Some trends are worth the hype and organic hair products is one such trend. Switching to natural and organic products seems like a gamble that we are not too crazy about. Don't you think that it is high time that you

Shaving the face ladies is no longer a taboo that is frowned upon. We know it sounds scary but by now enough women have done it for us to leave the stigma behind and get your hands in and shave the

'It is not a guys thing'-You no longer can give the excuse. The beauty world has become more accommodating today and it is for the better. Men pampering themselves is no longer a hush-hush matter. When it comes to pedicure, it

Kim Kardashian is looked upon as a quintessential beauty and fashion icon. The world has seen and admired the evolution of Kim Kardashian. Seeing her extravagant hair and make-up looks, we have applauded and been jealous. Kim Kardashian latest post on

The testing time of quarantine can be made a lot more fun with some make-up. And the top beauty magazines are living up to their stature in getting us the best of the make-up world. Vogue magazine spend a whole 24

This week on Instagram came with major throwbacks(yet again!). In the times of quarantine, Instagram has a big role to play in keeping us sane. From people posting their quarantine activities to celebrities posting their throwback pictures, it feels good to

On balance, we are looking at a gradual depreciation of the Indian currency. COVID-19 will be the difference between the rupee at 76 to a dollar or 85 in another six months.

The central bank curtailed the hours to minimise infection risks and ensure that market participants maintained adequate checks and supervisory controls.

In this edition of Big Story, Moneycontrol#39;s Sakshi Batra shares her insight on the fuel hike and how will it impact us.

Watch this edition of Business Insight to know more about CMIE#39;s latest unemployment data the job market situation in India.

According to Vikram Ahuja, co-founder, Talent500 by ANSR Consulting, a recruitment platform, there is a huge demand for a full stack developer as firms are now looking at doubling their product development.

Ashok Leyland has released the sales report for zero sales in April due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The nationwide lockdown was supposed to be lifted by May 4 but seeing the current scenario, the government has further extended it to May 17.

Nissan India has officially revealed the Kicks BS6 in the Indian market. The upcoming SUV will feature a host of upgrades over the previous-gen BS4 models. The Nissan Kicks BS6 will be offered in four variants, and two engine and transmission options to choose from.

Honda is planning to sell the outgoing Honda City sedan alongside the new models at the same time. This news was confirmed according to a report by Autocar India. Moreover, the new Honda City is likely to get a suffix in

Skoda Auto has released the first set of teaser images of its electric SUV, the Enyaq iV. The new Skoda Enyaq will be the brand's first full-electric SUV and will be based on Volkswagen's MEB electric vehicle platform.

Due to the nationwide lockdown, amidst COVID-19, the automobile industry along with others are suffering huge losses. Now, since the Government has put an ease on the curfew businesses across have started to resume.

MINI has discontinued the Clubman model in the Indian market. The company has also unlisted the Clubman for their website. Before it was unlisted from their website, MINI had launched the Clubman Indian Summer Red Edition in the country during February this year.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, India is currently facing a nationwide lockdown and because of that, businesses across the nation have been affected badly. To resume business, the Government has come up with some guidelines which the companies have to follow strictly.

Jeep launched the Compass SUV back in 2017 in the Indian market. Since its inception, the SUV has been a popular name in its segment as it comes loaded with several standard safety features. The Compass is available in a five-seater

Honda is offering huge discounts and special offers on select models in the brand's lineup. The company is also offering a three-year maintenance package at 50 per cent cost, worth Rs 8,000, on select models and trims.

The actor will be remembered for effortlessly portraying varied roles.

The track is for "all those in the frontline, all around the world... the people who are risking their lives to save us and save our families," guitarist Brian May told Reuters in a video conference call interview from his home in London.

While the novel coronavirus pandemic has closed down sporting action like almost everything else, there are some football films to watch, for fans and others.

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Argentina will keep pushing for talks with creditors even as a deadline for its $65 billion debt restructuring proposal passed on Friday with little sign it had the support needed from international bondholders to unlock a comprehensive deal.

