TopRank Internet Marketing News

As brands adopt publishing as part of their online marketing mix, content marketing is receiving increased budgets – 51% plan on increasing in the next 12 months according to the CMI B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report.

Our B2B Marketing SEO client Marketo believes this may be at the cost of traditional advertising. With eyeballs moving from the traditional media to digital and online ($55 billion by 2014 according to Forrester) it’s a worthwhile argument.

For even more stats, check out this handy infographic from Marketo based on content marketing research conducted by MarketingProfs and Junta42:

What is the best social media monitoring tool? [infographic]

The 15 Most Popular Brands On Facebook. Via Business Insider.

Social media ROI: How 3 hospitals master the metrics. Via Ragan.

Social Media Measurement: Moving forward with the data and tools at hand. Via Marketing Sherpa.

How To Measure B2B Demand Generation. Via B2B Marketing Insider.

A Hint of What Google’s Social Network Might Look Like?. Via SEO by the SEA.

How to Build Marketing Content Around B2B Buying Triggers. Via MarketingProfs.

Marketers rely more heavily on SEO to increase website traffic. Via eMarketer.

As social media helps to boost online awareness for an ever-expanding list of companies, it poses the simultaneous challenge of measurement.  In an interview with eMarketer, Carol Kruse, Vice President of Global Interactive at Coca-Cola, stated, “Before you have ROI, you have to really understand how social media is driving your business.”

For B2B marketing programs, marked by traditionally longer lead times, the social media measurement challenge becomes even more pronounced. In essence, how can a company connect the dots between the online awareness generated by social media marketing and eventual sales?

Many companies launch corporate blogs taking into account only what the blog should do for them, rather than what they should do for their blog.  This can lead to blog posts being published sporadically, without the support of a consistent messaging strategy or editorial calendar.  Ultimately, this makes it extremely difficult for the blog to support overall company objectives.

The following case study features a blog marketing tactic developed by TopRank® Online Marketing for B2B marketing software provider Marketo that helped guide blog messaging, increase blog keyword traffic and improve blog referrals to the company’s website.