charlie Riley is the first Head of Marketing at OneScreen, a measurable outdoor advertising platform. He has been the first marketing hire at 6 organizations, leading marketing and sales at seed stage startups up to $200 million organizations. A father of 3 and former CMO, this Top 50 B2B Marketing Influencer to Follow by TopRank Marketing is able to discuss how mastering internal marketing is almost as important as external communication while helping Go-To-Market teams better understand how to use outdoor marketing executions like billboards and conference branding to deliver revenue growth. He says, "Most marketers are used to digital channels, but the costs and results continue to decline as everyone is inundated with too much noise in email inboxes and on social media channels. For companies that respect brand marketing as much as direct response, adding outdoor advertising to their marketing mix can add creative impressions for those attending a conference or used in an ABM campaign to stand out. The best part is, OOH advertising is measurable and less expensive than people think. OOH campaigns can deliver results marketers need to share with the C-suite, just like digital campaigns. Outdoor advertising can be used for ABM campaigns, using a targeted account list to strategically plan locations that the target buyers will drive to work or where they spend time. Exposure through billboards, wrapped cars, and more draw targeted eyeballs from top prospects. Seeing companies use outdoor ads for customer recognition campaigns, brand awareness at major tradeshows, and more, outdoor advertising can be a brand play as part of the overall marketing mix that has been proven to drive better results. What's old is new again with billboards and more, and it's all measurable. For more information: https://www.onescreen.ai/ LinkedIn: @CharlieRiley

Interview with Charlie Riley, who is the first Head of Marketing at OneScreen, a measurable outdoor adverting platform, and has been the first marketing hire at 6 organizations, leading marketing and sales at seed stage startups up to $200 million organizations. A father of 3 and former CMO, thisTop 50 B2B Marketing Influencer to Follow by TopRank Marketing is able to discuss how mastering internal marketing is almost as important that external communication while helping Go To Market teams better understand how to use outdoor marketing executions like billboards and conference branding to deliver revenue revenue growth. Charlie's web site is https://www.onescreen.ai/ 

The Instagram tips you didn't know you want are right here! Get right into this with your bio and fix that first! If you wonder what you're doing wrong or why you're not getting found, this could be so insightful for you!  It's not too late. It's time to start.  My Guest: Sue B. is an insightful, energetic, and in-demand online marketing educator, influencer speaker, and a no-BS business coach. Sue B. is a popular CreativeLive Instructor and has been named by Huffington Post as one of the “Top 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs” as well as “The Top 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers” by TopRank Marketing, and “Top Female Business Influencers of 2019” by Fit Small Business. Sue's blog was ranked as one of the Top 10 social media blogs in 2017 by Social Media Examiner. Whether she's taking a global stage, or speaking at an industry conference, like Social Media Marketing World, or working one-on-one with her clients, Sue B. is driven to help business owners leverage the power of Instagram to meet (and exceed) their business goals. As a lifelong entrepreneur, Sue B. has over 30 years of business experience. And, with her extensive knowledge and implementation of social media, it is Sue B.'s mission to teach, mentor, and empower others. Questions We Answer in This Episode:  1-3 most important tips for pros to use 1-3 most common mistakes that happen right now Where are there still opportunities for the listener who thinks, "there's already so many people I can't stand out"? Let me know if these Instagram tips were beneficial. Which is the first you'll take action on?  Connect with Sue:  Website:  https://learnwithsbz.com/ Sue on Social: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theinstagramexpert/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SueBZimmermanEnterprise Other Episodes You Might Like:  Fast Fixes for Social Media: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/fast-fixes-for-social-media/ 5 Tips for Health Coaches: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/health-coaches-marketing-formula/ Resources:  Business Scorecard: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/scorecard  Marketing to Women Copywriting Course: https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/copywriting-course   

I've got Instagram tips for women! What if we could make social media more midlife friendly for you? What if it was more than a rabbit hole, something that made you feel bad or fill in the blank not ________ enough? What if you were the boss of it? This is such an off topic. Stay with me.  Social media is here to stay. It can be midlife friendly if you know how to use it. Today we talk Instagram, with a woman also flipping 50 who no doubt has our backs. She's an expert's expert. That is she trains entrepreneurs and business owners and influencers how to use Instagram better. So I thought, why can't she also train you? I asked her to share a few tips for using it wisely, for information you do vs the time-waste you don't.  Sue B is one of us…  and and literally THE GOAT for IG tips so it's going to continue to 'age' for us and more and more of our audience are on Instagram. It's pretty, it's quirky, it's entertaining and it's becoming more and more like a search engine.  Fitness or Health pro or entrepreneur who wants more business tips for using Instagram? Come over to She Means Fitness Business podcast released just one day after this and we've got you. First tip, follow Sue B.  My Guest: Sue B. is an insightful, energetic, and in-demand online marketing educator, influencer speaker, and a no-BS business coach. Sue B. is a popular CreativeLive Instructor and has been named by Huffington Post as one of the “Top 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs” as well as “The Top 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers” by TopRank Marketing, and “Top Female Business Influencers of 2019” by Fit Small Business. Sue's blog was ranked as one of the Top 10 social media blogs in 2017 by Social Media Examiner. Whether she's taking a global stage, or speaking at an industry conference, like Social Media Marketing World, or working one-on-one with her clients, Sue B. is driven to help business owners leverage the power of Instagram to meet (and exceed) their business goals. As a lifelong entrepreneur, Sue B. has over 30 years of business experience. And, with her extensive knowledge and implementation of social media, it is Sue B.'s mission to teach, mentor, and empower others. Questions We Answer in This Episode:  how can listeners USE social media for their own personal benefit  how to search Instagram  how to avoid social media traps (time spend, or marketing vs influencers vs experts) An tips for women in business (or who want to be and their daughters - just touching on this for this podcast) Connect with Sue Zimmerman:  Website:  https://learnwithsbz.com/ Sue B on Social: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theinstagramexpert/ Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SueBZimmermanEnterprise Other Episodes You Might Like:  3 Menopause Fitness Makeovers: https://www.flippingfifty.com/menopause-fitness-makeovers/ How Does Strength Training Increase Metabolism: https://www.flippingfifty.com/increase-your-metabolism/ Resources:  Flippingfifty Protein:  https://www.flippingfifty.com/protein Pique Matcha: https://www.flippingfifty.com/piquetea STRONGER: https://www.flippingfifty.com/getstronger Pumpkin Pie Smoothie: https://www.flippingfifty.com/pumpkin-pie-smoothie/

