Eduardo Conrado has proven himself to be a nonconformist. An engineer-turned-marketer, Conrado not only oversees marketing for Motorola Solutions, but also recently added IT to his management portfolio. Throughout his 20-year career with the company, he’s underscored his ability to lead through innovation and establish new expectations for the realm of marketing. With the recent expansion of his role at Motorola, Conrado accepted an opportunity to speak to Chief Content Officer magazine (a publication from CMI) about the reasons marketers must work comfortably across multiple…
Content Marketing
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Most Topular Stories
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How Your Content Strategy Thrives When Marketing and IT Work Together
Content Marketing Institute22 May 2013 | 3:00 am -
Top 5 Social Media Questions Marketers Want Answered
Online Marketing Blog21 May 2013 | 7:08 amWhat if you could tap into the minds of 3,000 marketers to find out where they stand when it comes to social media marketing? How valuable would it be to know how your peers are handing the time commitments, social media platforms and measurement? Lucky you and lucky me, the answers to those questions are found in today’s 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Michael Stelzner and Social Media Examiner. A few of this year’s social media statistics: 86% of marketers say social media is important for their business 69% plan to increase their use of YouTube 58% of… -
How to Become a Content Marketing Expert
Copyblogger17 May 2013 | 9:00 amYou hear everyone talking about online content marketing, because with today’s Internet-empowered prospect, content marketing is what works. And yet, you may be struggling with creating content that works for your business or your clients. Or maybe you’re just trying to take your game to the next level. There’s a lot to learn, and even then you’re left asking potentially expensive and time-consuming questions: How do I apply this particular strategy for my business? Is this a solid idea, and how should I execute it? Has anyone taken this approach before, and what were the… -
Online Marketing News: Video Trends Map, Content Recommendation Engine & New Google+ Layout
Online Marketing Blog17 May 2013 | 4:00 amNew Google+ Layout: Hangouts, Photos and Stream Reminiscent of Pinterest Google announced a major update to their social network this week that changes the way Hangouts, photos and the Google+ stream are viewed by users. The decidedly Pinterest-esque layout was just one of many announcements this week out of Google I/O, the totality of which Jeremiah Owyang and Chris Silva dubbed a “wreck.” “The end result, we hope, is an app that looks and feels great across a family of devices,” Senior VP Vic Gundotra wrote of the Google+ changes. This is in line with Google’s… -
Power Your Business Storytelling By Creating a Content Brand
Content Marketing Institute21 May 2013 | 3:00 amTreating your content like a product There’s a big difference between creating branded content and building a content brand. Branded content is egocentric brand marketing. Developing a content brand takes an audience-first approach to business storytelling that builds a loyal audience. Deloitte Debates is branded content (notice how the brand is in the title of the content). Will it Blend? is a content brand (see how there’s no mention of the Blendtec brand in the title?). The most successful business storytellers build content brands — not branded content. Instead of thinking…
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Content Marketing Institute
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How Your Content Strategy Thrives When Marketing and IT Work Together
22 May 2013 | 3:00 amEduardo Conrado has proven himself to be a nonconformist. An engineer-turned-marketer, Conrado not only oversees marketing for Motorola Solutions, but also recently added IT to his management portfolio. Throughout his 20-year career with the company, he’s underscored his ability to lead through innovation and establish new expectations for the realm of marketing. With the recent expansion of his role at Motorola, Conrado accepted an opportunity to speak to Chief Content Officer magazine (a publication from CMI) about the reasons marketers must work comfortably across multiple… -
Power Your Business Storytelling By Creating a Content Brand
21 May 2013 | 3:00 amTreating your content like a product There’s a big difference between creating branded content and building a content brand. Branded content is egocentric brand marketing. Developing a content brand takes an audience-first approach to business storytelling that builds a loyal audience. Deloitte Debates is branded content (notice how the brand is in the title of the content). Will it Blend? is a content brand (see how there’s no mention of the Blendtec brand in the title?). The most successful business storytellers build content brands — not branded content. Instead of thinking… -
3 Ways Your Content Marketing Strategy Can Use Big Data
20 May 2013 | 3:00 amTo date, the term “Big Data” garners about 1.64 billion search results, and counting. The data scientist has been called the sexiest job of the 21st century. Big Data has been described by McKinsey and Company as the next $100 billion dollar opportunity. So, what is it, exactly? Big Data is the massive amounts of data that are being created every minute. Let’s think about the amount of data that is created on social media channels alone. According to an infographic from Domo, every minute 100,000 tweets are sent, 347 new blogs are posted on WordPress, 48 hours of video are… -
Treat Content Publishing as a Privilege by Sharing the Awesome
19 May 2013 | 3:00 amNowadays, any brand can become a content publisher, but we sometimes forget to treat content publishing as a privilege. Just because we have a soapbox, doesn’t mean there will be an audience to listen to us. As marketers we are traditionally trained to repeat our single-minded proposition until consumers buy whatever it is that we’re marketing. In an effort to get our features and benefits across, we often lose sight of what’s actually valuable to our audience. Great content marketing turns a mirror on the audience. That’s why earlier this year we created a cartoon… -
Next-Wave Content Creation Strategies for the End of the Online Ad Era
18 May 2013 | 3:00 amDisclaimer: This post discusses what may happen in the future (and may turn out to be dramatically wrong). Over the past month of speeches and appearances, I’ve heard two questions more often than any others: When consumers finally tire of ads on the web (i.e., pre-roll, roadblock ads, basic banners), what will brands do? Once all brands have started embracing content marketing, what happens then? What’s interesting is that the answers to these two questions go hand in hand. When the ads are gone I’m convinced that there will come a point in my lifetime (I’m 40) when…
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Online Marketing Blog
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7 Steps to SEO at Scale: How to Ramp Up Your Search Engine Optimization Strategy
22 May 2013 | 4:00 amcomScore reports that in April 2013 there were over 20 billion search queries and of the 13 billion+ handled by Google, 16% of daily searches have never been seen before. Each of those attempts represents buyers looking for solutions at the moment of need. Online marketers that take advantage of modern, scalable search engine optimization best practices as part of their overall digital marketing mix can gain a significant advantage over competitors to become “the best answer” when it matters most. Understanding the basics of search engine optimization can be challenging given… -
Top 5 Social Media Questions Marketers Want Answered
21 May 2013 | 7:08 amWhat if you could tap into the minds of 3,000 marketers to find out where they stand when it comes to social media marketing? How valuable would it be to know how your peers are handing the time commitments, social media platforms and measurement? Lucky you and lucky me, the answers to those questions are found in today’s 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Michael Stelzner and Social Media Examiner. A few of this year’s social media statistics: 86% of marketers say social media is important for their business 69% plan to increase their use of YouTube 58% of… -
Integrating Digital Marketing & PR – Breaking Down Silos Through Content
20 May 2013 | 5:11 amFor a recent presentation at a corporate communications and PR conference, I polled my network of digital marketing and PR pros working client-side about the most pressing questions they’re dealing with when it comes to integrating Marketing and Public Relations. Since we’ve been working in the digital marketing and PR space at TopRank Marketing for well over 10 years, it was interesting to see the diverse feedback from companies of various sizes and industries. But several themes revealed themselves that I think our readers will relate to. Thanks to feedback from Digital and… -
Online Marketing News: Video Trends Map, Content Recommendation Engine & New Google+ Layout
17 May 2013 | 4:00 amNew Google+ Layout: Hangouts, Photos and Stream Reminiscent of Pinterest Google announced a major update to their social network this week that changes the way Hangouts, photos and the Google+ stream are viewed by users. The decidedly Pinterest-esque layout was just one of many announcements this week out of Google I/O, the totality of which Jeremiah Owyang and Chris Silva dubbed a “wreck.” “The end result, we hope, is an app that looks and feels great across a family of devices,” Senior VP Vic Gundotra wrote of the Google+ changes. This is in line with Google’s… -
