It’s not so easy to walk into a packed room and convince every person that content marketing is a must if their company wants to compete and grow. What is easy, though, is letting your inhibitions fly out the window upon taking your first step through the door.
Continue reading “Three Simple Tips for Crafting the Perfect Content Marketing Pitch”
I don’t know about you, but I gave up on the whole New Year’s resolution thing awhile ago. It’s not that I wasn’t keeping my resolutions; it was that I found it much more impactful to do a self-reflection at the end of every year and think more thematically about the type of person I want to be as opposed to one or two things to tackle for the upcoming year. After all, it feels silly to say things like “I will eat more spinach in 2014” and more aspiring to say “I will be a more health-conscious.”
The end of the year is not only an opportune time for you to personally reflect on areas you would like to improve upon, but it’s also a critical time to encourage your business to ask those ever-important questions. As a marketer, there are a multitude of strategies and tactics you can implement in 2014, so to help you navigate your best course, here are a couple of key questions to get you started: Continue reading “Three Content Marketing Questions to Ask Yourself Before 2014”
If the majority of your marketing efforts are targeted toward men, then you may want to think twice. According to Women’s Marketing Inc., women control a whopping 85 percent of the purchasing in the United States. Need a little more convincing? Continue reading “Boys Drool and Girls Rule: Why You Should be Marketing More Toward Women”
There’s no doubt that content marketing is the most popular inbound marketing strategy on the block. In fact, 93 percent of B2B marketers utilize content marketing, while 58 percent plan to increase their spending in this area in 2014, according to Content Marketing Institute’s “B2B Content Marketing 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends” report.
Although this burgeoning strategy has shown no signs of slowing down, there are still many mistakes being made by companies big and small. Below are the top five content marketing mistakes and ways in which businesses can avoid them. Continue reading “Top Five Content Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them”
Horror drama series The Walking Dead transports millions of viewers each week into a post-apocalyptic world seen through the eyes of a group of Southerner survivalists as they deal with flesh-eating “walkers.” The show is widely known and well-received for its portrayal of an exponentially disruptive second world – and how one group of strategic individuals makes it through day-by-day.
Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Content Marketing Edition”
Can I just say fall is my most absolute favorite season? For all you beach-going, BBQ-obsessed people out there, this may come as a shock, but honestly, if I lived in a land that was 68 degrees and sunny every day, I would be as happy as a clam. From the beautiful foliage to the bumpy hay rides to the autumn sweaters, fall is my nirvana.
Have you ever read through an article only to walk away asking yourself what the real point was? If this sounds familiar then you’re not alone. I recently read what I thought was going to be a compelling article judging by its witty title, however, when I finally got to the end I thought to myself, ‘Wow I didn’t learn a thing I didn’t already know.’
In content marketing, you hear the word storytelling a lot. While every story needs a beginning, middle and end, it also needs a point. As a business, your goal is to persuade a customer to take action, whether it’s downloading your latest whitepaper or ebook or leaving a comment on your latest blog post. Continue reading “Is Your Content Making a Point?”
Assembling a department of workhorses who bring out the best in each other—and possess an uncanny ability to work cohesively as well as independently—is certainly no small feat. But those are exactly the ingredients you need to create your content marketing A-Team because anything less will be of grave disservice to your brand and its messaging. So how do you even begin putting together your industry-leading content marketing team? By making sure you have the following team members on board:
Continue reading “How to Build Your Content Marketing A-Team”
Readers are constantly warned about the pitfalls of judging a book by its cover. But let’s face it: everybody does it. Just like a book needs to sell itself to a customer walking through an isle full of other novels, your content has to do the same thing to someone who is browsing the Web.
Are you having trouble keeping your readers glued to the page? Here is a look at some strategies that authors employ to keep their readers moving along from the title to the last word:
You Need a Beginning, Middle and End
When it comes to sound content marketing production, your best bet is to avoid experimental strategies. Your content should be easy to navigate, like a Stephen King novel—not meandering, like Dickens. Set your reader up with a beginning, have a middle to flesh out your ideas and end it by backing up the point you were originally trying to make. Keep it simple, and remember that you are trying to sell a product or service. While content marketing can be edgy and different, it’s not a platform for an existential rant.
Continue reading “Customers Will Judge Your Content Marketing by its Cover”
2013 has been a breakout year for content marketing. The “star” marketing strategy has now become a staple in many companies’ inbound marketing efforts. In fact, the number of U.S. companies with a comprehensive content marketing strategy in place jumped from 28 percent in 2012 to 49 percent in 2013, according to IMN’s “2013 Content Marketing Survey Report.”
So, what can we expect from this marketing gem in the coming year? Recently, Forbes compiled its top 10 content marketing trends that will dominate in 2014. We chose our favorite four and weighed in on what we think is in store for the coming year. Continue reading “What are the Top Five Content Marketing Trends for 2014?”
