Reflecting on 2015 & Gearing Up For Digital Marketing Innovation in 2016

This year brought many opportunities for innovation, creativity and growth for the team at TopRank Marketing.

On a personal note, I was beyond excited to re-join the team and dive head first into my new role as Director of Agency Marketing. In this role, part of my responsibilities include ensuring that our team provides creative, engaging, actionable and innovative content for our blog readers each week.

In 2015, our team published nearly 300 blog posts and amassed over 1.4 million unique pageviews for our blog content alone. Keeping the content engine running is an essential part of what we do at TopRank Marketing and I’m pleased to report the numbers above. Nearly a million of the pageviews above were generated from Organic Search which means that our strategy to optimize customers and search engines has led people to our content.

As part of our online community, I’d like to use this post to give you a glimpse into some highlights of 2015 for our team, as well as some exciting changes coming in 2016.

Executive Team Member Promotions

It’s always a great day when we are able to promote one of our own to a leadership position within the organization. The two women below have both shown exceptional drive, dedication and leadership to the team long before earning these executive promotions.

Jolina Pettice has been promoted from Director of Operations to the company’s Vice President. With 10 years of experience at TopRank Marketing, Pettice has performed a number of essential duties including managing Fortune 500 search, content and social media marketing programs for large enterprise organizations.

Alexis Hall was recently promoted from Senior Account Manager to Director of Client Accounts where she leads the account management team. Alexis began her career at TopRank Marketing as an Account Coordinator and she recently celebrated 5 years at the agency and oversees client programs for large software and healthcare companies.

Welcoming New Talent to TopRank Marketing

In addition to promoting current employees to leadership positions, we also added some fresh, creative and innovative talent to our roster. While we do have quite a few new team members start this year, here are some of our most recent additions to the TopRank Marketing Family:

Kevin Cotch joined TopRank Marketing’s SEO team as a SEO Analyst earlier this year. Kevin’s experience as well as his willingness to dive in and help solve complex technical SEO issues has made him a welcome addition to the team.

Another awesome addition to the SEO team was Julia Ramos as a SEO Copywriter. I will be the first to tell you that Julia is not your average copywriter. Her attention to detail, in-depth research and analytical brain have elevated the level of service that we are able to provide to all clients across the board.  

Knute Sands is one of our newest Account Manager’s and has a killer combination of account management and content experience. This makes him uniquely qualified to work with some of our biggest clients on their content marketing strategies and initiatives.

Last, but certainly not least was the addition of Caitlin Burgess as a Content Marketing Lead. Caitlin’s roots in traditional journalism and digital marketing have made her a content marketing machine!

While TopRank Marketing has already doubled its staff since 2013, they are always on the hunt for talented digital marketers. Open positions can be found on the career page of the website.

Building New Client Relationships in Banking & Telecom

TopRank Marketing’s reputation for delivering industry leading digital marketing services and achieving results has recently attracted multiple new clients including a leading fraud protection firm and banking services company with engagements focused on online advertising services and analytics. Additionally, a well-known IT and telecom company recently engaged the agency for content marketing services.

Our legacy clients and new clients have all taught us so much about how to provide value and help them solve problems through our digital marketing consulting and services. All of our clients continue to be a valuable resource and we are so thankful for the opportunity to work with and get to know each and every one of them.

Changing Locations But Not Values

The expansion of our business led us on a quest to find a new office space to better suit our growing needs. As of January 4th, we will be leaving the shores of lake minnetonka and moving to the 55 West Financial Center.

This new space will allow us to continue to develop our team of rockstar marketers, put us closer to local clients and encourage even more collaboration between teams.

If you’re interested, here is where you can find our new office:

55 West Financial Center
10405 6th Ave. N.
Suite 250
Minneapolis, MN 55441

Catching Up With TopRank Marketing President, Susan Misukanis

The heart and soul of our organization has been built by those that have spent time in the trenches building this company from the ground up. One of those people is our President and Co-Founder, Susan Misukanis. I was able to catch a few minutes with her and get some very open and honest reflections about TopRank Marketing’s past, as well as a glimpse into what our office move could mean for the organization.

Q: What are some of the things that you’re most proud of about TopRank Marketing?

A: All of TopRank Marketing’s Clients, small, medium and large who have supported us as we grew, taught us valuable lessons, and have given us the privilege of serving them over the past 15 years.

I’m also extremely proud of the the talented TopRank Marketing team members whose commitment to serving our clients is unmatched.

Q: What is one of the biggest lessons that you’ve learned in the digital marketing business?

A: One lesson we keep learning is how important it is to be committed to hiring the highest achievers and marketing talent who are truly focused getting the best results for our clients!