11 Examples of Killer B2B Content Marketing Campaigns Including ROI
16 May 2013 | 7:23 amAccording to a CMI and MarketingProfs study, 91% of B2B Marketers are using content marketing and that means a few things: First, it means content marketing has gained critical mass within the popular marketing mix and any company in a competitive industry would be hard pressed to attract business without it. Second, it means competition to stand out with your brand’s content is only going to get harder as more companies adopt content marketing best practices and mature in their skills. As companies evolve from simply recognizing the important role of content and experimenting with it,…
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Copyblogger
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How to Nail the Opening of Your Blog Post
22 May 2013 | 5:00 amThe opening four notes to Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony are the most popular notes in Western music. Dun dun dun dum … They are stormy. Heroic. Disorienting. Short enough to be remembered. Portentous enough to be memorable. Today you’ll find those notes everywhere. In movies, commercials, and songs when the dramatic and foreboding are needed … And we hardly bat an eye. We recognize them, we know them, and we love those first four notes. Not so for Beethoven’s opening night at Vienna’s Theater an der Wien in 1808. One contemporary composer of Beethoven —… -
5 Things Every Copywriter Needs to Know About Their Prospects
21 May 2013 | 4:00 amWhat do you really know about your prospect? Their age range perhaps? Where they live? What they do for a living? Useful definitely, but not enough to create copy that rouses emotion and compels action. For that we need to take a journey much deeper into the dark recesses of our customers’ minds … Want to join me? Today’s article is inspired by someone who understood that in writing, how well you knew your ‘characters’ made the difference between captivating an audience, or boring them. In 1946 The Art of Dramatic Writing, (now regarded as one of the best works… -
14 Free Ebooks and an Updated 20-Part Internet Marketing Course
20 May 2013 | 5:00 amCan’t see the video? Click here. Free Registration About the Author: Brian Clark is founder of Copyblogger and CEO of Copyblogger Media. Get more from Brian on Google+. Related StoriesWhy We Still Need to Write, Even When We’re Scared5 Ways to Bond with Your Blog’s Audience11 Compound Word Errors that Might Make You Look like a Numbskull -
5 Writing and Productivity Links You Can Use
18 May 2013 | 5:00 amThis week on The Lede … How A Copywriter Evaluates A Great Website The Unexpected Antidote to Procrastination The Daily Rituals of the World’s Most Creative People 4 Things That Lead to Success (or Failure) with Email Signup Forms How to Do More By Planning Less: The Power of the Anti-Plan Want to grab even more useful links (beyond those that make The Lede)? Follow @copyblogger on Twitter. // The Unexpected Antidote to Procrastination Procrastination: that merciless thief of our time, creative output, and potential reward. Mr. Bergman delivers a unique — but convincing… -
How to Become a Content Marketing Expert
17 May 2013 | 9:00 amYou hear everyone talking about online content marketing, because with today’s Internet-empowered prospect, content marketing is what works. And yet, you may be struggling with creating content that works for your business or your clients. Or maybe you’re just trying to take your game to the next level. There’s a lot to learn, and even then you’re left asking potentially expensive and time-consuming questions: How do I apply this particular strategy for my business? Is this a solid idea, and how should I execute it? Has anyone taken this approach before, and what were the…
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Writing On The Web by Patsi Krakoff, The Blog Squad
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7 Content Marketing Questions to Ask BEFORE You Write a Word
15 May 2013 | 4:13 amHere are some key marketing questions to ask and answer before you write a single word of content, if you want to get good content marketing results. When you outsource writing for your blog, newsletter, video or any type of content marketing, be very clear about your content marketing goals. In fact, it doesn’t matter if you’re outsourcing to another writer or doing it all yourself. 1. What do you want your visitor to do after reading or viewing your article, blog or video? For example, do you want them to buy a product? Call a phone number? Register on a form with their email address? -
Content Marketing Focus: Lessons from Steve Allen
8 May 2013 | 5:33 amHaving a hard time staying focused on your business content marketing? Focus-schmocus. Sometimes you start off doing one thing and end up an expert at something else. Life is like that. I look at content marketing as an experiment or adventure. Some things work well and you do more of them. Others, well, let’s hope you haven’t wasted money as well as time. Steve Allen was a famous comedian who started The Tonight Show, in 1954, long before Johnny Carson became the host (and later Jay Leno). Allen started off in radio but got his first TV job as an announcer for wrestling matches. -
Scribd: Just Another Document Sharing Site?
1 May 2013 | 5:54 amI may be a late bloomer, but I just discovered Scribd. I found it when I was doing research for my webinar series, Social Media KISS (Keep it Simple and Serene) for Authors. It is the most popular document sharing site available, with over 50,000 uploads each day. Yes, that number is correct. This is key for those of us that use content marketing online to get found, get known and get clients. Pay attention to what I’m going to tell you… Scribd clearly has established its authority and web presence. The high online activity makes Scribd ideal for content marketing purposes. OK,… -
When Should You Start a New Business Blog?
24 Apr 2013 | 4:14 amWhen should you start a new business blog? Let’s face it, publishing frequently on a business blog is time consuming. Depending on how swift your writing and blogging skills are, it can take you 1-2 hours to publish a post of 350-500 words, including the writing, editing, linking, adding an image, and updating social sites. And you’ll need to do that two times a week, or more. I usually advise my clients that a blog for your business should focus on communicating the solutions to the problems you solve. That’s pretty clear and direct. While a business may have many products… -
Is Your Business Blog Sexy? 4 Simple Ways to Get More Blog Readers
17 Apr 2013 | 5:31 amWhen it comes to business blogging, many professionals forget that there is more to it than getting information out on the page. The appeal of business blogs and sites has a lot to do with readers’ impressions. How can you make your business blog visually appealing, even sexy? Blog formatting is key; in fact, it makes the difference between readers scanning and leaving, and staying to read. Here are four simple ways you can jazz up your site and get more blog readers: Add images –I have run across many business blogs that are nothing but pages and pages of text. While the information they…
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Influential Marketing
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5 Unforgettable Things I Learned From The Office
17 May 2013 | 9:08 amFellow fans of The Office television show are sharing a moment of sadness this morning. Last night was the series finale of the documentary-style comedy show that exposed the silly side of the workplace for nine years. For me, the show coincided almost perfectly with my move from Australia back to America and my own journey of joining an American workplace, and then leaving to become my own boss around the time that one of the main characters in the show (Jim) first did the same. But the real star of the show left last year – a lovably lonely character named Michael Scott played by… -
Get A Free Copy Of My Newest eBook … Always Eat Left Handed: 15 Surprisingly Simple Secrets Of Success
13 May 2013 | 1:42 pmI want to give you a free copy of my new ebook … but I don’t want you to keep it.* Let me tell you why. On June 4, my newest ebook will be released and I am writing it for an audience that may not include you. Unless of course you happen to be in high school or college, or starting your career right now. It’s graduation season and there are lots of pieces of advice floating around the Internet these days. Some are going viral – like the video inspired by a forgotten commencement address from late fiction writer David Foster Wallace back in 2005. About a week ago a… -
The Norwegian Art of Strategic Waiting
8 May 2013 | 2:23 pmChoosing not to preserve a 1000 year old Viking ship doesn’t really surprise anyone in Norway. For Americans who are used to their own country putting mere 75 year old documents behind bullet proof glass, though, nothing could be more confusing than the longstanding debate about the fate of the Oseberg ship – a remarkably well preserved 1200 year old Viking ship unearthed from a burial site in Norway in the early 20th century. I have been spending this week in Norway for a series of events and meetings, and yesterday I had the chance to visit the fascinating Viking Ship Museum on… -
The Most Authentic Movie Marketing Campaign Ever?
