B2B CRM Users Are Highly Focused on Nurturing Leads and Customers
33 percent of B2B sales and marketing professionals have focused their customer relationship management (CRM) usage on the customer service, up-selling and cross-selling portion of the buyer journey over the past 5 years, closely followed by 32 percent who have targeted mid-funnel lead-generation and nurturing, with 21 percent focused on early-stage awareness, according to newly-published survey data. MarketingCharts

The Top Priority of B2B Go-to-Market Leaders in 2024
52 percent of go-to-market leaders have said that better alignment between marketing, sales, and customer success was their top priority for 2024, with 43 percent prioritizing customer experiences and engagement, while 39 percent pointed to boosting brand awareness and the same number noting the quest for increased internal process efficiency — some of the findings contained in recently-released survey results. MarketingProfs

New Study Reveals Clear Writing Tips for B2B Marketers [Report]
When is comes to B2B writing, 73 percent of B2B health care professionals said that they were more likely to consider a purchase when supporting content was in more of a plain language format, while just 44 percent said they would do so based on more complex traditional B2B content writing, according to newly-released B2B writing survey data. Content Marketing Institute

“B2B readers want marketing materials that are easy to understand & accessible, simple & straightforward, easy to scan, & conversational & relatable.” — Ahava Leibtag Click To Tweet

Adobe Highlights Rising Visual Trends in 2024 Creative Trends Report
New takes on vintage styles and an increasing focus on wonder and joy were among the forthcoming 2024 shifts included in Adobe’s latest annual visual trends guide, joining an increased emphasis on the seamless and dynamic merging of multiple content types, Adobe recently announced. Social Media Today

ChatGPT Ranked Fastest-Growing Brand In 2023: Report
Between January and October 2023 the AI technology organization ChatGPT was the fastest-growing among some 1,500 brands, as the AI tool maker has neared the $90 billion valuation mark, with traffic that has increased by 170 percent since February 2023, according to newly-published brand survey data. MediaPost

Advertisers will ramp up spend on creators in 2024, IAB forecasts
44 percent of advertisers have said that they plan to ramp up investment in content creators during 2024, with the average budget allocation forecast to rise by 25 percent, while 39 percent of consumers have said they were consuming more creator content during 2023 than in 2022 — two of numerous findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in recently-released report intelligence. Marketing Dive

Instagram Adds Options to Simplify Live-Streaming via Third Party Tools
Meta’s Instagram has launched an array of new features centered around video live-streaming, streamlining the process of using third-part tools such as the popular open-source open broadcaster software (OBS) and Streamlabs, the social media platform recently announced. Social Media Today

ANA Marketing Word Of The Year: AI
Members of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) organization selected AI as the marketing word of the year, repeating a selection previously made in 2017, following on the heels of 2022’s word of the year “inclusion,” and 2021’s “diversity,” the ANA recently announced. MediaPost

Threads Rolls Out Topic Tags to All Users Globally
Meta’s Threads social media platform has continued its push to fill a void created by users leaving the X platform formerly known as Twitter, with the recent rollout of the ability to include one topic tag per post — a move that has allowed smoother content discovery on the platform, Instagram announced recently. Social Media Today

Brandwatch 2024 Digital Marketing Trends [Report]
Social media management and research firm Brandwatch has published its 2024 collection of digital marketing trends, with top areas of focus expected for the coming year including AI, authenticity, personalization, and social listening, among others, Brandwatch recently announced. Brandwatch

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

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

A mad genius recreated Tetris in Excel, and it looks surprisingly playable — XDA

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

Donna Robinson / TopRank Marketing — Social Media Trends & Tips: Dec. 4-8 — Arik Hanson
Donna Robinson / TopRank Marketing — Using LinkedIn to Elevate B2B Influencer Marketing — LinkedIn (client)
Lee Odden / TopRank Marketing — Harnessing the Power of Connection: Lee Odden Top Rank Marketing [Podcast] — Tonka Talk
Lee Odden — 15 Top SEO Quotes for Motivation to Boost Your Search Rankings in 2024 — BloggersPassion
TopRank Marketing — 30+ Artificial Intelligence Tools to Achieve Huge Growth in 2024 — Red Website Design

FRIDAY FIVE B2B MARKETING FAVORITES TO FOLLOW:

Tamara McCleary
Mike Allton
Shruti Deshpande
Debbie Friez 
Tom Pick

Learn more about TopRank Marketing‘s mission to help elevate the B2B marketing industry.

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About the author

Lane R. Ellis has over 40 years’ experience working with and writing about the Internet. He writes for and manages all of the posts on the award-winning TopRank B2B Marketing Blog. Before joining the team here as Social Media and Content Marketing Manager, Lane spent more than a decade as Lead Editor for the prestigious conference firm Pubcon. When he's not writing about B2B marketing trends, Lane enjoys distance running (he's completed 11 marathons including two ultra-marathons so far), genealogical research, cross-country skate skiing, vegetarian cooking, and spending time with his wonderful wife Julie Ahasay and their cats Kukla, Twister, and Arlo in beautiful Duluth, Minnesota.