Q: If you could pick one thing to do over, what would it be?

A: I’m anticipating that we should have moved closer to Minneapolis sooner in order to attract talent who are not up for the drive to Lake Minnetonka. Thank you to all our team members who have enjoyed the daily drive around the lake to get to us!

Q: What are some expectations you have for our new office space?

A: I think that this move will help us attract and retain even more of those talented digital marketers that we are looking for to join our team. We will also have more flexibility with a new and larger space that allows team members to work in private or a collaborate in a team environment.

Wishing You A Happy, Healthy & Innovative New Year

Beyond our move to a new office, new team members and clients, we’re incredibly excited to be part of an industry that is constantly evolving and innovating at a rapid pace. The bar is constantly being raised and we look forward to providing you creative and compelling content in the new year, and continuing to expand our service offering for our amazing clients.

What are you looking forward to most in the new year?

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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2015. | Reflecting on 2015 & Gearing Up For Digital Marketing Innovation in 2016 | http://www.toprankblog.com

The post Reflecting on 2015 & Gearing Up For Digital Marketing Innovation in 2016 appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

How To Easily Curate Relevant Content

What's the single most important element of good social media engagement? Your content. With good content you can attract an audience with so much more ease. And at the end of the day, you end up with an excellent brand […]

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

How To Easily Curate Relevant Content

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Written by Vasudha Veeranna, http://drumup.io/

The post How To Easily Curate Relevant Content appeared first on Search Engine People Blog.

TopRank Marketing’s 2016 Influencer Marketing Predictions

This year, headlines throughout the marketing blogosphere proclaimed that influencer marketing is “the next big thing.”

At TopRank Marketing, we have been refining our influencer marketing strategy for nearly a decade. It’s our past, present, and next big thing. When done well, influencer marketing can boost brand credibility, provide valuable exposure for the brand and the influencer and create killer content your audience will love.

Now that influencer marketing has officially arrived, how will it evolve in 2016? We asked our in-house experts, and some of our favorite marketers outside the TopRank Marketing team, for their opinion. Here are the influencer marketing predictions for 2016.

Steve Rayson

Director, BuzzSumo
@steverayson

I think one opportunity is to build relationships with a small group of influencers (6-10) that have relatively few followers but high engagement rates. To do this find well shared content that is highly relevant to your area. Analyze who shared this content and filter those with high retweet rates (on average how many times their tweets are retweeted) but relatively few followers. Develop relationships by answering questions they ask on Twitter, sharing their content, commenting on their blogs, attending their webinars and meeting them in person if you can; and above all, ask how you can help them.

Lee Odden

CEO, TopRank Marketing
@leeodden

As consumers become increasingly numb to formal marketing messages and advertising, their trust in information from peers, social network connections and industry experts has increased.

A few interesting statistics about influencer marketing:

• 84% of B2B buyers start the purchasing process with a referral. (LinkedIn)
• 92% of consumers rely on referrals from people they know above all else (TapInfluence)
• 81% of those surveyed considered influencer engagement to be effective or very effective for meeting their objectives (Augure)
• $6.85 for every $1 spent – This is the average media value earned by brands who implemented influencer marketing. (Burst Media / RhythmOne)

In 2016 I think we’ll see more brands expand their view of how to incorporate influencers as partners in content co-creation vs. simply as another promotion and advertising channel.

We’ll also see higher expectations of influencers themselves. Popularity is not influence and brands that use influencer marketing will expect more than mentions and social shares. Those influencers capable of affecting real business outcomes will become even more in demand and valuable.

To take advantage of the growing value of influencers, sophisticated marketers will begin to better distinguish between different kinds of influencers and the characteristics that make them the best match for marketing programs.

Influencer Marketing software will lead the way towards effectively identifying, qualifying, recruiting, engaging, managing and measuring influencer marketing performance. Companies that achieve higher levels of expertise with this kind of software will achieve a distinct competitive advantage in their respective industries.

Amanda Maksymiw

Senior Content Marketing Manager, Lattice Engines
@amandamaks

Companies just getting into influencer marketing must understand that there isn’t a silver bullet or trick to overnight success. It takes time to build valuable relationships with influencers that produce results. You need to engage on social media, comment on blog posts, leave book reviews, interact in person (if possible), etc. In 2016, companies will realize that it’s the time for a less is more approach. Instead of targeting a list of influencers that is too large to manage and relying on automated tactics, marketers will focus on a smaller group so they can focus on more personalized, less automated outreach to garner big wins.

Susan Misukanis

President, TopRank Marketing
@smisukanis

2016 will offer a prime opportunity for us marketers to move our strategies from smoldering ideas to bright and memorable initiatives. But only If we think and behave in the right way.

