Elevate B2B Marketing News Weekly Roundup: More B2B Buyers Using Social & Rising Use of Influencers

Microsoft Unveils New Mobile-First Experiences For Bing & Edge
Microsoft has brought an array of new features such as Skype integration to its mobile Bing search and Edge web browser apps, including integrated social media sharing options, new ways to draft AI-assisted text, better multiple language support, and new AI-rich SwiftKey updates, Microsoft recently announced. Search Engine Journal

Survey: In-Person Meeting Attendees Are Younger, Want Personalized Experience
When it comes to B2B events, the average age of an attendee was 45 during 2022, a drop from 51 seen before the pandemic, with 39 percent of B2B event attendees preferring presentations that offer innovation and new ways of thinking, while 37 percent pointed to sessions led by industry leaders and experts — three of numerous findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-published event survey data. Associations Now

LinkedIn Will No Longer Count Inactive or Restricted Accounts in Connection and Follower Stats
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn has refined its follower count methodology, implementing a new system in which accounts that have been deactivated on the professional social platform will no longer be included in follower or connection numbers, LinkedIn (client) recently announced. Social Media Today

How to View B2B Customers Through a More Nuanced Lens [ANA Interview]
B2B marketers can gain a richer understanding of customers than their B2C counterparts, thanks to having access to a greater variety of data, allowing a finer-grained understanding of customer bases, and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) recently explored some of the top nuanced approaches that today’s B2B marketers can benefit from. ANA

“Both the challenge and the opportunity about B2B is that we can actually define these three things — retention, repeat interactions, and spend — much more broadly than in a B2C setting.” — Peter Fader @faderp
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Executives fear accidental sharing of corporate data with ChatGPT: Report
46 percent of senior executives have said that they suspect colleagues have unintentionally brought corporate data into ChatGPT-powered AI tools, and while 35 percent noted that ChatGPT was the most-used chatbot tool among enterprise firms, it was also the most likely to be banned by organizations, with 32 percent having forbidden its use — three of numerous statistics of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-released survey data. Venture Beat

IAB: U.S. Podcast Ad Spending To Reach $2.3B This Year
A 25 percent increase in spending for podcast advertising during 2023 has been projected, reaching an estimated $2.78 billion by the end of the year, and rising to $3.9 billion by 2025 — pointing to the continuing strong return on investment (ROI) podcast advertising has seen, according to recently-published survey data. MediaPost

1 in 4 Adults Have Made A Purchase Based on an Influencer’s Recommendation
25 percent of U.S. adults have made a buying decision based on a social media influencer, with 42 percent of those in the 30-44 age demographic having done so, while 72 percent said that social influencers should be required to disclose paid partnerships, according to newly-released survey data of interest to digital marketers. MarketingCharts

AI Rise: Most Firms Are Using It For Marketing Despite Inaccuracies
73 percent of marketing professionals have said that they use AI tools for the creation of marketing content, with 48 percent using the tools for creating website copy, 44 percent for email copy, and 42 percent for social media messaging — some of the numerous findings in recently-published AI tool survey data. MediaPost

The US share of worldwide ad spending will decline this year but remain on an upward trend
39.4 percent of global media ad spending is expected to take place in the U.S. during 2023, reaching $263.89 billion, while also accounting for an even higher 43.8 percent of digital ad spending, share figures down about a percent from 2022 numbers, according to newly-released forecast data. Insider Intelligence

More B2B Buyers Turn to Social Media, Mobile Apps to Research Suppliers
In 2022 20 percent of B2B buyers reported having used social media to help choose suppliers, up from a scant 4 percent in 2019, while the use of mobile apps to research and evaluate suppliers increased from 4 percent to 18 percent during the same timeframe, according to recent research data. MarketingCharts

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at “Upselling and Customer Experience” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

Rob Smith Brings Amiga’s Famous Boing Ball Off the Screen and Onto His Desk — Hackster.io

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — How To Use BuzzSumo: 15 Things You Can Do In 30 Days — BuzzSumo
• Katelyn Drake — While creating brand content, collaborate with a diverse set of voices — YouGov America

FRIDAY FIVE B2B MARKETING FAVORITES TO FOLLOW:

Dr. Scott Cowley @scottcowley
Miri Rodriguez @MiriRod
Scott Monty @ScottMonty
Debra Jasper @DebraJasper
Larry Kim @larrykim

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Thank you for taking the time to join us for this edition of the Elevate B2B Marketing News, and we hope that you’ll return again next Friday for another array 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.

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