B2B Influencer Marketing A Growing Priority, LinkedIn’s Scheduled Posts & Competitor Analytics, & The Media Time Paradox

Changes to B2B ecommerce coming fast [SURVEY DATA]
B2B executives expect eCommerce revenue to grow from 20 percent to 31 percent during 2023, while in 2021 digital-first B2B buyers said that they utilized 10 separate sales channels, up from 7.5 in 2020 — two of several findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-published report data. Digital Commerce 360

3 Trends Driving The Consumerization Of B2B E-Commerce
60 percent of digital-first B2B buyers have said that they view e-commerce experiences as very important, with some 67 percent noting they switched to vendors that presented a more consumer-like experience, according to recently-released survey data. Forbes

“The size of the B2B e-commerce market and its potential impact on the global economy should really be driving more headlines.” — Justin Main @jtothemain Click To Tweet

LinkedIn Adds New Tools for Company Pages, Including Updated Competitor Analytics
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn (client) has unleashed an array of new features for business pages on the professional social media platform, including follower and engagement metrics relating to competitors, along with new search engine optimization (SEO) elements for LinkedIn’s newsletter offering, LinkedIn recently announced. Social Media Today

Marketers Continue to Up the Number of Data Sources They Use
Marketers are not only using more sales channels than ever, but also use an average of 15 data collection sources, a number expected to rise in 2023, according to newly-published customer data source survey results of interest to digital marketers. MarketingCharts

IAB releases guide for brands to start marketing in the metaverse
The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has published a new resource for brands looking to enter or expand marketing within the metaverse, where continued connections with customers and greater exposure to new audiences are expected to drive significant value, according to data from the IAB report. VentureBeat

LinkedIn now lets you schedule posts for later
LinkedIn’s previously-announced post-scheduling features have begun rolling out for users of the platform’s web and Android front ends, with Apple iOS support forthcoming, all allowing digital marketers the convenience of content planning and publishing directly within the platform, LinkedIn recently announced. TechCrunch

Does Influencer Marketing Really Pay Off?
New analysis published in the Harvard Business Review has shown that average brand boost could reach 16.6 percent by properly utilizing influencer marketing, with influencer originality accounting for a 15.5 percent rise in return on investment (ROI) — two of numerous findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in the report data. Harvard Business Review

IPG’s Magna Finds ‘Media Time Paradox’ — People Spending Less Time With It
By 2023 U.S. adults will spend 11.2 percent less time using media than during 2019, driven in part by increasing prioritization of experiences in real life along media burnout, as average weekly time spent with online media was expected to drop from 3.9 hours per week in 2022 to 3.6 hours in 2023 — faring better than non-digital media, according to recently-released forecast data. MediaPost

Employee Advocacy: Most Will Share Company Posts if Encouraged
When information about a company comes from an employee, consumers are three times more likely to trust it, while 62 percent of social media users have said that they would post content from their company if it made the process easier by writing content for them — some of the findings contained in newly-published survey data. MarketingCharts

Marketers Must Be More Agile
B2B marketers have said that influencer marketing will be among their three top priorities in the next three to five years, as 59 percent of marketing leaders noted that they considered B2B influencer marketing a priority today, and 64 percent pinpointing it as a top priority over the upcoming three to five years, according to recently-released survey data from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). ANA

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at “Marketing Babble” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

Your High School Sweetheart Viewed Your LinkedIn Profile – Here Are 57 Things That Could Possibly Mean — The Hard Times

The Onion Is Giving Away $8.3 Trillion In NFTs — The Onion

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — This Week in Marketing: Tasty Content Leftovers — LinkedIn (client)
• TopRank Marketing — B2B influencer marketing: Conceptualization and four managerial strategies — Science Direct / Elsevier
• TopRank Marketing — 15 Ways the B2B Influencer Marketing Industry is Changing [Infographic] — Social Media Today

Have you found your own top B2B marketing news item for the week that we haven’t yet mentioned? If so, please don’t hesitate to drop us a line in the comments below.

Thanks for joining us, and we hope you’ll return next Friday for another round-up of the most up-to-date and relevant B2B and digital marketing industry news. In the meantime, you can follow us on our LinkedIn page, or at @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.