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10/15/2013

How to Build Your Content Marketing A-Team

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:

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10/14/2013

Customers Will Judge Your Content Marketing by its Cover

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.

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10/11/2013

What are the Top Five Content Marketing Trends for 2014?

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?”

10/08/2013

What’s in a Blog?

It is oftentimes the hardest place to start when it comes to your content marketing strategy, but at the same time, the most important—your blogging platform. From deciding on appropriate blog topics to fine-tuning your tagging strategy to cementing your posting schedule, maintaining a blog can feel a lot like a three ring circus; there are so many moving parts that need be accounted for and, as marketers, we are oftentimes left throwing our hands in the air and with a massive headache.

So what’s in a blog? Before diving into the blogosphere, try to remember these three tips and tricks for each and every entry.

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10/03/2013

What Marketers Can Learn from Senator Ted Cruz’s 21 Hour Speech

The next presidential election is still more than three years away, but in today’s world of instant information, members from either side of the aisle need to raise their profiles significantly in order to have a formidable seat in the national conversation.

Following in the footsteps of U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who held a 13-hour filibuster earlier this year to question America’s use of violent drone strikes, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) took to Capitol Hill on Sept. 24 and spoke for more than 21 hours, urging his colleagues to support the defunding of the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare.

Though not technically a filibuster—the Senate was scheduled to begin debate on a bill that would prevent a government shutdown at noon the following day, and they did—Cruz’s antics generated a ton of buzz, both good and bad, throughout every corner of the Internet and from anyone politically-connected. Continue reading “What Marketers Can Learn from Senator Ted Cruz’s 21 Hour Speech”

10/01/2013

Can You Handle the 21st Century Customer?

Spend just a few minutes with your existing and prospective customers—or just two minutes scanning your Twitter news stream—and one sentiment resounds loud and clear: we are in the Age of the Consumer, one characterized by a customer who is more informed, demanding and expectant than perhaps we have ever seen. Just consider the following statistics aggregated in a great LinkedIn post:

For every customer complaint there are 26 other unhappy customers who have remained silent.
96 percent of unhappy customers don’t complain, however 91 percent of those will simply leave and never come back.
70 percent of buying experiences are based on how customers feel they are being treated.

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09/30/2013

A Tale of Two Companies and How Each Captured My Heart

Hi, my name is Allison Boccamazzo and I’m a Kate Spade addict. I’m a LUSH addict, too. I tried good and hard to give them up, but I just can’t. And so here I am, writing (yet again) about how amazing these companies’ customer service – and content marketing strategies – are. I swear to you that there’s no paid advertising going on here. This is just the simplistic power of content marketing coupled with superior customer service.

My relationship with these two companies escalated quickly and blissfully, like going out to dinner with a complete stranger on a sporadic Saturday night to falling head over heels by the time you reach the front door. In an effort to explain to you how to capture your customers’ hearts, I have to explain how these two companies consistently knock it out of the park for me. And, in turn, why I’m always willing to open my wallet for them.

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