Stefanie Flaxman says, ““Come sit down, Child. Gently put your hands on my crystal ball,” I say, directing you into my dimly lit fortune teller studio. I’m wearing a Stevie Nicks-inspired black lace shawl and gold hoop earrings. “You’d like to know if you should publish guest blog posts on your website, yes? Let’s ask.” My long, blood-red fingernail taps on the glass, as a thick fog swirls underneath the surface of the orb for several minutes. “Looks like I can’t help you. Good thing you paid in advance.” And with a swift kick in the rear, you exit the studio without... [...]

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. 1. SEO It’s hard for business owners... [...]

Valerie Levin says, “Static marketing content is as outdated as print-only newspapers. Just as day-old newspapers become litter in the streets, static digital content is useless to the average reader. With such an inundation of static marketing content, one piece hardly stands out from others, meaning brands blend and ideas fade. Readers crave the dynamic nature of interactive digital content. An ion Interactive study measured the success and general feeling from marketers regarding interactive content. In terms of effectiveness, 93% of marketers say interactive media is great at educating... [...]

Lisa Pierson says, “It’s so frustrating: You work hard running your business. You know your industry inside and out. You offer something that nobody else does. And you take precious time to write about it in your business blog. Yet… nobody is reading. Your social share buttons are untouched. And your comment sections are empty too. And you’re definitely not getting more phone calls or walk-in traffic to justify the time you’ve invested in writing a new post week after annoying week. So, why isn’t your blog getting the attention it deserves? You know people are... [...]

Sarah Gooding says, “This week Mandrill announced that it will be discontinuing its free tier for transactional emails. As of March 16th, new Mandrill users will create their accounts through MailChimp and existing users will be required to merge their accounts with a MailChimp account where they will be charged $20+/mo for transactional emails. The deadline for merging accounts is April 27th. MailChimp is choosing to focus on delivering “personalized transactional” emails that require more design. For those who want to continue delivering utility type emails, the company recommends... [...]

Corey Wainwright says, “It’s one thing to write great content, but it’s another thing to get it read and ranked — which is where nailing the title comes in. Titles are what sell the content. They represent it in search engines, in email, and on social media. It’s no surprise, then, that one of the most common questions we get is around crafting titles. Download this free report to get even more data-backed tips on writing catchy titles and headlines. How long should my headline be? What words should I use? What words should I avoid? Should I optimize it for search... [...]

Rogelio Rodriguez says, “One of the chief jobs of an inbound marketer is to convert readers into customers. A particularly effective way to do that is to write frequent, interesting content that establishes your company or client as experts in their respective fields. However, creating compelling blog posts and articles three to four times a week can be challenging. The following four steps can help. 1. Target the right audience by building buyer personas How can you address your audience if you don’t know who your typical buyer is? After all, you don’t want to address your posts... [...]

Rogelio Rodriguez says, “One of the chief jobs of an inbound marketer is to convert readers into customers. A particularly effective way to do that is to write frequent, interesting content that establishes your company or client as experts in their respective fields. However, creating compelling blog posts and articles three to four times a week can be challenging. The following four steps can help. 1. Target the right audience by building buyer personas How can you address your audience if you don’t know who your typical buyer is? After all, you don’t want to address your posts... [...]

Ben Davis says, “No matter how good you are at the words, the sentences and the grammar, no matter how often you run your florid prose through the Hemingway app, there are some elements of an article page that can scupper everything. Here are the most important. Typeface, not a big deal. Font size, big deal. You might find articles telling you the typeface you choose is important. It certainly is, if you want to convey your brand image correctly, but when it comes to readability, don’t let anyone tell you Comic Sans is hard to read. Comic Sans is fine, just have a look below (click... [...]

Tim Brown says, “When it comes to conversions, the ending of your article, blog post or content is usually where you strategically wedge your last-ditch effort. That’s where you want to stick your call-to-action (CTA) and your final plea. This is where you really drive the essence of your message home. Whether you need your website users to sign up for a newsletter, purchase a product or look further into your service, the end is where you need to strike on their emotional and rational triggers. If your site’s content is ending with a void, you’re missing out on potential conversions.... [...]