We’ve had clients ask us to “give them an influencer list” because penetrating influencer communities, they think, is the secret to an epic campaign.

In fact, an influencer with a solid, on topic and active community presents nothing more than an opportunity. Like a match looking at a log.

When a creative campaign ignites the influencer and community well, then meaningful participation can happen and opportunity is enhanced.

And when an influencer, their community and other stakeholders, are truly passionate about a toipic, the opportunity for a story to be passed from one social campfire to the next really heats up.

And so in 2016 we marketers will ideally learn that influencer marketing is more than “the right influencer”. It’s about relationships, community and common interest. Oh and let’s not forget a spark of creative.

To 2016. May your influencer campaigns burn as glowing examples for the rest of us to follow.

Amy Higgins

Director of Content Marketing, Deem
@amywhiggins

Many marketers today think of influencer marketing as a campaign, or a one-off. They co-create a series of deliverables with a limited number of influencers designed to bring about a particular result. To me, this is like coloring inside the lines. I predict that beginning in 2016 marketers will learn to color outside the lines of a campaign.

As a marketer, you’d never create a single campaign that focuses on your brand’s voice. Instead, you’ll weave your brand’s  voice into any and all content that you create. By utilising influencers throughout all of your marketing efforts, you can increase your reach and engagement. So then, why do marketers still compartmentalize influencers? By not weaving influencers into all of your marketing and coloring inside the lines of a campaign, you are missing a huge opportunity for your business. In 2016, let’s color outside the lines with influencer marketing!

What Are Your Influencer Marketing Predictions for 2016?

Influencer marketing enjoyed a surge of popularity in 2015, and the best practices are sure to evolve in the coming year. At TopRank, we will continue to explore new tools, platforms and strategies to keep learning and improving.

What are your company’s influencer marketing plans for 2016? Let us know in the comments.

Want to learn more about influencer marketing? Check out our website or contact us directly and let us know how we can help.

Disclosure: Deem is a TopRank Marketing client.

Header image via Shutterstock

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© Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®, 2015. | TopRank Marketing’s 2016 Influencer Marketing Predictions | http://www.toprankblog.com

The post TopRank Marketing’s 2016 Influencer Marketing Predictions appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

How to Effectively Use Remarketing (Infographic)

It seems that each year that passes brings some new forms of advertising that marketers can add as another tool in their arsenal.

These past few years have brought native advertising to the mainstream, which comedian John Oliver analyzed this past August:

Native advertising has taken hold online. Here’s an example from Buzzfeed:

This native advertising happens offline as well. You’ll find it in newspapers, magazines and hear it on the radio (it’s sneaky).

The web has also exploded with the growth of exit intent popups. Hover your mouse near the top of the browser to close or switch a tab and out of nowhere comes a near full page ad asking the visitor for something before they leave – typically an email address. Here’s an example, courtesy of 2xecommerce.com:

In recent years we have also seen the growth of retargeting. This purpose of this is to advertise to people who have previously visited a specific site.

For example, let’s say you visit amazon.com today, place a few items in your cart, and leave. A few days later you’re browsing nytimes.com and see an Amazon advertisement with the products you put in your cart. You can then click the ad and are directed back to Amazon, and complete your purchase.

Sound like a new channel you’d like to test? Neil Patel of Quick Sprout has created an infographic to help you out. Whether you’re just diving into retargeting or have been around the block a few times and want a refresher on some of the principles.

Courtesy of: Quick Sprout

Resources for Learning More

We’ve covered retargeting in the past, including a couple webinars:

• Converting the 98%: Turning Almost Customers into Actual Customers
• Speed Dating on Advertising

You’ll also find some great content around the web:

• How to Spend Your First $100 on Retargeting Ads
• Putting Retargeting To Work For Your Startup
• 5 Tips for Running a Successful Retargeting Campaign

If you’re going to dabble in retargeting, it’s important to measure the results. You can use Kissmetrics to measure and optimize all your marketing campaigns. I’ve written some articles about how to do this:

• Using Channels in Kissmetrics to Learn Where Your Most Valuable Customers Come From
• How to Track the Effectiveness of Marketing Campaigns
• How to Find out What Marketing Campaigns are the Best for Acquisition, ROI, & Retention

You can also request a personal demo of Kissmetrics to learn more.

About the Author: Zach Bulygo (Twitter) is the Blog Manager for Kissmetrics.

