As the summer solstice nears, so to do new opportunities. As B2B marketers adjust to the changes that 2023 has brought, the industry continues to offer growth opportunities as well as unexpected shifts that often seem to happen so swiftly that they can be difficult to fully appreciate.
For more than 22 years, TopRank Marketing has had the honor of helping a diverse selection of the world’s leading B2B marketers and major global brands elevate and go beyond merely being competitive, to truly standing out from the crowd with creative and award-winning successes.
Throughout 2023 we’ve intensified our focus on elevating through intelligence, relevance, and the kinds of human touches that allow efforts to stand out from the increasing reach of those touched soley by artificial intelligence (AI) than by human hands. In this spirit, over the past several years we have regularly made a point of taking the time to honor and congratulate B2B marketing leaders who have recently seen career advancement.
When B2B marketers take on new leadership roles, it’s a natural time to seek out trusted resources that will help professionals in new positions hit the ground running, and TopRank Marketing is honored to be a go-to B2B content and influencer marketing agency for so many top marketers in new leadership roles. In 2023 we also continue to seek out B2B technology industry influencers advancing in their careers to partner with on compelling and unique content collaborations.
We extend our heartfelt soon-to-be summertime congratulations to each of the B2B marketing leaders featured in this tenth edition of B2B Marketers on the Move, and extend our thanks for sharing their insightful B2B marketing career advice.
B2B Marketers on the Move: Elevating Summertime B2B Marketing Leaders
Jennifer Griffin Smith has taken a new position as Chief Market Officer at Acquia.
It’s a buyer’s world. Whether you’re in B2C or B2B, today’s customers have many choices. So you need to constantly ask yourself: Why should they choose to work with us? What do we have to offer that will truly make a difference to their business, their customers, and their lives?”
Jennifer has been featured on the TopRank Marketing blog a number of times over the years, including “Jennifer Griffin Smith: Why Every Company Should Act Like a Media Company,” and “10 Years of Women Who Rock in Marketing.”
Brian Solis has taken a new position as Head of Global Innovation at ServiceNow.
There’s a saying that can’t help but think of in these times, ‘life isn’t happening to you, it’s happening for you.’ The gap between where we are and where we can be is only separated by what we unlearn, learn, and do differently moving forward.”
Brian was featured in our “Inside B2B Influence: Brian Solis on the Future of Influence in B2B Marketing,” and in our comprehensive 59-page 2022 B2B Influencer Marketing Report.
Meisha Bochicchio has taken a new position as Digital Content Marketing Program Manager at VMware.
What do you want to be known for? Pick a small subset of specific topics and focus a majority of your time and effort on those areas. The classic 80/20 split works well here.”
Justin Levy has been promoted to Sr. Director, Influencer Marketing & Head of Community at Demandbase.
Do you know what the single most important job of a community manager is? Providing value to the communities that they are responsible for. Full stop.”
Justin has been featured in our “Inside B2B Influence: Justin Levy of Demandbase on Optimizing B2B Marketing with Influence,” and “20+ Reasons B2B Brands Are Increasingly Moving To Influencer Marketing.”
Caroline Forsey has taken a new position as Principal Marketing Manager at HubSpot.
Learning how to mold AI into the type of tool that fits our existing priorities and quality metrics will be key to retaining the audiences we’ve worked so hard to build. At its core, we know AI can’t replace the humanity behind marketing. So we won’t try to.”
Caroline was featured in our “How B2B Influencer Marketing Offers Brands an Ideal Alternative to In-Person Events.”
Ryan Arnholt has taken a new position as Director of Business Development at TopRank Marketing.
The idea of elevating B2B marketing is about creating relationships, and understanding what you can do in marketing, business development, and sales, to create deep, meaningful connections.”
Ryan recent sat down with our director of agency marketing Katelyn Drake to share his B2B marketing insight, in “Marketers on the Move: Meet TopRank Marketing’s New Director of Business Development,” and has contributed to our blog as an author, in “B2B Ignite USA 2023 Wrap-Up: The Importance of Being Human.”
Jacqui Murphy has taken a new position as Chief Market Officer at Fellow.app.
Jacqui has been featured on our blog over the years, including in “50 Influential Women in B2B Marketing Who Rocked in 2020.”
Dennis Goedegebuure has taken a new position as VP Brand & Creative Marketing at Bitdefender.
Sometimes it’s hard to help, and if an opportunity to help is presented, you dive right in.”
Dennis has been featured in our “14 Search Marketing Influencers at Top B2B & B2C Brands.”
Lidia Santos has been taken a new position as Global Brand Management Director, Oral Care at SUNSTAR GLOBAL.
Do you want to train your brain to concentrate better and be more effective? Practicing meditation makes us happier and more creative, and helps us cope better with stressful moments.”
Casey May has taken a new position as Director, Global Campaign and Content Marketing Strategy at Xerox.
Kristine Webb has taken a new position as Senior Manager, NAMER Field Marketing & Events at LinkedIn*.
Accessibility is an integral part of diversity, equity and inclusion and a human right.”
Adrian Fulle has taken a new position as Global Chief Marketing Officer at ByoPlanet®.
If marketing were solely about manipulating people into making purchases, none of us would truly be passionate about this field.”
Tom Kendall has taken a new position as Global Field Activation Programs Manager at IBM.
You really cannot overestimate the importance of customer experience; it will require a mind-set change for many businesses.”
Klaudia Tirico has taken a new position as Content Director, B2B Marketing Exchange at Demand Gen Report.