Show Resources Here were the resources we covered in the episode: Top Rank Marketing's Site Lee Odden's LinkedIn Lee Odden's Instagram Follow AJ on LinkedIn   NEW LinkedIn Learning course about LinkedIn Ads by AJ Wilcox Youtube Channel Contact us at Podcast@B2Linked.com with ideas for what you'd like AJ to cover. A great no-cost way to support us: Rate/Review! Show Transcript AJ Wilcox Are you using influencer marketing community and thought leadership as part of your LinkedIn Ads strategy? We dive into these topics and more on this week's episode of the LinkedIn Ads Show. Welcome to the LinkedIn Ads Show. Here's your host, AJ Wilcox. AJ Wilcox Hey there LinkedIn Ads fanatics. Today I have a special treat for you. Lee Odden has specialized in B2B marketing for his almost entire career. And I'm grateful to call him a friend. He and I have spoken at many of the same B2B events. Although I have to admit he's oftentimes the keynote, while I'm one of the breakout speakers. But, I've always looked up to him as a mentor and a thought leader and a friend. Today, we have a wide ranging conversation covering everywhere from thought leadership to influencer marketing and building communities in B2B, and I promise as a B2B marketer, you'll get a lot out of this. I wanted to highlight a review here by Alessia Negro. She's a senior sales and marketing executive in the hospitality industry out of Dublin, Ireland. Alessia says, "Absolutely great podcast. I have learned a lot about LinkedIn from this podcast. I think whoever wants to learn LinkedIn ads should follow it." Alessia, thanks so much for the kind words. And I do agree. Although I realized I'm a bit biased. And if you're a regular listener, I want to feature you so make sure to leave a review. And I'll shout you out live here. All right. Without further ado, let's hit it. Alright, we've got Lee Odden, co founder of TopRank Marketing. Lee, thanks so much for joining us. We're super excited to have you here. Lee Odden It's great to be here, AJ. Good to see you. AJ Wilcox Alright, so first off, tell us a little bit more about yourself. Anything that I didn't cover in that rather short and sweet intro. Lee Odden I started in marketing, and basically the late 90s. I was actually got into the website sales game selling websites over the phone to small businesses, believe it or not, people would fax us their brochures and we'd make a website out of that. And then of course, people started asking how are we going to get traffic to these websites that you're making us? And that's where I learned about SEO, you know, about creating doorway pages and, you know, creating different web pages for different search engines AltaVista excite Lycos hotpot, you know, no one has heard of those. But then Google came on the scene and linking, and content became more important blogging, social media, and really, over the last 10 years really leaned into the whole idea of CO creating content with influencers. So ultimately, what we tried to do is help customers be the best answer help our clients, b2b tech companies mostly be the best answer for their customers. And it's worked out really well. And, you know, it's kind of funny, on the path from being a really small agency to serving small customers to now serving large enterprise brands. I took that advice myself, right. So I started blogging, and I started doing the kinds of things to make myself known in the industry as a magnet to the agency. You know what I mean by speaking at events and being active on social and connecting with people who were influential to make myself influential, you know, and it's been a fun ride. And when I'm not doing marketing stuff, I'm usually running running is kind of been my thing during COVID. Basically, when I'm actually training for my first marathon, which is going to happen in four weeks. So I'm pretty excited about that. Oh, that's so AJ Wilcox Exciting! Alright, so what's your preparation for the marathon look like right now? I know, you start to do a lot more mileage as you go. Are you doing like low high mileage right now? Lee Odden Yeah, my highest mileage will be tomorrow. But I did 23 miles last Saturday. And I'll probably do 23.5 or something like that tomorrow. I don't need to do much more. Because the whole race is 26. Yes. So yeah, I've been running more than 13 miles for the last seven weeks or so. I've even run a couple of half marathon races just as a workout, which is kind of a crazy idea. Because a year ago, I was wondering whether I could even run 13 miles, let alone run one quickly. And quickly is subjective quickly to me. Not quickly, compared to a lot of friends of mine that I have out there that are runners that are just smoking it, but it's a great way to get out. It's a disciplined thing. It's a lifestyle thing. Now for me, I feel odd if I haven't run that day. And so it's good for your health. And it's great to have goals, right? Yes, it's great to work towards a goal and having a commitment to a thing that takes a long time is incredibly rewarding when you've been able to reach those milestones, right? And also you connect with a community of other like minded people. And now I'm starting to get all these Instagram posts from running communities with these inside jokes about running and it's like, oh my god, this is so funny, but nobody else cares, nobody else cares. It's fun. AJ Wilcox Well, It's so fulfilling, I think to accomplish something physically, that is hard that you know, other people can't. Before a knee surgery, I used to be a runner. And so I do a half marathon every year and an Olympic trial. And I love those kinds of things. I loved accomplishing something physically, that's awesome. Plus, it gives you insight, because you're already community minded, which we'll talk into more, but it gives you something to compare and think about, as you're developing communities around an interest that people have, you can mentally I think, compare it to like, oh, for me, this is running. But for someone else this is whatever the community is. Lee Odden You know, that's really important insight. There's a lot of value in metaphor analogy, when trying to break down new or complex ideas into something familiar for people. Because in order for those ideas to be adopted, they have to be communicated in a way that people will be willing to receive. And so yeah, that's a great point running as metaphor, or, you know, overcoming challenges. A lot of people, I'm inspired by our fitness people, but what I'm inspired by them about isn't so much about the fitness it's about overcoming challenges and worldview, and, you know, being resilient and those sorts of things. AJ Wilcox Perfect. So jumping back here into B2B, how did you originally get interested in b2b? How did you land? Because my understanding is you're exclusively B2B with your clients, or do you have some VC? Lee Odden Exactly. So my agency top rank marketing did start as SEO and PR firm, I had previously mostly consumer experience in marketing doing SEO for consumer websites. And my partner, though, had been working mostly with B2B tech companies as a director of marketing, VP of marketing. And so over time, well, through her knowledge and experience, I learned a lot more about B2B. And the market was responding in terms of inbound interest in our services from B2B companies. And I have a fun story about the big leap early in our business, we were working remotely. And I was working in my unfinished basement, right. And I had a desk down there. And I got a call and someone asked me if I would come speak at their conference, this company was fortune 15 company. So I had been blogging, I spoke a little bit, people knew about me being able to talk about SEO and public relations. So that was a unique intersection. And they wanted me to come speak at their event. And I spoke one morning to their marketing people. And then they said, Come back tomorrow and talk to all of our PR people. So they were a company that was so big, they brought all their different businesses, all the marketers from their all their different businesses and had a little mini conference. And so the second day, I talked to all the PR people. And my contact said, Hey, one of our senior executives was in the room yesterday. And we wanted to know if we could engage your agency on an ongoing basis. So this is the fortune 15 company was a b2b business unit that wanted to hire us. And we were only four people I'm working out of my unfinished basement. Wow. So of course, I said, yes, absolutely, we can help you out. And we figured it out. And that was a fast track to learning about b2b and learning the language of large, complex organizations, because obviously, that's very different than working with a small or medium sized business. And that laid the groundwork for me and the people that I had to competently be able to serve other b2b companies. Right. So now, Adobe, and you know, we've had experience with companies like SAP and Oracle, I've done work for Microsoft, and a really large telecom that I cannot mention, ever, but you know, biggest one, and so on and so forth. So and LinkedIn, my God, what am I saying, we've been working with LinkedIn for gosh, almost 10 years now, providing content and SEO services. So it's been an interesting ride, and b2b is a great space, because there's so much opportunity to raise the bar, it doesn't have to mean boring, boring, there's a lot of exciting things you can do. And there's so much room for us to be able to do it with because of the longer sales cycles, emphasis on content and education and that sort of thing. AJ Wilcox Well, I'm glad you shared someof them, I get the feeling that a lot of the kinds of clients that you were with are the kind that don't want you saying that you work with them. So it's really good to understand, and from my understanding a lot of the community and many of the thought leaders within LinkedIn that we hear from, I won't say created by you that you're the one behind them, but you're kind of the inspiration there. Do you have any comment or anything to share on that? Lee Odden Well, certainly, it's one thing to make a decision that people within your company should have greater visibility that you want to grow their influence, that you want to facilitate social interaction. But it's another thing to do that with intent with intent in a way that will achieve a particular outcome. So that requires doing some homework developing a strategy and architecting Okay, exactly how are we going to execute this in a way that is best going to accomplish the goal that we're after? So it's not just about tweeting more, or doing a LinkedIn live every once in a while. It's like, okay, what's the topic? And what is the anchor topic? What are the derivative topics? What are the conversations that we can repurpose from that? Who are the content collaborators or influencers on that topic that we can connect with, not only for co creation, but distribution, and so architecting all that stuff is really where the most magic comes from. And then for some companies, we do write content for them. But like I said, a lot of the magic comes in through the strategy and the architecture of the all that, and then of course, the ongoing optimization of performance. And then of course, yeah, and then some content here and there. AJ Wilcox Beautiful. I love it. Alright, so talking about thought leadership, specifically, tell us about why B2B marketers should be investing in being seen as a thought leader. Lee Odden So if you mean is, like B2B marketer, as an executive at a company or B2B marketer, like you and me are B2B marketers. AJ Wilcox Yeah, I think a little bit of everything. I think, executives, I think the frontline workers, everyone in between, like, what's the value? Lee Odden Absolutely. So there's a lot of value in that. We all are familiar with the idea, I think Nielsen came out with this research about how people don't trust brands, and they don't trust advertising. And of course, that's been repeated, by different folks since and it still is a challenge in combination with the overwhelming amount of information available to us. I don't know about you, but my email inbox is more of a monster now than it ever was. I mean, just keeping up is crazy. The social channels and people that I follow, I made a lot of effort to craft who I curate, and listen to, but it's just overwhelming amounts of information. I can only imagine what it might be for other folks who haven't had expertise in curation, right. So being a thought leader being a source of truth, for people who are in need, and let's face it, if you're in marketing, you're in need of up to date information every day, right? Ours is a dynamic industry. And so it's super important and to be competent in our industry, it's really very important that we connect with people that are on the forefront of what's new, what's trending, what's relevant. And so being a thought leader helps you as a person who is capable of original thought, who has something to offer, because that's kind of a prerequisite here, and being able to provide value to others in the industry. So that manifests as community building. It manifests as, you know, customers coming to you saying, hey, AJ, I've been listening to your podcast, and I've heard you talk about LinkedIn ads in this way or that way. It's like, you know, we're actually now in a position to get some help. I'm sure that happens all the time. Natalie, I can tell you from personal perspective, I've had it happen. A million times, it feels like where people say, Haley, I saw you speak last week, I saw you speak 10 years ago. And this is people who want to hire my agency, because I'm when I speak, I tell stories about the work the agency does, as well as just best practices, but also people who want to work for me will say, Yeah, you know, I saw you speak, I've been following your blog. And I'm just wondering if there's an opening, oh, my goodness, this person's amazing. And they're coming to us, you know. So for other folks, if you're an executive at a company, if you want to be listened to, if you want to be relevant, it's not enough for your own brands marketing, to go and put out information you think your customers need to know, buyers are looking for sources of truth. buyers are looking for people, humans that they can relate to, that they can subscribe to, so to speak. And if you have subject matter experts, if you are a subject matter expert, and you have something to offer, then it makes sense for you to go down that thought leadership path and make a connection and create value for those folks out in the industry because you know what they desperately need it. And they're overwhelmed with other information. And so you can actually provide them a service. And guess what, what's going to come back to you is new business. What's going to come back to you is community what's going to come back to you is connection with people who can make things happen. And AJ Wilcox What I hear from you is you actually have to have something to say in order to be a thought leader. So don't strive to be a thought leader for thought leader sake. But strive to be a great business professional, a skilled expert in your field, and then take that to share with others. Lee Odden Yeah, and so there's two things I'd say too, if you don't have that yet, if you're not there yet. I feel like if you're Junior in New York career and you feel like thought leadership is in your future. Two things. One, if you don't have a lot of resources, you could document your journey towards thought leadership. And that actually could help you be a thought leader, as a junior person, you could connect with others who are already thought leaders, they could do things like interviews, you could do things like, get quotes from them, or whatever. And so you can document that journey as you are learning more and more about a particular subject matter. And, you know, hey, I experimented with this. And I found this as an outcome, or I talked to this person. And here's some insight that they shared, I noticed in the news, they're talking about this. And here's what I think about that. documenting that journey can actually help you become a thought leader. The other thing is, if you do have resources, you're at a brand. And you don't know how to do this, you can certainly hire an expert, like an agency, or a PR firm or someone like us who can help you develop a plan for thought leadership, maybe even provide some of the content. And that doesn't happen that often. But it can. AJ Wilcox That's a great point. All right. So we've talked about thought leadership as individuals, what about getting your B2B brand to be seen as a thought leadership brand? Do you have any thoughts? Lee Odden Yeah, absolutely. You know, for companies, it's a huge differentiator in a crowded marketplace to be thought of first, when companies have a problem, and they're thinking of solution providers, right. And thought leadership is something especially in B2B. But you know, in general, it's useful from a marketing PR perspective. But in B2B, especially, these are large considered purchases. So you're not just looking for the best solution, you're looking for a solution that you know, is going to be relevant, and maybe innovative and important for you in the long run. So if a brand invest in thought leadership, and what that means is you're articulating a point of view, and it's validated by third parties. So that means that industry publications and industry influencers that are validating the ideas that you're putting forth, you're putting out original research, you're pointing out points of view, you're creating opportunities for other people who are important voices and trusted voices in the industry to have conversations with your executives with people that represent your brand. And that kind of combination of information, helps people subscribe to your religion, so to speak, they subscribe to your point of view. And they start to rely in trust on you as the source of truth. So a great example is Edelman puts out the trust research. Edelman is a huge, huge agency, obviously, they have a lot of resources. But it's like, you know, you can rely on Edelman's research about how people trust brands or not, year after year, because they continue to put out that research and they have other marketing conversations around that. For our small part. You know, we put out a report on B2B influencer marketing. And it's really been a great way for people to know that there is data, thoughtfulness and expertise behind the fact that we're a source of solution when it comes to working with influencers or content in the B2B marketing space, because we are connecting with third party entities influencers and media to corroborate those ideas, right? So brands is thought leaders super important. If someone's got a problem, don't you want them to think of you first, as a solution? I totally agree. AJ Wilcox I think especially in a crowded marketplace, where you have 15 vendors that you can go to for a CRM and information security service, of course, you're gonna gravitate towards the one that you feel like you have the best relationship with. And I think that comes from the thought leadership that comes from community that comes from being a voice that people want to hear. Absolutely. So I think you've touched a little bit here on parts of the strategy. But if someone wanted to start becoming a thought leader, or having their company be seen as a thought leader, what are the steps, the components that you would tell them? Like, here's the strategy for how you actually start to implement this? Lee Odden That can be a really big answer. So I'll be succinct. If I can, I think the first thing you got to do is, you know, specify what is it that you want to be a thought leader about? There's got to be topic specificity. You can't be a thought leader about all things, right? That's just not resource practical. But you've got to identify that thing that sits at the intersection of how you want to be known and what customers are most interested in. And so be a thought leader about that thing, right? Because that represents what's in demand and relevant to your solutions. And as you make that determination, then all things flow from that. What kind of content will you create? What kind of connections will you make? What kind of cadence will you publish and interact at right? So you get an idea about the resources that are needed in order to put something like that into action, right? There's got to be some consistency and continuity of message from thought leader. So in other words, if I talk about 10 Different things over a period of time, it's like, well, yeah, he talks about a lot of stuff like I guess marketing. But if I'm talking about, you know, B2B content, B2B content marketing, b2b content marketing, I mean, I'm talking about derivative ideas around that concept. But really, it's like, wow, B2B content marketing or B2B influencer marketing, people will come to know you as that very specific thing. So you've got to have some choices made about the topic derivative topics, you've got to think about the publishing platform or platforms, you know, is it the company website, the blog, or social channel? As the center of your hub? And the spokes? Are your distribution channels? Okay, where am I going to amplify this? Am I going to amplify through email? Am I going to pull people in through ads? Am I going to do some media relations and talk about these stories with journalists in the industry? Am I going to connect with industry experts? Am I going to partner with them and collaborate with any of them on initiatives? We have what we like to call best answer strategies, how to be the best answer is really kind of a thought leadership play. And you can do things like this is a practical tactic things. Okay, so let's say you want to be the best answer for a particular thing. It's like, okay, Fast Track way to get on the radar of the most important people in the industry, about that topic is to do what we call an honoring post, right? So it's like a list where the 25 top cybersecurity experts, right, I'm a cybersecurity provider of some kind and finance, right. And so here are the top finance cybersecurity experts. I don't even know if I could find 25 of those, but I'll do my best. And then I reach out to them. And I start to create a relationship with those folks. And I'll simultaneous to that, I might do a small version research, what are the trends, what's happening, and I'll invite those folks to be a part of that research. I'll start a podcast. And as I gain momentum, I might do something like, you know, a list of disparate resources like books, conferences, communities, and so on, and so forth. So I become like this destination around the topic. And that seems like a lot of work. But guess what, there's a lot of competition. And to be the best answer, guess what you've kind of have to be the best source of information, I would just say, as far as a thought leadership strategy, whether it's just you, or whether it's your brand, you don't go it alone, that would be one of the biggest mistakes. And that's why I suggest the idea of connecting with other industry experts, and finding opportunities to collaborate with them, you can start a podcast and become a thought leader on the thing that the podcast is about, that's cool. But if you involve other people, that are also well known about that idea, and you can create collaboration opportunities that create mutual value for you and your collaborators, then everybody wins out true, not just you and the person or people you're collaborating with, but especially the audience that you're trying to attract and engage. AJ Wilcox Oh, so true. I think it's so easy. If you're, let's say scrolling through your LinkedIn feed, and you're saying, I want to be a thought leader, let me see what other people are doing. You see someone is running a live stream, and you're like, oh, maybe I need to run a weekly live stream, and then someone else is running a podcast, and then someone else is recording videos, screenshare and posting them to YouTube, you're like, oh, I have to have a YouTube channel. And when you start taking from all of these ideas, you overextend yourself, because yeah, there isn't a strategy. So what I appreciate so much about what you shared is like this actually is a specific strategy where you can put the blinders on and ignore some of the other methods that other people are doing work on your own. And then you won't overextend yourself, like you can actually do this. Lee Odden Something I learned a long time ago about, you know, being known about a thing is one element, one leg of the stool is document your success, and then duplicate. So be specific, like you're saying, be specific on a particular or very specific channel, grow community on that channel. And you'll get to a point where it's like, wow, now it makes sense for me to extend into some other channels, right. And you can duplicate what you learned in that one channel into others. And that way, you can manage resources appropriately. And you create that continuity of message. And you'll be putting forward the most effective tactics for communication, as opposed to being in a constant state of experimentation. AJ Wilcox Yes. And when you look at what everyone else is doing, a lot of times they have a team that's helping them. And so I think that you can do this all yourself, you know, by the time you've done what you've talked about, which is really building a community around one channel or one thing, by the time it's ready to start expanding into other channels and taking on more things. By that time. You've probably built up more of a team and it's a She realistic, you Lee Odden could do that. Yeah. And then just thinking of myself, I started blogging, my only thing was I just started blogging, I could not write. And I started blogging in that blogging. You know, I always made mention of other people, I was just a way to have a conversation. And then social media came on. And people that read the blog started following me on Twitter, and then LinkedIn. And then I started speaking, and then I wrote a book and you know, just grew organically 100% organically. I did have help with the book. But with the rest, I publish all my own social stuff, I do all my own speaking stuff. And so it does make sense, at least in my case to branch out, you can get help to facilitate and expedite that stuff. But as an individual person, I think topics specificity specific channel is a great thing to get started with and expand from there. AJ Wilcox Oh, amen to that. Here's a quick sponsor break, and then we'll dive back into the interview. The LinkedIn Ads Show is proudly brought to you by B2Linked.com, the LinkedIn Ads experts. AJ Wilcox Managing LinkedIn Ads is a massive time and money investment. You want a return on some of that investment? Consider booking a discovery call with B2Linked, the original LinkedIn ads performance agency, we've worked with some of the largest accounts over the past 12 years, and our unique scientific approach to ADS management, combined with our proprietary tools that allow us to confidently optimize and scale your LinkedIn Ads faster and more efficiently than any other agency in house team, or digital ads hire plus or official LinkedIn partners. Just navigate on over to B2Linked.com/apply. And we'd absolutely love the chance to get to work with you. All right, let's jump back into the interview with Leo. Alright, so let's shift gears now talking about influencer marketing, because I know you've done a lot with influencers. We probably see a lot of influencers in b2c we have for a long time, hate actors and celebrity involvement. But in B2B, I think this is a little fresher. And I think a little bit more new. What can you tell us about how B2B marketers should be thinking about leveraging influencers in B2B? Lee Odden We're kind of in a do more with less age, right? There's a lot of marketers pulling back right now B2B tech especially. And, you know, a lot of folks are looking for what are the most effective things I can be doing? Because the demands on delivering on mid to end to funnel KPIs, you know, forget about brand, right, are really high on people's lists. Well, the B2B Institute at LinkedIn did some research. And they found that at any given time, 95% of buyers are not in market, they're out market, right for any solution and only 5% are in a position like, yeah, we need a solution. And so that's not changed. Well, why influencers? Well, here's the thing, you know, you've got factors that are working against you, as a marketer, in this environment where you got to do more with less, we've got to produce, we've got to get results, we've got to react to this economic environment that we're in. And people are as buyers, you know, they are confronted with this information overload that we talked about before they are struggling to find single sources of truth. Who do they trust, they don't trust advertising. They don't trust brands a lot of the time, but they do trust people, they trust people that they follow. And so the idea of what would happen if you're able to connect with the most trusted voices in your industry? What if you're able to collaborate with them on creating content that was super targeted, super valuable to your buyers, and you're able to build a community of subscribers to a regular cadence of that kind of content, imagine how much more effective you'd be at reaching buyers that are actually going to pay attention, versus, you know, singularly relying on interruptive types of communications, right. And so influencers can play a very important role, not for everybody, but for a lot of companies that want to break through and want to attract and engage with buyers, that are really relying on industry experts that are influenced by people who are the thought leaders in the industry, right? And so there are very effective ways in which marketing programs can be put forward, that are creating content of value, of course, but our collaborations with these industry experts, so it's not just like every influencer is the same. It's not like I'm gonna think of a B2B marketing influencer and handling right? And Haley's, a wonderful, wonderful human being. But just because an Hanley is in a piece of ebook that we make or a video we make doesn't mean that's going to solve all problems. And handle is really broadly known as a very unique individual. She has both broad popularity, and she's actually super competent about her discipline. And so she's a unicorn in that way. So she's actually going to help satisfy bringing people in that don't haven't even heard of you, and actually start to consider you because she has that discipline, competency, about copywriting about content marketing, and that sort of stuff. But not all influencers are like that. So it's not just about working with influencers, it's about okay, how do we pair the right kinds of influencers for different stages of the buying cycle, for example, you know, the most popular influencers, those, you know, the pro influencers, they're doing keynotes. They're publishing books all the time. They're professionally famous in the B2B world, in their respective industry. Those are people you use to attract top of funnel types of outcomes. But then you work with people who are actual practitioners in an area, they can actually speak authoritatively on the discipline. So whether they're super user, whether they're a customer, or whatever, for those middle end to funnel types of content, assets, right. So you kind of line things up. So influencers are important, because everyone is influential, but everyone is influenced on a daily basis in some way. And you can architect programs that not only make your brand more relevant, and more credible, and can reach people that you're not reaching with your ads. But over time, you can build relationships with these most trusted voices in your industry in a way that they are starting to organically advocate for you. And that's priceless, right most valuable form of advertising word of mouth, if you can facilitate that as priceless. Oh, totally true. AJ Wilcox I have noticed in B2C influencers, usually they're paid off in some way. But in B2B, I see a lot of influencers, gotten through collaboration opportunities, and a lot of times money doesn't even have to exchange hands, you're doing something that's mutually beneficial to both of these companies are influencers audiences. Yeah, and you know, that's becoming more of an art to achieve that. Lee Odden So we started doing influencer marketing for B2B brands back in 2012. So back then, yes, it was true that the vast majority of influencer engagements were what we call organic. In the case of B2B influencer marketing, most of the influencers are contributing to content that lives on the brand channels. So if a person who's really well known in their particular subject matter area, could be seen in combination with a major brand, that's really credibility building for them, right. So they're creating influence for each other in that way. And so they'd be happy to do it for free, so to speak, obviously, it has to do with the ask too, if I ask someone for a quote, you know, no problem. But if I asked someone to write me 1000 word article, these days, that's probably going to cost something if I want them to write an article every month, that's gonna cost something. So it used to be maybe 90%, were organic 10% were paid way back in the day. Nowadays, it's like 60/40 60% might be organic activations, and 40% are paid. And that paid number is going up and up and up, as more people who are influential in the B2B space are creating media properties for themselves, right, they've got a really established podcast, they're part of a network of podcasts, you know, they're a blogger, or increasingly video assets of some kind, right? And so they're able to not only just say one nice thing about the brand, but they're actually able to put together a package of social distribution and content assets and this and that we're even, you know, do reports, and so on and so forth. So it's great, though, to have that mutual value, it's important to find something that you have in common with the influencer. And in some cases, they may want to contribute, because it's an easy Ask, and it aligns with what they want to do, and it doesn't cost you anything. And it could be that's the first thing you do. But then you might follow up and say, Wow, that was amazing. We'd really like to do to do this more robust thing, how much would that cost? And they're going to appreciate that. And trust me, when you pay an influencer. It's awesome, of course, for the influencer, but it's awesome for your brand, because now you've hired them. They are accountable to delivering to a specification. Whereas if you engage with people organically, and they say, Yeah, sure, I'll give you that thing by next Thursday. And if they don't, you have no recourse. You can't count on it. Right. They're not signing an agreement. So paying influencers is actually a really good thing. It's up to you to negotiate and to do your due diligence as far as who they are and their ability to deliver and have impact. AJ Wilcox Beautiful. I want to switch gears to talking about community because we've mentioned community several times. Yeah, you've put a lot of value and community over your career here in B2B, what role do you see communities playing in B2B. Lee Odden community is hugely important, I think because so many buyers are going to rely on their peers for recommendations. I mean, think you've probably had it happen I know I have. It's like, we go to remote work, and we need a new phone system that we can work, you know, so I don't know who to go to. So I asked a friend of mine, I go to a group community that I'm part of, and I say, Hey, does anybody know what's a good phone system? And this isn't real. But you know, I'm thinking of a silly example. And this happens every day. Right? And so being present with a community is important for b2b because it helps make you relevant, right? I talked about that expression being the best answer, right? Being a thought leader, being first choice means being where your customers are. And certainly your customers are part of different communities. So you have a couple of choices. You can be present in communities where your customers are, and you can exchange value, you can be a participant and you know, answer questions and interact or whatever your salespeople can or whoever, or you could create communities, right, you could say, Look, you know, we see that there's a common interest here, there's something that we can solve for. And it's not something we can do by ourselves. Why don't you join us at helping solve this problem together? Or why don't you join us on this journey to making our industry a better place, we actually are at the beginning of building a community around elevate b2b, right, elevate b2b marketing. And you know, we want to make b2b marketing a better place. And there are different messaging pillars that go along with that marketing, that is more experiential marketing, that is more inclusive, marketing that is more focused on connection, right community building, that sort of thing. So community is super important, I think, to be relevant, to be relevant. And first choice to customers in spaces where they're actually spending time. And where there can be a value exchange, right? It's one thing to provide useful content or utility to your customers through content marketing. It's another thing for you to create a place where as a brand, where your customers can connect with you, but also they can connect with each other. And there's a lot of momentum that can come from that. So I think community is super important. And when it comes to influencer marketing, same thing, you can engage with influencers on an individual basis, and that's fine. But when you can create a community of influencers that can connect with each other, in the context of your brand is solving Wow, now you have something really powerful right, that you can go to market with. And that can have a much bigger impact than these little one off campaigns, people are kind of dipping their toe in the water with here and there. Perfect. AJ Wilcox Alright, so lead, tell us what are those components to creating a community, especially as we're thinking about it for b2b? Lee Odden So as I mentioned, with, you know, thought leadership, I think that idea of topics specificity? Well, it's around the problems that you're trying to solve for, or the things that you stand for, that would be best served by the community. Right? So what's the glue that's going to hold this community together? What is the common interest that they have that aligns with that intersection of what it is that you stand for as a brand? And what's interesting to your customers, right? You also have to define who's going to be part of this community? How is the community get a function? There are other practical questions to be answered? Like, what platform are you going to use? And who are going to be your champions and your moderators? And what are the goals that you have for the community in terms of messaging penetration, in terms of size, in terms of engagement, and ultimately, you have to be accountable to some sort of ROI, right? And with any marketing initiative, those things all need to be defined, right? So sometimes community can start very intentionally. Yeah, there's communities is starting all the time where people just start in a LinkedIn, LinkedIn group or Facebook group or something like that. And it's just like, hey, and they invite a couple of other people who have a common interest. And it just starts organically and they start inviting, who do you know, that we can invite into this community and so on and so forth, or community could be an extension of an event? I think about marketing profs, and their marketing community, right, or Content Marketing Institute, has a whole community, but they also have an event, right? There's a marketing conference called PubCon that's been around. It's an SEO conference been around forever. And there's absolutely a community, you know, that is tied to that event where people you know, get to actually meet in person. So, you have to make choices about what is the purpose of the community, what are the topics that You're gonna cover what problems you're going to try and solve. And then you gotta identify some champions, some people who are going to help facilitate conversations, there's technology choices to make. And then obviously, you got to set up what kind of goals you're trying to achieve, not just for yourself, but the goals for the community itself. Well, selfishly, this AJ Wilcox is an awesome conversation, because we're actually just getting ready to launch our LinkedIn ads, courses and community all together. And so I'm paying special attention here. So thanks for the free advice. What are some of the phases that you'd actually go through in building and then scaling the community app? What should we keep in mind as we actually go to build this? Lee Odden Well, you know, again, you've got to think about some sort of milestone goals. Maybe the first phase is simply, you know, creating the architecture of the community. And as it relates to the major topics, the subtopics, and getting people involved that represent relevance and interest around those topics, inviting them to be actually be a part and then you've got to decide, okay, what are we going to offer them, right? You're so you're offering courses? Or you're offering opportunities for roundtables or discussions? Are you giving them visibility opportunities, and, you know, set some goals for that first milestone of having a certain level of participation. Maybe your first phase is very private. And no one knows about it, except, you know, those early invitees. And we've seen this demonstrated by the social networks that have all popped up all over the place over the last 20 years, or 15 years. And then maybe once you get to a certain threshold or milestone of participation, then you open it up, you know, more publicly as a phase out. And this is what I've observed being successful. One thing though, that, I think what happens is, there's a lot of excitement about anything new. And it's going to be really important to keep that excitement alive. And so you've got to allocate resources to a community manager, or managers that are not only going to be moderating stuff, but are going to be paying attention to what's the ebb and flow from a topic interest standpoint, from a content format standpoint, and adjusting and optimizing. Because if you do the same stuff, six months or a year into your community, it's probably going to peter out, right? If you're not responsive to where the community is growing and showing interest, you're, you're going to lose them probably. So hopefully, I think that's something to look forward to. That's something to anticipate from a face standpoint, maybe, you know, not every community has to start as an exclusive thing. That seems to work really well, though. And then it evolves into an inclusive thing, as there's something of more substance for people to experience, once you open the doors to all. I love it. AJ Wilcox Haley, just kind of off the wall question here for you specifically about LinkedIn ads. I mean, we've talked about communities, we've talked about thought leadership and influencers. One of the new features that's going to be coming out here in the next I would estimate one to three months that LinkedIn has are these thought leadership ads, where we're going to be able to boost personal posts, rather than rely on boosting or creating posts that come from the company for something like this coming out. What role do you see this playing? Do you have any feedback or thoughts or advice for us marketers? In thinking about the new ad format? Lee Odden I'm super excited about that. Because we know that things can get lost in the stream, but not so much about being able to put money behind a thought leadership posts for an individual. It's just like, you know, the targeting, how can we make sure how can we increase our ability for people that we want to see this thought leadership content? Well, other than through a feature like this, right. So I think that's super, super important. And, you know, we've already talked about the importance of individual thought leadership. And by the way, we did some research in our influencer marketing report about the value of executive influence and executive thought leadership at 65% of the companies that were engaging with building their executives, as thought leaders, said that that effort elevated the influence of the brand itself, right. So something like this being able to augment organic content at the individual level with LinkedIn thought leadership ads. Excellent, excellent opportunity. And, again, it'll really help people be able to be a little more intentional and targeted about what's showing up to who, and I think will really give those advertisers a big advantage over those who are relying on just the organic visibility that happens when you post normally I AJ Wilcox love that. All right, so final switch of gears here. What are you most excited about professionally right now? I'd love to ask the same question about what are you most excited about personally? Lee Odden Well, professionally, you know, we are celebrating our 22nd year in business this year. So that's amazing. That is amazing. Wow. And, you know, we made some strategic hires recently in marketing and sales. And we're launching a fresh brand fresh brand new website and blog will be launching with hundreds and hundreds of articles on content, search and influence, and a lot of really cool features, but a really well architected brand, and messaging and all that stuff. So I'm super excited about it. We haven't launched a new website in 10, fit 12 years, and we haven't really had a professional brand engagement with like a branding agency ever, never ever. So I'm super excited about that. Launching for influencer marketing here, late summer, and lots of other things happening. So I'm super excited about that great team. Yeah, an even bigger things plan that can't even talk about later on this year. So I'm super excited about that. I'd say at the intersection of personal and professional, I get to speak at a conference, the biggest conference for b2b in France, next month in Paris. Wow. And then a week later, I get to speak at the largest b2b conference in the UK, in London. So I'm super excited about that. And then I get to visit a client of ours in Geneva in between. So you know, that's pretty awesome. Get to do a little travel, get to do a little business abroad. And there you go. AJ Wilcox That's a lot to be excited about. All right. So I've caught a couple of the resources that you've kind of mentioned here. You talked about the Elevate b2b marketing community, you've talked about your influencer marketing report, I will put the links to those down below in the show notes for anyone. But as for resources, what would you like this LinkedIn ads audience to do what you want them to come follow you contact you in some way? Join the community, download a report, like, what do you have that we should be paying attention to? Lee Odden Absolutely check out top rank marketing.com. Our blog is there as well. With those actually, it's more than hundreds, it's 1000s of articles. But it's probably in the hundreds of those that are most recent and relevant. Yeah, toprank marketing.com, people obviously can connect with me on the socials, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, to see all the crazy food that I eat and all the running that I'm doing and other thing and travel especially, that's always fun, le e o d, d, e n. Yeah. And that's where we're going to announce our report. And we've got a enterprise brand, influencer marketing report coming out very, very quickly, we have a search intent report that's out already. So lots of fun resources there. And also, I have to say, if you're in the LinkedIn ads audience, if you're not already, you've got to be subscribing to the LinkedIn marketing blog. The LinkedIn ads blog, for sure. Also, in the LinkedIn Collective is another great resource over at LinkedIn. That's a great example of LinkedIn, own thought leadership. And of course, the b2b Institute is another great resource at LinkedIn. And you know, my disclaimer is that yes, LinkedIn is a client. But these are resources I, myself personally, rely on quite a bit. AJ Wilcox Perfect. Well, Lee, thank you so much for sharing your mountain of knowledge here. I'm grateful to get to hear it. Everyone, please go follow Lea, check out the resources that he and his company have come up with Lee, thanks again so much. And we'd love to have you on for around two sometime down the road. Super. Thanks, AJ, I appreciate it. I've got the episode resources for you coming right up. So stick around. Thank you for listening to the LinkedIn Ads Show. Hungry for more? AJ Wilcox, take it away. AJ Wilcox All right, like we talked about with Lee, if you go to his site, top rank marketing.com. And we have links to that down in the show notes. You can get access to everything, all the reports and everything he was talking about. You'll also see his three social media handles there in the show notes, his LinkedIn, his Twitter and his Instagram links. So go follow him stay caught up on what he's doing. He's constantly sharing gold. I'm telling you, if you or anyone you know, is looking to learn more about LinkedIn ads, check out the course that I did on LinkedIn learning all about LinkedIn ads. It's by far the lowest cost and the highest production value course that there is out there. If this is your first time listening, welcome. Thanks for coming. Make sure to hit that subscribe button if you've liked what you've heard. If this is not your first time listening, though, please do go and rate and review us. Usually it's Apple podcasts, but anywhere where you can leave a review. That is by far the best way that you can say thanks for us putting out this content week after week with any questions, suggestions or corrections about what we talked about here, reach out to us at Podcast@B2Linked.com. And with that being said, we'll see you back here next week. Cheering you on in your LinkedIn Ads initiatives.

