Simon Penson says, “In a world now overflowing with ‘content,’ standing out is critical to breaking through. And while almost all digital marketers are aware of the challenge that presents, the solution chosen simply extenuates the very issue it was designed to fix. Unfortunately, too many people see the answer to standing out and achieving reach as becoming a ‘shout louder’. But that’s an approach that misses so many critical strategic objectives. Maturing markets, as the ‘content market’ now is, require subtlety of approach and refinement. A campaign... [...]

Aaron Agius says, “There’s no doubt that content marketing can boost your brand awareness and improve public sentiment towards your company and its product offerings. But for you to really make an impact on your business, you need to know whether you’re getting a good bang for your marketing buck — and that means you need to figure out how much you’re affecting the business’ bottom line. Tracking the return on investment (ROI) of your content marketing efforts isn’t always an easy process, but there are ways to approximate the dollar value of each content piece... [...]

Jerod Morris says, “Mike, Julie, and Darren have big ideas and want to grow their online businesses. And they have questions. Like you do. Like I do. Mike wants tips on how he can avoid getting distracted by the “‘Yo, try this!’ tsunami” (his words) and make smart decisions about what action he should take next. Julie wants to start building her email list to sell her ebook, but she needs to know how to connect her email account to her website. Darren has a BIG plan for 2015 and a family counting on him to make it work, and he wants to know if his content strategy fits his goals”. Get... [...]

Rosalyn Lemieux says, “What makes content shareable? What makes content great, for that matter? The formula for social media success is quite simple: great content + large fan base + high engagement = conversions. It’s a formula which goes around in circles too, since you can’t normally get a large fan base or high engagement rates without great content. Your audience won’t share content they don’t love. There’s no artificial way to get them to share content. Sharing almost always happens after a user looks at the content in question, regardless of what the content is. However, there... [...]

Adele Halsall says, “With the growing emphasis on blogging, videos, and social media, online content is becoming a high priority for many businesses looking to expand their reach and boost conversions, without investing in expensive advertising. If you’re looking to tap into new audiences, make meaningful connections with potential customers and enhance your brand credibility, then it’s high time you paid more attention to that thing constantly being churned around the net – content. What Is ‘Content’? Content on the web can be anything – from videos, images, infographics, and designs;... [...]

Lisa Toner says, “It’s the most wonderful time of the year for content marketers. This time of year is when you measure your impact on this year’s company goals and uncover opportunities for moving the needle on next year’s. But when most people run these analyses and calculate next year’s predictions, they forgetabout one crucial thing: market conditions. They’re so focused on internal metrics and results that they miss out on some fascinating, high-level insights. One way to analyze both internal and market conditions is through a content SWOT analysis.... [...]

Dan Brotzel says, “Is it all over for content? Are we all about to drown in cr*p? Are we all in Content Shock? Is the anti-content backlash finally here? Here are 11 perspectives on the great content deluge debate… A vast cloud of blah “I’ve recently been overwhelmed by the sheer amount of jabber in the world: a vast cloud of blah I felt I was contributing to every seven days. “If a weatherman misreads the national mood and cheerfully sieg-heils on BBC Breakfast at 8.45am, there’ll be 86 outraged columns, 95 despairing blogs, half a million wry tweets and a rib-tickling... [...]

Baer says, “I’m nearing episode 70 of my near-daily video show, Jay Today. Three times each week (except holiday weeks) I publish 3-minute videos about business, marketing, social media, and life. Of all the content we create here at Convince & Convert, the Jay Today videos are among the strongest performers, especially on Facebook. In fact, I recorded a Jay Today episode about Facebook video surpassing YouTube potentially. But in addition to creating and posting the videos as videos, Jay Today has become a lynchpin in our initiative to further atomize our content. Each and every Jay... [...]

Marcus Tober says, “Everybody talks about the need to provide quality content on your site if you want to rank well in searches. But how do search engines identify quality content? Successive Google algorithm updates (culminating in the recent Panda 4.1) aim to refine results so that they match the intent of the search query and deliver the most comprehensive, accessible and well-written answer. Put simply, Google (and other search engines) are always looking for genuine quality content, and are increasingly smart at finding (and dismissing) pages that try to game the system. For example, Google’s... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Livefyre today announced the launch of a new content aggregation and publishing tool for websites, mobile apps and other digital marketing. Called Livefyre Studio, the new product puts “content at marketers’ fingertips, where they can fire it off to their websites, mobile apps and all of their digital marketing — in seconds, and without writing a single line of code,” a Livefyre release said. This is another move beyond Livefyre’s roots as a commenting platform. Livefyre Studio appears to borrow some features from Storify, the social aggregation tool Livefyreacquired... [...]