B2B growth plan: perfecting partner ecosystem marketing
45 percent of B2B marketing decision-makers at typical B2B organizations have said that new or renewed ecosystem partners were their primary revenue source, as more B2B companies have moved towards broadening their partner ecosystems, according to newly-published Forrester Research data. Digital Commerce 360

Surprise! B2B Leaders Say Supply Chain Management Systems Are Most Important to the Customer Journey
17 percent of a B2B buyer’s complete purchasing journey is spent with a sales representative, with 44 percent of B2B buyers in the millennial demographic preferring no sales representative communication at all, while 87 percent of B2B leaders in the U.S. and Canada noted that a supply chain management system was their most important technology solution, according to recently-released survey findings. SCMR

Ad Market Expands For 8th Consecutive Month In November
With a 1.2 percent rise in year-over-year advertising spending during November 2023, the U.S. ad market grew for the eighth month in a row, with digital advertising continuing to see greater growth than the traditional sector, according to newly-published analysis of interest to B2B marketers. MediaPost

Which Technologies Are Moving the Needle on Digital CX?
45 percent of marketers have said that AI for content creation has had the most positive impact on customer experience (CX) within their organization, with 41 percent having pointed to content management systems (CMS), and 38 percent having noted customer relationship management (CRM) systems — three of numerous findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in recently-published survey data. MarketingCharts

LinkedIn Tests New AI-Based Learning Elements In-Stream
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn (client) has expanded its use of AI within its LinkedIn Learning offering, using the technology to provide additional insight for users on the professional social platform seeking to learn new skills or hone existing one, LinkedIn recently announced. Social Media Today

“AI will redefine how we think of jobs and career paths, and it will place more emphasis on skills rather than degree or pedigree.” — Tomer Cohen of Click To Tweet

What’s new and what’s working, in B2B channel partner marketing
B2B partner marketing increased its use of video during 2023, along with the expanded use of AI, marketing automation tools, and partner segmentation, and MarTech recently took a close look at how these changes have affected the B2B channel partner marketing sector. MarTech

NY Times copyright suit wants OpenAI to delete all GPT instances
The New York Times has has filed a copyright lawsuit against AI organization OpenAI and a number of the companies closely associated with the group including Microsoft, alleging that the firms copied and used millions of New York Times articles to build their AI models, The New York Times recently announced. Ars Technica

YouTube Shares Ad Tips Based on Best-Performing Promotions of 2023
Google’s YouTube property has published its annual selection of the top advertisements on the video platform, including a guide for marketers highlighting some of the elements that made the ads on the list the top successes in 2023, YouTube recently announced. Social Media Today

Research: Why Gender Bias Persists, Even When Organizations Try to Curb It
When it comes to the advancement of women into leadership positions, viewing biases have persisted even as progress has been made in valuing biases, and the Harvard Business Review recently took a close look at diagnosing bias and the steps that organizations can take to build more equitable workplaces. Harvard Business Review

Big Tech is spending more than VC firms on AI startups
Google, Microsoft and Amazon combined to account for some 75 percent of 2023’s $27 billion total investment in AI companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, outpacing new technology spending from traditional venture capitalism organizations, according to newly-published data of interest to B2B marketers. Ars Technica

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at “First-Party Data is Coming to Town” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

Five Times Mr. Burns Was Actually Kind of Lovable — Cracked

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

TopRank Marketing — Trends Forecast for 2024 — TBW
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 — Conferences for Marketing Professionals-Digital Marketing Trends 2024 — Priyanka Priyadarsini Swain

FRIDAY FIVE B2B MARKETING FAVORITES TO FOLLOW:

Lisa Marcyes
Shira Rubinoff
Diana Ballard
Kelly Hungerford 
Justin Levy

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.