According to a survey by TopRank Marketing, 78% of B2B marketers say that influencer marketing is effective, even with small campaigns. And we know that B2B buyers are more likely to purchase a product or service if it has been recommended by an industry influencer. And yet, influencer marketing is still a challenge and a mystery to many brands. From finding influencers to measuring results, companies report significant challenges. Why is influencer marketing such a big deal for B2B brands? Where are they going wrong, and how can they achieve and measure success? That's what we're covering in today's episode of Partnership Unpacked. Welcome back to Partnership Unpacked, where I selfishly use this time to pick the brains of experts at strategic partnerships, channel programs, affiliates, influencer marketing, and relationship building… oh, and you get to learn too! Subscribe to learn how you can amplify your growth strategy – with a solid takeaway every episode from partnership experts in the industry. Listen, as B2B CMOs and marketing executives, we have a real challenge facing us. A few years ago at a conference it was said that, “Empathy with customer needs and understanding the questions they have during the journey from awareness to purchase is essential for creating valuable content. Content Marketing must not only inform, but also engage and even entertain to create valuable experiences between customers and brand information. How are we supposed to empathize, understand, inform, engage AND entertain? That's what influencers excel at, and that's why Lee Odden, who made that statement, is here to help us. In 2001, Lee co-founded the TopRank Marketing agency which has become the top B2B marketing resource, regularly ranking as one of the most influential marketing blogs on the web by Content Marketing Institute, Ad Age, and more. On top of leading influencer marketing campaigns for major brands like SAP, Lee is an incredible B2B influencer himself and someone I've admired for years as a global speaker, prolific blogger, and author of the book, “Optimize.” He is, without a doubt, one of the foremost experts on B2B influencer marketing, and you know I couldn't wait to pick his brain. Partnership Unpacked host Mike Allton talked to Lee Odden about: ♉️ Why influencer marketing is such a game changer for B2B brands ♉️ How to find and nurture great B2B influencers ♉️ How to measure the ROI of influencer marketing initiatives Learn more about Lee Odden Follow Lee on Twitter Connect with Lee on LinkedIn Resources & Brands mentioned in this episode Top Rank Marketing Influencer Incubator program to nurture up-and-coming influencers Subscribe to the show calendar: agorapulse.com/calendar Learn more about Agorapulse with a free demo Full Notes & Transcript: https://www.thesocialmediahat.com/blog/why-so-many-brands-fail-at-b2b-influencer-marketing-w-lee-odden/   Brought to you by Agorapulse: the #1 rated social media management solution. Sign up for a free demo at https://www.agorapulse.com/contact/    Music by Jumbo, "Peripheral" (feat. Plum Soul) Produced and Hosted by Mike Allton

Welcome to another episode of The Data-Driven Marketer. Meet Lee Odden, the CEO and Co-Founder of TopRank Marketing, a specialized digital marketing agency serving enterprise organizations with integrated content and influencer marketing solutions. Lee is a digital marketing strategist, international speaker, CEO, and the author of Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing (Wiley). He also leads agency strategy, industry evangelism, and serves as coach and cheerleader for an amazing team of marketers. Let's jump into the conversation highlights. Show Notes & Transcript: https://www.netwisedata.com/%EF%BF%BCbreak-free-of-boring-b2b-with-influencer-content-ft-lee-odden/ Sign up for the Data-Driven Marketer Newsletter Come hang out in the Data Basement on Slack More NetWise: Twitter | Linkedin | Web I Blog+Newsletter | TikTok --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/datadriven/message

Lee Odden, CEO, and Co-Founder of TopRank Marketing joins the Radically Transparent podcast to uncover the truths behind influencer marketing and if it “actually works”. As an influencer himself, with over 130,000 followers on LinkedIn and 105.6K on Twitter, Lee dives into what marketing leaders need to know about influencer marketing in 2022. Throughout the entire episode, Lee drops his best tips on how B2B organizations can work with influencers, and how to lead a successful influencer marketing campaign. He gets candid about why, before reaching out to any influencer, you must: Do your research to find out what they want to achieve. Find where there is common ground in terms of shared goals. Without missing a beat, Lee even discloses his thoughts on being CEO and his responsibility to set a high standard with TopRank Marketing in the B2B Industry. He highlights how he often considers the best ways to keep his remote team motivated, inspired and on task. As a marketing leader, it's important to elevate the culture in creative ways so they can continue to grow. Hot Topics of this Episode: Lee Odden's BEST tip on working with influencers and why it's important to focus on what the influencer will get out of the experience, rather than what the brand wants from the individual. How to avoid the biggest buzzkill in influencer outreach – which as Lee puts it is “an irrelevant ask” What to consider before hiring an influencer and what type of research is critical before even making the ask to an industry expert

Have you ever felt like the 9-5 life wasn't for you? Maybe you've felt like pursuing entrepreneurship, or a side hustle. Starting one's own business has long been seen as the solution to the work week rat race. But self-employment requires its own strategies and structure. Did the pandemic highlight your additional workplace needs? Today, job seekers mention additional paid time off, mental health support, and remote work options as some of their highest-priority concerns. How do these needs, when unmet, help drive workers to pursue self-employment? On today's episode, we speak to #AUSOC alums, Jack Fitzpatrick and Megan Elizabeth Clark, about finding their own pathways to entrepreneurship, how corporate and freelancing work differs from each other, and how their time at AU influenced their careers today. Jack Fitzpatrick is a freelance marketing and communication strategist currently based in New York City. Previously, he lived in Minneapolis where he worked in influencer marketing for cereal brands at General Mills as well as B2B tech marketing through TopRank Marketing. He graduated from American University's School of Communication with a degree in Public Communication in 2016. When he isn't strategizing for clients, he can be found making a mess in the kitchen, strolling through farmers markets, and thinking about birds. Megan Elizabeth Clark is a freelance copywriter and content marketing specialist with 6+ years of experience in the world of content creation, marketing, and human resources. She's passionate about bringing the power of authentic storytelling to the health, fitness, and wellness industries using her background as a NASM certified personal trainer and RYT-200 certified yoga instructor. You can connect with her about all things fitness, content marketing, SEO, and copywriting on LinkedIn, Instagram, Medium, or on her website at meganelizabethclark.com.

Host Will Francis chats with B2B marketing strategist Lee Odden about how we find the right influencers, how to decide who to work with, how to become an influencer, how to manage influencer campaigns, and how to gain the most value from those relationships over time. Lee Odden is an author, international speaker, and CEO of TopRank Marketing. Working at the intersection of content, search, and influencer marketing he is also on the Industry Advisory Council of DMI. This episode was adapted from a Q&A session with Lee after his webinar with DMI on B2B Influencer Marketing. You can view the full indepth webinar on the DMI membership library here, for free. Subscribe to all DMI Ahead of the Game podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite platform. Check out our extensive digital marketing library of ebooks, toolkits, podcasts, webinars, blogs, and more! Join for free today.