Germany will have to work on another supplementary budget to help the state's social security system cushion the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief budget lawmaker said on Saturday.

My marketing journey was born out of SEO roots, where the priority of content promotion has always been high in order to create the kind of accountable marketing performance that matters. In contrast, I see a lot of brands putting the majority or all of their investment towards content creation without qualitative or quantitative effort towards the promotion of that content.

An imbalance of content creation and promotion is not only frustrating potential marketing performance, but it's wasting the investment made in creating great content. What good is that great content if no one sees it?

Below are 10 content promotion tactics that have stood the test of time and go beyond email blasts, social ads and simple social sharing on brand channels. When promotion is included in the content planning and creation process, it becomes part of a content marketing system that drives the kind of relevant, useful and engaging content customers are looking for.

1. Make Content Worth Sharing - While this seems obvious, in practice, many marketers are creating content to satisfy an editorial plan assignment like X content assets about topic Y per month vs. tapping data sources that can reveal what will actually resonate. Those data sources can be front line staff like Customer Service or Sales as well as social, web analytics and industry news. Insights about frequently asked questions, trending topics and provocative ideas can go a long ways towards creating content people actually want to consume and share with others.

2. Master the Headline - Without question we live in a fast moving world of short attention spans, Many people will only skim headlines so it is essential to make the most out of content titles. Email marketers already know this with subject lines and content marketings publishing blogs, ebooks, articles, microsites, campaign assets and social content should ensure headlines are relevant, succinct, imply urgency, are meaningful and show action.  There's a world of difference between "10 Essential Promotion Tactics" and "10 Essential Promotion Tactics That Drive Results".

3. Optimize for Share - For those that do click through to view content, make sure what they find is easily shareable. Blogs do this with social share icons and easy to share click to tweet messages. Reports, ebooks and any other digital content can be formatted for easy sharing as well.

4. Co-Create to Activate Influencers - What better way to reach relevant audiences that are ignoring ads than through relevant industry experts? Collaborating on brand content with the right influencers can inspire creative promotion to audiences that trust individuals more than brands. With more people turning to online sources of information, influencers can add credibility and reach to digital brand content.

5. Repurpose for Exposure on New Channels - Modular content uses templates to make republishing parts of your content on different channels or in different formats much easier and effective. Doing so deconstructs more robust content to specific elements that can be published for exposure. For example, we've been experimenting with having blog posts converted to infographics and then posting them to industry websites.

6. Create Distribution Channels - Email subscribers, social network connections, groups, and communities are all opportunities to attract and engage an audience around your shared interests. Each becomes a distribution channel for your content where you can share useful information and also do the kind of community content crowdsourcing that inspires active sharing.

7. Optimize for Attraction - There is no substitute for being the best answer for your customers at the moment they need the information and solutions your brand offers. Search Engine Optimization is not always a robust part of the content marketing process beyond keyword research informing content topics. An ongoing effort to optimize new content and optimize existing content for better performance on search engines can provide highly productive exposure at the very moment of need.

8. Publicize - Whether you contribute editorial to various publications opportunistically or secure recurring contributions to one publication, earned media can be a great way to connect your content with audiences that are interested. PR and media relations come in many forms ranging from someone actively pitching for interviews or story ideas about your brand to creating newsworthy experiences and content that is most likely to be covered by industry publications.

9. Syndicate - Something as simple as cross posting blog posts to author LinkedIn profiles, to a Medium account or to industry association websites can help your brand's content reach new audiences. Just be sure to link back to the source to help Google understand which to rank.

10. Create Conversations - Whether on LinkedIn or Facebook, video livestreaming is a great way to tap an existing social audience and instigate conversation around topics connected to your content. Recorded video is another option to create conversations and cross publish as Josh Nite and Tiffanie Allen have done for several years with our news posts and video on YouTube.

It should go without saying that content should be promoted, but after so many years of observing what brands are doing with content marketing, the imbalance between creation and promotion continues, especially when you consider stats like blog posts get an average of 8 social shares (BuzzSumo).

