Berry Feldman says, “SEO has hit the fan, man. Hmm. What? I mean, if you think you have foolproof tactics up your sleeve and magic linking techniques in your back pocket for optimizing your content, I’m sorry to inform you that your sleeve and pocket are see-through. In 2016, you can’t hide your tricks. The search gods see all. And they don’t look kindly on your 2010-era SEO. Google and the other search engines you care about are now good at sniffing out evidence that shows readers get value from your pages”. The Blog Post Checklist for Cranking Your Search Ranking Content Marketing... [...]

Patrick Armitage says, “We are currently experiencing a content marketing upheaval, the likes of which have never been seen before. Brands are increasingly reliant on third-party platforms for their content and distribution. These are exciting times — but also uncertain ones. Is this reliance a good thing? A bad thing? Whatever it is, it’s definitely going to change how we think about the conventions of content strategy. The latest trends reshaping content marketing Consider the most recent trends that are changing the conventions of content marketing: Trend 1: Brands now launch their... [...]

Matthew Toren says, “The simple answer is, “yes and no.” The entire concept of blogging has changed. Back when blogging made the transition from its roots as an online journal to a respected means of communicating on a broad scale with a target audience, it was primarily just that: a communications tool. Some of the key benefits of blogging were the ability for an audience to interact through commenting and the opportunity to build an audience through blog subscription. Both were highly prized attributes of the biggest and most successful blogs out there: they had large, enthusiastic... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “What’s the average length of a brand blog post? How many shares do blog pieces tend get on social media? Do post length and engagement differ between B2B and B2C companies? To find out, Hubspot analyzed data from 175,000 blog posts published via its platform; 49,952 on B2C customer sites and 124,876 on B2B customer sites. Blog posts published by B2B brands and B2C brands tend to be similar in length, between 550 and 600 words, the analysis found. For the B2B posts examined, the median number of words was 545 and the average was 601. For the B2C posts examined, the... [...]

John Weiber says, “In today’s digital world, blogging is an important piece of the marketing pie. By minimizing its importance, you’re throwing away an opportunity to get your business some much-needed exposure. Many business owners choose not to blog because they think they don’t have the skills to write engaging content. But you don’t need to be a writing expert to blog. You just need a few tips to help you along. Here are five writing tips that’ll automatically make you a better blogger and (hopefully) generate traffic to your site. 1. Use the AIDA formula Many... [...]

Matt Byrom says, “As marketers, we’re always looking for new ways to engage our audiences with branded content. Video has become a huge part of this with 61 percent of businesses saying they now use video as a marketing tool. We also know that 69 percent of audiences prefer to watch video when it’s available on a web page. So we can all agree, video is definitely a big part of branded content but what we want to know is, is a particular kind of video the next big thing in Branded content? And the type of video we’re talking about is vlogging. I would hazard a guess that... [...]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “Ever feel like your business is too “niche” to benefit from blogging? Then consider this: 16% to 20% of searches people ask in Google have never been searched for before. No matter how unique your niche is, it’s likely that people are searching for the content you’ll create. The great thing about an inbound marketing tactic like blogging is that it lets you attract the most qualified prospects to your business, wherever they may be. In fact, some of the most dramatic successes we’ve seen with blogging come from businesses in niche industries. Take... [...]

Tamara Littleton says, “Around 15 years ago, forums and blog comment sections were staples of brand-to-fan communication. But the world’s moved on. While many choose to focus on social media channels, some of the world’s most popular brands still blog as they have spent years attracting readers and building an engaged community. But how do they manage reader comments to ensure the engaged community doesn’t become a free-for-all? In this post I’ll look at the different ways that brands curate comments on their blogs. Free-for-all Some brands allow anyone to post comments. It can... [...]

Tamara Littleton says, “Around 15 years ago, forums and blog comment sections were staples of brand-to-fan communication. But the world’s moved on. While many choose to focus on social media channels, some of the world’s most popular brands still blog as they have spent years attracting readers and building an engaged community. But how do they manage reader comments to ensure the engaged community doesn’t become a free-for-all? In this post I’ll look at the different ways that brands curate comments on their blogs. Free-for-all Some brands allow anyone to post comments. It can... [...]

Rick Riddle says, “You don’t have time. That’s a given if you are a small business owner. And often, you don’t have the money to hire others to plan and implement a content marketing strategy. You’re advertising as much as your budget will allow, and you have a Facebook page; you’re putting in effort on LinkedIn, and your daughter is showing you how to use Instagram and Twitter. But a business blog? Do they even work? The quick answer is yes, they do. And, yes, they take some work. But the benefits are well worth it. Here are five of them. Related Article: Why the Company Blog is... [...]