When Content Tanks: Brands Lack Faith In Their Efforts, Study Shows [B2B study]
B2B marketers’ content effectiveness has faced struggling confidence, with just 4.7 percent extremely confident in their content’s pertinence, a significant decrease from 2017, according to a newly released B2B marketing study data. MediaPost

Facebook testing features that let Pages archive and share Stories
Facebook has tested optional methods allowing business pages to archive and share Facebook Stories, potentially paving the way for increased exposure beyond the current reach of Facebook Page fans, the social media giant recently noted. Marketing Land

2019 Social Media Influencer Benchmarks
Social media influencer benchmarks are examined in a recently released report from Trust Insights that looked at some 50,000 influencers on each of the major three social influencer platforms. Trust Insights

US Esports Ad Revenues Will Grow 25% in 2019
Esports marketing revenue has risen swiftly among U.S. audiences, and is expected to grow 25 percent to $178M this year, and to $213M by 2020, according to new forecast data from eMarketer that examines esports as a growing opportunity for digital marketers. eMarketer

More B2B Brands Investing In E-Commerce Platforms To Fuel Sales And Provide Frictionless Customer Experience
Certain traditional B2C elements have increasingly found their way into the B2B marketing world, including more integration of e-commerce solutions meant to create more streamlined B2B journeys, according to data from several recent studies outlined by Demand Gen Report. Demand Gen Report

Brands Are Rethinking Their Programmatic Buying Strategies to Reduce Risk
Some brands have reduced their programmatic ad spend in order to boost their brand safety image, including eBay which reduced spend by 66 percent from 2017 to 2018, according to new report data of interest to digital marketers. AdWeek

Facebook is Changing How it Measures Ad Relevance
Facebook will soon make changes to the methods it uses to measure advertising relevance, with new ad-reach potential calculations, engagement rate ranking, and other improvements, the social giant has announced. Search Engine Journal

Social Commerce Referral Grows 110%
Social commerce referral has seen significant growth with the rise of visually-oriented social platforms Pinterest and Instagram, rising by 110 percent since 2016 according to new research data from eMarketer. eMarketer

Advertisers Spend More on Native, but Favor the Same Formats
By 2020 nearly 90 percent of native advertisements will focus even more on mobile audiences in the U.S., up from 85 percent in 2018, one of several findings in newly released forecast data. MediaPost

11 Important Skills for Modern Marketers [Infographic]
Content marketing, mobile, email, video, data analytics, and social media are some of the eleven variations of skills outlined in a new infographic containing ideas for digital marketers. MarketingProfs

ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

A lighthearted look at innovation myopia by Marketoonist Tom Fishburne — Marketoonist

Pineapple Pulling Is the Internet’s Newest Viral Fixation — Eater

Man Wasting His Life Playing Video Games When There Whole World Of Other Screens Out There — The Onion

TOPRANK MARKETING & CLIENTS IN THE NEWS:

• Lee Odden — Social Media Marketing World 2019: 5 Sessions We Can’t Wait to Attend — Convince & Convert
• Lee Odden and TopRank Marketing — “Increase Sales With Micro-Influencer Marketing Ft. Shane Barker” (Inbound Success Ep. 82) [Podcast] — IMPACT
• Ashley Zeckman — Marketing Career Advice: Women Tell You How To Triumph — Heidi Cohen
• Lee Odden — Top Public Relations Resources for Small Businesses — FitSmallBusiness

Do you have your own favorite new content marketing or influencer marketing news items for the week?

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