The key is to make content promotion a priority by including it in the planning process, setting content promotion goals and identifying the corresponding KPIs and by getting help with creating and implementing balanced content creation and promotion that actually works.

Outside of online advertising, what content promotion tactics have you found to be most effective?

The post Where’s the Marketing in Content Marketing? 10 Essential Promotion Tactics That Drive Results appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

The vast majority of content and industry news coverage around influencer marketing is focused on those who engage consumer audiences: Instagramers, YouTubers, and  as of late TikTokers. Of course the world of influence is not limited to consumer products and services. Influencers play an important role in businesses marketing to other businesses as well, whether it's on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook.

So what's the difference between B2C and B2B influencer marketing? We've covered B2B influencer marketing here in depth already with case studies, strategy and best practices, what makes a great B2B influencer, key statistics and more. After 7 plus years of focusing on B2B influencer marketing for some of the top B2B brands in the world, we've learned a few things about the practice. From that experience, I'll focus on what makes for good B2B influencer engagement as a way to understand the difference from B2C.

The most important steps for launching a B2B Influencer Marketing Program: Influence plays a role across the entire business customer lifecycle from awareness to advocacy so it follows that the best approach to collaborating with B2B influencers also spans the spectrum of customer engagement.

Regardless of the desired outcome from building brand awareness to increasing sales, best practices influencer marketing programs start with understanding the relevant topics of influence that both represent what customers care about and what the brand stands for.

It's important to look at B2B influencers as partners not just content creators or distribution channels.

Much of B2C influencer engagement is managed like an advertising buy. With B2B, it's important to look at B2B influencers as partners not just content creators or distribution channels. That means finding, engaging and activating influencers with expertise and audiences that will resonate with the objectives of the business. Using topics of influence, you can identify, qualify and recruit influencer partners to collaborate. You can certainly pay a B2B influencer, but it is most often for the craft of creation not just because they are well known.

The output of B2B influencer collaboration can be in any form that the brand is currently publishing content: text, video, visual, audio, interactive and even VR.

B2B influencers are different than B2C in that they must be subject matter experts. But it is often the case that they do not have the broad social media skills or reach as their B2C counterparts. Also, B2B influencer marketing is less about a transaction or advertising buy than it is about developing relationships with influencers that can add credibility to a brand and even advocate for purchases that have an extended sales cycles and run millions of dollars.

Successful B2B influencer relationships take time to build and require time to maintain.

Matching topically relevant influencers with content collaboration opportunities that deliver mutual value for the influencer, the audience you're after and your brand is both art and science. Successful relationships take time to build and require time to maintain. It is no different when working with B2B influencer partners, so brands should invest the time and resources to keep those relationships strong. That can mean software like the enterprise platform we use, Traackr, as well as the expertise of an influencer marketing agency that has many years of experience and established relationships with influencers in your industry.

What does effective B2B influencer marketing look like in action? Tech giant SAP wanted to raise awareness of their brand and establish thought leadership with their target audience of CTOs, CIOs, and technology managers. With B2B decision makers (and consumers in general) craving more inspiring and on-demand content, a podcast was the ideal channel to reach that target audience and spark in-depth engagement.

To Turn SAP’s vision for C-suite thought leadership into reality, they worked with TopRank Marketing to produce six episodes of Season 1, Tech Unknown Podcast. Each episode featured a long-form interview with an industry thought leader and was hosted by tech expert, Tamara McCleary. TopRank Marketing identified influencers for each episode with reach, relevance, and insight that would appeal to technology leaders.

The agency conducted live interviews with Tamara and the featured influencer guests to encourage in-depth exploration of the subject matter. The first season of the Tech Unknown podcast beat industry benchmarks for average downloads within 30 days, activated influencers that were important to the brand and the CTO/IO audience, earned millions of impressions, and opened the door for unique content repurposing opportunities.

Season 2 of the SAP Tech Unknown Podcast has now started to publish and is already breaking new performance records.  By combining an understanding of brand objectives and audience interests with the expertise and audience of specific influencers, SAP has been able to drive conversations, activate relationships and move the needle on their marketing objectives.

