Microsoft results top forecasts, shares jump 8% as AI juices sales
Microsoft saw revenue that climbed by seven percent to $52.9 billion during the first quarter of 2023, with its productivity segment including LinkedIn (client) among those topping expectations, as LinkedIn revenue increased by eight percent, with Microsoft’s overall advertising and search revenue rising by 3.4 percent to top the $3 billion mark, Microsoft recently announced. Reuters

The Value of Intent Data for B2B Go-to-Market Teams
45 percent of B2B marketers have said that potential customer intent data is most useful for account expansion, with some 42 percent pinpointing its success for advertising, and 35 percent for lead generation — three of numerous findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-published survey data. MarketingProfs

“Commercial organizations will prioritize buyer intent data as a key input to enable reps to focus on the right opportunities, not all opportunities.” — Alyssa Merwin Henderson of @LinkedIn
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Social Media Marketers Dish on Top Platforms, Formats, and Content Types
90 percent of social media marketers have said that building an active online community is critical to 2023 success, and when it comes to return-on-investment (ROI), 25 percent of social media marketers consider Instagram the top platform, followed by 23 percent who said Facebook, 14 percent YouTube, 12 percent TikTok, and 11 percent LinkedIn, according to recently-released global HubSpot survey data. MarketingCharts

Report: Marketers Continue To Lag Significantly On Sustainability Front
A scant 43 percent of marketers have said they include sustainability metrics within their organization’s dashboard key performance indicators (KPIs), while 94 percent of client-side marketers noted that marketers need to act with greater bravery and use experimentation to drive sustainability changes, according to newly-published report data. MediaPost

More brands choose Boomer, and Gen X influencers, as ‘older audiences can be just as impactful’ as young ones
As authenticity has grown in importance among digital marketing efforts, more brands are turning to older influencers rather than creating separate campaigns for certain demographic groups, and DigiDay takes a look at some of the flexibility and advantages influencer marketing offers when it comes to brand storytelling. DigiDay

Alphabet Growth Slows Again in Q1 as YouTube Ad Revenue Falls for 3rd Quarter in a Row
During the first quarter of 2023 Google parent firm Alphabet recorded its third straight quarter with falling revenue from its YouTube property, which had a three percent revenue drop with revenue of $6.7 billion, as overall year-over-year Alphabet revenue climbed by three percent year-over-year, to $69.8 billion, Alphabet recently announced. The Wrap

82% of marketers using AI tools have already seen positive results.

Marketing Has Taken on More Responsibilities Since the Pandemic
41.4 percent of chief marketing officers have said that they now see marketing as being responsible for revenue growth, a figure that was up from the 32.7 percent mark recorded in 2020, while 91.4 pinpointed brand, advertising, and digital marketing efforts as the primary responsibilities of marketing, according to newly-published survey data of interest to B2B marketers. MarketingCharts

Content Producers Say AI Tools Will Replace Writers
39 percent of B2B content producers have said their primary 2023 focus was on demand and lead generation blog posts, 34 percent on photos, graphics and visuals, and 31 percent on short-form videos, while 58 percent of B2B and B2C content marketers said they believed that content built using generative AI tools will be penalized by search engines — some of the findings contained in recently-released content marketing survey data. MediaPost

LinkedIn Adds New Custom CTA Buttons on LinkedIn Premium Member Profiles
Microsoft-owned LinkedIn has begun rolling out a new call-to-action button to its premium members, offering six profile presets for linking directly to websites, portfolios, and other destinations, the professional social media platform recently announced. Social Media Today

Advertisers using news brands see increase in ad effectiveness of ‘up to 52%’
Trust and quality have become more aligned with effectiveness and profit over the past 23 years, with newer brands often lagging behind established ones, while news brands have experienced greater overall trust — three of numerous findings of interest to B2B marketers contained in newly-published news brand report data. Campaign US

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at “Focus Groups and the Oracles of Eden Prairie” by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

The Tremendous VR and CG Systems—of the 1960s — IEEE Spectrum

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

Lee Odden — 15 experts creating the simpler, smarter, better future of social media marketing — Sprinklr (client)
TopRank Marketing — The growing importance of influencer marketing for B2B — Michaletz Zwief

FRIDAY FIVE B2B MARKETING FAVORITES TO FOLLOW:

Jo Peterson @digitalcloudgal
Kamales Lardi @KamLardi
Maribel Lopez @MaribelLopez
Kate O’Neill @kateo
Christina Trampota @tektalk

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 the 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 @toprank on Twitter for even more timely daily news.

The post Elevate B2B Marketing News Weekly Roundup: CTA Buttons, a New Social Media Study & More appeared first on B2B Marketing Blog – TopRank®.