3 May 2013 | 2:45 pmIt’s hard to imagine a movie trailer without “The Voice.” You can probably hear it in your head right now. Usually “The Voice” starts with the same three words: “in a world …” There are few marketing campaigns as well scripted as movie marketing. Though the timing and strategy may vary slightly, the trailer is the most typical marketing method used to showcase the best parts of a movie to try and convince you to come to see it. The other common tactic is to grab random quotes from reviewers and publications promising “a gripping… -
Culpa Marketing: How To Win By Publicizing Screw Ups
1 May 2013 | 1:13 pmThere is nothing more powerful than a genuine heartfelt apology. At least, that’s what JCPenney is hoping based on a new ad the brand just released today featuring an apology to customers for recent changes and a promise to start listening more: The ad is a marked departure from the Apple-style “we’ll tell you what you really want” strategy employed by former CEO (and longtime Apple exec) Ron Johnson (here’s my take on why that didn’t work). Will this rapid apology and departure from the past year’s rebranding of “JCP” work? If recent…
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Web Ink Now
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There are no shortcuts
22 May 2013 | 5:51 amI'll tell you up front, it's not easy. If you want to do something worthwhile, you need to work at it. Many people ask me about writing a book. I've written 8 books and each one was a tough slog. If you want to write nonfiction, you’ve got to research your topic, find an angle nobody else has, do a bunch of drafts, get feedback, do several rounds of edits, and more. Fiction is even tougher because your writing has to work on so many levels including conflict, characterization, dialog, setting, and much more. And that's only half of it. The other half is promoting your work so people find… -
Building inbound marketing assets are not marketing expenses
16 May 2013 | 7:03 amI get pushback from many entrepreneurs and business owners as well as CMOs in larger businesses about the idea of using inbound marketing because they see the investment in people to create content as a barrier. They say things like: "I cannot find money in my budget to spend $5,000 a month (or whatever the number) on content creation." When I probe, the vast majority of these decision makers are looking at content creation in the same way as they look at other marketing expenses they currently have such as advertising, trade show booths, spending on agency retainers, and printing brochures. -
My TEDx talk The Need to Explore
14 May 2013 | 9:45 amThe video of my talk was just posted to the TEDx YouTube channel. Direct link to The Need to Explore on YouTube. This is a completely new speech for me with no reliance on the material I use in my keynotes. It was fun (but hard work) to create a brand new talk combining several subjects I am passionate about: space exploration and our ongoing communications revolution. Soon I will post about how I created the talk. -
How to Pitch a Blogger
8 May 2013 | 8:41 pmI get several hundred pitches a week from well-meaning PR people. Conversations with other bloggers suggest this is the norm, so now it is as tough to reach a blogger as it is to reach a mainstream journalist. It may be even more difficult since most of us work part-time on our blogs and we devote less time to wading though pitches as journalists. Sadly, nearly all of the pitches I get are just plain spam. But the good news is that I do pay attention to things that people send me. I occasionally write about them. So how do you increase your chances of getting a blogger like me to talk about… -
How Gareth Fairhurst used content marketing to get elected
2 May 2013 | 9:14 amGareth Fairhurst, a local councillor on Wigan Council, has used online communications and social media, including his blog, Twitter @cllrgwfairhurst, and Facebook to communicate with his constituents in Standish, a village in Greater Manchester, England. In 2012 Gareth, an independent, won re-election with twice the number of votes as his nearest major party rival. He credits his content marketing efforts as instrumental in his success. "In the last local elections [May, 2012] I knew I had to try the online experience, as I was an independent candidate and that is always a disadvantage to the…
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Straight Talk with Nigel Hollis
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Is "Shazaming" a TV commercial the marketing equivalent of streaking?
20 May 2013 | 1:47 amI don’t get it. Why do marketers assume that people will want to interact with TV commercials on their smartphone? I know some people do, but then I know some people take off their clothes and run naked through football stadiums, I don’t get that either. Just because a few people do, it does not mean everyone will. In the past, Shazam has been a great app that allowed you to identify music heard on the go. Now, Shazam plans to extend that principle to TV shows, live events and TV commercials. As Shazam’s vice president of marketing, David Jones states: We’re planning to… -
Beyond the bias in big data
15 May 2013 | 7:38 amKate Crawford, a principal researcher at Microsoft Research and a visiting professor at the MIT Center for Civic Media, has written a provocative post on the HBR Blog titled, “The Hidden Biases in Big Data.” She quotes former Wired Editor-In-Chief, Chris Anderson, as saying, “with enough data, the numbers speak for themselves." Crawford then asks, can numbers actually speak for themselves? Crawford’s answer is a simple no. She states: Data and data sets are not objective; they are creations of human design. We give numbers their voice, draw inferences from them and define their… -
Return, ridicule and the role of research
13 May 2013 | 7:10 amOK, this could be a SCLM (severe career limiting move), but I think there are some questions that market research is just not well-suited to answer. Horror! Has Nigel gone over to the dark side of market research bashing? No, but that does not mean I think market research can do everything that people might demand of it. I have been mulling this idea over for a while, but the post “Return and Ridicule” by Fred Wilson (via Dan Calladine’s highly useful newsletter), catalyzed what I have been thinking about. In the post, Wilson states: I have found that return and ridicule are highly… -
Whole Foods aims to teach people a healthier lifestyle
8 May 2013 | 1:49 amIn an effort to leverage its strong brand among upmarket granola eaters, natural grocer Whole Foods is planning to open a lifestyle resort education center in its home town of Austin, Texas. Much as I applaud Whole Foods for the way it has brought natural and organic foods to a wider audience, I can’t help wondering if this is too big a stretch. As I said, I think Whole Foods is a great brand. When I used to live in Connecticut, Whole Foods was the grocery store that I shopped at the most. Yes, count me in as one of the granola eaters or, as Whole Foods would have it, an Earthling,… -
Dismayed by display
6 May 2013 | 2:26 amThe first banner ad appeared on HotWired 18 years ago. That banner asked, “Have you ever clicked your mouse right HERE?” An arrow pointed to the words “YOU WILL.” When people did click they were whisked off to the AT&T Solutions Web site. In spite of the apparent lack of creativity, novelty ensured that people did click. Unfortunately it did not take long for the novelty to wear off. So where are we today? As Brian Morrissey notes in the article “Banner Ad’s Creators Dismayed By Its Current State,” online advertising is now big business but one that many find far from ideal.