Our April 2021 episode includes:Executive use of LinkedIn (:50)Guest: Lee Odden, TopRank Marketing (6:15)Spotlight: Dove leads on diversity (27:45)The State of Journalism 2021 (29:10)Corporate email study (33:50)Listener question: Brands and Clubhouse (38:50)LINKSTALKING POINTLearn why and how executives should become active on social mediaWebinar: The Business of Executive Thought LeadershipBrandfluence – Why growing executive influence is essential for B2B marketingHow to become a LinkedIn thought leader in 9 easy stepsGeorgia voting law: Business reactsLinkedIn publishes new guide to key content trends amid COVID-19Lee Odden, TopRank MarketingSPOTLIGHTDove offers to pay other brands to diversify their adsQUICK NEWS & QUICK TAKESNew Muck Rack survey: The State of Journalism 2021Corporate email: Too much of too muchMORE INFORMATIONHansonandHunt.comApple Podcasts pageSpotify pageSign up for Arik's weekly emailSPONSORBrandpoint

Today I’m super excited to welcome TopRank Marketing, a business that has earned a reputation as a first-choice digital marketing agency for major brands including McKesson, Dell and LinkedIn. Serving companies in the B2B technology, healthcare and servtopices industries, as well as B2C companies operating online, over the past 20 years they’ve developed some tried and tested insights and methodologies for tackling the most difficult digital marketing and PR challenges. Established back in 2001, TopRank’s talented team of smart, creative and results-focused digital marketing professionals, work alongside their clients to achieve common goals and solve business challenges. Through a combination of content marketing, SEO, influencer marketing and social media marketing expertise, they deliver impressive results. Today Susan Misukanis, Founder and President at TopRank Marketing, joins me to chat all about what TopRank do, how B2B marketing has changed, why it’s so important, and what the future is going to bring for the industry.   IN THIS EPISODE WE DISCUSS: [07.09] Susan’s background and how she came to found TopRank Marketing 20 years ago. [09.03] A closer look at TopRank, what they do and how they help their customers. “Our focus is to help B2B clients to guide their buying customer’s journey.” [11.46] How marketing has changed over the years, particularly in the B2B space. [15.41] A closer look at B2B influencer campaigns: what are they and what are the benefits you could see from running them. “You can beat your chest and say ‘my product is the best.’ Or, you could partner with smart thinkers like influencers and bring visionary stories to the market to increase your reach to a wider audience.” [20.55] Embracing change and the mindset you need to harness the power of marketing. “The change is not that profound! It doesn’t have to be scary, just stick to the fundamentals.” [22.26] The ups and downs of businesses investment in, and approach towards, marketing. [26.00] Susan’s words of advice for developing a strong marketing strategy. “Any kind of business has a profound story. It’s how you perceive what you do and make your story profound – be deliberate about how you craft that story. ” [28.31] Why TopRank’s ideal client is more about mindset than size. [31.36] TopRank’s perspective on success and how they work with clients to deliver personalized results. [34.30] Susan’s reflections on what the future might hold for B2B marketing. [37.08] The future for TopRank Marketing.   RESOURCES AND LINKS MENTIONED: Head over to TopRank Marketing’s website to find out more and discover how they could help you too. Connect with Susan on LinkedIn and follow TopRank on LinkedIn too. Check out our other podcasts HERE.

Recently, TopRank Marketing conducted a major study on B2B influencers. This episode is also available as a multimedia blog post: https://evansonmarketing.com/2020/07/29/b2b-influencer-marketing/

Got questions about Instagram? Today's She Built This guest, Sue B. Zimmerman has answers.  Sue B. shares her backstory with us, how she got started, and: Clubhouse: Her thoughts on the new app and how she sees using it for her business Where you can find answers to her most commonly asked questions on Instagram Hashtags: The best way to research them, how many we should be using, and what to consider when using them.  Followers: How she got 131K+ followers on Instagram  Tagging strategies  How to stand out visually on Instagram  How she chose Instagram as the platform to focus on And more!  Bio:  Sue B. is an insightful, energetic, and in-demand online marketing educator, influencer speaker, and a no-BS business coach.  Sue B. is a popular CreativeLive Instructor and has been named by Huffington Post as one of the “Top 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs” as well as “The Top 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers” by TopRank Marketing, and “Top Female Business Influencers of 2019” by Fit Small Business. Sue’s blog was ranked as one of the Top 10 social media blogs in 2017 by Social Media Examiner. Whether she’s taking a global stage, or speaking at an industry conference, like Social Media Marketing World, or working one-on-one with her clients, Sue B. is driven to help business owners leverage the power of Instagram to meet (and exceed) their business goals. As a lifelong entrepreneur, Sue B. has over 30 years of business experience. And, with her extensive knowledge and implementation of social media, it is Sue B.’s mission to teach, mentor, and empower others. Connect with Sue on Instagram

Sue B. Zimmerman, The Instagram Expert,  is an insightful, energetic, and in-demand online marketing educator, globally recognized influencer speaker, and a no-BS business coach.   Named by Huffington Post as one of the “Top 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs” and The Top 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers by TopRank Marketing, Sue B. is driven to help business owners leverage the power of Instagram to meet (and exceed) their business goals.   In this episode you will learn: Becoming a leader versus being a “creeper” on social media. Dispelling the “get rich quick” fallacies in the coaching industry. Why the magic and connections are in the DMs. Upcoming trends on social media. HARD TRUTH: The myth of the algorithm. Creating fresh content that turns strangers into friends. Holding the vision for your business when you’re doing all-the-things. Instagram etiquette and pet peeves! SEO for Instagram.     Connect with Sue B: on Instagram @theinstagramexpert CLICK HERE to visit her website.

Are you leveraging influencer relationships to maximize your marketing efforts and business growth? How is influencer marketing different than a few years ago? How to identify influencers? How to build trust with influencers and consumers, when distrust is pretty common nowadays? If you are thinking about these questions, check out my interview with Lee Odden Lee is the CEO of TopRank Marketing, a keynote speaker, and author ---- You can watch our interview on my YouTube channel via this link. ---- Give this episode a listen and give your biggest takeaway by sharing this on Twitter, Instagram, or LinkedIn. Make sure to tag me @AiAddysonZhang and use my hashtag, #ClassroomWithoutWalls --- Do you know that this podcast is also a weekly live streaming show? Every Wednesday, at 2pm PST | 5pm EST, my guest and I go live on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Twitch to delivery valuable content to you. I highly encourage you to join us live and ask your questions. You will get immediate answers! You can follow my other social media channels: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook ---

Sue B. is an insightful, energetic, and in-demand online marketing educator, influencer speaker, and a no-BS business coach.  Sue B. is a popular CreativeLive Instructor and has been named by Huffington Post as one of the “Top 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs” as well as “The Top 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers” by TopRank Marketing, and “Top Female Business Influencers of 2019” by Fit Small Business. Sue's blog was ranked as one of the Top 10 social media blogs in 2017 by Social Media Examiner.Whether she's taking a global stage, or speaking at an industry conference, like Social Media Marketing World, or working one-on-one with her clients, Sue B. is driven to help business owners leverage the power of Instagram to meet (and exceed) their business goals. As a lifelong entrepreneur, Sue B. has over 30 years of business experience. And, with her extensive knowledge and implementation of social media, it is Sue B.'s mission to teach, mentor, and empower others.Free Gift: www.suebzimmerman.com/3keysWebsite: www.suebzimmerman.comInstagram: www.instagram.com/theinstagramexpertYouTube: www.suebzimmerman.com/youtubeConnect With Katrina:Make sure to subscribe to the show, I release a new episode every Tuesday at 9 am EST.Grab my FREE Guide over at my Facebook Group, Guiding Parents with KidpreneursFREE GUIDE: 14 Top Tips For Parents To Kick Start Their Child's Entrepreneurial Journey.Follow Katrina on FacebookFollow Katrina on Instagram 

In this episode, we interview Debbie Friez from Top Rank Marketing. We discuss the rise of influencer marketing, thought leaders, and how to best utilize influencer marketing. Big thanks to Debbie for joining us and providing such wonderful insight in this episode. Her information is below! www.TopRankMarketing.com www.instagram.com/dfriez www.instagram.com/mod.ventures www.facebook.com/modventuresllc

In this episode, we interview Debbie Friez from Top Rank Marketing. We discuss the rise of influencer marketing, thought leaders, and how to best utilize influencer marketing. Big thanks to Debbie for joining us and providing such wonderful insight in this episode. Her information is below! www.TopRankMarketing.com www.instagram.com/dfriez www.instagram.com/mod.ventures www.facebook.com/modventuresllc

In this episode, we interview Debbie Friez from Top Rank Marketing. We discuss the rise of influencer marketing, thought leaders, and how to best utilize influencer marketing. Big thanks to Debbie for joining us and providing such wonderful insight in this episode. Her information is below! www.TopRankMarketing.com www.instagram.com/dfriez www.instagram.com/mod.ventures www.facebook.com/modventuresllc

Thank you for checking out this episode about how a hobby turned into a business with Becca De La Plants. We are so excited to be working together on our Business Savvy Influencer course that will help hobbyists turned business owners. This course is designed to decode and demystify business ownership specifically for influencers. Thanks again to Becca for joining us on this episode, you can find her socials linked below! www.instagram.com/delaplants www.youtube.com/beccadelaplants www.instagram.com/mod.ventures www.modventuresllc.com

The Episode in 60 Seconds Who is your brand's most powerful voice? Outside influencers have more sway than official spokespeople. SAP's Ursula Ringham and Rachel Miller join us today to discuss. What influencer marketing is How influencer marketing is changing the landscape How to properly vet potential influencers Two case studies of successful implementation of influencer marketing The future of Influencer Marketing Our Guests Ursula Ringham leads the Global Influencer Marketing team in collaborating with the entire SAP product portfolio in creating innovative content with trusted external voices to build brand awareness and create sales. Before her tenure at SAP, she had stints at Yoh, Adobe, and Apple where she was the partnership manager for Worldwide Developer Relations. She has a reputation as a storyteller, author, creator, influencer marketer, digital innovator, social media maven, champion of girls education, and an outdoor sports freak. Rachel Miller is a social media and content marketing strategist. She's listed as one of the top 50 MarTech influencer marketing and B2B marketing experts worldwide. Her background before SAP includes Thulium, TopRank Marketing, and PureMatter. During the pandemic, she is taking her fitness seriously and has earned the nickname "baby hulk" and is a craft beer aficionado. Show Notes 77% of all revenue transactions worldwide run through systems powered by SAP. - Ursula Ringham What is Influencer Marketing? Influencer Marketing noun partnering experts and trusted authorities together with your brand to help guide customers forward into their buying decision. creating innovative content with trusted external voices to build brand awareness and create sales trusted voices that influence the decisions of others people-to-people marketing Hear a discussion about definitions at 4:15 How Can a Brand Deploy Influencer Marketing? Starting an Influencer Marketing program with your own people. Bring in those who have understand people, existing success, a strong social following, understand your business, and get that it is people-to-people networking and marketing. —Ursula Ringham Improving Live Events by Taking Them Virtual How to Properly Vet Influencers Follow on social media Read their writings Watch their videos Listen to their interviews, podcast and otherwise Discover whom they have promoted in the past, even if your competitors Identify those you trust who are already connected with them Identify their strengths (for example, is someone strong on camera and social, but not a long-form writer. Or, this person asks amazing questions and draws out others.) Know them so well you can name their dog and favorite craft beer Discuss your findings with your team and get their input Talk to them on a video conference if not in person, and get "a feel" for the person How Do You Measure Influencer Success? Identify the true goal. What are you trying to accomplish? Closely monitor the effectiveness of your collaborations How often is the influencer sharing on social media? What level of engagement—likes, comments, shares? What type of audience are the attracting through video or podcasts? Are they exciting to watch? There is no true set of criteria because technology is changing so rapidly. Listen to a success story at 16:00 You have to understand the intent of wanting to work with a particular influencer. It has to be mutually beneficial. — Ursula Ringham Nobody wants to hear from a brand spokesperson. — Rachel Miller Hear another success story at 21:11 Check out SAP Industries LinkedIn Live Series As we live in an age where reviews, references, and third-party validation become increasingly important, having a disciplined, principled, and intentional effort within our companies to connect our value propositions to the market through people that are able to talk about us better than we can talk about ourselves is incredibly important — John Farkas

Few people have as much experience in driving B2B influence marketing than Lee Odden. His company, TopRank Marketing, not only drives programs for some of the top tech companies in the world, but conducts an annual survey to report on the B2B space. TopRank’s latest research into B2B influencer marketing is out and very interesting. Lee joins the show to dive into the survey responses and better quantify and qualify how business-to-business companies are using influencers and how other businesses can adjust to the state of the industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Subscribe | Transcript | Comment The Episode in 60 Seconds Events have been and are being canceled and postponed worldwide due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. From South by Southwest to the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics to HubSpot's Inbound, events of all types and for all industries are affected. SAP's annual user conference, SAPPHIRE NOW, hosts more than 40,000 customers, prospects, partners, and influencers in Orlando. The original conference was scheduled for May and nearly completely planned when the US lockdown occurred. Within six weeks, SAP had reframed the event and created a snackable, interactive online experience. The results were remarkable. Two leaders behind the scenes of the major shift, Ursula Ringham and Rachel Miller, were tasked with the challenge of finding the connective tissue for the experience without losing the opportunities for business. Our Guests Ursula Ringham leads the Global Influencer Marketing team in collaborating with the entire SAP product portfolio in creating innovative content with trusted external voices to build brand awareness and create sales. Before her tenure at SAP, she had stints at Yoh, Adobe, and Apple where she was the partnership manager for Worldwide Developer Relations. She has a reputation as a storyteller, author, creator, influencer marketer, digital innovator, social media maven, champion of girls education, and an outdoor sports freak. Rachel Miller is a social media and content marketing strategist. She's listed as one of the top 50 MarTech influencer marketing and B2B marketing experts worldwide. Her background before SAP includes Thulium, TopRank Marketing, and PureMatter. During the pandemic, she is taking her fitness seriously and has earned the nickname "baby hulk" and is a craft beer aficionado. Show Notes User conferences have become a staple in SaaS showcasing the latest software developments and uniting users with platform providers, their partners, and other interested parties. These events also become huge public relations gains. [Find lists of user conferences: IT/Tech, software, engineering] SAP hosts their annual user conference, SAPPHIRE NOW, for all aspects of their business. Major sales occur at the event. SAP's reselling partners come together to learn new ways to promote SAP and to feel energized about their partnership. SAP is the backbone of America's supply chain and helps businesses run at their best. 77% of all revenue transactions worldwide run through systems powered by SAP. - Ursula Ringham Shifting an event for in-person to virtual first requires a shift in mindset. As Ursula talks about at 11:00, "It wasn't a huge change but we had to pivot with how we tell the story." For a virtual event, keep in mind who your audience is and how they will consume the content. As Rachel puts it at 14:00, "No one is going to sit through a 40-minute, talking head keynote to kick off your event. Think about how your content can be "snackable," easily-digestible, with great takeaways." Ursula and Rachel talked about the excellent video work provided by their two hired producers. You can reach them here: Sam Juno Jon Lieberman Issues to consider when creating a virtual event Speakers - how do they present on camera for a virtual audience? Topics - how do they fit in with a more segmentable, micro-casting opportunity? Production - what do you want the event to look like on screen? Connective tissue - what ties the experience together—digital hosts? [Ursula goes into great detail about finding hosts to tie the event together at 16:30] Platform - what software can manage the registrations, video streaming, recording storage, visitor interaction, VIP connectivity, and social engagement? Interactivity - how will you facilitate connection—breakout rooms, chatbots, information exchange? Budget - if transitioning from live to virtual, reallocate the funds along the lines needed to produce a great event.   Was the Virtual Event of Lesser or Greater Value? We were able to make a lot more noise. - Ursula Ringham SAPPHIRE grew from 40,000 to over 100,000 attending. The travel barrier was eliminated. Those curious could sample SAP and the event without great risk. SAP grew from a primarily US-based audience to a truly global audience in a matter of weeks. We have this virtual global audience now. If we want to make a big announcement, we'll do it virtually because we can reach so many more people. - Ursula Ringham   There's going to be a lot more pressure on making in-person events more compelling. - Rachel Miller Deploying Influencers to Augment a Virtual Event Ursula goes step-by-step through how they used influencers at 22:00 minutes. Mark Schaefer's article on SAPPHIRE NOW Reimagined. Here are some excerpts from the virtual experience. You can follow the links to pay for access to the video library. Building better core processes Tackling short-term challenges while planning for long-term success Closing experience gaps  SAPPHIRE NOW is known for giving the entire audience a once-in-a-lifetime concert experience. Past artists include Coldplay and Lady Gaga, and this year, Sting joined the virtual crowd straight from his home studio. Here are brief excerpts from all three past concerts. Coldplay Lady Gaga  Sting

Are you a financial avoider? You aren’t alone in this! However, it’s time to STOP avoiding your finances. Check out this podcast episode where Gabby discusses how to change your habits so you are no longer a financial avoider. When you avoid your finances, you are avoiding bad news, sure, but you are also avoiding GOOD news! Stop avoiding your finances and take steps to make your finances approachable and easy today! Follow us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/mod.ventures Like on Facebook: www.facebook.com/modventuresllc Check out our website: www.modventuresllc.com

What is cash flow, and why should you care? Having a good handle on your cash flow is THE way to keep your business as happy as possible. Whether it be tracking your finances with QBO, or investing in your company with employees, equipment, and more! Solidifying your brand is also another great way to invest in your company. Do you wonder when you should take a paycheck from your company? It depends on the type of company you have. Hope this podcast is helpful for you to answers some of these questions! Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mod.ventures Like us on…

Do you run into issues with delegating? It’s one of those parts of work that is pretty tough. In my video, 7 Things Business Owners Need to Stop Doing, delegating is one of the things that people needed to do. There are a lot of fears surrounding delegating, and they come down to two factors: outside and internal factors. If you or your employees struggle with perfectionism, you might find that delegation is extra difficult. This episode will help you break down those barriers to ensure a healthy and efficient workplace that encourages delegation. Follow us on Instagram: @mod.ventures www.instagram.com/mod.ventures Follow…

Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Marketing, joins The FWD: Thinking Show to share how influencer marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) can be combined to create content that is not only findable but credible for prospects actively looking for solutions through search.

