Paul Gustafson says, “Dan Miller, a professor of material culture at University College London, caused quite a stir at the end of 2013 when he said Facebook was “basically dead and buried” for 16-18-year-olds in the UK. So when we recently facilitated a series of focus groups in the US with 16-30-year-old males on the topic of their social media habits, we were interested to see how they would respond to “Is Facebook still cool?” Almost universally, participants responded with a “No.” But does Facebook need to be cool to be valuable to marketers? And if... [...]

Danny Wong says, “It’s a free-for-all out there. These days, competition for audience attention is intense — and in some cases, cutthroat. Some of the world’s most respected brands have decided, instead of noisily shouting their marketing message at the top of their lungs, to pursue more subtle campaigns that drawn in consumers. Indeed, what you’re about to read is a non-exhaustive list of brands that are killing it at content marketing. Turn away if the thought of another cliche listicle makes you wonder why the internet ever allowed bloggers to gain power. Otherwise, read on... [...]

Simon Penson says, “The way we consume content is changing at a faster pace than at any time in history. While the shift from print to digital was seismic from a structural perspective, things have not stopped moving ever since. The growth of mobile, and now tablet use, is altering the landscape once again and adding a layer of complexity that businesses have never had to deal with before. Marketers have been talking about a “mobile-first” future for some time now and while I believe that is the wrong way to look at it, there is little arguing against the stats”. Screen Size... [...]

Aaron Orendorff says, “That’s what Leonardo da Vinci said anyway. And four centuries later, Steve Jobs agreed. Actually, Jobs more than agreed. He flat-out stole it. So here’s the question: What does plagiarized advice from the 16th century have to do with marketing copy in the 21st? The simple answer (pun intended) is everything“. 6 Steps for Writing Simple Copy That Sells ‘Copyblogger’ Blog  [...]

Christopher Ratcliff says, “Forget the hard sell and the dry press release. Audiences have wised up, so give them high-quality content that they can really engage with. For anyone who’s experienced the following phrase bellowed at them across the boardroom by a senior executive “we should get into content marketing, everyone’s doing it, Coca-Cola’s doing it, BMW is doing it, Red Bull is doing it, we should be doing it too” then this is for you… Content marketing is everyone’s favourite hot new digital marketing phrase right now, yet the truth is that while the label has... [...]

Brian Honigman says, “One of the concerns of business owners on Google+ is that they don’t know what content to share on their page on a regular basis. Your Google+ Page should feature original content created by your company, as well as the content from others that is of value to your audience. When sharing the content of others or curating the content from various sources, take into consideration the interests of your customer base and their specific content preferences of your audience on Google+. It’s important to share quality content with your Google+ audience because the average... [...]

Carson Ward says, “People don’t share content that isn’t credible. Credibility gets mentioned in passing as something content needs, but little has been said about how to build it. This is your guide”. Is Your Content Credible Enough to Share? MOZ Blog  [...]

Alex Turnbull says, “The importance of using images in blogging goes far beyond “looking nice.” It’s actually deeply psychological. For one thing, your brain (and your reader’s brain) is better at processing visuals than text. In fact, 90 percent of the information that our brain gets is visual, and it processes that information 60,000 times faster than text. And visuals, when they complement your text, help your message connect: 40 percent of people will respond better to visual information than to text. Read on to learn about the eight most effective types of images, and... [...]

John Tackett says, “I have a deep respect for the marketers at nonprofits. How they deliver appeal and exclusivity to donors, in some circumstances, can potentially make or break solvency. Consequentially, I would argue testing and optimizing value proposition for nonprofits is vital. In this MarketingExperiments Blog post, we’ll take a look at an experiment from a Web Optimization Summit 2014 presentation from featured speaker Tim Kachuriak, Chief Innovation and Optimization Officer, Next After, on “selling the intangible.” Before we begin, here are some background notes on the test. Background: The... [...]

Luke Summerfield says, “They say that hindsight is always 20/20. That when we look back at where we came from we can see things we wish we would have nown or done better. This couldn’t be more accurate when I look back over the years at my content marketing efforts. But you’re in luck! I’ve outlined seven of the most important ideas I wish I would have known when I was first starting out in content marketing years ago. I hope they help you get ahead of the game. 1. Tailor to your personas A persona is a fictional representation of your ideal client. You can create different... [...]