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Conversation Agent
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Tesla Model S at a Mall Near You
21 May 2013 | 3:00 amThis past weekend I was at the King of Prussia Mall very briefly to pick up a few items for an upcoming trip. That is the one place I zip in and out of, parking near a less trafficked entrance, and practicing my long step to go as quickly as possible from entrance to destination. Occasionally, one store gets my attention on the way, it's brand new and much bigger than it used to be and has a big white Apple on the glass pane. I stopped short of it this time. Right before it, I noticed a big crowd going in front of an open space. Inside, there were two brand new Tesla Model S cars, a white… -
The Most Obvious and Important Realities
20 May 2013 | 3:00 amIn a 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College, author David Foster Wallace shared with students his take on the Truth with a capital "T" and the real value of a Liberal Arts education. The most obvious and important realities are often the ones that are hardest to see and talk about. The Glossary captured a little over nine minutes of that speech in this video, which starts with the statement above explaining why "this is water". The context of day in/day out makes our internal dialogue win over the present awareness. It papers over the fact that we have a choice. It does take will and… -
Why Learning is as Important as Teaching
19 May 2013 | 7:51 amIn a recent TED Talk, Bill Gates shares this compelling statistic: “Until recently 98% of teachers got one word of feedback: satisfactory.” We all need feedback. With no feedback, says Gates, no coaching, there’s just no way to improve. Learning is as important as teaching, if not more. As he says in the talk, even great teachers can get better with smart feedback. Teaching doesn't happen only in the classroom Mentors, coaches, and peers who are willing to provide constructive feedback enrich our opportunities to learn more about what works. In the absence of deliberate feedback, I… -
Switching Sides
17 May 2013 | 3:00 amThis past Monday, author, consultant, and friend Peter Shankman, the man who found himself on the receiving end of Morton's Steakhouse greatest customer experience, invited me to the experience the 3D IMAX Theater premiere of Star Trek in New York City. That's for the man behind the connection. As for the man behind the reboot of the Star Trek franchise, J.J. Abrams, he succeeded in creating a compelling story. I'm not normally too much into 3D, and IMAX can make me dizzy. However, this movie was well done. It was like being part of the action. The best scenes are those of connection between… -
New, More Social Google Maps
16 May 2013 | 3:00 amGoogle is out on a changing spree. A new Google+ that looks a lot more like Facebook pages and Pinterest mashed together responsively (that was the commentary last night), and more dynamic and social data rich maps. In the last couple of weeks, the Interwebs were filled with news, commentary, and reviews of Google Glass. Although little was said at the Developer Conference#. Google Now app updates, too. How about those Google driverless cars#? All this on the heels of changes to Gmail UI, and the announcement that due to declining use it will be retiring GReader in July#. And I'm sure I'm…
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Marketing Darwinism
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Why CMO’s Need To Be More Involved in Ecommerce
15 May 2013 | 11:00 amPosted in CommerceConversion OptimizationCustomer ExperienceeCommerceLeadershipOnline TestingOptimizationPersonalizationTesting If the $42.3 billion spent online this past holiday season has taught retailers anything, it’s that capturing customers—and their dollars—online is crucial. But online is a big place. And mobile, which can seem like an entirely different universe, looms ever larger. So where to even start if you haven’t yet…started? And who should lead the charge? The modern day merchant must have an intimate understanding of the importance of online and mobile commerce,… -
3 Ways Social Media can Boost Sales Success
7 May 2013 | 10:45 amPosted in BloggingBusiness IntelligenceCommunitiesContent MarketingConversational MarketingEnterprise 2.0FacebookLead GenerationLead NurturingPeopleSalesSocial Business IntelligenceSocial MediaSocial NetworkingStrategyThought LeadershipTwitter Recently there has been a lot of conversation against the importance of relationships in selling such as this recent Harvard Business Review article on Selling is Not about Relationships which makes it seem like social media would not make a good fit for sales people. But a new RAIN Group report proves otherwise and shows that sales people that truly… -
6 Things to Keep in Mind When Replatforming
30 Apr 2013 | 11:00 amPosted in Business IntelligenceTesting As the shelf life of ecommerce sites gets shorter, it becomes harder for marketers to balance the latest trends while maintaining a seamless customer experience. When constant upgrades and revamps become daily tasks, or the functionality just isn’t meeting your growth demands, it might be a sign that it’s time to replatform—or migrate your site to a more stable, streamlined infrastructure. The bad news is that if you’re considering a replatform, it’s likely because your ecommerce site is highly complex and dynamic, with rich content, targeted… -
The Social-Shake-Up: A New Breed of Marketer is Coming
25 Apr 2013 | 9:47 amPosted in InnovationInteractive MarketingStrategy Gartner is predicting that by 2015, 25% of organizations will have a Chief Digital Officer (CDO) and further estimated that 20% of existing chief information officers (CIOs) have already taken on some of the responsibilities of the CDO. So what does a CDO do? The role of the CDO in the enterprise has gotten a great deal of attention in recent months. Perhaps because of the impact and influence that the CDO had in the Obama campaign last fall. All the tools of the trade – text analytics, social media analysis, Website personalization,… -
Your Testing Program: Smart Ways to Get Your Team On Board
10 Apr 2013 | 1:01 pmPosted in eCommerceOptimizationTesting On the face of it, the idea of a rigorously testing and optimizing your ecommerce web site seems like a no-brainer. After all, who would object to gathering hard data on exactly how customers move through your site, what happens on specific visits, and what unseen speed bumps and sticking points are hurting sales? Who wouldn’t want definitive answers to such questions? Fact is, though, in many online marketing organizations, there is often surprisingly sharp resistance to technologies such as multivariate testing. Sometimes, it’s simply because…
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Post-Advertising
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An Open Letter to Nutella: Why Did You Eliminate Your Greatest Marketing Asset?
22 May 2013 | 1:55 amMy dearest Nutella, For decades your hazelnut spread has turned everyday consumers into product purists. From brownies and cookies to hot chocolate and crepes, Nutella has been the cornerstone of a delicious treat. As you’re aware, since 2007, Sara Rosso—arguably your most passionate superfan—has hosted World Nutella Day. She love(d) your product so much that she wanted the world to dedicate a single day—February 5—to embracing it. What she did was nothing less than astounding. On the World Nutella Day website, Rosso has gathered more than 700 recipes, tweeted and shared on Facebook… -
4 Lessons in Creating Dynamic Social Content
20 May 2013 | 5:22 amThis post originally appeared in our May ’13 issue of “Live Report from the Future of Marketing,” our monthly Post-Advertising newsletter. Subscribe for free here. Why would I care? Why would I share? These are two key questions that Droga5’s chief creative officer, Ted Royer, says his agency considers when creating social content for brands on Facebook. Royer and Carlos Figueiredo, associate creative director at Publicis Kaplan Thaler, hashed out what makes engaging Facebook content during a Creative Week panel titled “Newsfeeder: The Most Creative Posts From Facebook Brands,”… -
Why It’s a Mistake For Brands to Ignore Tumblr
15 May 2013 | 11:24 amPretend I’m someone who understands the basics of the Internet but has never used a social platform. Now let me ask you: What’s Facebook? What’s Twitter? What’s Instagram? Most answers, at least from the readers of this blog, would be similar. But I’ve got another question. What’s Tumblr? I would bet that at this point the definitions start to differ. “It’s a blogging platform, like WordPress or Typepad.” “It’s a social network where people share all sorts of content.” “It’s a website for theme-based GIF repositories.” For the record, Tumblr defines itself as a… -
The Difference Between Fun and Useful Content in Social Sharing
8 May 2013 | 1:52 amTo say I’m not much of a handyman would be an understatement. I’m my father’s son—a Boston sports fan through and through, hardworking and always trying to please. But he and I know absolutely nothing about maintenance or repair work. So when I recently bought my first house with my wife, the renovations we opted to complete ourselves weren’t going to be easy, no matter how simple they were. But in the connected world we live in, help was no further away than a YouTube search. Hanging towel racks, painting stripes and installing the Nest thermostat (a must-have, IMO), lighting… -
