Sandra Stewart says, “B2B marketers consistently cite creating content that engages as a top challenge of content marketing. That is a genuine hurdle, but making it harder to overcome are the preconceptions that marketing team members likely bring to the effort. Getting content marketing right is both more complex than its most fervent promoters claim… and easier than doubters fear. Carrying beliefs on either end of the spectrum into a content program will hamper its effectiveness. The first step toward success? Getting real. With that in mind, this article busts six content marketing... [...]

Eric Murphy says, “The content marketing struggle is real; every marketer knows the difficulty of serving up the right content to the right audience at the right time. Unfortunately, it won’t be getting easier any time soon. The Content Marketing Institute’s 2015 Reports show that 69% of B2C and 70% ofB2B marketers are creating more content this year than last year. Consumers are already inundated with content everywhere they go, and in an age of increasing adoption and production, brands are reeling in the wake of wasted content investments. It’s no secret any more that content and... [...]

Ann Smarty says, “A good introduction hooks a reader’s interest. The content of a blog post keeps them interested as you present the information or entertainment they came for. Most bloggers are focusing very much on these two specific parts of the whole, and they are leaving one out: the conclusion. Since it is ending the blog post, it is easy to discount how important that conclusion really is. When you are trying to create the ultimate content, it is crucial that you get the sign off right. It might not be what is keeping the reader engrossed, but it may very well be the line that gets... [...]

Alex Braun says, “Just 13 years ago, Steven Spielberg’sMinority Report envisioned the year 2054 as one in which marketing and advertising are so invasive that holograms make frenzied, customized sales pitches to people as they walk through the mall. In an unnerving scene, protagonist John Anderton’s eyes flashed as retina scanners identified him from a customer database and pushy holograms pitched him items based on his previous purchases, personal attributes, and preferences. We still have almost 40 years to go until the film’s setting, but it’s already pretty obvious what the screenwriters... [...]

Jami Oetting says, “You’re a pro at creating content. And because of this, a coveted client has just signed on with your agency. You’ve got to get to work, but you’re at a loss. The client is in a niche industry — one that you have little experience with. And the brand has done little in terms of content creation, so the team is unsure what types of content they need and how best to engage the audience. In this situation, it’s best to go back to the basics. You need to follow a proven formula to uncover the goals for creating and publishing content. Then,... [...]

Ellie Wilkinson says, “Dealing with duplicate content can feel a bit like doing battle with your site’s evil doppelgänger—confusing and tricky to defeat! But identifying and resolving duplicates is a necessary part of helping search engines decide on relevant results. In this short video, learn about how duplicate content happens, why it’s important to fix, and a bit about how you can uncover it.“. How to Defeat Duplicate Content – Next Level MOZ Blog  [...]

Jonathan Crossfield says, “Print magazines being what they are, I pitched the idea of writing about the invitation-only, ad-free social network, Ello, at the beginning of October 2014. This was not long after both mainstream media and various online marketing communities achieved peak Ello hype. At the height of the noise, Ello was apparently generating 4,000 requests an hour and there was even a black market for invites on eBay. Meanwhile, the interwebs were full of repetitive articles pontificating about whether Ello could be the one to finally knock Facebook from the No. 1 spot in the... [...]

Michael Brenner  says, “Intuitively it makes sense: the sooner a consumer is hooked on your brand — loyal to their core — the greater the lifetime value of that relationship. More years means more dollars, right? That straight line is certainly the case for some companies. There are others, however, for which the value in reaching millennials is far more nuanced. There are companies that seek to cultivate deep, personal, long-term relationships. That goal and how to reach it quickly and at scale makes today’s marketers sweat. Everyone wants millennials’ attention, loyalty... [...]

Fernando Labastida says, “The Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs publish a yearly study on benchmarks, budgets, and trends for North American B2B companies using content marketing. In October, they released their fifth annual B2B content marketing study for 2015 – a must-read if you’re in charge ofcontent marketing for your organization. And what consistently shows up every year is the large percentage of firms that don’t feel their content marketing efforts are effective. This year, only 38% of B2B companies surveyed felt their efforts were effective – a drop from... [...]

Courtney Eckerle says, “We all see things go viral on the Web or certain products that suddenly take off. It begs the question: Why do some things get talked about more than others? “And how by understanding that science can companies and organizations and individuals get their stuff to catch on?” said Jonah Berger, Associate Marketing Professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, during our phone interview. Jonah, who will be a keynote speaker at Email Summit 2015, has studied how products are used and why behaviors catch on. His book,Contagious: Why Things Catch On,... [...]