TopRank Internet Marketing News

According to a new report from MarketingSherpa, the B2B marketplace is rapidly evolving, and marketers are resistant to adapt to the latest best practices. 68% of B2B marketers haven’t even identified their Marketing-Sales funnel. Resistance to market changes and the failure to identify the customer journey are huge obstacles for improving B2B marketing effectiveness.

In light of these challenges, it’s refreshing to know that progressive and successful B2B marketers are offering advice to become more innovative and customer centric. “Speak customer”, “Be Human” and work to innovate by understanding the sales funnel so performance can be optimized are the trends to follow.

To advance B2B marketing innovation, TopRank Online Marketing and MarketingProfs have partnered to create an impressive collection of 33 B2B Marketing innovation tips from some of the top B2B thought leaders and brands.

TopRank Online Marketing is in search of a talented web developer to join its high-performing team. The ideal candidate seeks an opportunity for challenge, innovation and reward with an opportunity to do world-class work in a fun, growing and collaborative environment.

We are looking for a design savvy Web Developer that also understands the technical side of SEO. This role requires proficiency in web publishing applications, web design and their impact on search engine visibility.  It also offers a chance to learn and grow as web technologies and search optimization continue to evolve.

Primary Functions & Responsibilities:

• Design and development of websites, email landing pages, blogs, social media backgrounds and more for clients
• Developing web, social and blog templates
• Supporting website SEO audits for clients
• Supporting web analytics and search marketing reporting
• Creation and testing of email campaigns and response tools

As an online marketer, social media specialist, or PR professional it is essential that you have a deep understand of what attracts customers to your brand and retains them as clients.  Lee Odden’s new book #Optimize takes a strategic approach to a customer centric and holistic approach to optimizing your online marketing strategy.

On April 10, 2012 Social Media Club Chicago (SMC Chicago) will be hosting an exclusive event based on Odden’s new book as well as his experience as a veteran online marketer.

What Will You Learn?

In an age of information ubiquity, consumers and technology have shifted the way we discover, consume and share information in amazing ways. Now more than ever, businesses have a tremendous opportunity to leverage the convergence of search, social media and content marketing to “optimize” brand messages and consumer experiences whether they happen on a social network or a search engine.

An optimized approach to online marketing and PR can have a very significant impact on your overall marketing success.  As consumers and media partners begin using different tactics and means of consuming, creating, and sharing information the way that you target them must also evolve.

On April 2nd, 2012 at PRSA’s Annual Digital Impact conference in New York TopRank CEO Lee Odden will be presenting a session on “Content Marketing & Public Relations: Optimize & Socialize to Persuade Your Audience to Act.” This session will teach you how to use marketing best practices to create a strategy that inspires your audience to share, purchase from, and recommend your brand online.  Other key tactics that will be discussed include:

• Developing personas for your target audience
• Instruction on researching social topics and keywords
• Discover tips for leverage your social networks to create strong relationships and promote your content

The Online Marketing Summit is an event truly focused on the attendees.  OMS strives to provide education in many different forms, from experts to thought leaders within the online marketing industry.  The topics covered at this year’s conference range from Social Media Strategy, SEO, Email Marketing, Content Management, to Integrated Marketing.

At this years conference TopRank CEO Lee Odden will be giving a solo presentation titled “Optimize This: Integrating Social, SEO, & Content” and co-presenting a session titled “The Convergence of Search, Social, & Content Marketing”.  Want to learn more?

Online Marketing Summit 2012

Tuesday, February 7, 2012
11:45 AM – 12:30 PM – Optimize This: Integrating Social, SEO, & Content
Location: Sapphire H
Solo Presentation by: Lee Odden, TopRank Online Marketing CEO and author of “Optimize”

Search Engine Optimization and Social Media are no longer distinct channels. They are forever intertwined, each affecting the other in terms of how digital information is discovered, consumed and shared. The subsequent impact on reach and engagement means the integration of these channels is as relevant for Public Relations as it is for Marketing.

I was asked by Melanie Mitchell, SVP of Search Marketing at Digitas to give a presentation on holistic SEO at ad:tech San Francisco where I caught up with another amazingly smart friend, Susan Bratton. She recorded an interview with me on the Social & SEO for Public Relations topic for her popular DishyMix podcast and shared the transcript with me to repost.

Be sure to sign up for SES San Francisco mid August to see Susan give the opening keynote. In the meantime, read on for our discussion about SEO and Social Media or listen to to full interview on DishyMix:

This year we decided to give away not one, but two free tickets ($595 value each) to the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) Annual Summit conference at the Hilton, downtown Minneapolis on September 28th. The giveaway was announced on TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog and Twitter, participants were given the following instructions:

In a test of your micro-content writing skills, all you need to do is post a creative tweet using ALL of the following:
@TopRank @garyvee @baratunde http://tprk.us/mima-2010 #mimasummit

The responses were pretty amusing. We compiled them and shared in a super secret manner to the TopRank super-secret-voting-on-contests-involving -Twitter team.  Apparently Justin Bieber struck a chord because Dan Monfre racked up the votes for his tweet, which was tied by panelectric, whose real name we don’t know yet, with an ode to the cool kids.

Winning Tweets from TopRank  Online Marketing Ticket Giveaway for the 2010 MIMA Summit:

How do you feel about social media, particularly as it relates to your brand?

Better put, how would you feel about social media marketing if you knew search engines took your company’s social activity into account when determining your search ranking?

Hallie Mummert of Target Marketing recently wrote an excellent piece titled Search: Get Real About Real Time SEO.  The article, featuring quotes from TopRank Online Marketing® CEO Lee Odden, opens with an example of a real time search conducted in the light of recent riots in Oakland, CA:

“Searching Google for “Oakland riots” led to a page of blended search results—one could find news stories, videos, blog posts and tweets. That’s right, Twitter posts showed up in an automated scroll box about halfway down the Google search engine results page.”

Wanted: Creative Online Copywriter to Win the Hearts & Minds of Fortune 500 Company Clients

(Who also doesn’t mind having meetings on the lake once in a while)

TopRank Online Marketing has a great opportunity for a talented writing professional to join our content marketing team. Business blogs, websites, social media content and other types of online promotional copy are core skills for this position that helps our clients win on the web.

The search and social media savvy writer we’re looking for knows online marketing communications and messaging from working client side, at an agency or both. Prior experience (2-3 years) with Blogging, Article Writing, Social Media Content Creation and Promotion as well as Search Engine Marketing will win big brownie points.