It’s super rewarding to work for a company and with people who fight for you to help get what you deserve. I’ve been so lucky to have bosses who always had my back. I’m forever grateful and strive to be that person to my team. But no matter what position you take on, always remember that the life you live outside of work is more rewarding than your career. So, take that PTO and step away from the computer screen on your break… enjoy the little things, buy yourself flowers and even take on a side hustle… and be unapologetic about it! In fact, be unapologetic about everything you’re passionate about — in and outside of work — even if it ticks some people off.”
Kelly Farrell has taken a new position as Product Marketing Manager at Intercom.
Your greatest accomplishment in life is not your work but rather, showing up and being fully present for people when they need you.”
Ben Harmanus has been promoted to Principal Editorial Lead, New Media at HubSpot.
At the end of the day, it’s all about the customer experience.”
Ben was featured earlier this year in our “B2B Marketers on the Move: Spotlighting New Leadership & Talent To Kick Off 2023.”
Ashley Amber Sava has taken a new position as Director of Content Strategy at Alight Solutions.
Writers and content creators — if you want to produce something new, consider utilizing original research and actually interviewing SMEs, clients, prospects and internal experts.”
Marc Meyer has taken a new position as Senior Global Social Media Lead at Revvity.
Content isn’t just king in the world of social media – metaphorically speaking, it’s a dictator. From determining what people see to influencing how they feel and motivating action, content has the power to exercise absolute authority over your audience. As a content creator, it’s important to recognize the power of your content and use it wisely to build a loyal and engaged following on social media.”
Alice Bedwell has taken a new position as Content Marketing Manager at Ometria.
It’s more than email engagement and soft metrics. It’s about understanding customers and where they are in their purchase journey to ensure you and your team are supporting their needs in the most proactive way.”
Alice has been featured in our “B2B Marketers on the Move: Celebrating May B2B Industry Movers & New Opportunities.”
Julia Kaplan has taken a new position as Senior Director, Head of Brand & Content Marketing at Howl.
It’s the people, the mission, the product and the potential to create a brighter future that are the magic.”
Gary Gerber has taken a new position as Head of Product Marketing at PayNearMe.
It’s about building a relationship that’s built on trust, not on hype.”
Gary has been featured in our “Break Free B2B Marketing: Gary Gerber on Scaling ABM without Losing Focus,” and “28 B2B Marketing Insights To Energize & Humanize Your 2021.”
Amber Krosel has been promoted to Senior Program Manager, Content Marketing at Indeed.com.
Volunteering is a great way to meet new friends as well as strengthen existing connections with friends, family or coworkers. As a volunteer, you’ll typically interact with people from diverse backgrounds, which allows you to learn other perspectives.”
Ben Hibshman has taken a new position as Senior Director of Marketing at ZenBusiness.
Christine Nurnberger has taken a new position as Chief Marketing Officer at OutSystems.
Think of your organization as a three-legged stool representing sales, marketing and operations. When one of the legs of the stool is not working right, you have a problem. If you have the best sales team in the world but the marketing team doesn’t identify a buyer and understand their needs, you will fail.”
Christine has been featured in our “B2B Marketers on the Move: An Autumn Celebration of B2B Industry Marketing Leaders.”
Alexander Hoffmann has been promoted to Senior Industry Manager & Data Strategy Lead at Google.
Sean Crowley has taken a new position as Vice President, Product Marketing at BigTime Software, Inc.
At the end of the day, its the PEOPLE at the company your targeting that ultimately make the decision to buy your products. Sure, there are economic, strategic, operational and tactical criteria your product has to fulfill, but you’ve got to build personalized experiences that reach and engage the right people to even have a chance of winning their business.”
Sean has been featured several times on the TopRank Marketing blog over the years, including a full video interview in our “Break Free B2B Marketing: Sean Crowley on Cracking the Alignment Code.”
Amy Higgins has taken a new position as Director, Content Strategy at Lyra Health.
You should look at your content marketing like a locomotive where you’re going in one direction, but there are many parts that you need to consider to stay on track. The focus should be quality over quantity.”
Amy is a TopRank Marketing alumni, and has been featured in our “Top 25 B2B Content Marketing Influencers and Experts To Follow #CMWorld 2022,” and “Top B2B Marketers Share their Content Marketing Predictions for 2021.”
Brian McDowell has taken a new position as Director of Audience Management at Yahoo.
In the 2020s we have AI and a whole new world of platform efficiencies for collecting and sharing information. We are at a turning point where you either learn to master and leverage these technologies, or get left behind.”
Brian has been featured in our “Prepping for #Pubcon Pro Las Vegas: 11 Presentations We’re Looking Forward to Most.”
Thanks To Each of These Inspiring Leaders For Helping Elevate B2B Marketing In 2023
We offer many thanks to each of the talented B2B marketing professionals we’ve featured here, who have all recently been promoted or taken on new industry positions. We’re certain that all of you will elevate with intelligence, relevance and a human touch, and reach new heights in 2023 and beyond.
You can find our previous edition of B2B Marketers on the Move here, and if you want to talk about how to make your own content spring to life this year, we’re ready to help.
You can also learn more about the future of B2B marketing from our CEO Lee Odden, who will be presenting a keynote address during B2B Summit 2023 in Paris, France on June 6, 2023, exploring “Keynote : Human vs. Machine: B2B Content Marketing for the Future.”
*LinkedIn is a TopRank Marketing client.
Ready to elevate your B2B brand? Connect with our team to learn more today!
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.