Related Questions Grow +500% in 5 Months

Posted by Dr-Pete

Earlier this year, Google rolled out the Related Questions feature (AKA "People Also Ask"). If you haven't seen them yet, related questions appear in an expandable box, mixed in with organic results. Here's an example from a search for "Samsung Galaxy S6":

If you click on any question, it expands into something that looks like a Featured Snippet:

Currently, Related Questions can occur in packs of between 1–4 questions and answers. Here's an example of a box with only one question, on a search for "lederhosen":

Once expanded, a typical answer contains a machine-generated snippet, a link to the source website, and a link to the Google search for the question.

How common are related questions?

We started tracking Related Questions in late July on the MozCast 10K, where they originally appeared on roughly 1.3% of queries. Keep in mind that the MozCast set tends toward commercial queries, and the absolute percentage may not represent the entire web. What's interesting, though, is what happened after that. Here's a graph of Related Questions prevalence since the end of July:

You can clearly see two spikes in the graph — one measured on October 27th, and one on December 1st. As of this writing (December 10th), Related Questions appeared on about 8.1% of the queries we track. In less than 5 months, Related Questions have increased 501%. This is a much faster adoption rate than other Knowledge Graph features.

Where do the answers come from?

When you expand a question, the answer looks a lot like another recent Knowledge Graph addition — Featured Snippets. Digging deeper, though, it appears that the connection is indirect at best. For example, here's an expanded question on a search for "monopoly":

If you click on that search, though, you get a SERP with the following Featured Snippet:

It's interesting to note that both answers come from Investopedia, but Google is taking completely different text from two different URLs on the same site. With Featured Snippets, we know that the answer currently has to come from a site already ranking on page one, but with Related Questions, there's no clear connection to organic results. These answers don't seem tied to their respective SERPs.

Where do the questions come from?

It's clear that both the answers in Related Questions and the snippets in Featured Snippets are machine-generated. Google is expanding the capabilities of the Knowledge Graph by extracting answers directly from the index. What may not be as clear, at first glance, is that machines are also generating the questions themselves. Look at the following example, from a search for "grammar check":

Out of context, the question doesn't even make sense. Expanded, you can see that it relates to a very specific grammar question posted on Quora. While the topic is relevant, no human would attach this question, as worded, to this search. Consider another example, for "cover letter examples":

The first and last question are obviously, to a human, redundant. To a machine, though, they would look unique. To be fair, Google has come a long way in a short time — even a couple of months ago, some of these questions were riddled with grammar and spelling errors. As of this writing, I can't find a single example of either.

Finally, there are the questions that no human would ever ask:

No rational human would ever want to know what kind of meat is in a gyro. It's better that way.

What's coming next?

It's clear that Google is rapidly expanding their capability to generate questions and answers from the index. Both Featured Snippets and Related Questions have evolved considerably since their respective launches, and Google's ability to understand natural language queries and semantic data is growing daily. It may be months before we fully understand if and how these results cannibalize organic clicks, but it seems very clear that Google no longer considers these features to be experimental and will be aggressively pushing forward question-and-answer style SERPs in the near future.

Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but want to read!

What To Write About When "Everything's Been Written"

Developing great content can be a challenge for any online business. Yet, unless you've been blogging for decades in a static industry, which I'm not sure exists given the technological revolution of the last several years, or manage a blog […]

Post from: Search Engine People SEO Blog

What To Write About When "Everything's Been Written"

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Written by Gary Dek, StartABlog123.com

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The Best Resources for Account-Based Marketing

I’ve spent the past few weeks discussing account-based marketing (ABM), a powerful but under-implemented strategy. My first post covers the history of account-based marketing, from the “Mad Men” days of the 1950s to today. My second post reviews the reasons B2B firms should implement account-based marketing.

Of course, understanding why you should implement account-based marketing and actually doing it are two different things. Knowing how to implement the right technology stack is essential to unlocking the true power of ABM. For the final post in this series, I’ll go over the best resources for setting up account-based marketing.

What’s ABM, again?

Let’s quickly review the definition of ABM:

• Account-based marketing focuses marketing and sales resources on a defined set of targeted accounts, where personalized campaigns are tailored to each account.

Now that we understand what account-based marketing is, the next step is incorporating the right technology. Many times firms adopt technology without understanding its real purpose, sometimes without any real marketing strategy. Before you fall into the same trap, you need to take a hard look at the health of your Marketing and Sales departments.

Understanding Your Experience with Technology and Training

Every marketing firm is different. From client experience to employee expertise, your firm is going to have unique resources and know-how. While this might include SaaS, you have to be willing to admit when you aren’t ready for new tech.

Is your staff experienced enough with SaaS solutions to adapt to new systems and processes? Do they have good habits in place with existing SaaS solutions, like LinkedIn Business? Have you introduced new systems in the past?