Lee Odden, CEO and co-founder of TopRank Marketing, talks to Rob about the importance of empathy when marketing during a pandemic, the role of the C-Suite in influencer marketing, and why CEOs should be on social media. C-Suite Marketing is sponsored by Boardroom Insiders, a business intelligence platform that makes executive engagement easier than ever. Boardroom Insiders helps you close bigger deals, faster.

Sue B. is an insightful, energetic, and in-demand online marketing educator, influencer speaker, and a no-BS business coach.  Sue B. is a popular CreativeLive Instructor and has been named by Huffington Post as one of the “Top 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs” as well as “The Top 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers” by TopRank Marketing, and “Top Female Business Influencers of 2019” by Fit Small Business. Sue’s blog was ranked as one of the Top 10 social media blogs in 2017 by Social Media Examiner.  Whether she’s taking a global stage, or speaking at an industry conference, like Social Media Marketing World, or working one-on-one with her clients, Sue B. is driven to help business owners leverage the power of Instagram to meet (and exceed) their business goals. As a lifelong entrepreneur, Sue B. has over 30 years of business experience. And, with her extensive knowledge and implementation of social media, it is Sue B.’s mission to teach, mentor, and empower others. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/iamsherrigoodall/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/iamsherrigoodall/support

In today's episode, Nat and Ang are joined by a very special guest, @theinstagramexpert Sue B. Zimmerman.Sue is an insightful, energetic and in-demand online marketing educator, influencer speaker, and a no-BS business coach. She is a popular CreativeLive Instructor and has been named by Huffington Post as one of the “Top 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs” as well as “The Top 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers” by TopRank Marketing and “Top Female Business Influencers of 2019” by Fit Small Business. Sue’s blog was ranked as one of the Top 10 social media blogs in 2017 by Social Media Examiner.Nat and Ang ask what advice would Sue give to those in the beginning stages of utilizing Instagram for their business and how can users stay true to their brand and attract the right audience? And she keeps it honest and real. Authenticity and showing up as you are. You are your brand and she shares how she consistently shows up as she is for her business on social. They discuss Instagram Stories and the importance of using IG stories as part of a business strategy. And spoiler alert - consistency is king! Showing up in stories is all about connection and Sue is a big advocate for storytelling in IG stories. Feeling a little late to the whole Instagram game? Don't! It is never too late and in many cases, it is fear and lack of prioritizing that can make you feel like you've missed the boat. Sue shares her thoughts on eliminating that fear and all the benefits of using Instagram for your business. If you're looking to level up on Instagram, this is the episode you will not want to miss!If you haven't left a rating or review on Apple Podcast yet - now is the time to do so! You never know, Nat and Ang just may read yours on the show!www.thesocialfocus.coOn Instagram we are:@angela.s.doyon @natcaronphoto @thesocial.focus

In this episode we are talking to Lee Odden, CEO at TopRank Marketing. Lee is an expert within SEO, Content Marketing and B2B influencers. This talk was recorded live on Youtube and you will be able to join PIMtalk every Thursday at 4.30pm CEST / 10.30pm EST from now on. Join us and participate in the disussions!  We’re always looking for new guests and topics! If you would like to recommend a featured guest or topic on the PIMtalk podcast, don’t hesitate to email us at PIMtalk@inriver.com. Want to know more about PIM? Download this free Whitepaper!

On Episode 4, Lee Odden, CEO of TopRank Marketing, joined Garrett on Agency Ahead to talk about leadership in this time of crisis. As CEO of a major B2B marketing agency, Lee knows a thing about leadership. It's essential, since his agency is all about developing B2B influencer campaigns. You can't have influence, after all, without a clear vision and a strong voice.

As CEO of the clean energy consulting firm Link Positive and co-founder of soon-to-launch energy optimization implementation startup Minify Energy, Ben Wallace understands the deeper business implications of sustainability. In his wide-ranging Break Free B2B interview with TopRank Marketing, Ben explains the “Triple Bottom Line” and the material impact on productivity, brand image, employee awareness, and more.

In today’s episode, Alan chat’s with Lee Odden on the emerging concept of Influence Marketing in the B2B sector. Lee is a B2B marketing strategist, author, internationally known keynote speaker, and CEO of a digital marketing organization called TopRank Marketing.

