The Vast Majority of CMOs Expect Their MarTech Spend to Grow
2023 marketing technology spending represented some 30 percent of overall marketing budgets, a figure that was up from the 24 percent seen in 2022, having overtaken staffing and labor costs which represented 28 percent of marketing budgets, down from 35 percent during 2022, according to newly-published survey data. MarketingCharts

Influencer Pay Equity Guide
The Association of National Advertisers (ANA), PR Council, and 4As have published a new guide to influencer marketing which has focused on achieving greater pay equity, with report data showing a pay gap of some 29 percent for black, indigenous, and other people of color (BIPOC) influencers. ANA

“B2B brands are all drowning in a sea of sameness. Every brand is blue, every brand is saying the same things in the same way. It's a massive problem, and a massive opportunity.” — Peter Weinberg of Click To Tweet

Study examines combining first-party and third-party data to reach wider audiences, reduce costs
Brand favorability outcomes improved by using joint first and third-party data in efforts, with the strong points of each type of data combining to improve intent and brand favorability ratings, according to recently-released report data of interest to B2B marketers. DigiDay

Apple announces RCS support for iMessage
Apple has announced forthcoming support for the mobile rich communication services (RCS) texting protocol, which will allow greater messaging interoperability between users of the world’s two primary types of cellphones, potentially leading to new marketing opportunities for B2B marketers, Apple recently reported. Ars Technica

Mindshare, Snapchat Study ‘Need States’ Of Social Media Users
16 percent of global consumers have said that they use social media for learning, 15 percent to build a better future, and 13 percent for fostering connections, while a leading 22 percent pointed to exploring and finding new experiences — four of numerous findings contained in newly-published survey data. MediaPost

Follower Count Fully Live In Google Search Result Snippets
Search giant Google has rolled out new social media site follower count displays for searchers seeking information about people, a change that could better help B2B marketers find subject matter experts who have sizable social media followings, Google recently announced. SEO Roundtable

Meta teases new AI-powered editing tools coming to Facebook and Instagram
Facebook and Instagram parent firm Meta’s forthcoming AI video clip generation tools — known as Emu Video and Emu Edit — are slated to bring new AI video clip creation and editing opportunities to marketers using the Instagram and Facebook social platforms, Meta announced recently. The Verge

Social media could be the key to connecting with baby boomers
Since the first quarter of 2021 the number of U.S. consumers in the baby boomer demographic who say their primary use of social media is to follow influencers has increased by 22 percent, while a scant 10 percent in this demographic see themselves represented in advertising — two of numerous statistics of interest to digital marketers contained in newly-published report data. Insider Intelligence

LinkedIn Shares New Insights Into Engagement With Collaborative Articles
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn (client) users read some 74 percent more content in the platform’s AI-infused Collaborative Article format over the past month, as greater numbers of the professional social platform’s users — which recently topped the 1 billion mark — have interacted with content in the Collaborative Article format, LinkedIn recently announced. Social Media Today

Why performance branding is at the frontier of B2B marketing [Report]
When it comes to how B2B marketers have struck a balance between brand-building and lead generation, B2B marketing leaders have said that 36 percent of their investment in marketing budgets will go towards lead generation, with 30 percent for brand-building and awareness and some 20 percent to demand generation, and The Drum recently took a look at new report data from LinkedIn. The Drum

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at “Intent Signals” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

Ethernet is Still Going Strong After 50 Years — IEEE Spectrum

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

Lee Odden / NetLine / TopRank Marketing — 3 Key Takeaways From Content Marketing World 2023 — Convince and Convert
Lane R. Ellis / TopRank Marketing — This Week in Marketing: Human-Centered Strategy for 2024 — LinkedIn (client)
Lee Odden — Numbers and Niches: 10 Ways Data Can Help Optimize Consumer Outreach — iTechPost

FRIDAY FIVE B2B MARKETING FAVORITES TO FOLLOW:

Sharifah Niles-Lane
Jessica Hreha
Melissa Hodai
Brian Piper 
Andrew Davis

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

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Thank you for taking the time to join us for this week’s Elevate B2B Marketing News, and we hope that you will 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 on Twitter/X for even more timely daily news.

About the author

Lane R. Ellis has over 39 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.