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What were the top B2B content marketing articles that published on the Top Rank Marketing blog this year?
Content encompasses nearly everything we read, watch, or listen to, and as our CEO Lee Odden said years ago, it also represents a significant part of the reason the need for search technology began in the first place.
We’re proud of the continued content marketing successes our team of marketers at Top Rank Marketing have achieved during another unique year, for a wide-range of major B2B clients. As 2023 draws ever closer, we wanted to take time to share our top 10 content marketing articles of the year — each filled with insights, best practices, research, examples, and a look at the future.
We’re also fortunate to have a wealth of talented B2B marketing professionals contributing to the TopRank B2B Marketing blog — which will celebrates its 20th year in 2023.
This selection of our top 10 content marketing posts of the year can serve as a valuable resource, filled with practical examples and relevant topics for digital B2B marketing professionals from CMOs to creators and copywriters.
We hope that you’ll find these articles useful well into 2023 and far beyond.
Now, sit back and join us as we move on to the top 10.
Our Most Popular Content Marketing Posts of 2022:
1. Fast-Forward: 4 Business Problems Solved by B2B Content Marketing — Joshua Nite
In our top content marketing post of the year, our senior content marketing manager Joshua Nite shares how content can help build relationships, purpose, empathy and more.
Businesses face unique problems connecting with buyers, and B2B content marketing is well-positioned to solve more of them that you might think.
You can check out all of Josh’s posts here, and follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
“Be a caring companion to your audience. After all, marketers are the keepers of data — we know these people and what they’re struggling with. We’re in a unique position to create uplifting content.” — Joshua Nite @NiteWrites Click To Tweet
2. The Business Case for Awesome B2B Content — Joshua Nite
What is the business case for creatively awesome B2B content?
In our second most popular content marketing post of the year, Joshua shares how awesome content with smart amplification gets results, including four convincing examples that show why awesome is better for B2B.
“Awesome content doesn’t overwhelm the story you’re telling the audience — in fact, it makes your message more likely to stick.” — Joshua Nite @NiteWrites Click To Tweet
3. Triple Take: How to Make B2B Content Marketing More Influential, Authentic, and Credible — Nick Nelson
When content is credible, authentic, and influential, it’s built to achieve any B2B marketing objective.
In our third most popular content marketing article of the year, our senior content marketing manager Nick Nelson
examined what the data and experts in our comprehensive 59-page 2022 B2B Influencer Marketing Research Report had to say about making it happen.
You can check out all of Nick’s posts here, and follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
“The #B2BIMReport from @TopRank found that relevance and trust outweigh expertise in terms of essential influencer qualities. It’s all about connection. #B2BInfluencerMarketing.” — Nick Nelson @NickNelsonMN Click To Tweet
4. The Gated Content Dilemma in B2B Marketing: Here Are the Best Practices — Joshua Nite
Q: How many lead gen marketers does it take to change a lightbulb?
A: Please fill out the form below and we will email you the punchline.
In our fourth most-read B2B content marketing article of the year, Joshua Nite shares best practices for when you should put your best content behind a lead generation form, and when you definitely shouldn’t.
“It’s not just about gated vs. ungated. It’s about how much content you gate, which content in the campaign should go behind that lead gen form, and how you bring the right audience to the content.” — Joshua Nite @NiteWrites Click To Tweet
5. B2B Content Marketing: Making Small Budgets Do Big Things — Nick Nelson
When marketing budgets are reduced, waste can be more costly than ever.
Make sure you’re steering clear of inefficiency, as our own Nick Nelson shared in our fifth most popular content marketing post of the year, offering up five key pointers to make the most of limited resources.
