Jodi Harris says, “If you’ve seen any of CMI’s 2017 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends research, you may have noticed that the content marketing industry is growing up. In fact, 28% of B2B marketers, and 30% of B2C marketers now say their program has reached the sophisticated or mature stage of progress – the point where their efforts are able to provide measurable value to the business. Increasing sophistication with content doesn’t mean practitioners have outgrown the tools and techniques that helped them reach greater success. And, despite all the channels, formats, and digital innovations... [...]

Barry Feldman says, “When it comes to business blogging, how much time do people put into creating posts? How long are their articles? What goes into them? How often do they publish new content? How do they promote their posts? Do they measure the results? The answers to any and all of the questions deliver interesting insights on the state of digital marketing. And thanks to the work of Orbit Media Studios, this data has been collected, made available and fun to consume. For three years running, Andy Crestodina — the web design and development company’s co-founder —... [...]

Stefanie Flaxman says, “I watch a lot of YouTube videos about the best ways to clean your bathroom. In fact, I realized that I spend way more time watching “hacks, tricks, and tips” about how to efficiently clean a bathroom than I do actually cleaning my bathroom. Given the hundreds of thousands of views on these types of videos, perhaps it’s not just me. And I started thinking … this might be similar to bloggers who read about editing tips. Editing, like cleaning a bathroom, isn’t always the most fun, so bloggers might spend more time reading about editing tips than actually implementing... [...]

Kate Taylor Mighty says, “There’s no denying it: Blogging for your business works. According to our 2016 State of Inbound report, B2B marketers who blog receive 67% more leads than those who don’t, and marketers who have prioritized blogging are 13X more likely to enjoy positive ROI. Blogging is a crucial part of inbound marketing because it allows you to quickly disseminate helpful information to your followers and new site visitors, which, in turn, helps build credibility, SEO juice, and helps you become more of a thought leader in your industry. Best of all, blogging is super cost-effective,... [...]

Tom More says, “While an image in the past used to have quite the impact on target audiences (remember Facebook’s old news feed?), nowadays marketers are well aware of the fact that a minute of video is worth 1.8 million words. In fact, a video is more powerful than the written word or the photograph that an executive from Facebook has actually predicted the social platform will probably be “all video” in five years. This dramatic shift means great things for businesses, big and small. It means the more videos businesses post, the more clicks, and traffic they will receive. YouTube... [...]

Courtney Feairheller says, “Did you know that the search result in #1 position on Google gets 33% of search traffic? And that page 1 search engine results resulted in 92% of all traffic, dropping off by 95% for page 2? Numbers don’t lie. If you want to climb to the top of search engine results pages (SERPs), well-written, engaging content alone won’t cut it. You also need to focus on writing SEO-driven, keyword-focused content that attracts not only website traffic, but the right kind of traffic. You might be thinking, “That sounds great, Courtney! But, how do I get started?” We’re... [...]

Brian Clark says, “In the beginning, there was blogging. And for businesses looking to build an audience that helped grow the bottom line, it was good. In fact, many of the leaders in the digital marketing space started as blogs and evolved into multi-million dollar businesses. I personally have immense gratitude for what Rainmaker Digital has been able to achieve, and it all traces back to the early Copyblogger audience. Then, around 2008, “business blogging” gave way to the term “content marketing.” Eight years later, as we wind up 2016, we’re drowning in content, and there’s... [...]

Lindsay Kolowich says, “All bloggers have a number of websites that they visit every single day. Aside from the obvious ones (like email and Twitter), your favorites might be anything from your blog’s publishing calendar, to your online to-do list, to all your favorite social media buttongenerators. Wouldn’t it be great if all of those helpful resources were just a click away? That’s exactly what bookmarks are for. In your web browser, bookmarks are links to specific websites that show up as buttons at the top of your web browser — making it easy to visit your favorite... [...]

Sonia Simone says, “It’s time again for Andy Crestodina’s annual survey of 1000(+) bloggers. Take a listen and see how your site measures against the trends … For the third year running, Andy Crestodina over at Orbit Media has run his Survey of 1000 Bloggers. We had a chance to chat about the most interesting findings … and talk about what a big project like this can mean for an organization like his (or maybe yours). In this 30-minute episode, Andy and I talk about: – The content practice that twice as many bloggers are doing this year: How does your process stack up? –... [...]

Sophia Bernazzani says, “Imagine you own a business that films and produces yoga routines for at-home practice. As search engine results pages become more crowded, your chances of ranking for a popular industry keyword — such as “yoga” — begin to diminish. But as it turns out, that’s not the end of the world. These days people are actually conducting more specific, conversational queries — think: “how do I teach myself yoga?” — to get the information they’re looking for, faster. Unsurprisingly, Google responded to this change in... [...]