Where to start with B2B influencers:  In B2C, many influencers are inventory in a marketplace with detailed info on audience, performance and content creation capabilities where you can purchase services not unlike buying a sponsorship or advertising.

In B2B, there are no such marketplaces. Influencer Marketing platforms that algorithmically sort vast amounts of data are used to identify influencers that might be a match based on topical relevance, resonance with their audience and reach.

Once a B2B influencer has been identified as having the right mix of relevance, resonance and reach, B2B marketers can check to see if there is already a relationship with the influencer directly or through a first level connection. Engaging an experienced influencer that is already in your network is much different than starting a conversation with someone new.

It's also important to check to see if the B2B influencer is accustomed to “being an influencer” in terms of public speaking or writing and creating content.

Many B2C influencers are already familiar with what it means to "be" a social media influencer, but in B2B, such self assigned influencer status and behavior is less common. In B2C the goal is often transactional (drive product sales) and the brand might just present a project and have the influencer pitch a creative idea on how to implement. With B2B influencers that's possible but less likely. More often the B2B brand will have a campaign or program in mind with a narrative and structured content collaboration opportunities that influencers can take part in according to their specific areas of expertise and audience engagement.

For example, a B2B influencer program might have elements focused on top of funnel awareness, middle funnel engagement and end of funnel decision making. Each stage would involve different types of influencers (TOFU - brandividuals), (MOFU - industry experts), (BOFU - customers).

Relationship building with B2B influencers is key. A new contact will often be engaged with subtly on relevant social networks. You can look for signals that can be an open door to inviting a conversation. Then, as you engage online, you might feature the influencer in content or invite them to contribute something very easy, but that gives them great exposure. That basic interaction opens doors to more robust engagement.

If the influencer is clearly a pro and being an influencer is their business model, you can approach them directly as you would any other consultant.

B2C and B2B Influencer Marketing are different - and changing.

While there is advancing consumerization within the B2B world from software user experiences to the types of influencer content being co-created (server unboxing videos, tech "hauls") B2C and B2B influencer marketing are distinctly different. Viewing B2B influencers simply as content distribution channels or advocates for hire is a misplaced B2C-centric expectation. B2B influencers are industry experts that may or may not have advanced content creation skills. They have the attention and respect of their peers and that kind of influence is very powerful for brands that want to recapture buyer attention lost to dropping trust in brand advertising and communications.

If you have experience working with B2B and B2C influencers, what are some of the key differences you've experienced?

The post B2C vs. B2B Influencer Marketing – What’s the Difference? appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

10 B2B Tech Categories Gaining Interest Because of COVID-19
Telemedicine, electronic signature, online conferencing, and mobile app development were the most swiftly-rising B2B technology software categories, according to recently-released report data, showing rises of as much as 613 percent since the global health crisis began. MarketingProfs

Magnifying the Massive Growth of B2B Marketplaces
87 percent of B2B buyers and 97 percent of millennial B2B buyers purchase through online marketplaces, according to recently-released report data, also showing that millennials have preferred review websites and web search as top pre-purchase research resources. G2

Exclusive: Mary Meeker's coronavirus trends report
Mary Meeker, publisher of the Internet trends report since 1995, recently released a special coronavirus trends update, which found that on-demand platforms and online marketplaces have been seeing big numbers and high growth, among other items of interest to B2B marketers. Axios

LinkedIn Is Working on Polls and a New Hashtag 'Presentation Mode
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn (client) has been testing poll and hashtag presentation mode features, items that could eventually become part of the professional social network for its 675+ million members. Social Media Today

Marketing Benchmarks and Trends Overview: The Surprising Impact of COVID-19 on Organic Search Traffic
Some 63 percent of marketers said that they are increasing their focus on SEO due to the ongoing global health crisis, while organic search traffic for overall B2B industries grew by 11 percent during the first quarter of 2020, according to new survey data of interest to digital marketers. Skyword