“The most reliable way to drive marketing results is to smartly invest more. This can lead to more ambitious campaigns and more robust promotion. But when a big budget isn’t available, B2B marketers can still do big things.” @NickNelsonMN Click To Tweet
6. Top 25 B2B Content Marketing Influencers and Experts To Follow #CMWorld 2022 — Lane R .Ellis
In our sixth most popular content marketing article of the year, we shared 25 top B2B content marketing influencers and experts to follow and learn from, including:
- Ann Handley
- Tequia Burt
- Jay Acunzo
- Amanda Todorovich
- Amber Naslund
Many thanks go to all the people who are actively sharing knowledge about content marketing by engaging and helping to elevate others with keen insight and expertise on the social web. This list is a helpful starting point to expand your own B2B content marketing universe.
You can check out all of my posts here, and follow me on Twitter and LinkedIn.
“A classic TopRank Marketing tradition that has been imitated in recent years but never duplicated is our annual list of content marketing experts ranked according to their social influence.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis Click To Tweet
7. 5 Ways to Build B2B Content That Resonates With Your Audience, and Why They Work — Harry Mackin
B2B Marketing has a content problem: decision makers are starting to tune it all out. The bad news? The problem isn’t them, it’s us. The better news? We can fix it, and it won’t even be that hard.
In the seventh most read content marketing piece of the year, our own content strategist Harry Mackin shares five ways to build better B2B content that resonates with your audience, and why they work
You can check out all of Harry’s posts here, and follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.
“Great thought leadership works because it doesn’t stand alone. It’s contextual, it’s engaged with the industry and moment in which it was written, and, above all, it’s actionable.” — Harry Mackin Click To Tweet
8. The Secrets of Creating Inspired B2B Content Experiences, Revealed — Nick Nelson
B2B marketers have grown accustomed to selling with facts instead of stories, and leading with features instead of outcomes.
In our eighth most-read content content marketing post of the year, Nick takes a close look at one of our CEO Lee Odden’s most popular presentations that illustrated why that just doesn’t work anymore.
“Use emotion, storytelling, and soundtrack to grab attention in a way that will resonate with all category buyers.” — @Tyrona #B2Bcontent #storytelling #CMworld Click To Tweet
9. Content Contemplations: How We Process Information & Why B2B Marketers Must Craft Content That Elevates — Lane R. Ellis
How can B2B marketers craft content that elevates, and what role do our preferred digital formats play in making it happen?
Recent study data looking at content formats has deep implications when it comes to creating online experiences that will not only be noticed, but delight the senses while also answering our most important questions.
By understanding how we process information, we can craft content in formats that elevate, inspire, and answer key questions.
In our ninth most popular content marketing post of the year, I dug in with data from three recent studies.
“Understanding the human brain, with its exquisitely complex computational and filtering mechanisms, can go a long way towards learning the types of content that can perform the best in B2B marketing.” — Lane R. Ellis @lanerellis Click To Tweet
10. Here, There & Everywhere: What Does Best-Answer Content Mean For B2B Marketers in 2022? — Lane R. Ellis
What does today’s best-answer B2B marketing content look like?
Providing that best solution — or to use the term our CEO and co-founder Lee Odden has been using since at least 2011 — being the best answer, may indeed be a singular solution, however the effort that B2B marketers need to make in 2022 to achieve it has changed in several important ways.
From expanding digital channel touch-points and collaborating with experts to elevating with authenticity, and presenting in experiential formats and more, I took a look at today’s best-answer B2B content to round our our list of the top content marketing article of the year.
“If you want to be a trustworthy company, it can’t be just a marketing philosophy. It has to be a business philosophy.” — Margaret Magnarelli @mmagnarelli of @MorganStanley Click To Tweet
Thanks TopRank Marketing Readers & Writers
Thanks to you our readers, and to all of our top content marketing authors for contributing this strong group of the 10 content marketing posts of 2022.
We published dozens of posts this year specifically about the unique nature of B2B content marketing, and plan to bring you even more in 2023, so stay tuned for a new year of the latest helpful search industry research and relevant insight.
Please let us know which content marketing topics and ideas you’d like to see us focus on for 2023 — we’d love to hear your suggestions. Feel free to leave those thoughts in the comments section below.
Many thanks to each of you who read our blog regularly, and to all of you who comment on and share our posts on the TopRank Marketing social media channels at Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.
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