TopRank Digital Marketing News

So many business blogs suffer from tactical execution without understanding the power of search engine optimization and social media for attracting traffic and engaging customers. The following presentation outlines how TopRank Online Marketing worked with it’s own blog Online Marketing Blog and with a B2B marketing client to  achieve phenomenal increases in reach, traffic and a positive effect on the bottom line.

TopRank will be offering a new set of TopRank Guides specifically focused on B2B Social Media, B2B Blogging and B2B SEO. We’ll also be conducting several webinars to explain these guides and how best to use them.

Whether you work in B2B or B2C, your prospects and customers are turning to online channels to learn more about you and your industry.  At last count, 346 million of them were turning to blogs.

Business blogging represents an unprecedented way to connect with prospects and customers more powerfully than ever.  What could be cooler than that? How about watching the CEO of TopRank® Online Marketing jump out of a flying plane?

Later this month, TopRank CEO Lee Odden will present ‘Boosting SEO For Social Blogs‘ at Open Ca.mp in Dallas, Texas. During his presentation, Odden will detail how a sound blog marketing strategy can help boost online exposure while increasing search and social traffic.

In a recent post, Online Marketing Blog equates content and links to the Yin and Yang of any healthy Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program. Post author, TopRank® Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden, states, “Active content creation, promotion and social participation are essential for building a significant and relevant inbound link footprint on the web.”

As such, blog and social media marketing related tactics are no longer simply additional options to consider when fleshing out an online strategy.  They are now vital tools required to get the job done.

Crucial for the success of any business is its ability to generate qualified prospect inquiries.  For B2B companies, oftentimes targeting a select audience and working within longer sales cycles, each and every lead generated can be crucial.

Of course, lead generation must begin with a strategy designed to generate qualified traffic.  For the three B2B businesses below, each of which has just renewed its Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program with TopRank® Online Marketing, this principle is core.  Read on to learn more about these programs:

In a recent post to Online Marketing Blog, TopRank® Online Marketing CEO Lee Odden writes, “Focusing content creation efforts solely to serve Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes can be limiting. If the only purpose for creating content is for search engine visibility, the publishing web site may improve search traffic but disappoint when it comes to converting that traffic.”

In the blog marketing and content creation case study below, learn how the TopRank team leveraged this philosophy in the design and creation of a blog for audience response system provider IML. By keeping a bullseye-like focus on prospect and customer needs, TopRank has helped IML create an online resource that exists for the primary purpose of supporting overall business objectives.

Examples of strong branding, whether it’s the ‘Uncola’ or the ‘Freshmaker’, light fires in the minds of consumers that are rarely extinguished.  Can the same branding principles used by B2C companies, including personification of a company and persistence of messaging, help B2B businesses achieve their marketing goals?

Below, learn how B2B branding is helping three clients of TopRank® Online Marketing achieve their business objectives:

Ask the Powder Doctor
Powder-Solutions, distributor of an industrial pipe connector used to enhance safety and sanitation in bulk powder processing plans, sought to humanize its image.

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?

In data cited by Forrester Research, US search marketing spend approached nearly $16 million in 2009. Per the graph below, this number is expected to rise exponentially, nearly doubling in size by 2014:

The reason behind this rapidly increasing budget allocation can be summed up succinctly and powerfully: return on investment. In a survey by eMarketer, 53% of senior level marketing executives across multiple industries point to Search Engine Optimization as the most effective online marketing tactic for generating conversions, while 49% point to paid search.

This week, Microsoft released the B2B social media whitepaper ‘Learn and Earn: A B2B Social Media Whitepaper from Microsoft Advertising.’  In this piece, author Mel Carson recounts the lessons learned and successes achieved from Microsoft’s foray into social media and blogging.

Many of the lessons learned by Microsoft in regards to blogging, such as establishing a strongly defined ROI to measure efforts, are the same guidelines that shape blog marketing best practices in programs offered by TopRank® Online Marketing.  An example of such an integration is the  Search Engine Optimization (SEO) program between TopRank and Microsoft Dynamics solutions provider InterDyn BMI, which features an added emphasis on blog marketing.

According to last year’s State of the Blogosphere report by Technorati, approximately 346 million people worldwide read blogs.  According to the same report, more than four in five bloggers post product or brand reviews and blog about brands they love or hate.  In other words – bloggers have influence about brands and they aren’t afraid to use it.

Bloggers are the world’s connectors that help businesses, products or idea reach a tipping point, or level at which momentum becomes unstoppable.  These connectors are the people who “link us up with the world” and have influential social networks.  Clearly this is an important group for spreading ideas online and connecting end users with your business.