6 TV Ads That Will Grip You With Their Story
1 May 2013 | 7:09 amTelevision advertising has traditionally been seen as an interruptive yet creative means of exposing audiences to a brand. There’s no denying the massive audience that television commands, not only in the United States and the UK but around the world, but it’s been said that audiences hate advertisements so much that they created technologies for avoiding them. Many households have “pulled the plug” on television altogether, opting for on-demand television viewing with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, iTunes, Roku, HBOGo and many more alternative services. Add to that the Nielsen Global…
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Conversation Marketing from Portent, Inc: Internet Marketing with a Twist of Lemon
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How Google Ruined Marketing
21 May 2013 | 4:31 pmMarketing wasn’t supposed to be a zero-sum game. Your competitor bought a TV commercial, you bought a TV commercial. They bought radio time, you bought radio time. Even if they bought every available second of radio time on one station, you could buy time on another, or go to a completely different medium. That promoted two good things: Creativity in advertising. Creativity entertains consumers and forces brands to take a hard look at themselves every few months. This inspires a kind of corporate self-awareness that keeps the best consumer and business brands sharp. Great products. -
Building Successful Low Budget PPC: Understand your Campaign Settings
17 May 2013 | 7:00 amIn charge of building your first PPC account? Don’t have a lot of time or money to spend within AdWords? Well you came to the right place. Over the course of the next six weeks, Portent PPC Strategists Chad Kearns and Tim Johnson will be laying down the knowledge in a six-part blog series detailing best practices for setting yourself up for PPC success. Follow along to pick up tips on how to build your first PPC account like a PPC superstar. Post #1: Building Successful Low Budget PPC: Account Structure During campaign creation, AdWords provides a number of settings to tailor a campaign to… -
Manage Stuff, Lead People: How to Turn Workers into Leaders
16 May 2013 | 7:00 amWe’ve all seen it happen. An employee is doing killer work, initiating great ideas, and displaying a willingness to take on larger projects. The employee is quickly promoted to a manager position. But while this top employee has excelled at the tactical parts of the job, he or she has never managed a team before. Letting these employees just sink or swim will be chaos – for you, the new manager, and for his or her team. For growing companies like Portent, it’s important to guide even the smartest, hardest working employees as they transition into management roles. As president, my role… -
3 Google Algorithms We Know About & 200 We Don’t
15 May 2013 | 7:00 amWhen I meet with clients or present at conferences, I am always asked: “How do I rank high on Google for (insert keyword-phrase-du-jour)?” I give the standard answer: “Only the search engineers and Google can tell you and they aren’t talking.” Inevitably, the questioner looks dejected, mutters a slur on my credentials, and walks away. I scream silently in my head: “Don’t kill the messenger because we are all hapless Wile E. Coyotes chasing the Larry and Sergey Road Runner with zero chance of catching them, no matter what we order from ACME!” Thirteen years ago, before… -
Building Successful Low Budget PPC: Account Structure
10 May 2013 | 7:00 amIn charge of building your first PPC account? Don’t have a lot of time or money to spend within AdWords? Well you came to the right place. Over the course of the next six weeks, Portent PPC Strategists Chad Kearns and Tim Johnson will be laying down the knowledge in a six-part blog series detailing best practices for setting yourself up for PPC success. Follow along to pick up tips on how to build your first PPC account like a PPC superstar. Understanding how to setup the structure of your account is vital to PPC success. The account structure is the back bone of your account. Creating a…
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Marketing Interactions
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B2B Content Marketing: Thoughtful or Rote Activity?
18 May 2013 | 3:07 pmI recently read a post written by Brian Carroll of MECLABS. An excerpt caught my attention as this is a problem I see often. He was discussing a finding in Marketing Sherpa's 2013 Email Marketing Benchmark Report that found only 15% of marketers reported they have dedicated resources to produce content for each stage of the buying process. Brian's colleague, Daniel Burnstein, shared that he had heard a related story from one of their partners: They, too, wanted to send emails that were relevant and didn’t know where to begin. Typically, as a matter of rote, they blasted out an… -
Use Content Strategy to Break Into a New Market
4 May 2013 | 12:06 pmI've been on a number of calls recently with companies that want to break into a new market. They think that content marketing may be the key, but are uncertain if they're right, as well as how to approach this new direction. Content Marketing is definitely a key strategy. In fact, I'm not quite sure how a company would go about breaking into a new market without it. But there are some challenges when your goal is quick uptake and your company doesn't have a lot of exposure or familiarity with the target audience. Here are the things that come to mind. It shouldn't be… -
The B2B Website Audience Litmus Test
27 Apr 2013 | 2:44 pmMany B2B companies think that their website must serve every type of customer they have—every flavor of persona. I'd ask you to step back a moment and think about your website audience. Just because your company serves a range of people, titles, and roles, doesn't mean that they all use your website—or ever will. The elephants in the room during this discussion are usually represented by the CXOs—the ultimate persona that all companies want to attract, engage and sell to. However, these people are not likely your website's greatest fans or visitors. Why not? CXOs are: Too… -
Is Social Selling in Need of Sales Enablement?
2 Apr 2013 | 12:41 pmIn my last post I wrote about some of the ways Marketers could benefit from LinkedIn in relation to the report Jill Konrath and I released recently, Cracking the LinkedIn Sales Code. Today, I’d like to write about some opportunities that surfaced during our analysis of the data that point to the need for sales enablement that can help your company’s social selling initiatives, as many salespeople appear to be struggling to find the value. The fact that only 4.9% of the 3,094 survey respondents are identified as Top Sellers is a wake-up call. The idea that gaining access to InMail is… -
Cracking the Code on LinkedIn is For Marketers Too
27 Mar 2013 | 1:54 pmJill Konrath and I recently released a report, Cracking the LinkedIn Sales Code, that details what we learned from a survey of 3,094 salespeople about their use of LinkedIn as a sales tool. As a marketing professional, I found the responses fascinating and began thinking about how the data crosses boundaries to inform the marketing side. In the report, we looked at two sides of the coin; Salespeople who could attribute lots of sales opportunities to LinkedIn (Top Performers) and the others who generated a few—or none at all. The differences were quite striking—as was the admission by 58%…
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Brian Solis
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Getting Back to Basics: Why Brands are Getting it Wrong in Social Media
21 May 2013 | 8:29 amQuestion: What is your #1 advice for social media strategists and managers? Answer: Stop talking about social media Type “social media” into a Google search bar and you’ll find roughly about 4.7 billion results in .30 seconds. Next, try “social media conference.” You’ll see something along the lines of 1.2 billion results in .25 seconds. Social media is important but I’d argue we aren’t celebrating it for the reasons we should. Instead, we are forcing social media to conform to traditional thinking and processes rather than adapting business philosophies and supporting… -
Internal social networks improve communication + collaboration when empowered to do so
17 May 2013 | 4:49 amI received an email from my friend at CIO Journal just as I boarded a United flight from Mexico City to San Francisco. He was on deadline and the topic was too good to miss. I’ve spent more than a fair amount of time studying and reporting on the social landscape as it pertained to internal engagement, communication and collaboration. I frantically typed on my iPhone with my thumbs before the door closed. Time was.running.out. With the hit of the send button, the door closed, and I was relieved to know that I made the deadline. Fast forward….the article recently ran in… -