How do companies like Dell, SAP and LinkedIn build successful B2B influencer marketing campaigns that translate into real business ROI? This week on The Inbound Success Podcast, TopRank Marketing CEO and Co-Founder Lee Odden talks about B2B influencer marketing and what it takes to build influencer campaigns that deliver measurable marketing results.  Lee uses his own agency, TopRank Marketing, as a laboratory where he tests new influencer marketing strategies that he then rolls out to clients like SAP and Cherwell Software. In this episode, he shares advice on how businesses can partner with influencers, and what kinds of results to expect. Highlights from my conversation with Lee include: TopRank Marketing is a B2B digital marketing agency focused on content, search and influence. Lee sees B2B influencer marketing as an opportunity to give subject matter experts a platform to talk about things they're really passionate about, and do it in a way that is a win for both the influencer and the business with which they're partnering. The best influencer campaigns bring together and curate credible voices in a way that gives them value from an exposure standpoint and at the same time are very "infotaining" to experience on the consumer side. With B2C influencer marketing, very often brands are simply feeding the message to the influencer. By contrast, with B2B influencer marketing, brands are giving the influencers - who are experts on a topic - a platform to create and share a message of their own. For companies interested in using influencer marketing, Lee says it is important to begin by identifying the business or marketing problem they are trying to solve. The next step is then to identify the topic about which the business wants to be influential. This is often in the form of a topic cluster, much like you might see in SEO. Once that topic has been identified, Lee and his team use three criteria to identify the right influencers: 1) Topical relevance (the degree to which that individual's own content that they're publishing is a match at a relevance level to the topic of influence that they're targeting); 2) Resonance (the degree to which that topic of influence actually resonates with the influencer's first and second level network); and 3) Reach (network size). Lee says that the process of identifying influencers is similar in many ways to the process of search engine optimization because influencer marketing is optimizing for both findability and credibility. Unlike B2C influencer marketing, B2B influencers do not always expect payment. It really depends upon the type of influencer you are working with and the level of commitment you are looking for. Lee suggests starting small and working with unpaid influencers before committing to larger paid partnerships. Lee has built strong relationships with a variety of B2B influencers and credits his success to something he calls "influencer experience management," which is essentially the process of ensuring the influencer has a positive experience working with the brand while also obtaining a high return on their contribution. One way he does this is by shortening the time horizon between the influencer's investment and effort and the return that they see, as well as by delivering longer term value. When it comes time to promote influencer content, Lee says it is important to be emphathetic to the influencer in developing a mix of media and messaging that you can supply to them and which they will want to promote. Timing is also important and it is critical to have sufficient volume of promotion right at the launch of a campaign in order to trigger social algorithms to show the content at the top of the feed. In terms of results, Lee says that if you are new to influencer marketing, you shouldn't expect that your first campaign will deliver a large number of leads, BUT you should plan to use the assets you develop in your lead gen campaigns and over time, you will see results. He suggests thinking of your first campaign as a pilot, and then building from there. Resources from this episode: Visit the TopRank Marketing website Check out the TopRank Marketing blog Follow Lee on Twitter Connect with Lee on LinkedIn Listen to the podcast to learn how to build a successful B2B influencer marketing strategy. Transcript Kathleen Booth (Host): Welcome back to the Inbound Success Podcast. I'm Kathleen Booth and I'm your host. And today, my guest is Lee Odden who is the CEO of TopRank Marketing. Welcome Lee. Lee Odden (Guest): Hey, it's great to be here, Kathleen. Lee and Kathleen recording this episode. Kathleen: I am so excited to have you here. I've been following you online for a very, very long time. And this is one of my favorite things about hosting a podcast, is it gives me an excuse to meet and talk to people who I would otherwise never have a reason to get to know and pick their brains on really interesting marketing subjects. So, looking forward to doing that with you today. Lee: Well, I'm going to have to reciprocate. I'm going to have to reciprocate because I'm really... I'm interested in picking your brain too, so. Kathleen: Well, let's do it. Let's get to the picking. Lee: All right. About Lee Odden and TopRank Marketing Kathleen: So, for my listeners who may not be familiar with you, can you tell my audience a little bit about yourself and who you are, what you do, what TopRank does and really how did you wind up where you are today? Lee: Well, that's quite a story and I'll make it short. So, I'm the CEO of TopRank Marketing. We're a B2B digital marketing agency focused on content, search and influence. We create experiences that inspire people basically. And we started as a PR firm in 2001. I joined as an SEO guy at the time and started to really explore the confluence of content and PR/earned media and earned media and owned media and how we can surface a relevant audience, not only buyers but also journalists, through optimization. And I remember that kind of combined into this sort of hybrid mix of services that we have today where we are serving clients like Dell, LinkedIn, SAP. We've done work for Oracle and Adobe and lots of other really cool B2B technology brands. We're based in Minneapolis where it is wonderfully cold and snowy. We are in the heart of winter a little bit earlier than normal, but that's okay. That makes for some a very fun running in the morning. And that's one thing about me, I've become a runner in the last 12 months or so. Kathleen: Do you have some of those tracks things for your running shoes that they have the little springs on the bottom? Lee: I didn't. So, I opted to get some... oh God, what are they called now? Something One One, Kona One One, anyway. So, these are some special shoes that are made - they're actually a trail running shoes made for the winter. Kathleen: Oh, wow. Lee: So, it's a hybrid between a trail running shoe and a hiking boot basically. So, it's got a huge foam foot bed but with super grippy Vibram soles. And I ran in the ice this morning and it worked great. So yeah, I'm an all-weather runner. Kathleen: Oh, that's great. I used to be a runner. But things have caught up with me and my knees decided that I would no longer be a runner. So, now, I am an avid spinner Lee: There you go. Kathleen: But I miss running and I missed it. I used to love running in the snow. It's so pretty and it's such a great way to experience, snowy world. Lee: Absolutely. I spent many years not doing very much at all being very much a computer geek type person sitting behind a desk. And so, while a lot of other people my age are in your seat... in the situation you described where their hips or their knees or their ankles or various tendons have gone caput, I don't have that. So, hopefully, I have another 20 years or so of the joy and the euphoria that comes right from the... all those endorphins firing after a great run. And what's really interesting about what I found about running and really a big fitness focus for me over the last year and a half or so is the parallels to marketing. You know what I mean? Because it's just kind of interesting and very curious. I think the people expect to lose weight overnight because they tried a new exercise program or meal or diet plan. And people sometimes look at marketing tactics and feel the same way. A lot of inbound marketing tactics actually like SEO and content. It just doesn't work that way. You've got to invest, you've got to commit and all those other things. So, there's a lot of interesting parallels I think between fitness and marketing performance. Kathleen: So true. And you just gave me the perfect segue into my next question, which is that you and I really first connected around this because you reached out and asked me to participate in your B2B marketing fitness guide, which was related to MarketingProfs B2B Marketing Forum. I was speaking there and you were putting together a guide that essentially did tie marketing and fitness together and were asking for almost sort of submissions around that. And it's funny because when I got that email from you, I was like, "Yes, I have always thought this too" that with fitness, we all know what we're supposed to do, right? We know that we're supposed to regularly exercise and this and that. It's just that so few people actually do it. And it's the same thing with marketing. We pretty much all know what we're supposed to do. But so, few companies and marketers actually managed to do it consistently on a regular basis over time. So, I thought that was genius. But the other thing that really what's interesting to me as I interfaced with you and your team around that project was just the whole process that you put together and how incredibly thorough it was, how thoughtful and detail oriented it was. Watching you execute that and the way that you worked with the different contributors and influencers on the project to me was fascinating. And so, that's what I was excited to dig into today since then I've learned that you do this kind of influence our work not just with your own company but with all kinds of clients. And so, I would love to talk about that with you. B2B influencer marketing Lee: Sure, sure. It's one of the joys of what I get to do and that is to shine a light on people with great talent. And it's in the context of Influencer Marketing. But really, it's interesting to me to have an opportunity, create conversations to create opportunities or architect opportunities where people can talk about things that they're really passionate about, situations where they can add value. And then, as puzzle pieces, pull them together into an experience that really showcases them in a really positive, optimistic light. And ultimately, I'm after a 360 win situation. This brings me great personal and professional joy to get to do that. So, there are opportunities for marketing obviously when trying to create thought leadership or customer acquisition or we have other obviously traditional marketing objectives. But how can we create value for people first? How can we bring together and curate super credible voices, experienced voices together in a way that gives them value from an exposure standpoint? But at the same time, because of the story behind it all, it's very infotaining to experience on the consumer side, right? And so, people enjoy consuming the information, they are inspired to share it, people that contribute enjoy consuming the information and they too are inspired to share it. And ultimately, becomes more successful as a result. Kathleen: So, this is really interesting to me because you think about this term "Influencer Marketing" and it's a very broad catchall for a lot of different things. And I think most people think of influencer marketing and they're probably thinking of things like somebody pays a Kardashian to plug a product on their Instagram feed or the Fyre festival. There is certainly that kind of influencer marketing where you're just really paying to put your product or service in front of that person's audience. But then, there's this whole other world that I think you've tapped into which I think is the more interesting one. And I love that you refer to it as an experience. But what I noticed about the way that you managed this particular project that, that got this going was that it wasn't the typical, "Hey, you have an audience. I want to get in front of it." What will it cost? It was, "We're creating something and we want you to be a part of it." And the big takeaway I had was that every... I kept speaking only for myself as somebody who participated. I felt like I had a sense of ownership in it, right? Because I played a part in creating it. And I think that's a very different angle to Influencer Marketing when your influencer has a feeling of ownership actually co-create the content with you seems to lead to a very different outcome. So, maybe you could just talk about that a little bit. Because I just feel the spectrum of Influencer Marketing. Lee: Absolutely. One of the big challenges of our time in the marketing world is the growing distrust consumers have of brands. And so, our opportunity as marketers is to bring forward as much authentic information and create as many authentic experiences as possible. So, rather than treating people who are credible experts -- and in the case of B2B influencers, we are really talking about credible experts as opposed to people who self-anoint them, an influencer who are really good at taking selfies and all that other silly stuff -- so, what we're looking at is inviting them to contribute to a thing that's bigger than ourselves, right? Where in some cases, it really is changing the world, it's a movement. Others' work, we've done with SAP and the United Nations around some initiatives around the United Nations around purpose. And it's like pretty remarkable. Where I mean, these influencers are just CEOs of major corporations and celebrities sometimes and then... and other folks. But on the other hand, it's other folks who are working in their industry and they've really established the respect. And they also have that domain expertise too. So, rather than feeding them a message, rather than treating them like an ad by which is where the B2C world tends to focus, we're rather trying to help them. First, we identify them as the credible person around the topic and that that topic resonates with their audience. That's our data informed homework we do beforehand. And then, once we invite that person because they are credible and there's evidence that they are credible, we do invite them to contribute and we want to hear their authentic, authentic voice. We want to hear what their opinion is in the context of an overall story. And then, whatever they say is perfect because it's real. And that's what people are looking for. And that's why I think it turns into that experience that is not only good for the contributors, but it's obviously a good experience for the audience that we're out there to attract and engage. Getting started with B2B influencer marketing Kathleen: I love that. And trust really is at the heart of business. When people are buying from you, they're buying because they trust you. And that authenticity is the biggest thing that fuels that... You named a lot of the different companies that you work with. It's an incredibly impressive list. I imagine there are many clients and prospective clients who come to TopRank and they talk about wanting to do some form of influencer marketing. Can you talk a little bit about what those first conversations look like -- when you engage with someone or consider engaging with someone? I imagine that influencer marketing is not necessarily right for everyone and, or you have to have the right set of expectations. So, how do you suss that out? Lee: Yeah, that's a great question because people come in from a variety of perspectives. So, a lot of the time people come in from a marketing or demand gen perspective. And in that case, they may say influencer marketing outright because they've pulled themselves through education, around industry information or conferences or whatever and have come to the conclusion that this is something that will help them get solve a marketing problem. And so, really, what we're after first is defining what that marketing problem is because it's not always an exact match. You know what I mean? Also, we have people who have interpreted what the expression influencer marketing means and then, for example, if they see it only as an ad. We had a company recently that said, "We have 30 days." There's been some positive news in our industry that would be good and a good reflection on our brand and the problem that we solve as a company. And so, we have 30 days to quickly... I want you to find some influencers, run a campaign and take advantage and sort of ride the wave of this positive news in the industry. It's like, "no." But we're very focused on organic and authentic advocacy and engagement, not on just paying people who are willing to say something nice and it's not legitimate or genuine, you know what I mean? And also, the timeframe makes no sense. 30 days is crazy, especially in a B2B context. So, the first thing we're looking for is to really understand what it is that business is... what's the business problem or the marketing problem they're trying to solve? And the degree to which partnering with credible experts can help solve that problem. And the interesting thing is, from a demand gen lead gen standpoint, that is totally reasonable. And it is possible within a short period of time to find people who the right kind of people who can contribute to that outcome. It's not always possible. You do have to look for data, you have to look for evidence of people who are already actively advocating for the brand and that actively publish, that are respected in the industry. And when you have the good fortune of finding those combination of traits, then, you can reach out to them, invite them to contribute to something and have a reasonable expectation that one of the outcomes from that content you collaborate on is going to result in some sort of MQL. And usually, in a B2B case, it's a download or a trial or demo or something like that. On the other hand, there are people from PR who come in. And it's influencer relations to them, not influencer marketing. So, they think of it from an analyst relations standpoint. They're thinking more thought leadership. They're not looking at conversions. They're not looking at lead gen per se. They're looking at building the influence of the brand, building the reputation of the company and even ways in which they can elevate the influence of their key opinion leaders and senior executives. Well, that's a very different approach and is also appropriate as a collaboration with industry influencers. It's just executed in a very different way. So, we find out what it is that it needs to be solved and then we apply the expertise and knowledge and the networks that we've already built with all these different influencers in the different industries, especially in B2B industries and then architect a plan on how to do that. Identifying the right influencers with whom to partner Kathleen Booth: So, if you get someone in who has the right expectations and it's a good fit and you think influencer marketing makes sense, one of the things I'm curious about is, how do you identify the right influencers? I assume there's obviously a component of, they need to have something of a following. But I imagine there's probably more to it than just that. Can you talk about that a little bit? Lee: Absolutely. In fact, one of the biggest failures that people make is, when they do focus only on popularity. It's easy to do that, but everyone's doing it. And of course, it can be faked. It doesn't happen as often in B2B as in B2C. So, to identify the right influencers, starts with topic specificity. What is it that you want to be influential about? What topics are going to matter to your customers or to the audience that you're after? The association of that topic of influence amongst influencers is something that can then elevate the brand and can give the marketing message more credibility, more reach and more engagement. So, we have to understand what those topic or topics are. Usually, it's a topic cluster. There's a primary and derivative topics -- something similar to what you might do with SEO for example. And once we identify those topics, then we use a variety of approaches to brainstorm influencers -- everything from interviewing people at the brand to looking at CRM data to social data. But ultimately, we're going to use a platform that is crawling the social web platforms like Traackr, T-R-A-A-C-K-R. I spell it just because it's easy that... not spell that right. And so, what they're doing is they have a database of millions and millions of people on all the things that they're sharing and what their followers are interacting with. And so, the minimum criteria, the data points that we're looking at are topical relevance, the degree to which that individual's own content that they're publishing is a match at a relevance level to the topic of influence that we're after. Second, we're looking at resonance, the degree to which that topic of influence actually resonates with their first and second level network, right? Because we don't want it to be weird that they start talking about Apple mice or something like that and they never talk about that. And then, the third thing is reach, of course, which is network size. There are other elements like audience characteristics and what kind... do they publish their own blog? Do they publish to industry websites? Do they speak at conferences? Are they a book author? And there are other sorts of signals that are both online and offline that we may consider according to the situation. And increasingly, we're starting to bring in SEO metrics. So, we want to know sometimes where there's someone isn't a recognized entity by Google, right? And so, are they on Wikipedia? Are they showing up in... from an SEO perspective provided that the reason why we're doing the campaign has SEO expectations. We'll look for those criteria. That's not always the case, but increasingly it is because there's a lot of congruence between topic specificity as it relates to SEO and topic specificity as it relates to influence. You want to help someone be the best answer. And what we like to say is we're optimizing for findability. But we're also optimizing for credibility. So, all those factors come into play and identifying well, who's the right match, right? And obviously, there are other things, and I know that I could probably write a book all just about this but we want to make sure that the type of content we have planned is a match for obviously what they publish. So, YouTubers -- video, right? Bloggers -- text. Podcasters -- audio, and so forth. And making sure that we're really aligning from a value standpoint what that influencer has demonstrated through their interactions with their community and the values that brand stands for. All those things factor in to picking the right person. And still, after a campaign or two, it may turn out to be that that person is not a fit because influence is temporal. It is not permanent. It goes up and down and it is very important to revisit these... some of these criteria on an ongoing basis and that's something most brands are not doing. Working with influencers Kathleen: I hear a lot of marketers talk about influencer marketing and they're intrigued by it. They love the idea of it. They see the potential. But I think sometimes what stumbles them or causes them to stumble is the actual, like, execution. How is this going to work? And for somebody who's listening and they're thinking, "This sounds great, I love this idea, I'm willing to go out and find these influencers that combine the credibility with the popularity and all of the other things you just mentioned", this is a two-part question. First of all, what kind of expectations should they have around, should I be paying these people? And if so, how much? And the second part is, if they're not getting paid, what are the odds they're going to actually say yes to participate? Lee: Sure. So, getting paid or not paid especially, now, we happen to focus on B2B, so that's where my most of my experience lies. In B2C, if someone has a significant level of popularity and experience being an influencer for brands, almost all the time they're going to want to be paid. In a B2C scenario, where people don't get paid, maybe you have a cause-oriented marketing initiative. So, the influencer is part of the same cause or initiative that your brand is interested in and you come together to make a big difference and that's something where they may just volunteer their time because you believe in the same thing. In B2B, it's less common for influencers to be paid. There's a lot more content and when you look at the full customer life cycle at a B2B scenario, there's just so much more content involved as increasingly buyers are pulling themselves through that sales cycle or through that process before they ever contact sales. So, what you would pay an influencer for is what you would pay a consultant for in a lot of cases. So, for example, well, let's look at this. When I reached out to you and some of the others, you know I mean, they were super credible, it was a really a great group of people that shared a quote, a 50 to a hundred words, that's not normally a paid thing. Plus, we have a great reputation in our industry for making people look really good. We put them in these interactive experiences and it really does showcase and everyone gets... it's really valuable for them and they can monetize that exposure in other ways by being more credible at their job. It could contribute to book deals, it could contribute to paid speaking gigs or consulting gigs and so on and so forth. So, on the other hand, if I asked someone to... well, for example, I'm working with Brian Solis on an industry report as an analyst. I'm paying him. I mean, he's an influencer but he's also an analyst. Kathleen: But that's what he does for a living, right? Lee: So, he's doing work. Yeah, exactly. And that's a good distinction too. So, there are different types of influencers. There are "brandividuals" and I would say Brian is one of them. These are professional influencers. They are making it their business to continually collect intelligence to do analysis, to be a thought leader in their industry. So, they also publish and they actively engage in the network. And they're able to do this in a way that creates much value that it just makes sense to engage them on a paid basis. So, I mean, sometimes this manifests as a keynote presentation or they may emcee a whole track at your user conference. They may do a webinar for you that is hyper focused on something that you can monetize through lead gen. Or they could create a whole eBook or they could do a video series. We engage influencers like Tamara McCleary for example, who is the host for a season of podcasts for SAP called Tech Unknown. And you've got to listen, if you get a chance to listen to season two, just the first episode just dropped. It is so cool. We're talking about supply chain management and it's actually interesting. It's actually, it's amazing. You go from a farm in Thailand somewhere to a coffee shop and it's all audio. It's like you're listening to an NPR well-produced show but it's a podcast. And influencers are involved both as a host and as guests. So, the host is probably a paid situation whereas the guests are not because they're only on for one show, for one interview or whatever. So, hopefully, that makes sense. So, I think a lot of people just starting out feeling optimistic. They can start off by identifying people who are already advocates for their brand that are also influential and simply invite them to do something simple, share a quote, share commentary about a report, share some insights. Or at this time of year, some trends. And start things that way and see how that goes. And you can build from there. Building win-win influencer partnerships Kathleen: Yeah. And if I hear you correctly, part of it is also making it a great experience for that person who contributes. It's not just asking and getting the information, it's the follow-up that you do, the way that you help that person leverage their involvement in order to achieve their own goals. Whether that's building their personal brand or as you... I think you mentioned publishing a book or getting a speaking gig. I feel like there's that whole, you called it earlier a 360 win. How do you make it a win for them as well? Lee: I think that absolutely. And we call that "influencer experience management." So, customer experience is so much of a, a term, or it's in the vernacular of marketers these days of selling platforms and marketing services or whatever. And we apply those same ideas to the influencers that we work with because so many of them are organic sorts of collaborations and value exchanges that we have to. It's very important that we make it easy for them to do their best for them to enjoy it and to get a disproportionately high return on their effort. And that spells a win for everyone. It really, really, really does. Examples of TopRank influencer campaigns Kathleen: So, assuming that I wanted to do an influencer campaign. I'd love to just talk through what... how this work, what are some of the better frameworks for them and what kinds of results I could expect. And I guess the best way to tackle this might be to do it through some examples because I know that you've used your own company as a bit of a laboratory to try out new strategies and figure out what is going to work well and what isn't. And then, you tend to roll that out to some of your clients. Maybe you could share some of those examples and talk through the kinds of results you've gotten? Lee: Sure. So, excuse me, one of the earlier examples, I think it was 2012 or so, we approached, or Joe Pulizzi and I were talking. So, he's the founder of Content Marketing Institute, Content Marketing World conference. We were talking about how we might collaborate together. Because previously, our blog is fairly popular and we had been a media sponsor for quite a few conferences as a blog which at the time was very... you had to be actual magazine or have a massive email list or something like that. So, I had great success with that kind of collaboration with events and publications. And we were talking about what we could do together. And I thought, well, how about if I do this? Now, today, this is going to sound so unique. But at the time it was fairly unique. So, I thought, well the conference has, I think it was a secret agent was a theme somehow. I don't know if that was a theme of the conference. But oh, know what it was. So, I suggested, how about if I reach out to somebody of the other speakers and invite them to share their expertise as a preview to the conference. We'll publish this before the event and it'll attract attention to the conference. At one level, that was like, "Yeah, duh, that makes sense. Okay, great." But what I knew as a speaker is that this is a multi-track conference. And nothing is more disappointing to showing up at a multi-track conference and finding out that three or four other super popular people are speaking at the same time as you and there's only 25 people in your seats. So, I empathized with the speakers in this way. And so that is part of the context of my invitation to some of the really popular speakers that I didn't have a relationship with as an invitation to give them exposure, immediate return on their effort, opportunity is really what that was. And I learned a lesson in this. So, I started out thinking, I would just do 10 question interviews and publish the interviews on our blog. That was the format of the content I had in mind. I sent out these 10 questions to quite a few of the speakers and only one responded. And that was a big failure. So, one of the questions was, can you share one secret about content marketing? And I thought, I'm going to try this again. And so, I repositioned a question. I said, I asked it as if I was a character, I said, "You're a secret agent and you've just returned from a meeting with your handler and now you have a secret that will save the content marketing world. What's that one secret?" And these people who had no time for the 10 questions rapidly responded, many in character, "This is agent 35. Here's my secret from technology company X, Y, Z." And we got, I don't know, 30s or 25 responses. And so, we use the vintage James Bond sort of theme where you have an aged folder with coffee stains on it. And the red-letter stamps secrets as an eBook aesthetic that Joe Kalinowski at Content Marketing World created the cover. And then, we took that cover's inspiration and created all the interior aesthetics and everyone loved it. They had all these graphics and we positioned them as the little Polaroid photos and all this stuff. So, it was, what is it, 40,000, 50,000 views over the weekend on SlideShare alone. It was the featured content on SlideShare and other speakers at the conference were talking about it because it dropped right before the conference. So, that really set the stage for events and content, the people speaking at events and content, as something where we could create immediate value for people, right? Because, the hypothesis was not what can we get from people, it was what value can we create for people. But we've got to shorten the time horizon between their investments and effort and the return that they see. And we also want there -- because it would be digital content -- we want there to be an ongoing or long-term return as well, hopefully. So, that was the framework for what we still do today. And actually, that was the framework for the project that you contributed to as well. Kathleen: Yeah, it sounded- Lee: And so, there's lots of other examples like that. Yeah. Kathleen: Yeah. And kudos to you for recognizing a huge pain point because yes, I have spoken at many a multi-track event and there's nothing worse than there being three tracks and the other two guys have packed rooms and you're like, "Okay, you five people, we're going to have a really interactive session because there are so few of us." Lee: Yeah, exactly. Promoting influencer marketing content Kathleen: So, that's great. What I thought was really interesting is, a lot of what you talked about is, it really is leveraging the classic principles of marketing. Because when you talked about reducing the number of questions that you asked, it's the same principle behind how many forms do you put in a... or fields you put in a form. If you asked for 15 things, not a lot of people are going to respond. You asked for two things, you're going to get a lot more. So that makes a lot of sense. But I think one of the most interesting aspects of this to me is, how you enabled the share-ability. Because I know you did this with the one I participated in as well. And you talked about the graphics and making it really cool kind of Polaroid picture like things. Can you maybe talk through how you... what happens once the piece is done? In other words, what assets do you deliver to the contributors and how do you follow up with them to encourage sharing? Lee: So, the, the magic of promotion starts in the planning. So, I talked about topic specificity as it relates to search and influence. So, we use search data as a reflection of demand and we use other data sources to kind of get an idea of what questions are people actually asking around the topic, the brand wants to be known for. And that actually informs the influencers we pick but also the questions we asked them to give insights about. So, there's information architecture if you will, to the way the content is curated and then structured that follows through then to the promotional assets that are delivered, right? So, for example, if I worked with you on a future project, I'm like, "Kathleen in inbound marketing, inbound marketing." So, I'm going to ask you about inbound marketing. And then, in a promotion asset it may be an infographic, it maybe an interactive infographic. We often repurpose content into promotional videos. Actually, I've got a great example for you to just... we did a conference, had a game theme. All right. So, we decided to use 8-bit video game as an aesthetic. And then, we did these promo videos where we literally turn the influencers who contributed into these 8-bit characters and you could... and then, it had the music like the Mario Brothers music... and the left to right and the scene moving behind them and whatever. And so, we use those as a promotional videos and we gave static images, we gave the video content to the influencers to share. And of course, we shared that on our own network as well. And obviously, we pre-write social messages. And that is an art all by itself because the social message you would give to the industry is a completely different social message you would give to someone that works at that brand or to the influencers themselves, right? People often mistake that influencers only want to self-promote and they'll give them a graphic with their own photo in it and it's like, no, in certain cases that is... the last thing in the world they want. But if you give them a graphic with a photo of all the influencers that they are participating with, now, that is motivating because by association, that'll lift their credibility. Otherwise, it just looks like gratuitous chest beating. Kathleen: It's so awkward when you're like, "Look at me. I'm doing this thing." Lee: Yeah. And so, it's being empathetic. That empathy is instrumental obviously in marketing but especially with promotion. And so, there are promotional assets that are a mix of media and messaging. There's also a timing that comes into play. As we all know, social algorithms will emphasize engagement within a very focused period of time. So, when there's a launch, we want to architect as much organic sharing as possible around that very specific launch time so that algorithms will respond and then feature that content higher in the feeds and that sort of thing. What kinds of results can you expect from B2B influencer marketing campaigns? Kathleen: So, at the end of the day, you run a campaign like this. What kind of results does it deliver? Lee: So, again, results and metrics and all that obviously are tied to the goals of the program. While some people will start with a campaign sort of idea, really what it is, it's a pilot. And what you should expect from a pilot where you don't have an influencer program in place already is simply to create great relationships with the influencers to have created content that you can repurpose for demand gen efforts, which could lead to the lead gen that you're after. But as far as the actual influencer content on that pilot, that is a top of funnel thought leadership type of expectation, that's the reasonable expectation. And again, like I say, you can repurpose that content for demand gen efforts. You can deconstruct that influencer content and use its ingredients to put in other demand gen and lead gen types of efforts long-term. But I wouldn't expect leads off of a pilot. I really wouldn't. That said, we have had pilots do really well. There's a company, it is an IT service management industry called Cherwell software. The very first pilot we did for them, or the pilot we did for them, I don't know, they're 15 influencers talking about... is reacting to a report, an industry trends report that they had produced. And so, the influencers are reacting to that data and the content of that report, we put it together as an eBook. We gave them compelling content to share that one campaign because obviously, you were encoding all those URLs that they're sharing. That one campaign was responsible for 22% of their pipeline for the entire year. Kathleen: Wow. Lee: It's an award-winning campaign. Demand Gen Report gave it the Killer Content Award offer that year. In fact, well anyway, I'll stop there. But we're continuing to work with them- Kathleen: I want a link to this campaign so I can check it out and put it in the show notes by the way. Lee: Absolutely. Yeah. And so, that can happen. But that's not typical. And the thing is, when you do a pilot like this and you don't have influence or relationships already, I mean, it only makes sense that you're just opening the door to this as a tactic. It's kind of like, if you know about SEO. Obviously, if we optimize something and we get a couple of links, we're not expecting a flood of leads after a month, that's crazy. Or even a quarter, it takes time to earn it. Now, if your starting point is one where you have a super mature website and you've got hundreds of thousands of links in all kinds of content and you're just making some technical mistakes, you can fix those things and have great expectations. Same sort of thing in influencer marketing. If you already have really great relationships and credibility with industry influencers, but you're just not activating them in an effective way, we can see that. And then, we can architect an experience for them that will result in the thing that you're actually after. So, it really depends on the goal. It depends on the starting point. But ultimately, no matter where you start, we can get there, right? There's a phased approach that you can take, a maturity escalation that you can follow or a path of escalation and maturity that you can follow that can take you from experimenting to being processed and transactional to be more relationship focused, ultimately, being... having momentum and being fully integrated. Companies that are nailing B2B influencer marketing Kathleen: Now, you mentioned Cherwell as an example of a really successful campaign. Are there other companies or specific campaigns that spring to mind if somebody is listening to this and they want to go out and see a living breathing example of how this was done in the wild? What should they look at? Lee: Absolutely. So, another great example is a SAP has as a Tech Unknown podcast. I mentioned that before. So, just if you Google "TechUnknown" as one word or "SAP Tech Unknown," you'll see season one has been out there and we just crushed it with the downloads or they crushed it with the downloads. And so, Tamara McCleary was the host inviting industry experts from within and with outside the organization and just really talking about topics of interest to their buying audience. Same thing with Dell technologies where Mark Shaffer and Douglas Carr, are the influencer hosts and they're interviewing people within Dell technologies, group of companies as well as outside experts about things that their audience will care about. Also, another podcast example I'd love to share is 3M. 3M publishes the largest study of science on the planet, right? It's the study, State of Science Index study. And as a complement to that, we started a podcast where their chief science evangelist, Jayshree Seth, I'm hoping I'm saying your name right, is the host. And then, she interviews people from astronauts to educators other intellectuals or practitioners in business that work in the field of science to help people understand how science impacts our lives. And again, I think we're on season two of that. So, audio wise it's a great opportunity. Episodic content bodes really well I think for influencer engagement because it creates a platform you to have guests. And it's a very natural metaphor for what people already know to be exposed to different ideas and for you to invite people who can add to your sort of portfolio of influencers. Because when you create that interview experience, the experience can inspire advocacy long after that episode has dropped for that person as they go about talking about things of interest in the industry. We also create a lot of interactive assets. So, the marketing, fitness, the B2B marketing fitness thing that you were part of was a slightly interactive. There was a conference where I... the topic, what was the topic? Break Free of Boring B2B. So, in fact if you search "Break Free Boring B2B," you'll find this. And so, I gave a challenge to my team and our designers came up with a couple of designs and one of them was basically, it would be 150-foot-tall grizzly bear with lasers coming out of his eyes lighting up the city. I was like, "Okay, that sounds great." And so, we used that as the aesthetic for this interactive infographic that featured experts in B2B talking about how to not be boring, how to break free of boring B2B marketing. And we also created a promotional video, which was as or more popular than the actual inner infographic. So, that went over. Well, people talked about it and I could show it on my mobile phone and people are like, "Oh, that's amazing. Can I take a picture of you holding that infographic on your phone." Which turned into new business for us. But that also instigated a series of interviews, which we are publishing twice a week now through January where we interviewed people about the series is called Break Free B2B or Break Free B2B Marketing. So, I mean, what a topic, right? It's universally interesting. How can we break free of status quo? How can we break free of legacy mindsets? How can we break free to greater results? So, there's so many things that we can talk about. So, that one influencer generated infographic initiated an ongoing series of episodic content. And it's really that episodic content that's creating all the momentum. So, I know that's a whole bunch of ideas there. But I think what's common amongst all of them is, one, topic specificity, meaning that we know the brand wants to... they stand for something that the customers care about and we find people who are influential around those ideas that have something of value to contribute. But first, we're creating value for them as a reason to contribute. And all of them are experiential, right? They're experiential at their audio capture, they're interactive if it's static capture or heck, we've even done virtual reality experiences that feature influencers. So, it's something that is experiential for the influencer and it's experiential for the consumer, the audience that you're after. And then, ultimately, because of those meaningful, relevant experiential characteristics, they are productive. They have impact and they deliver on a return on the investment. Kathleen: Those are all great examples. And I'm really actually looking forward to checking them out because I think there are lots of brands that kind of check the box and have a podcast for example. But as a podcaster myself, I've really come to appreciate how much strategy there needs to be behind what you're podcasting about and how that fits in with your broader goals and then how that informs who you have on. Like, there's a lot of work that needs to be done before you sit down in front of the microphone and start talking. And so, can't wait to check a couple of those out and see what they're all about. Repurposing influencer content Lee: Absolutely. And one of the great things about all of this is of course the re-purposing opportunities, because when you are planning to repurpose as part of the content planning itself, atomizing or deconstructing the influencer content into ingredient content is easier. And it gives you a library of a resource to draw from to add to your sort of recipes, if you will, to follow the metaphor of other content types that you're creating. So, if you're contributing an article to an industry publication, you go, "Oh yeah, I talked to Kathleen and she said that really smart thing and I've already got that saved. I'll pop that into that article and contributing to Forbes." And are you going to be disappointed that you show up in Forbes? Probably not. Six months after you actually gave the quote in the first place. So, it's something that is the repurposing opportunity is great because it creates more value from a marketing standpoint. But also, it's a way of showing love to your influencers long after their original contribution and it keeps that love alive, which is super, super important in an organic relationship. Kathleen's two questions Kathleen: Absolutely. Well, I feel like I could talk about this forever with you because there are so many good nuggets here. But we do not have forever. And so, before we wrap up, there are two questions that I always ask all of my guests. We'd love to hear your answers on these. The first is that on this podcast we do talk a lot about inbound marketing. And I'm curious, having worked with so many different companies, is there one particular company or individual that really stands out who's just killing it with inbound marketing right now? Lee: I think I racked my brain around this a lot. And one company that I think that has had a long view of this and is doing really, really well that we work with is LinkedIn Marketing Solutions. So, about five years ago, Jason Miller, who was at LinkedIn at the time -- now he's at Microsoft, had tasked us with finding and interviewing influencers for a new guide he was putting together called The Sophisticated Marketer's Guide to LinkedIn. That one guide, five years ago, which had a 21,000% ROI, had become a sub-brand for LinkedIn. So, if you Google the expression Sophisticated Marketer's Hub, you will find an index of what that one guide has turned into. eBooks, podcasts, a video show, a print magazine, blog posts, obviously social -- they even repurposed the podcast into an actual book. They have learning courses. They verticalized a lot of this content for other specific industries and they're just... I think they're just doing an amazing job at creating a micro brand around this idea of the Sophisticated Marketer's Guide to fill in the blanks as it relates to LinkedIn as an inbound marketing exercise. Kathleen: It's fascinating how it has blossomed and sort of mushroomed into this other thing entirely over the years. Marketing is changing so quickly. That's the biggest complaint I hear from marketers is they can't keep up with it all. How do you personally stay educated and keep up with the changing landscape? Lee: Oh, that's a secret, Kathleen. I can't really... I'm just kidding. My network is the number one source for sure. Also, my team. One of my great joys in life is getting to meet with my team and talk about challenges and successes that they're having. And I learn an awful lot about that. I'm also afforded the opportunity to experiment with our agency. I'm still very much a marketing practitioner. So, whatever time I can carve out for experimentation is a great learning experience. I also subscribe to different topics, not so much websites but to topics so through social channels, there is content around marketing that surfaces to me. There are some individuals that I'll follow. Obviously, people like Ann Handley as an example. Certainly, I speak at a lot of events and rather than just... dine and dash as it were, I like to come in and I stay and I sit in on sessions. And also, competitive intelligence. I'm a big fan of understanding what the market is doing, not just direct... they're not just other marketing agencies, but also other businesses and really doing a lot of reflection and analysis on what seems to be working for other companies in the industry and creating some lessons at our company. We do quite a bit of knowledge transfer, lunch and learns and other structured learning opportunities. And so, all these sorts of things keep me accountable to sharing knowledge with my team and they are sharing knowledge with me as well, right? So, it's very dynamic situation, very symbiotic in that way. And yet, I still feel like I only know 10% of what I need to know. Kathleen: Oh amen. I have the same problem. There's never enough time. But, yes, it does definitely. I mean, you have an amazing network. And certainly, people like Ann Handley, et cetera, these are people that you can learn so much from. So, I love that idea. But I think for somebody who doesn't have a network, they could probably even approximate what you're doing by putting together a really curated Twitter feed or set of blogs they follow of people that clearly know a lot and absorb it that way as well. So, that's a great strategy. Lee: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I can't underestimate the value of experimentation. And whether you're able to do the experimentation yourself or if you happen to be working with an agency and you can carve out a little budget for experimentation, I highly recommend it. How to connect with Lee Kathleen: Yeah. Now, if someone's listening and they want to learn more about Influencer Marketing or they want to reach out and ask a question or somehow get in touch with you, what's the best way for them to connect with you online? Lee: Well, people can certainly come visit us at toprankmarketing.com. And there, they can find our blog, which has many, many articles over the last five or six, seven years around Influencer Marketing, especially B2B Influencer Marketing. And you can certainly connect with me on the Twitter, L-E-E-O-D-D-E-N on LinkedIn or lee@lee.to. You know what to do next... Kathleen: All right. Great. I will put all those links in the show notes. So, if you would like to learn more or connect with Lee, head over there and you'll find all of those contacts. And if you're listening and you liked what you heard or you learn something new, we always appreciate a five-star review on Apple podcasts so that other people can find the podcast as well. Kathleen: And if you know someone else doing kick ass inbound marketing work, tweet me at @workmommywork because I would love to make them my next interview. Thank you so much, Lee. This was a lot of fun and very informative. Lee: Thanks Kathleen.