How Different Generations of Consumers Use Social Media [Infographic]
Gen Z is most likely to use Instagram to follow brands, while millennials and Gen X prefer Facebook, according to recently-released business and consumer survey data, which also showed that when it came to making purchasing decisions, YouTube was the leading social media platform for members of all three demographics. Social Media Today

Millennials, Gen Z Want Distraction—and Action—From Brands During Crisis
During the pandemic, baby boomers say that they want brands to support their employees and donate to the needy, while younger generations say they are paying more attention to how brands are advertising, according to recently-released survey data. Adweek

Facebook Is Testing Longer-Lasting Stories, With an Option to Keep Stories Active for 3 Days
Facebook has been testing an option that allows ephemeral stories to extend their traditional publishing lifespan from 24-hour to three days, a feature that could eventually attract more brands to Facebook Stories. Social Media Today

Google Ads Data Hub testing audience lists for display campaigns, adding new features
Google has begun testing an array of new features within its Google Ads Data Hub — changes that could bring marketers the ability to work with same-day impression data, new sand-boxing options, and more, the search giant recently announced. Marketing Land

Strength in Customer Journey Mapping A Distinguishing Factor for B2B CX Leaders
Mapping out customer journeys to learn key touch-points is the primary characteristic of B2B marketing customer experience (CX) leaders, according to newly-released survey data, followed by collecting and acting on Net Promoter Scores. MarketingCharts

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at urgency without clarity on digital transformation by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

Facebook Employee Wastes Whole Day on Facebook Again — The Hard Times

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — Why Personal Branding Is More Important Than Ever For The C-Suite — Forbes
• Lee Odden — 28 Social Media Experts to Learn From (Listed by Platform and Skill) — Social Agency Scout
• Joshua Nite — 10 Tips for Changing Business Strategies During Times of Crisis — Small Business Trends
• Lee Odden — Up next on Live with Search Engine Land: Content marketing during COVID-19 — Search Engine Land

Do you have your own top B2B content marketing or digital advertising stories from the past week? Please let us know in the comments below.

Thank you for taking the time to join us, and we hope you'll return next Friday for more of the most relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news. Also, don't miss the full video summary on our TopRank Marketing TV YouTube Channel.

The post B2B Marketing News: The B2B Categories Rising During Crisis, New Search Traffic Data, B2B Marketplaces See Growth, & Google’s New Ad Features appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

Uncertainty for some is opportunity for others. While much is being said about changes in influencer marketing approach and B2C influencers losing work at scale because events are now cancelled and industries like retail, travel and hospitality have been disrupted due to COVID-19, consumer behavior has decidedly shifted towards digital experiences.

While in-person events have been a staple for B2B marketers, we've seen how working with digital influencers on co-created content can be a sound alternative.

How brands approach marketing during a crisis makes the issue of trust even more important. When planned and implemented effectively, B2B influencer marketing programs build trust and confidence for buyers, influencers and the brand.

At the same time B2B marketers are emphasizing purpose and people over profit in their marketing messages, the need to deliver on new business and revenue hasn't gone away. Here are 4 considerations on how B2B influencer programs can be optimized, while still being empathetic and thoughtful to the new normal.

1. Find the opportunity gap.

Any marketing investment during a time of crisis will be under scrutiny. Whether your business has had to pivot or you reacting to changes in buyer behavior, it's essential to find opportunities to provide value in ways that are truly empathetic to customers and that can drive business performance. Many companies are meeting a boost in demand for information by engaging influencers to provide thought leadership, insights and how-to content.

Also, as you plan what kind of influencer program to run, think about what goal represents an opportunity for the best ratio of importance for executives to business and customer impact relative to resources and time frame? What metrics best represents that goal?

2. Build amplification in the creation.

If you are able to secure budget and support for a business influencer campaign or program, make sure you are realizing the full value of the content reach. Structure the influencer content for easy deconstruction to shareable formats including social messages, graphics, animations and repurposed content. Also, work with business influencers who have proven distribution channels and can republish brand content on their own networks and sites. The great content you can co-create with influencers won't be so great if the right audiences are not seeing it.