New Digital Influencers: The Coming Youthquake
14 May 2013 | 7:32 amElements of inspiration that went on to become my new book, What’s the Future of Business, Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences Blame it on the youth they say. Indeed, there’s a great assumption that the future of technology falls in the hands of emergent generations. The youth of today will someday represent the majority of consumers, employees and citizens. That’s always the case, but what we don’t yet fully appreciate is just how different young adults think today. We don’t yet understand what it is they value and why. We’ve not yet assimilated how they make decisions… -
Part 2: The Broken Link of Social Customer Service
9 May 2013 | 8:05 amPart Two. An edited excerpt of What’s the Future of Business, Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences In Part 1 of this series, The First Mile: The Broken Link of Social Media Customer Service, we reviewed the opportunities and challenges that face any business seeking to engage customers in social networks. To become customer-centric requires a culture that supports customer-centricity and an active investment in defining the first mile experience. The first mile of customer engagement is a post-commerce or post-transaction strategy that invests in an ongoing experience to keep… -
The First Mile: The Broken Link of Social Media Customer Service
7 May 2013 | 7:03 amPart One. An edited excerpt of What’s the Future of Business, Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences For all that social media is doing to change business for the better, it’s not yet enough. Interview any executive and ask them what their priority business goals are for 2013 and I’m sure you’ll see some element of customer-centricity on the list. Yet the challenge that exists for any organization trying to get closer to customers lies in the definition of customer-centricity. If getting closer to customers is a key objective, why do many businesses neglect the…
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nick burcher
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'Nandos Fergie Time' on Twitter - chicken restaurant reacts to Manchester United news! #nandosfergietime
8 May 2013 | 7:30 amNando's restaurant have responded to the widely tweeted news that Manchester United manager, Alex Ferguson will retire at the end of the season. In recognition of 'Fergie time' (the belief of many that Manchester United are seemingly granted additional time at the end of matches when they need it most) Nando's have arranged for all of their Manchester restaurants to be open for an additional 5 minutes tonight. Nandos have tweeted about this and have been retweeted around 6000 times in 30 minutes! #NandosFergieTime - Nando's restaurants open later today to honour Alex Ferguson Nando's have… -
YouTube blood donation film integrates into video progress bar (Hemorio, Brazil)
22 Apr 2013 | 5:46 amA clever new film from Hemorio in Brazil highlights the fact that in Brazil, no matter how much blood is donated, there is always someone waiting for a blood donation - the film is therefore named 'waiting for life' and aims to encourage more people to donate blood in Brazil. Screengrab from blood donation film on Youtube - the video progress bar morphs into a catheter... In order to make the film more noticeable (and newsworthy), the makers created "a link between the waiting time and the importance of getting blood to those who need it. In the video, the blood leaves the veins of the donor… -
Ed Sheeran - Lego House (Lego version) - animated video remix drives new attention
17 Apr 2013 | 4:58 amA user generated LEGO remix of Ed Sheeran's 'Lego House' video is drawing new attention to the track. Ed Sheeran's 'Lego House' video was originally published to YouTube in October 2011 and so far Lego House has attracted 47 million views. LEGO animator Dylan Woodley (check out his Insomniac Animations channel here - http://www.youtube.com/NXTManiac94) has now breathed new life into the Lego House track with an animated LEGO version that Warner Music have uploaded to the official Warner Sound YouTube channel. The new version of Ed Sheeran 'Lego House' sees a split screen approach… -
BMW April Fools Day 2013 - BMW P.R.A.M. [images] #aprilfool
31 Mar 2013 | 11:19 pmBMW's history of BMW April Fools adverts continues for 2013 - this year BMW have announced the BMW P.R.A.M. (Postnatal Royal Auto Mobile) with the headline 'Your P.R.A.M. Ma'am' [on page 3 of the Daily Telegraph today.] BMW April Fools Day 2013 - BMW Pram The BMW April Fools Day 2013 ad for the Royal BMW Pram then states: BMW April Fools Day 2013 - BMW Pram ad text "With a royal baby due this summer, we are proud to announce the launch of our limited edition BMW P.R.A.M. (Postnatal Royal Auto Mobile.) Available in Princess Pink or Royal Blue, this soft-top convertible has been designed… -
Dave Seaman Kickstarter DJ Mix compilation #kickstartdave - the first crowd funded 2 x CD DJ Mix compilation album!
25 Mar 2013 | 6:14 amDave Seaman is a dance music legend and his latest project is interesting... Previously half of Brothers In Rhythm, Dave Seaman has had chart success as an artist (remember Such A Good Feeling?), as a producer / remixer for many big names and as a DJ in his own right, featuring on CD mix album releases from the first Mixmag complitation through to mixes for Global Underground and Renaissance. Dave Seaman's latest project takes in a fresh approach though - namely using funding platform Kickstarter to generate the finance to create the first crowd funded 2 x CD compilation album. Kickstarter…
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Servant of Chaos
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Did the Job You’re In Exist When You Were Studying?
15 May 2013 | 1:50 pmStéfan via CompfightPredicting the future is incredibly difficult. Ask any psychic. Or marketer. We don’t need research to tell us that the world is changing, or that the future will be different from the past. The challenge is magnified not only by the amount of change that we are seeing in almost every industry, but by the rate at which those changes are taking place. Futurist, Tim Longhurst says to predict five years into the future you need to look back ten. Is it any wonder that younger generations entering the workforce are finding it hard to plot their future careers? As it turns… -
Putting Experience Back into Customer Experience
15 May 2013 | 3:13 amYesterday I wrote about the importance of reading mean tweets. It’s a post about the rough and tumble nature of online conversation and what can happen when you step out into the gaze (and full throttle voice) of the social web. And then today, almost on cue, comes what BuzzFeed calls the most epic brand meltdown on Facebook ever. It began with an appearance on Gordon Ramsey’s reality TV show, Kitchen Nightmares. As you can see from the footage from the show, the episode did not play well for the owners of Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro in Scottsdale, Arizona. No… -
Reading Mean Tweets – Social Media Beyond the Magic Mirror
13 May 2013 | 10:51 pmAre you an executive stepping into the world of social media? Are you a leader learning to tweet? Or are you in charge of a social media account or community site for a brand? If so, you may have experienced a flurry of mean tweets. And by “mean” I nasty. Mirror, mirror on the wall, whose brand is fairest of them all? You see, for decades, we have all been living the life of the Evil Queen, viewing the world through the wonderful frame of our very own magic mirror. We frame the question. Ask it. And wait for the adulation to return. And in a world where every question, all “market… -
Five Must-Read Posts
12 May 2013 | 4:46 pmFrom innovation to execution and from twitter to real world impact, this week’s five must-read posts run the gamut. Theo Priestley reminds us that you are what you tweet. And that employers are scouring social media sites to learn more about your history, behaviour and suitability. The more things change, the more things stay the same. In fact, things may change, but our behaviour only shifts in small increments. Check out John Dodds’ seven year marketing itch. Are you marketing to millennials? Then Blair Reeves says, you’d best take them seriously. Great article! Do you live inside the… -
A Minute is a Long Time–On the Internet
8 May 2013 | 4:02 pmThey say that a week is a long time in politics. That was certainly the case when there was a “daily” news cycle. Any announcements or revelations needed to be revealed in time for stories to be written, edited, photographs to be prepared, processed and newspapers to be printed. Breaking news was the domain of the more instantaneous broadcasters like radio and TV. And even then, only the most explosive news items would break programming. But the web changed all that. It has taken two decades at least, but the internet has now thoroughly transformed the way that we source, gather, verify…
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Content Marketing Today
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Write a Book. Change the World.