B2B marketers are dealing with a big trust problem. Their buyers are hungry for credible content that's supported by reputable third parties, from analysts to authors and other industry influencers. At the same time, they want marketers to tell these stories in a captivating way. It sounds like an impossible feat, but Lee Odden, Co-Founder and CEO of TopRank Marketing breaks down how your brand can break free of boring B2B with interactive, influencer content.

Lee Odden is the CEO and co-founder of TopRank Marketing and a globally recognized expert on digital marketing. His role at Top Rank involves developing new marketing offerings, consulting on strategy and advancing thought leadership on content marketing, influencer marketing, social media marketing, SEO, and a holistic view of customer-centric digital marketing. Renee Yeager was thrilled to welcome Lee to share his Top 3 Things CMOs Need to Know About Successful Influencer Marketing. They discuss how partnerships should begin with specific topic and goals in mind, as well as how to pick the right engagement model. Lee also breaks down ways to measure for effectiveness, including inputs, outputs and outcomes.

Welcome to the wedding video boss podcast where we talk about the business of being a wedding creative and a sneak peek into my world as a wedding videographer. I can’t believe that I’m saying this right now but The instagram expert is here and we’re talking about her instagram strategy guide! I hope you’re ready for a dose of Sue B because i have a feeling that this interview is going to turn into a therapy session so wish me luck! Sue b is ready so let’s start the show!Sue B. is an insightful, energetic, and in-demand online marketing educator, influencer speaker, and a no-BS business coach. Sue’s blog was ranked as one of the Top 10 social media blogs in 2017 by Social Media Examiner. Sue B. is also one of the most popular CreativeLive Instructors and has been named by Huffington Post as one of the “Top 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs” and The Top 50 Social Media Marketing Influencers by TopRank Marketing, and Top Female Business Influencers of 2019 by Fit Small Business.Whether she’s taking the stage at an industry conference, like Social Media Marketing World, or working one-on-one with her clients, Sue B. is driven to help business owners leverage the power of Instagram to meet (and exceed) their business goals. As a lifelong entrepreneur, Sue B. has over 30 years of business experience. And, with her extensive knowledge and implementation of social media, it is Sue B.’s mission to teach, mentor, and empower others.Friends, let’s welcome Sue B Zimmerman…Credits:Want more? Be a patron and get more stuff! https://www.patreon.com/weddingvideobossThe Wedding Video Boss Podcast hosted by Paul SantiagoBossIG: www.instagram.com/weddingvideobossBoffoIG: www.instagram.com/boffovideoWebsite: www.weddingvideoboss.comFor comments & suggestions email me at: weddingvideoboss@gmail.comSpecial thanks to Ning Wong (@NingWongStudios) for the sexy headshotMusic credit Isaac Joel - Azophi and Isaac Joel - Clavius from www.SoundStripe.com

Minter Dialogue Episode #300Lee Odden is author and an influencer in his own right. He's also CEO and co-founder of TopRank Marketing, an agency specialising in strategic internet marketing consulting services, such as content marketing, social media and influencer marketing. In this conversation, we discuss how Lee has gone about building his customer centric agency, a look under the hood of blogging, how to blog effectively, repurpose your content and execute influencer marketing. Meanwhile, please send me your questions as an audio file (or normal email) to nminterdial@gmail.com; or you can find the show notes and comment on minterdial.com. If you liked the podcast, please take a moment to go over to iTunes to rate/review the podcast. Otherwise, you can find me @mdial on Twitter. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/minterdial)

In this episode, we focus on working with influencer communities to build your brand by using collaborations, workshops, Facebook Live and even your own platforms. Back in Episode 19, we went into depth about How to Build Your Community Using Joint Venture Partnerships. We recommend that you listen to that episode as a companion to this one Building Community Collaborations Lee Odden from TopRank Marketing often works with trade shows and associations to create ebooks for download before a conference. He collaborates with tradeshow attendees who download the ebooks and share it with their companies and friends. He also creates lists every year, starting with the list 25 Women That Rock Social Media. Every year, he asks those featured for their recommendations for the next list. He has done this very successfully for a number of years. The #SocialROI Chat Madalyn hosts each week is presented by ManageFlitter. They've created an ebook based on the Twitter Chat. They collaborated with 25 social media and digital marketing experts to cover 25 topics. Using Webinars to Activate an Influencer's Community Work with an influencer to create a content-rich webinar for a win-win. This works well for affiliate partnerships. For Madalyn's Video Like A Rockstar mastermind program she is doing webinars to promote it. A great way to do this is to connect with influencers and invite them to be a guest on your webinar. You can also have them as an affiliate too. Using Facebook Live to Build Community Kami uses this every month for Social Media Breakfast and it builds a community beyond the live event. Facebook Live allows more people to attend online than at the live event. Madalyn hosts Facebook Live sessions after her TwitterSmarter Chat and Social ROI every week. It's a great way of opening it up to a wider audience and bringing communities together. Social Media Examiner does a weekly talk show through lilive streamThrough the talk show and podcasts, they highlight thought leaders and guests who usually become speakers for their annual conference, SMMW. They provide speakers with a link for the conference to track who they bring along. Inviting Influencers to Appear On Your Platform Invite people that have communities that match your potential customers to appear on your podcast or YouTube channel and they might share it with their audience as well. Plus, you get some social proof from it as well. Here’s are a few of the people who have appeared on the Communities That Convert podcast: Kirsten Oliphant, Create IF Writing, Creative Collaborations How to Form Lasting and Lucrative Partnerships  Elisa Camahort Page, How I Built That and BlogHer, Inside the Career of a Master Online Community Builder Mikael Yang, ManyChat, Build a Facebook Messenger Bot with ManyChat  Tim Fargo, Social Jukebox How to Promote Your Evergreen Content Sunny Lenarduzzi, YouTube Expert, How to Build a Converting Community on YouTube Sue B Zimmerman, Instagram expert, How to Build a Converting Community on Instagram Gini Dietrich, Spin Sucks,  How to Build a Converting Community Using Content Dorie Clark, Speaker, Author, and Marketing Consultant, Leveraging Community to Build Income Streams Adel de Meyer, Twitter Expert, How to Build a Converting Community on Twitter Zach Spuckler, Heart Soul and Hustle and Marketing Expert, How to Build a Converting Community on Facebook Tools, apps and links mentioned: Episode 19 Lee Odden's List “25 Women That Rock Social Media” #SocialROI Book Social Media Examiner's Talk Show Madalyn’s link to Social Media Marketing World Get a custom short domain like my Sklar.ly Past Communities that Convert Interviews Take Action Make a dream list of ten people who you would love to collaborate with. Of these people, five should be at or about your level and five should be above your level. Come visit us in the Facebook group and share your list with us. How to reach Kami: If you’d like to learn more about Kami Huyse, visit her website at www.zoeticamedia.com. You can contact her by email at kami@zoeticamedia.com or tweet to @kamichat. How to reach Madalyn: If you’d like to learn more about Madalyn Sklar, visit her website at www.madalynsklar.com. You can contact her by email at madalyn@madalynsklar.com or tweet to @MadalynSklar. Join Our Community We have a new community on Facebook. We will extend the conversation from each episode and deliver bonus content. Sign up for our email list at http://bit.ly/CTCVIP to get an invitation to join or go directly to our Facebook (shhh. The codeword is ACTION)!

