Julie Wingerter says, ““With the holidays upon us, food is inevitably a source of discussion. As a marketer, you know that for your content to provide value, it must be (like food) consumed and digested. You also know that the ingredients, timing, and presentation all have an impact on what we consume! Straight from the marketer’s cookbook, therefore, here are four tips for making your content readily consumable”. Four Tips for Cooking Up and Serving Consumable Content MarketingProfs  [...]

Joe Pulizzzi says, “This is not a how-to post; this is a how-to-think post. What troubles me about the majority of current content creation activities from companies is the sheer lack of strategy and purpose. I see a lot of activities — tweets, posts, articles, infographics, and more — that don’t support a real business goal. Content Marketing Institute’s latest research even found that only 38 percent of all marketers believe they are effective at content marketing. Your business goal that drives your particular content creation strategy should be to build an audience”. 5... [...]

Amanda Gallucci says, “The past year, major publishers have run the full gamut from listicles with clickbait headlines to well-researched, in-depth storytelling. Each format worked for different audiences and contexts, and as publishers repeatedly tested new types of content, they found several winning combinations. By taking a look at the strategy behind why some of the most popular content styles of 2014 performed so well, brands can learn to leverage and utilize these formats for their own content”. How to Leverage the Best Content Formats of 2014 MOZ Blog  [...]

Gail says, “Getting started writing anything – a book, an article, a brochure or video sales letter – means you are faced with a blank page, lots of white space and racing thoughts. Somehow you need to put those thoughts into words on your white space so they make sense to your readers. As a content creator I get phone calls and emails about how to get started writing or asking for help to relieve the pervasive fear that the writing won’t be good enough, won’t get read or won’t be interesting. A couple of years ago I was introduced to a video that Bob Newhart did even more years ago.... [...]

Kathleen Celmins says, “Blogs are like tattoos: you can’t stop at one. You think you can, but there’s an irresistible pull toward yet another one. So you hire someone whose primary job is to focus on content. Then you start adding blogs. It’s easy to do, really. Once you have the systems in place to create high-quality content for one blog, it’s really just a matter of design and scheduling to create another. Each of our three company blogs has a different target persona, so we’re writing to different audiences. But we’re a sales strategy company, and all our target personas... [...]

Jerod Morris says, “Each new year seems to bring with it a new buzz term or two describing a concept that will change how we reach an audience, or how we build and grow a business. Some of these buzz terms pan out and become legitimate, long-term parts of the lexicon because they work and prove important. Others flash then fade like the pet rock. So the question now as we look ahead to 2015 is what buzz concept should you be paying attention to? Because if there is a concept that is starting to pick up steam, and will prove worthy, you’re going to want to get in on it at the ground floor”. Adaptive... [...]

Ayaz Nanji says, “B2B buyers consider short, text-based content most useful at the beginning of the sales cycle, and time-intensive content types (videos, detailed guides, etc.) most useful right before making a decision, according to a recent report from Eccolo Media. The report was based on data from a survey of 100 plus people at B2B companies who are either responsible for buying decisions (67% of respondents) or influence buying decisions (33%). Respondents came from a mix company sizes (34% enterprises; 36% mid-market; 29% small businesses) and had a range of titles (24% C-level executives;... [...]

Joe Pulizzi says, “For the seventh consecutive year, I’m proud to announce our annual eBook of content marketing predictions (you can also view our forecasts for 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012,2013 and 2014). Special thanks to our friends at Marketo for making this year’s eBook possible. My favorite part about these predictions is that I’m usually wrong (as you know). Despite this, I don’t mind going out on a limb again this year.  For the record, here are my (soon-to-be-failed) predictions for 2015: We will see a surge in print magazines from brands in 2015. As most brands continue... [...]

Brian Clark says, “The “what” and “why” phases of the content marketing revolution are over. To effectively gain and maintain your competitive advantage, you need a clear and concise strategy with the exact tactics to effectively execute. More than that, you need the best talent you can get. You’re tasked with finding and assessing the right strategic partners, content production pros, and technical resources to optimize the audience experience that builds your business. Enter Authority Rainmaker. Happening again this year in Denver, Colorado, it’s live content marketing training... [...]

Jean Spencer says, “We just hired our first full-time PR person at Kapost. His name is Dan. When we were hiring for the position, I remember cautiously warning each candidate we interviewed, “We’ve never really had an ‘official PR person’ on the team. Historically, it’s been our philosophy to avoid traditional marketing tactics.” Our company is a firm believer in pure content marketing over traditional marketing. We always lumped “PR” in the “traditional marketing” bucket, so this hire broke our unadulterated code of content marketing ethics and forced us to answer this... [...]