A B2B Marketing Agency Evolved: TopRank Marketing 2.0

By Lee Odden

When TopRank Marketing was created over 20 years ago, it wasn’t a company exactly. It was a specialized SEO offering within a start-up marketing and PR agency. But in time, the number of SEO clients began to outnumber the PR clients resulting in the evolution from a PR focused agency to a search marketing agency.

If You’re Not Growing, You’re Dying

Changing the company name to TopRank Marketing was as much about where the momentum in business was coming from and the evolved services being provided as it was about growing for the future. A future where digital channels become the primary place where customers would discover, consume and act on information through search engines, social networks, online communities, blogs, media and advertising. Plus the alternative to growing is, ah, dying.

Social Media Everywhere

Social media really changed the game of digital marketing and TopRank Marketing changed with it, evolving services from blogging for SEO to social media marketing and advertising, executive social media management, brand social listening and engagement.

Just Say Yes to More Content

And then came the addition of content marketing where useful information could be created by brands to educate the increasing number of business solution buyers that were pulling themselves through the majority of the sales cycle with content they researched online. TopRank Marketing was on the content marketing train early winning the #1 content marketing blog honor 3 times by Content Marketing Institute.

Uh Oh, Information Overload

However, as more companies embraced digital channels an overwhelming amount of content became available making it challenging for buying committees to trust, evaluate and make decisions. It also made it hard for B2B marketers to keep up with content demand and more importantly, with content that actually worked.

The Business of Influence

Sensing these information overload trends, TopRank Marketing evolved again by embracing working with B2B influencers and developing content collaborations with the most trusted voices in a client’s industry. Co-creating content with industry thought leaders, key opinion leaders and experts meant capturing the attention of buyers in ways that was not happening with paid search or other forms of online advertising. We’ve continued our evolution with B2B influencer marketing by conducting industry research to produce 4 yearly reports.

Is Your B2B Brand the Best Answer for Customers?

The idea of TopRank Marketing as a solution that helps B2B companies become the best answer wherever their customers are looking is timeless. It transcends search, social media, content and influencer marketing. A best answer marketing strategy adapts based on where buyers are discovering, consuming and acting on information today. And into the future.

And the Industry Keeps Evolving

The introduction of AI overviews in Google and the increasing use of GenAI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity as search engines means another evolution. B2B buyers are not only searching using AI tools, but are using them in increasingly sophisticated ways to evaluate vendors as well. With AIO pulling more search engine traffic away from Google, diversified marketing tactics are more important than ever.