3. Maximize the content experience.

One of the big trends in B2B influencer marketing has been more interesting content formats. Think outside the box of ebooks and blog posts to visually rich and interactive content including audio, video and even VR/AR. There has been a rush of business influencers livestreaming video on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Brands should think about how they can differentiate the content experience they are creating for their customers and influencers alike. Impressive content inspires influencers to share even more plus it improves customer engagement.

4. Deliver a better influencer experience.

Experience is more important than ever, not just for customers but for influencers as well. Far too often, B2B companies treat influencers as a commodity and only think of what the brand wants. Here's a novel idea: Provide top shelf service to your influencers to help them be more successful concomitant to the success of your influencer program. Find out what the influencers' goals are and build a community around shared values with your influencers. Share promotion messages and goals with influencers and encourage a team approach vs one to one communications. Think more "we" vs. "me".

Rani Mani, Monica Grant and the team at Adobe do a fantastic job of this with the #AdobeInsiders program.

These opportunities to optimize B2B marketing performance are not unique to marketing during a time of crisis. They are universally useful in any environment. But with so many companies and individuals facing uncertainty. it's essential that businesses optimize for trust and what better way than to work with those who already have the trust and attention of customers?

The post Four Ways to Optimize the Marketing Performance of a B2B Influencer Program appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

What do we mean when we talk about a transformation in marketing?

Let me put it this way. The switch from horses to cars was a transformation. It was a fundamental rethinking of the way that humans move. We went from, “Find an animal that can go further and faster than you can and ride on it,” to “Burn fuel and use the energy to turn a motor that transfers the power to wheels.”

Every improvement since then — from V8 engines to power steering — has just been an iteration on the theme. A little faster, a little more efficient, a little safer, but iteration, not transformation.

Marketers are fantastic at iteration. It’s part of the job! We’re great at A/B testing, optimization, and continuous improvement. But at the heart of it, a lot of us are still working with a souped-up version of the same old tactics we’ve always used. Yes, we’ve gone digital. Yes, we’ve automated X and Y and we’re on Z and W channels. But we’re not inventing the engine; we’re just breeding faster horses.

That’s why I get excited when I see something genuinely novel in our profession. And Lisa Sharapata and her colleagues at 6sense have the goods. 

We had the privilege of interviewing Lisa during B2BMX, and she discussed some big ideas that we’re still wrapping our heads around. The death of the MQL. The “dark funnel.” It’s nothing less than a fundamental rethinking of the theory and practice of marketing, one that brings together sales and marketing and refocuses both around revenue.

[bctt tweet="“When we say, ‘we're gonna give you this amount of pipeline, we're gonna generate this amount of revenue,’ and we can actually see it coming and help deliver it in a predictable way, they are never going to want to go back to a #MQL again.” -Lisa Sharapata, @6senseinc" username="toprank"]

You can watch our full interview with Lisa below, or listen to the podcast version (and don’t forget to subscribe). Scroll down past the embeds for a few highlights from the conversation.

Break Free B2B Interview with Lisa Sharapata

Timeline and Highlights

1:00 Account engagement platforms and the dark funnel

4:30 The role of the BDR for inbound marketing

6:00 Sales and marketing: Together at last

7:15 Content strategy & SEO in dynamic marketing

10:15 Engagement is the new oil, but are we ready to drill?

15:30 The end of MQLs

Lisa: We'll create a segment based on our ICP, our ideal customer profile and keywords, depending on how we want to set it up, what they're searching for, what stage they're in. 

We have multiple different campaigns running all the time and it's dynamic, so we're seeing what these groups are searching. And they're in consideration right now, so we're gonna run this type of content and this type of display to them. 

And then lo and behold, they're starting to engage. More and more people are engaging, more of them have come to our website, they're now familiar with us, so we're gonna change up the content. And it's all dynamic and running based on how we've set the segments up to run and what content we've set up to target those accounts. 