After answering these questions, you’ll be able to realistically determine what you’ll need for ABM. Asking yourself the hard questions will help you determine the right resources and training for your team’s success.

Make Sure Marketing and Sales Speak the Same Language

No matter the firm, Marketing and Sales should be on the same page. Marketing and sales alignment is necessary for marketing to ensure their campaigns align with the needs of prospects identified by sales, and for sales to make sure they’re selling the right stuff to the right contacts. Both departments need to have the same success metrics, otherwise efforts from one could be counter-productive for the other.

Implementing a technology stack makes this relationship more important than ever. Solutions are built to streamline processes such as updating lead and contact information and streamlining campaigns, so the more you have your ducks in a row, the better. (And let’s not forget the cost of purchasing new SaaS.) As with any investment, you need to make sure you’re getting the most value you can.

Understand the Purpose of Your Technology Stack

It’s not uncommon for many companies, big and small, to jump on new technology. The enthusiasm is great—the fallout, not so much. Many Marketing departments don’t have a clear purpose or strategy for incorporating their chosen technology into their existing sales and marketing pipeline.

Before adding a tool to your technology stack, ask yourself what value it will add to your sales and marketing efforts. Do you want to use ABM because of its laser focus on lead generation and management? Are you looking for automations tools to help with campaigns? Many account-based marketing solution companies offer more than one product. Knowing what you need will help you and your potential provider find your ideal solution.

Identify Tools to Help Achieve Your Strategy

Finally, we’ve arrived at the most important question: What should you look for in an ABM solution? Some important features may include:

Action-Oriented Insights

Any ABM solution can slice and dice data into metrics and charts. However, these insights are useless if you can’t create actionable plans from them. Solid account-based marketing programs will provide straightforward metrics that you can readily understand and use effectively. Ideally, the system will also offer flexibility for you to create customized drill-down reports as you become familiar with your particular needs.

Lead and Contact Data Automation

The very objective of having an ABM stack is to reduce time-consuming tasks so you can focus on engaging your targeted segment. Good ABM solutions will help manage contact and lead information, such as automatically updating contact information or mapping new contacts into the appropriate accounts.

Reliable Support and Services

Just as your firm focuses on marketing and tailoring your services to your customers, your ABM provider should offer reliable real-time support. While this includes a traditional help desk, some firms go so far as to provide consultant services and host educational events.

Integration with Existing Solutions

We’ve already mentioned that account-based marketing requires constant communication with sales. ABM tools that integrate with existing solutions like Salesforce and marketing automation solutions like Marketo will keep your teams running smoothly.

ABM Technology to Add to Your Stack

Now that you understand what to look for in an account-based marketing system, I’m sure you’re wondering where to even begin looking for the solution that’s best for you. Fortunately, there aren’t too many out there right now:

• Engagio – Though new to the ABM scene, Engagio delivers reliable automation and analytics no matter the size of your target segment. This solution connects to your existing Salesforce and Marketo accounts and your website to keep track of leads, marketing programs and site visitors. The utilization of metrics such as “engagement minutes,” allow for a more straightforward way of tracking lead interest.
• LeanData – This California-based company delivers two ABM products. Sales Accelerator focuses on lead management, including automated lead conversions and contact owner assignments. Demand Management focuses on account-based reporting and nurturing, ensuring you have the proper data to adjust campaigns and properly target leads.
• DemandBase – DemandBase offers a full suite of solutions, called the Marketing Cloud, to help teams streamline every step of the marketing process. Solutions include advertising, personalized site experiences and account-based measurements. DemandBase also provides consulting services by experts that will help create a marketing plan that’s best for you.

Before You Hit “Start”

Finally, we come to the $6 billion question: Is it time for you to implement account-based marketing? To review, here’s what’s on the table:

• The opportunity to target “whale” accounts with tailored marketing campaigns.
• The power to engage contacts and create organic referrals within accounts.
• The confidence to sell more than ever before once you’ve set up your stack and hired in the right talent.

Like I’ve said before, ABM really is a no-brainer. But you have to be prepared.

Jumping the gun and setting up an ABM stack the wrong way will just make life harder for Marketing and Sales. Take the time to review your existing solutions and align your firepower with your targets. ABM will help you get where you want to go, but you need to be facing the right direction, first.

About the Author: Alp Mimaroglu is a Marketing Luminary. He specializes in marketing automation, demand generation, analytics, and marketing technology. Alp has extensive experience with both business and consumer marketing. He’s passionate about how technology is rapidly becoming the key to success in both the corporate sales and marketing landscapes. Follow Alp on LinkedIn and Twitter.