25 Apr 2013 | 6:07 am[caption id="attachment_3452" align="alignright" width="300"] Cyndee Woolley's Upcoming June 2013 Book[/caption] 11 Steps to Creating a Successful Business Book. Great business books do change the world. They change the world one discipline or market segment at a time. They make a measurable difference in how entrepreneurs and executives start, grow, and manage their businesses. And, that makes a world of difference to each business reader. You may have the beginnings of a great business book lurking within your brain. We will show you how to take your ideas and to transform them into a… -
How Barack Obama Became Content Marketer-In-Chief of the USA
3 Apr 2013 | 8:19 amStill skeptical of the merits of content marketing? Well, Barack Obama and his team have put content marketing at the center of their media strategy. [caption id="attachment_3428" align="alignnone" width="517"] Bo Helping President with his Content Marketing[/caption] They have effectively dis-intermediated the media. Just as all great content marketers, they are thinking and acting like publishers. As the AP reported recently, The Obama White House is generating its own content like no president before, and refining its media strategies in the second term in hopes of telling a more… -
Top Content Strategy Takeaways from Confab 2013 London—Day One
2 Apr 2013 | 6:13 am[caption id="attachment_3393" align="alignright" width="202"] Kristina Halvorson Opening Confab 2013[/caption] Content strategists from all over the world gathered for two frosty March days in London to learn from some of the brightest minds in the content universe. I was delighted to be part of the enthusiastic crowd. I'll dig more deeply into individual presentation content soon. But for now, here are some of my favorite takeaways from the many awesome presenters on the first day of Confab 2013. Content strategy may still be hard to do. But, the presenters made it easy to understand the… -
How a Gardening Company Newsjacked a Blizzard
6 Mar 2013 | 9:23 amMaking Your Customers Grow In Spite of the Snow Very few customers of Meadows Farms are giving a moments thought to spring planting as the Washington DC area faces a huge snowstorm. so rather than fight the obvious, the folks at Meadows Farms used to their newsletter to offer sound advice about dealing with the blizzard. Not only did the relevant and compelling newsletter content address weather challenges that were critical to its customers. Their very practical advice demonstrated that Meadows Farms really cared about their well-being and that of their landscapes and… -
5 Ideas for New Business Blog Topics for a New Year
15 Feb 2013 | 9:00 amWritten by Patsi Krakoff. Let’s face it – Business blogging can get repetitive. It seems as if there are only so many blog topics out there for your readers, and you’ve exhausted them all. We know the key to a successful business blog is fresh content, which brings more reader who might be potential new clients. But what exactly does “fresh” content entail? New topics or a different perspective on a problem, or an innovative tip – these are all good. Swapping guest blog posts with another business also infuses new life into a blog. Sometimes hiring a new writer can help bring…
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Hard Knox Life
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The Modern Marketer [Infographic]
19 May 2013 | 1:24 pmThrough my posts on Brand Manager 2.0, I have written quite a bit about how technology is changing the job of a marketer today. Of course, that means I was quite a fan of this infographic from Pardot which talks about a Modern Marketer being part artists and part scientist. In their words, a modern marketer must master: Written Content Visual Assets Social Media Email Marketing Performance Tracking Budgeting and Operations Analytics Campaign Performance Courtesy of Pardot, an Exact Target Company -
A Merging of 19th Century and 21st Century Entrepreneurship
29 Apr 2013 | 9:55 amWhen the Mercantile Library in Cincinnati opened its doors in 1835, the 19th century institution stood in the middle of the fast-growing nation’s busiest startup community. It was a community that would give birth to some of the largest companies in the country including names like Procter & Gamble, Kroger, and E.W. Scripps. A group of 45 young, energetic, and confident merchants came together to organize the Library and put themselves on track to become the entrepreneurial engines of the growing city’s future prosperity. Mercantile LIbrary – Courtesy of Urban Cincy This… -
Business Is About Motion
7 Jan 2013 | 5:30 amOne of my favorite books of 2012 was Get Lucky: How to Put Planned Serendipity to Work for You and Your Business, which was written by the co-founders of Get Satisfaction. Get Lucky shows businesses how to succeed by fostering the conditions for serendipity to occur early and often. One of the principles in the book is “Motion”, the skill of putting yourself in unfamiliar situations, but within familiar environments, in order to engage with previously unfamiliar people and ideas that are connected to your job, your projects, or your interests. Motion is the reason that… -
Kincast makes it easy to video share moments with your family
12 Dec 2012 | 11:18 amEarlier this summer, the guys at Sproutbox introduced me to one of their newest investments, a company called Kincast. In their words, “Kincast is a fun and special way to engage loved ones in a worry-free environment. Chatting, sharing video, sending video messages and creating video cards get everyone involved.” Today, Kincast launches their version 2.0 with a new app that has completely reworked the user experience. The below video does a great job of capturing the value proposition of the company. More importantly, the video captures a key insight that all consumer… -
Mary Meeker releases her 2012 Internet Trends
8 Dec 2012 | 1:28 pmOne of the must reads on the State of the Internet is the report published by Mary Meeker of Kleiner Perkins. The latest edition was just posted on Slideshare and I highly advise you take a few minutes this weekend to read it. At a high level, the report talks the following: Basic Stats – Internet Growth Remains Robust, Rapid Mobile Adoption Still in Early Stages Re-Imagination – of Nearly Everything Asset-Light Generation – From Hand to Cloud & Back…Rise of the Sharing Economy (a great trend for Brandery grad FlightCar) ‘USA, Inc.’ – A Lot to be Excited About in Tech,…
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Web Strategy by Jeremiah
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Google better organizes our world –and sells us back the experience
15 May 2013 | 2:15 pmAbove Photo: Google showcases interconnected screens at Google IO conference in SF. By Chris Silva (cross posted) and Jeremiah Owyang, Industry Analysts at Altimeter Group Last year’s over hyped skydiving was replaced by down to earth by grounded product enhancements. We’re live from the Google IO conference in SF with 6,000 developers, press, and media in San Francisco’s Moscone event center. We noticed a lot of Glass Explorer units (which surprisingly was barely mentioned in the keynote) we’ve purchased two to test, and will write up a detailed post on them after we’ve done a… -
Resources: Converged Media, Integrating your Paid, Owned, and Earned
15 May 2013 | 5:08 amIs Facebook paid, owned or earned? The answer is yes. Facebook is all. They integrate advertising units along with content created by brands on their Facebook pages, and allow for consumers to share their opinions right in the comments. Sometimes, ads look like social content, and it’s hard to distinguish the difference. At Altimeter, we see this convergence only increasing, and these Venn diagrams will continue to have overlapping circles of paid, owned, and earned. To meet this converging media types, Altimeter kicked off a research project with Rebecca Lieb (a fantastic speaker in… -
Social Business Buyers Invest in Scaling
14 May 2013 | 5:08 amBrands Focused on Managing Social Proliferation For those that like to be where they money be, this data is for you. Altimeter’s research continues to survey buyers of disruptive technologies, and continues our coverage on social technologies. In our recent Q4 survey to enterprise buyers, focused on marketing business decision makers, which are global national corporations with over 1000 employees, we posed a series of questions in our survey battery. In particular, we wanted to find out where decision makers are bullish on investing and found the following trends on marketers with… -
Dear Brands, Our Relationship has Changed
13 May 2013 | 9:16 amDear Brands, I want an open relationship. All my life, we’ve had a committed and dedicated relationship. You told me what to buy, I bought it, bought it again. But now, it’s about to change. I don’t want to buy from you directly, I want to rent, subscribe, and borrow your goods. If I end up buying your product, I want to use it with others to resell, rent to others, swap or lend. It’s not you, it’s me. Our world has changed, and along with it my preferences. From a more socially responsible mindset, economic pressures to be efficient, and how easy technology… -
The Three Market Drivers: Causes for the Collaborative Economy
9 May 2013 | 6:10 amAbove Image: Fire Dancers metaphorically ignite movement in Union Square, the center of SF commerce. Your customers are trading products and goods –rather than buying them from you! Want to know why? We’re conducting research in a pragmatic method to find out why, and then answer what companies should do to respond. Below is a preview of the upcoming report. [Business Disruption: Consumers don't need to continually buy from companies, as they are sharing, renting, lending, goods & services among themselves] I’m knee deep in interviews for the upcoming report on this…
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Drew's Marketing Minute
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So you want a career in advertising?