So it moves dynamically, as they shift what they're doing, we can do all that from our platform. And then on the flip side this all feeds into Salesforce and you see this, basically this map and timeline of everything that's happening. We have a persona map that fills out this grid and you can see in your targets who's doing what, green, yellow, red, who's engaged who's not, who do you need to engage, who clicked on what, when, what keyword did they search for, what brought them to your website, what pages did they go to. 

You can look at all this information, but then it's also aggregating that and turning it into data that you can use to say, "Here's the next best action, here's someone in that account that is probably a key decision-maker, that you should buy their contact information". So it's like this whole 360 of what you do with that account.

Susan: That's awesome. Okay so the technology is obviously extremely strong, but it can't be done without humans.

Lisa: very true, very true. Like you can see my I love BDR t-shirt, we actually declared this week BDR appreciation week. I kind of started from the marketing background because that's my background, but a salesperson comes in, they have a dashboard in the morning telling them here's the accounts that are hot, here's the ones that are engaging, here's the ones that you should go after today and here's now what you should do and it breaks it down into next best actions.

And typically that would be a BDR or SDR role, that needs to figure out "Okay, I'm gonna make a video for them and send them as email, what should I talk to them about? Okay they were searching these keywords, so they must be interested and have this problem, here's how I can offer value." 

Instead of just the shot in the dark like guessing, hoping that they're saying the right thing, or just spraying as many emails out there, phone calls as they can make in a day. We're getting really strategic and helping them and it takes all the legwork out too, like they don't have to spend thirds of their day doing research, it cuts that way down so that they have it all their fingertips and then they can just start taking action when they come in in the morning.

Susan: so then do the BDR's love marketing? 

Lisa: So, I have never in my career, been in an organization where sales and marketing work hand in hand, I mean it's truly a night and day difference, because first of all we agree on "Here's the best accounts", because you can see what they're doing in the dark funnel, you know they are in my ideal customer profile but they're also in market. They're in market, before they even come inbound, we know they're in market. So sales loves marketing and marketing loves sales, because we are working together toward the same goal now.

Susan: Okay can we get back to the MQL's? Because you have declared 2020 as the year of no MQL's, so to sales execs, senior execs that sometimes can mean no accountability. 

Lisa: Yeah, so I mean here's the thing: If you talk to most sales execs and you ask them "How valuable do you think the MQL's really are?" and "How often do they turn into an SQL?" and “When marketing says they're gonna give you this many MQL's, how meaningful is that truly to you?" Most of the time they're like "Yeah, marketing is gonna throw these scans from their event over the fence and tell us to work on them." 

And they don't really put a lot of value in them. But when we say we're gonna give you this amount of pipeline, we're gonna generate this amount of revenue, and we can start to show that predictability, in saying this is what of your accounts are in market right now, that is worth this amount of pipeline to you and we can actually see it coming and help deliver it in a predictable way.. I'll tell you what, they are never going to want to go back to a MQL again. 

Stay tuned to the TopRank Marketing Blog and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more Break Free B2B interviews. Here are a few interviews to whet your appetite:

• Break Free B2B Marketing: Enterprise-Level ABM with Oracle’s Kelvin Gee
• Break Free B2B Marketing: Gary Gerber on Scaling ABM without Losing Focus
• Break Free B2B Series: Jon Miller on How ABM Can Help Marketers Keep Their ‘Ship’ Together
• Break Free B2B Series: Adi Bachar-Reske on Taking the Lead in the Evolution of B2B Content Marketing

The post Break Free B2B Marketing: Lisa Sharapata of 6sense on the End of the MQL appeared first on Online Marketing Blog - TopRank®.

In Washington State and Boston, two initiatives are helping prevent potatoes from being thrown out and milk from being poured down the drain. Gavino Garay has more.

A white former police officer and his son were arrested in Georgia on Thursday and charged with murder in the death of an unarmed black man, an incident that has sparked furor in the community and among civil rights activists across the United States. Gloria Tso reports.

