Jessica Ann says, “Are you down with UGC? It’s not just another content marketing buzzword. It’s naughty and unpredictable by nature. And it wants your brand to come out and play. You don’t have to be naughty. But you do need to understand the nature of how it works and how it will evolve. UGC is the acronym for user-generated content. But let’s be real: Can you say “user-generated content” aloud without squirming due to the tone that your all-knowing marketing mouth gives it?”. Turn User-Generated Content Into Undeniable, Glorious Connections Content Marketing Institute  [...]

Lee Odden says, “Recording last night’s BeanCast, Altruism or Consumerism, hosted by the talented Bob Knorpp brought up the topic of Content Marketing and whether paid placement of content is just advertising – among many other topics from Dove to Amazon Dash. This content vs. ad question was inspired by commentary from Mitch Joel in his post, Your Content Is Kidding No One where he states, “if you have to pay to have it placed, it’s not content. It’s an ad.” While I agree with what Mitch says in the post in terms of brands failing to create engaging, share-worthy and conversation-starting... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “Half of all marketers say they do not have enough ideas to be successful in their content marketing efforts, according to a recent report from Kapost. The report was based on data from a survey conducted in February and March 2015 of 377 marketers (76% B2B-focused, 20% B2C, 4% both). Senior executives have more confidence in their company’s idea pipeline than entry-level marketers do: Some 80% of C-level staff think they have enough ideas to fuel content marketing efforts versus just 50% of coordinators/associates”. How Marketers Brainstorm and Use Content Ideas MarketingProfs  [...]

Tiffany Monhollon says, “Have you ever been so overwhelmed with running your business that you barely have time to do the very minimum when it comes to staying up with what’s new in marketing and managing vendors? Sometimes it’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day that you overlook a critical aspect of marketing — measuring your return on investment (ROI). Here are five signs you might just need a system to track your marketing ROI so you can make sure you’re getting the most out of your investment. 1. You don’t know what matters — or why — on... [...]

Jeffrey Kranz says, “We’d all love to show up first in Google for something. There’s likely at least one golden search term or keyword you’re striving for —and we’ve all heard plenty of different get-to-the-front-page-of-Google formulas. It can get a little dizzying keeping all the approaches straight. But it can be done. If you’re willing to invest some time, resources and brainpower, you can create the top content on any topic. To share exactly how, I made an infographic mapping out not one, but six foolproof, can’t-miss strategies that real-life people (including... [...]

Narain says, “Back in February 2013, something amazing happened to the world of marketing: A brand did something moderately clever, which resulted in a year of analysis and attention. I’m talking about Oreo’s live tweet during the Super Bowl blackout at the Super Dome that sparked a craze for what has now been crowned real-time marketing (RTM). Real-time marketing has come to mean different things to different parts of the marketing department. For some, it requires constant monitoring, war rooms, and an on-call team ready to map a message to an instantaneous opportunity. For others,... [...]

Simon Penson says, “Running an agency comes with many privileges, including a first-hand look at large amounts of data on how clients’ sites behave in search, and especially how that behavior changes day-to-day and month-to-month. While every niche is different and can have subtle nuances that frustrate even the most hardened SEOs or data analysts, there are undoubtedly trends that stick out every so often which are worthy of further investigation. In the past year, the Zazzle Media team has been monitoring one in particular, and today’s post is designed to shed some light... [...]

Rainmaker team says, “There is far more content available for consumption than time to consume it. That is not up for debate. But what is up for debate in this episode of The Lede is whether this idea of “content shock” is something to fear … or an opportunity. In this episode, the fourth in the Hero versus Villain series, hosts Jerod Morris and Demian Farnworth bring in Robert Bruce to discuss how much fear and loathing (if any) should be inspired by content shock”. Should We Fear Content Shock? (Or Could It Actually Be a Good Thing?) ‘Copyblogger’ Blog  [...]

Robert Rose says, “We’ve just finished our Intelligent Content Conference, our amazing Executive Forum, and our 100th client advisory engagement. It’s time for a little bit of reflection. The exponential growth of content marketing has revealed an interesting skills gap that is hindering the efforts of companies to transform content marketing from a promising set of experiments into an agile, scalable, strategic function in the business. As brands expand their use of content and rich media assets to deliver engaging experiences to their customers, they are using a whole new lexicon and... [...]

Lisa Calhoun says, “Content marketing crash—it’s that inevitable decline in engagement and conversion after you’ve gained huge ground. Even the best B2B content marketers can get mired in these muddy fields and question their effectiveness and leadership. The hustle to suppress our competitors’ content volleys with overbearing amounts of our own has been exciting. We have earned trophies in the form of engaged followers, increased conversion, and general awesomeness. Content has been good to us. But the easy victories are over. Most top content marketers are now facing... [...]