Lee Odden Show Notes Lee Odden is a digital marketing strategist, author, international speaker and CEO of TopRank Marketing. His work integrating search, social, content, and influencer market-ing has been recognized by the Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Forbes. By combining a “best answer marketing strategy” together with “do well by doing good” values, he’s attracted top industry talent and clients including SAP, 3M, Dell, LinkedIn, Oracle and GE Digital. Odden is a prolific writer as the author of the book Optimize and as editor of TopRankBlog.com where he has published over 1 million words on digital marketing topics. Most passionate about It’s funny; I didn’t start out to create an agency necessarily. It’s my passion for marketing and the chase of solving difficult problems is really what got me into the role I have now. Obviously, I’ve had to learn to be a CEO, but technology plays a role in all of that. You can’t be efficient, or effective, especially these days, without being aware of and mastering the tools. There is an expression I use, ‘A tool is only as effective as the expertise of the person using it.’ I think there are a lot of tools that solve 50 problems, but a lot of people only have 5 of those problems. That’s part of the decision making process, especially with an organization that is trying to allocate funds for it’s technology and reconciling that against their needs, the capabilities of their staff, and that sort of thing. On an individual basis, or a small business basis, it’s a lot easier. Lee’s best advice about approaching customers Obviously, you’ve got to know your customer. I think a lot of entrepreneurs are focused on the product or solution they have to offer and their own reasons for starting the company; their passion behind the technology, their passion behind the solution that they have invested so much into, and sometimes they don’t express that same passion for investigating or empathizing with why their customer would want to buy that product or service. I think really knowing and understanding your customers is the most key thing you can do; you need to understand, it’s an ongoing activity, it’s not just something you do when you start the company and write a business plan. The other thing is, and this is from my own experiences, it’s possible to create the kind of momentum, to create a kind of gravity, if you will, so your customers come to you instead of you relying on chasing them. In our agency, we don’t rely on salespeople. We’ve not relied on advertising at all. Biggest failure with a customer A client engaged us for branding and awareness level campaign and said, ‘this is not about lead gen, this isn’t about conversions, this is just about increasing market affinity about our brand and our solution. All we’re trying to do is increase the amount of conversation about the main topic and our brand, that’s all we want.’ Okay, great! So, we built a program, we have an agreement, we have a project plan, all lined up towards that objective and we execute. Then a quarter into the engagement, the client says, ‘my upstream executive is really worried since we haven’t dramatically increased the number of leads.’ Of course, there weren’t even landing pages or conversation pages involved in the campaign! So, we scrambled to create a demand gen program with leads. That was a bit of a disaster and expectations were not managed properly and we had to swallow a jagged pill. We ate a lot of cost. But that was a lesson learned. It’s a matter of defining scope and setting expectations upfront for how we will deal with requests that fall outside of that scope. There are always special circumstances that will arise. It’s inevitable. So, we treat that as normal, not as an exception. So, when those requests outside of scope come up, we can decide if this is something we can exchange for another deliverable or is this

Lee Odden, Founder and CEO of TopRank Marketing, a B2B digital marketing agency, talks about how a customer-empathy-focused approach, building authenticity, and maintaining credibility can do more than convert prospects to sales. He suggests content can also be used to create anticipation, increase customer retention, and inspire advocacy—things that are far more important for long term company survival. In its efforts to improve its own marketing, TopRank developed tools which led to new lines of service when customers said, “We want that thing that you're doing for yourself for our tech company.” TopRank develops B2B influencer marketing services and integrated content marketing solutions for other marketers as well as tech, healthcare, and other professional services industries, and has an impressive client list that includes: LinkedIn, 3M, SAP, Dell, and McKessen Lee, an active speaker in the industry, will be in Montreal June 13th for a content marketing conference; in Mumbai on June 28 for the Indian Digital Marketing Awards and Conference, and in Minneapolis on July 25 for another conference. See Lee at this year's September 4-7, 2018, Content Marketing World Conference and Expo https://www.contentmarketingworld.com/ in Cleveland, OH: 1.     On September 4, 2018, Lee will lead “Rocket Science Simplified: How to Optimize, Socialize, and Publicize B2B Content,” a workshop on how companies can more effectively promote and repurpose their content to increase ROI: 2.     On September 5, 2018: Lee will present “The Confluence Equation: How Content and Influencers Drive B2B Marketing Success,” a seminar on enterprise B2B influencer marketing. Author of Optimize, Lee has published TopRank's Online Marketing Blog for 10 years, the only blog that has been ranked as the #1 content marketing blog three times by Content Marketing Institute. Lee can be reached on his agency's website at: toprankmarketing.com, through the agency blog at: toprankblog.com, on “the Twitter” @leeodden or on LinkedIn.

Lee Odden from TopRank Marketing shares his insights on the intersection of PR and online marketing In the past, traditional PR held a unique role — usually independent of the marketing department. But now, the role of PR has evolved — forming a symbiotic relationship within the online marketing framework. But while PR has evolved,... Listen to episode

“I love looking at other industries and seeing what they’re doing.” As Director of Agency Marketing at TopRank Marketing, Ashley Zeckman has a lot on her plate working — both agency marketing and client marketing. In some organizations, these two pursuits don’t always play nicely with each other (see “the cobbler’s son has no shoes”). But Ashley makes it work. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s On Brand podcast. About Ashley Zeckman Ashley Zeckman is the Director of Agency Marketing for TopRank Marketing, a fully integrated digital marketing agency. In addition to finding innovative ways to showcase the exceptional work of her team, she is also responsible for creating digital marketing programs that drive customer acquisition and growth for the agency. Her background includes expertise in content strategy, branding, influencer marketing and social media. Episode Highlights What about the “cobbler’s son” thing? “The cobbler’s son is something we talk about constantly internally. It’s fun to test out all of the cool things we do with our clients on the agency and vice versa.” TopRank specializes in influencer marketing. What’s their definition of this rising trend? “Basically, we’re co-creating content with influencers.” Like many marketing strategies, this was something that TopRank experimented with on their own first by doing influencer ebooks with Content Marketing Institute. Where does Ashely go for inspiration as a marketer? “I love looking at other industries and seeing what they’re doing. I also love the Social Media Masterminds group on Facebook and everything from Ann Handley.” What brand has made Ashley smile recently? “BarkBox —they have the perfect combo of humor and tugging at your heartstrings.” For more on BarkBox, listen to the On Brand episode with Stacie Grissom, Head of Content at Bark. To learn more, connect with Ashely on LinkedIn, check out the TopRank blog and agency website. As We Wrap … Before we go, I want to flip the microphone around to our community … Recently, Don Stanley gave us a shout on Twitter for our episode featuring Andy Cunningham.Thanks for listening! Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show. Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. Remember – On Brand is brought to you by my new book — Get Scrappy: Smarter Digital Marketing for Businesses Big and Small. Order now at Amazon and check out GetScrappyBook.com for special offers and extras. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet!

O programa discute o marketing de influência como tendência no mercado. Para enriquecer o assunto, o Podcast conta com entrevistas da especialista no tema, Bia Granja, do consultor Armindo Ferreira e do americano Lee Odden, CEO da TopRank Marketing, agência de marketing digital nos Estados Unidos. O link abaixo foi utilizado como fonte para as informações.

O programa discute o marketing de influência como tendência no mercado. Para enriquecer o assunto, o Podcast conta com entrevistas da especialista no tema, Bia Granja, do consultor Armindo Ferreira e do americano Lee Odden, CEO da TopRank Marketing, agência de marketing digital nos Estados Unidos. O link abaixo foi utilizado como fonte para as informações.

Have we reached peak influencer? People are now quitting their jobs to become full-time Instagram influencers, and self-made YouTube stars are the new Hollywood A-list. All entertainment aside, these influencers present an incredible business opportunity for brands to connect with their audiences through trusted community leaders. We interview Jackie Sobon (a food blogger, photographer, cookbook author, and social media influencer) to get the influencer's perspective on how marketers can make these partnerships more effective — and what drives her crazy about today's influencer marketing arrangements. We also ask Lee Odden (CEO of TopRank Marketing) about the best marketing KPIs and types of content for influencer relationships, as well as the future of this emerging tactic. Tweet @youngheike or @marketingcloud with your thoughts on this episode or ideas for a future topic.

If you want to grow your career as a marketer, you're going to have to pass the not-so-enjoyable hurdle of job interviews. According to guest Katie Smith, CEO of career development firm Careerable, people rank job interviews near getting a cavity filled, in terms of stress level. So how can you make this experience less terrible, nail the entire interview process, and get yourself a great offer for your next marketing gig? Listen as Katie, a marketing hiring manager (Kyle Lacy of Lessonly), and a marketer who's also an expert interviewer (Amy Higgins of TopRank Marketing) explain their best job interview secrets. Highlights from this episode: "Probably 8 of the 150 people I've interviewed has every asked me who they're going to be in the room with, which is mind-blowing to me. Then you don't understand who you're meeting with. Once you understand that, it's much easier to sell yourself, and it's much easier to communicate with people. "Write down eight to 10 stories that sum up your experience. People are so much more natural when they're in storytelling mode Think about CAR: challenge, action, result. What was the challenge that the business was facing? What was the action you specifically took? What was the result of it?" "Back then, I did a lot more of the talking and less of the listening. I was always felt pressured to say the correct thing, and so that pressure would equal me continually talking, and I never stopped. Now, I would say I only do about 20% of the talking." Did you enjoy this episode? Want to share your thoughts or must-have job interview tips? Connect with Heike on Twitter: @youngheike.

“There's a gravity to shiny new objects and tactics that people can easily fall prey to." As CEO of TopRank Marketing, Lee Odden helps both B2B and B2C clients overcome the obstacles of today's shiny new things. He's also the author of Optimize and an expert on influencer marketing. We discussed all of this and more on this week’s episode of the podcast. About Lee Odden Lee Odden is the CEO of TopRank Marketing, a Minneapolis based digital marketing agency specializing in strategic internet marketing consulting services including: Content Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Organic and Paid Search Marketing, Organic and Paid Social Media, Online PR, Email and Conversion Optimization. Odden and his team have provided digital marketing consulting and services for some of the leading B2B and B2C companies including: McKesson, BT Syntegra, Virgin Pulse, Marketo, LinkedIn, Dell, Henry Schein, HP, Microsoft, Staples, General Mills, Content Marketing Institute, Copyblogger Media, and MarketingProfs. Odden has been frequently cited for his digital marketing and PR expertise by leading industry and business publications including Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Economist, Entrepreneur, and Fortune Magazine. Lee is author of, Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media and Content Marketing. A sought after public speaker, Odden has keynoted numerous digital marketing industry conferences and has given nearly 200 presentations in 13 different countries over the past 10 years. Episode Highlights The trouble with strategy. I'm a huge fan of Lee's book Optimize. The first part focuses on developing a marketing strategy. While most marketers acknowledge the importance of strategy, few devote appropriate time and resources. "Strategy is like the Loch Ness Monster of Marketing. There are sightings but it's hard to find!" Where to start with strategy? With Q4 on the horizon and a strategy deficit, many may be wondering where to start for the new year ahead. "Start by getting some clarity around your organizational goals and your customer needs. Then you can think about how to develop marketing that solves your business problems." How do you know when influencer marketing is a good fit? Lee is also an expert on the topic of influencer marketing. Like strategy, many like the idea of influencer marketing but few know where to begin. "Start with 'why.' Why does it make sense to partner and co-create content? Especially if it's for free?" With the right influencer relations in place, you can find the right people to help you create content that is the "best answer" for your community. What's next in marketing? Lee pointed to Scott Brinker's infographic featuring over 3,800 martech solutions! (Below.) In short, marketers today are overwhelmed but help could be getting closer as Lee points to increases in participatory marketing. "Participation makes marketing more scalable — more efficient and effective." What brand has made Lee smile recently? While in Cleveland, Lee had an amazing Uber experience riding in a BMW 7 series. "It was like getting in a spaceship. That made me smile!" To learn more, go to the Top Rank Marketing website. You can also connect with him on Twitter and LinkedIn. As We Wrap … Before we go, I want to flip the microphone around to our community … This week Lee and I will both be speaking at the Social Media Rockstar Event in Willmar, Minnesota. Come see us both! Big thanks to Sarah Kuglin for putting this great event on! Did you hear something you liked on this episode or another? Do you have a question you’d like our guests to answer? Let me know on Twitter using the hashtag #OnBrandPodcast and you may just hear your thoughts here on the show. Subscribe to the podcast – You can subscribe to the show via iTunes, Stitcher, and RSS. Rate and review the show – If you like what you’re hearing, head over to iTunes and click that 5-star button to rate the show. And if you have a few extra seconds, write a couple of sentences and submit a review. This helps others find the podcast. OK. How do you rate and review a podcast? Need a quick tutorial on leaving a rating/review in iTunes? Check this out. Remember – On Brand is brought to you by my new book — Get Scrappy: Smarter Digital Marketing for Businesses Big and Small. Order now at Amazon and check out GetScrappyBook.com for special offers and extras. And finally a reminder that On Brand is brought to you by the Social Brand Forum. This premier digital marketing experience takes place September 22-23 in beautiful Iowa City, Iowa. Learn from experts like Jay Baer, Joe Pulizzi, and Gini Dietrtich in the heart of the heartland. Listeners of the show get the best rate when they register using promo code ONBRAND at socialbrandforum.com. Until next week, I’ll see you on the Internet!

Does your company work with influencers? Want to incorporate influencers into your marketing? In this episode, I interview Lee Odden, an influencer marketing expert. He's the author of Optimize, the CEO of TopRank Marketing, and his company produces TopRankBlog.com.  Show notes: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/201

Lee Odden is a world-renowned digital marketer that started working in web development and online marketing in the late 1990s. After working on engagements for companies like Toro, Supervalu and the U.S. Veteran's Administration, he shifted his focus to working with an upstart digital PR agency.   After introducing an SEO service called TopRank to the PR agency, it became the company itself - TopRank Marketing. Lee Odden is the CEO. TopRank Marketing is a fast growing digital marketing agency based in Minnesota that consults for Fortune 1000 B2B and B2C companies. In perhaps the greatest recognition I've received with my content marketing efforts, I was named along with Lee by LinkedIn as one of 31 Content Marketing Thought Leaders to follow in the industry. Lee provides some insight into how his firm is working with some key brands in the industry and how he's advancing their content marketing efforts. Lee isn't just a leader in the industry, he's also an incredibly gracious person and patient teacher. I've been a student for over a decade!

June 24, 2015 TopRank Marketing Lee Odden & Rusty Lion Robert Mallon

Introducing Lee Odden Lee Odden has been called a pioneer and legend of SEO.  He has blogged over 1.2 million words on his TopRank Online Marketing Blog, and is the CEO of TopRank Marketing.  Lee is also amongst an exclusive club of marketers with beards. Our host, Greg Hemmings, met Lee at last year's New Media Expo, which was one of Lee's twenty-ish speaking engagements of the year.  Lee's speaking engagements not only help to educate attendees, but also generate sales leads for his company, as well as offering numerous ways to network.  However, you don't become a trusted source as a blogger, public speaker, or social media maverick from just thin air; Lee was in the trenches for many years.  He got involved with SEO in the late 90's, but in 2001 he decided to take the plunge as an entrepreneur.  He decided to forgo a salary and focus in on online marketing while starting an online PR firm with a few associates.  This was just shortly after the dot com crash, and many online firms were not investing in marketing.  What Lee's group did that was pioneering, however, was mix in the SEO and marketing into one neat package.  Now TopRank Marketing works some of the heavy hitters including:  Staples, Dell, Linked In, General, and numerous other B2B technology companies. When it comes to creating content online, Lee finds many companies to be impatient.  He quotes a statistic that 90% of corporate blogs do five posts and then never post again.  He notes that you must survive to stand out.  Also, to stand out you need to differentiate yourself from others and be specific in your messaging.  By following through and creating interesting, useful content, you can generate more leads.  This can be exponential if you further engage your current advocates in order to make them feel a part of the team.  One way this can be done is thanking them for sharing your content.  Another way is by giving them content that is in easy to swallow sound bites.  Sound bites are superficial but effective ways to spread your message, especially in the time of Twitter.     In this episode Lee offers up some tidbits from his many years of experience in content creation, and public speaking.  He tells us how he developed a fantastic business with large-scale clients out of his neck of the woods in Minnesota.  Dave is engaged by Lee's notion of being the best answer in order to be noticed.  Greg likes Lee's business design, which has a win-win philosophy for the client, creator, and customer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

  More than 120,000 slide  share views is possible when your content marketing is of rock star proportions. Lee Odden of TopRank Marketing discusses the importance of instilling awesome in all your content because high quality content stands you out from the crowd and gets shared more. In this episode Lee who is the author of […]