The sting of the Asian giant hornet can kill and that's not just an expression of speech. Since their discovery in 2019 in the US, traps have been set to see if Asian giant "murder hornets" have settled in the state. Libby Hogan has more.

Priest Don Giuseppe Castelvecchio hasn't been able to conduct services in his San Fiorano church for two months. In the town where restrictions are easing, his sermons delivered from a loud speaker in a car are a welcome relief. Joe Davies reports.

Two Humboldt penguins, Nacho and Goat, went on a field trip in the forest accompanied by their keepers at Oregon Zoo on Friday (May 1) in Portland, United States.

In Washington State and Boston, two initiatives are helping prevent potatoes from being thrown out and milk from being poured down the drain. Gavino Garay has more.

लॉकडाउन के चलते सभी सेलेब्स इन दिनों अपने घरों में फुरसत के पल बिता रहे हैं। ऐसे में बाहुबली डायरेक्टर एसएस राजामौली ने नए चैलेंज की पहल की है। इसमें उन्होंने एक्टर्स को घर में महिलाओं का हाथ बटाते हुए वीडियो शेयर करने के लिए चैलेंज किया है। इस चैलेंज को अपनाते हुए एक्टर राम चरण ने रणवीर सिंह को भी नॉमिनेट किया है।

राम चरण ने हाल ही में अपनी इंस्टाग्राम से चैलेंज लेते हुए वीडियो शेयर किया है। इसमें वो मोपिंग करते, कॉफी बनाते, पौधों को पानी देते और कपड़े समेटते हुए दिख रहे हैं। इस चैलेंज को लेते हुए उन्होंने लिखा, ‘चलो घर के कामों की जिम्मेदारी लें। चलो असली मर्द बनकर औरतों से कामों का बोझ हल्का करें। आगे में इसे करने के लिए राना दग्गुबती और रणवीर सिंह को नॉमिनेट करता हूं। बी द रियल मैन’।

रामचरण जल्द ही एस एस राजामौली के निर्देशन में बनी फिल्म ‘आरआरआर’ में नजर आने वाले हैं। इस फिल्म में अजय देवगन और आलिया भट्ट भी अहम किरदार में नजर आने वाले हैं। कुछ ही दिनों पहले आलिया ने फिल्म का मोशन पोस्ट भी फैंस के साथ शेयर किया है। फिल्म की रिलीज डेट 8 जनवरी 2021 रखी गई है।

The U.S. Department of Commerce is close to signing off on a new rule that would allow U.S. companies to work with China’s Huawei Technologies on setting standards for next generation 5G networks, people familiar with the matter said.

Romans flocked to the city's bars and cafes for their caffeine fix on Tuesday - but only takeaway options are permitted.

Gowns 4 Good, a charity started by frontline physician assistant Nathaniel Moore, is asking graduates to donate their gowns to more than 77,000 frontline responders on Gowns4Good.net.

Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary sits down with Reuters Tim Hepher to discuss challenges including industry-wide consolidation, environmental taxes, Brexit, the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX and his 5-year, 100 million euro bonus package. Watch here the full event.

Former British Primer Minister Tony Blair cast doubt on that timetable for Brexit negotiations and said there was still a risk that Britain could exit the EU in a year's time without having struck a deal with its biggest trading partner.

Sri Lanka's central bank cut its benchmark interest rates by a further 50 basis points on Wednesday, its third reduction since the coronavirus crisis struck there in March.

Local NGOs are working hard to plant seedlings over thousands of square miles of deforested land in Brazil.

Sorry. A short dip in carbon emissions won’t save the planet after all. Things may even get worse, say the experts.

Belgian waffles may be about to become more environmentally friendly.

Under partial lockdown due to the spiraling coronavirus pandemic, Spaniards are allowed to leave home only for essential outings, walking a dog being one of them.

Priest Don Giuseppe Castelvecchio hasn't been able to conduct services in his San Fiorano church for two months. In the town where restrictions are easing, his sermons delivered from a loud speaker in a car are a welcome relief. Joe Davies reports.