Wednesday, March 13th, 2013 | Filed under Ask an Expert.
This is a challenge that plagues businesses of all sizes, across all verticals. There are longstanding myths that social doesn’t work well for B2B companies, or that a company must be huge in order to attract enough social fans to see any sort of worthwhile engagement.
Thankfully, both assumptions are false. A research report out this month shows that many of the top brands in social media are, in fact, B2B companies, including Honeywell International, Oracle, and Microsoft. Business to business networking is not reserved for LinkedIn; companies are finding success on Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and even Pinterest.
Small businesses also have a fighting chance; one of the companies featured in a recent Facebook business success story was The English Cheesecake Company. This bakery used their Facebook Page as both a promotional tool and a customer service channel, increasing their fanbase from 2,000 to over 23,000 people.
The organizers of this year’s SES New York couldn’t have chosen a better place to hold this 3-day event than the Marriott Marquis because this is sure to be a marquee event! From March 25-28, 2013, the annual #SESNY conference will be THE place to learn how to succeed in online marketing.
From SEO to Content Marketing and Email Marketing to Analytics, this industry bellwether delivers the best in digital marketing year after year. Attendees will hear big brands discuss everything from enterprise level strategy to mobile marketing on a large scale. Outstanding marketing agencies will provide key tactics and takeaways you can implement on your own online marketing plan after you leave.
TopRank Online Marketing CEO, Lee Odden (@leeodden), will deliver a solo presentation entitled “Creative Content Marketing – Winning Hearts, Minds and Wallets” which will give attendees a framework for producing a creative content strategy in the most efficient way possible.
An important first step in launching an online marketing campaign is identifying objectives. Your objectives will help lead your strategy, implementation, measurement, and refinement. For example, an ecommerce site may be looking to drive more traffic to their website. Increased traffic will push more visitors into the top of the funnel, likely increasing the number of visits which convert to a sale. However, as one company learned, marketing effects for an ecommerce site can impact your bottom line in more than one way.
Company Background:
Leather Bound is an online and in store retailer of leather motorcycle apparel and accessories. Leather Bound Online has been engaged with TopRank since 2010, with the objective of increasing traffic and online sales via their website, leatherboundonline.com.
Current Situation: Leather Bound Online retained TopRank Online Marketing to strategize and implement a Search Engine Optimization and Content Marketing program which tactics include:
Thursday, January 26th, 2012 | Filed under Ask an Expert.
When should you start with Content Marketing? Today’s online marketing is a race where the stakes are high, competition is tough and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to create a sustainable, competitive advantage. Consider these questions to help you answer, “When Content Marketing is right?” for you:
What’s the right time to understand who your best customers are? Who are your “worst” customers?
When is it a good time to know what your prospects and customers care about and why they buy?
What triggers your prospects to discover, consume and engage with content that inspires sales, social shares and referrals?
Does having no content plan really mean you’re planning to fail?
If you don’t tie your SEO, Social Media and Online Public Relations efforts together in a way that’s “manageable” and efficient now, will you wait until your competition does?
In an ever-evolving age of interactive media, search marketers walk a tight rope. Between paid and organic search, social media, optimization, search rankings and measuring success, it’s no surprise that this balancing act presents challenges.
MarketingProfs University is offering a 13-class course addressing popular questions on these topics to help search marketers find the perfect balance and be more effective in their careers.
MarketingProfs University provides affordable, comprehensive online training across the disciplines that make up every business’ marketing mix. In addition to learning what businesses need to plan, build and measure successful marketing programs, course attendees have the opportunity to review best practices from peers, discover new tools and processes, and see what’s working in marketing today. Search Marketing School is a live online presentation featuring several speakers throughout the day.
Tuesday, September 6th, 2011 | Filed under Speaking.
Content Marketing World 2011
While it’s important for business website content to be optimized for search engines, don’t forget that your customers are communicating and making purchasing decisions every day on social media and networking sites. Unfortunately, few companies excel at incorporating both Search and Social Media Optimization in their content strategies.
On Sept. 6 – 9, Content Marketing World is hosting a lineup of over 50 presenters including elite B2B, B2C, small business and non-profit marketers and thought leaders speaking on using content marketing to drive and retain business. One session will take a deep dive into content marketing for search and social. This presentation is designed to equip content marketers with an effective process for any organization, large or small.
Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011 | Filed under Ask an Expert.
A fairly common – and quite fair – question by many companies when seeking a social media consultant is, ‘can you help us with Facebook?’
The answer, provided by most firms, is ‘of course.’ But what positions some social media consultants above others is this: the best consultants will never agree to such a narrow focus.
For metaphorical purposes, let’s pretend the consultant in question is a golf instructor. Each day, you pay the instructor, and he helps you master the first hole of stunning 18-hole course. Weeks later during a tournament, you double-birdie the first hole – and don’t come within a whisper of the competition the entire balance of the day. Would you consider the money paid to the golf instructor as money well spent?
In much the same way, a consultant that agrees to a narrowly defined program – for instance, just growing Facebook likes – is agreeing to something they know cannot produce anything more than narrow results. (Or rather, they SHOULD know.)
Amazing video showing data visualization. The same technology is what makes Google Analytics Motion Charts work.
Your Guide To The Royal Wedding 2011, Social Media Style. The last time Britain had a big Royal Wedding, one didn’t tweet about it, Facebook about it, Flickr about it and certainly didn’t air it on YouTube. One couldn’t. These things didn’t exist. But the 21st century British Monarchy is hip to the social media channels of today. Here’s how people tuned in to the Royal Wedding today, via social media. Via Search Engine Land.
LinkedIn Leads More Likely to Convert on B-to-B Sites, Study Finds. LinkedIn is becoming a bigger and better source for website traffic and conversions on B-to-B websites, according to a new study conducted by LeadFormix titled “How Effective is Social Media for B2B Lead Generation?” The findings were compiled from LinkedIn visitor data taken from 289 of LeadFormix’s clients’ websites over a period of 90 days. Via eMarketing and Commerce.
Content Marketing Optimization — Digital assets, rich media, web pages, consumer opportunities. Interview with TopRank CEO Lee Odden at SES London.
Best Practices for Engaging With Consumers Through Social Media. Via WSJ.
Timeline of major Google algorithm updates 2003 – 2011. Via Level 343.
Three Steps to Generating Higher ROI From Content Marketing. Via MarketingProfs.
If you use Majestic SEO for link tracking and research, then get ready to get more out of Majestic with this Advanced Reports Tutorial. Via Majestic SEO.
Facebook is the social network with the highest rates of satisfying small-to-mid-sized businesses (SMBs), according to a Q1 2011 survey conducted by Borrell Associates. Via MarketingVOX.
A study of Fan Engagement on Facebook Fan Pages. Over 200 million fan pages were analyzed discovering that in terms of engagement, Audi beats Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber. Via Visibli.
Social Media for Marketing presentation from Slideshare.
Amazon Server Troubles Take Down Reddit, Foursquare & HootSuite. So much for high availability hosting. Amazon’s data center issues affected a huge amount of social web activity and nearly 24 hours later, they’re still not back online. A boon for Akamai. Via Mashable.
Social Media Usage By SMBs Often Ad-Hoc. Really? #sarcasm The social web is as mysterious and new to small business marketers now as SEO was 10 years ago. They’re pushing to see what pushes back in the form of marketing value without any coordinated effort or strategy in most cases. That’s a costly way to go about marketing your business. Luckily, experienced agencies like TopRank Online Marketing are here to help Via Information Week.
This is a challenge that plagues businesses of all sizes, across all verticals. There are longstanding myths that social doesn’t work well for B2B companies, or that a company must be huge in order to attract enough social fans to see any sort of worthwhile engagement.
The organizers of this year’s SES New York couldn’t have chosen a better place to hold this 3-day event than the Marriott Marquis because this is sure to be a marquee event! From March 25-28, 2013, the annual 
An important first step in launching an online marketing campaign is identifying objectives. Your objectives will help lead your strategy, implementation, measurement, and refinement. For example, an ecommerce site may be looking to drive more traffic to their website. Increased traffic will push more visitors into the top of the funnel, likely increasing the number of visits which convert to a sale. However, as one company learned, marketing effects for an ecommerce site can impact your bottom line in more than one way.
When should you start with Content Marketing? Today’s online marketing is a race where the stakes are high, competition is tough and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to create a sustainable, competitive advantage. Consider these questions to help you answer, “When Content Marketing is right?” for you:
Via 
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