21 May 2013 | 4:18 amI was recently contacted by a college student who asked if he could interview me for one of this classes. One of the questions he asked is one I get a lot, so I thought I’d share my answer with you here. If you aspire to be in our business — I hope it helps. If you’re already in the business — what did I miss? What advice would you give to anyone who was aspiring to enter the field of advertising? Yikes… there are lots of things to know but here are some of the biggies. You cannot do it alone so surround yourself with really smart, good-hearted people who you can… -
Moving your prospects to the next step
17 May 2013 | 4:15 amWhen you’re creating any sort of communication aimed at a potential buyer, you want them to do what? When I ask this question, I typically hear a range of answers like: • Know more about our business • Understand how we’re better than our competitors • Wonder if we’re the right fit for them And of course…. • Buy what we sell! All of that is probably true. But it’s too complicated. No matter how or where we’re communicating with a prospect, what we should want them to do is… take the next step. Your job is simply moving your prospect to the next step. That next step might… -
How does your paper resume stack up to this?
1 May 2013 | 1:02 pmThe world has changed. Things are different. This is the new normal. This ain’t your grandaddy’s marketing. We can say it a million ways but some folks just aren’t going to get it. Or at least not yet. With the tools out there, the connections that can be made and the audience’s diminishing tolerance for being shouted at — there are many things we need to do differently. Including finding a job. Check out this slideshare (PPT) presentation that Lorenzo Galbiati sent me as he embarks on a job hunt. ( if you want to chat about career possibilities) GO… -
What do consumers want from brands?
24 Apr 2013 | 5:06 amThat’s the age-old question, isn’t it? When you think about everything we’ve experienced in the last decade and a half – from the Y2K scare to 9/11, Iraq and then the recession – no wonder that a certain level of insecurity about the future has become a permanent part of our psyche as we ease into 2013. What today’s consumers want most today is security and contentment. No doubt these wants are being shared by people’s economic outlook and circumstance, which most categorized as uneasy. Interestingly, here are some other key needs that our consumers expect brands… -
Marketing is getting the details right
15 Apr 2013 | 4:48 amMarketing is getting the details right. And its always the simple things that companies mess up. Lt me give you an example. As you may know, I travel quite a bit. I’m a big believer in maximizing my travel by being a loyal brand consumer…which gains me status, points and makes my travel life easier and more convenient. I try to only fly United and whenever I can, I stay in a Marriott hotel. That affords me sort of an insider’s view of both of these businesses but still interacting with them as one of their frequent consumers. We’ve talked before about the value of…
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Seth's Blog
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Let's start with "sorry"
22 May 2013 | 2:43 amBy the time the phone rings, there's already trouble. When that manager is called or this department is reached, it's because someone is disappointed, angry or stuck. Illness, broken promises or a real urgency have led to this new conversation even taking place. So don't start with, "[Name of company] mumble mumble" as if there's a blank slate just waiting to be written on. There's already a lot of writing on that slate. Don't demand to know the record number or begin with doubt and an edge of dismissal. Be on our team. "It sounds like we've got a situation on our hands..." is a fine way to… -
Levels of marketing magic, the placebo effects of desire
21 May 2013 | 2:45 amANTICIPATION: Before the product is released, the true fans are buzzing and speculating and waiting in line. The anticipation is self-reinforcing, a placebo effect of desire. UTILITY: The album is good, the software is useful, the book changes things. It works better than we hoped. Exceeding expectations pays significant dividends. REMARK: It's purple. Remarkable. Worth talking about. The word spreads. Ten people tell ten people and suddenly, it's abuzz. Not because of PR or hype, but because the remarkability is built right into the product or service itself. And more people enjoy things… -
You should buy the book
20 May 2013 | 8:33 amMitch Joel is a generous and perceptive blogger. Well worth the daily read. He has a new book. You should buy it. David Meerman Scott writes an essential blog, daily. His book is a classic. You should buy it. Tom Asacker writes a very thoughtful blog about marketing. Worth the read. He has a new book. You should buy it, too. Every day, Mark Frauenfelder and Corey Doctorow blog tons of goodness at Boingboing. They each have books. You should buy them and share them. Bernadette Jiwa's blog keeps getting better and better and you are probably already reading it. She has a new book on the way. -
No Signal
20 May 2013 | 2:00 amAt a party the other day, I saw a dead TV monitor. On the screen it said something like, "No signal... check power, cable and source selection..." It doesn't matter at all how hard the DVD player was trying to put on a show. It is irrelevant how good the show on cable was. If it's not getting through, no one sees it. All of us own our own media companies now. We each have the ability to speak up, to tell our stories, and if we're good and if we're lucky, to be heard. Too often, though, there's no signal. You may be pumping noise through your social media outlets, but noise isn't signal. It's… -
Learning by analogy
19 May 2013 | 2:36 amThe story of Hansel and Gretel is not actually about Hansel or Gretel. You are surrounded by examples and lessons and case studies that clearly aren't exactly about your project. There's never been a book written precisely about the situation you are facing right now, either. Perhaps one day they will publish, "Marketing Low-Cost Coaching Services to Small Businesses Specializing in .Graphic Design in the Upper Peninsula for Dummies" but don't hold your breath. Marketing, like all forms of art, requires us to learn to see. To see what's working and to transplant it, change it and amplify it.
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Find and Convert » Find and Convert Blog OptimizeThis
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Turn Prospects into Leads with Killer Social Content
17 May 2013 | 7:45 amIt’s no secret that in today’s business world, companies must constantly produce new content. But are you producing quality social content with a WOW factor that gets you found? The truth is it’s really not that hard to do. There are so many options to consider when it comes to creating quality content that stands out in a crowd. Blog posts, videos, eBooks, whitepapers, webinars, social media updates, Slideshare presentations…just to name a few. It just takes time, the right dedication and effort. When done consistently and correctly, quality content will improve search engine… -
Two Ways to Motivate Employees to Do Content Marketing
12 May 2013 | 10:00 pmBy Definition a Social Business Creates a Lot of Content In order for most businesses to create a lot of high quality content, employee participation is necessary. I’ve said many times, no marketing department is big enough to produce all the content it needs. Additionally, consider that in most businesses the marketing team is not comprised of domain experts. Here’s what Forrester Research says on this topic: “Today’s B2B buyer will find three pieces of content about a vendor for every one piece that marketing can publish or sales can deliver. They are finding this content in… -
How to set PPC Marketing Goals
10 May 2013 | 6:29 amWhat are your PPC marketing goals? Whether managing PPC marketing yourself or hiring an agency, before you start spending money advertising on search engines, carefully consider what you are trying to achieve. Of course everyone wants sales but unless you are running an e-commerce site where visitors can buy from you right then and there, you should ask yourself what you expect in return for your PPC marketing investment. Look at how you advertise today, consider what works and what doesn’t and then think about how can you carry a successful sales model into a place where you get to… -
Facebook Advertising for Grown-ups
3 May 2013 | 8:38 amFacebook is Maturing for Users and for Advertisers Several members of the Find and Convert team recently attended the Social Fresh EAST Conference here in Tampa. We all came away with a lot of food for thought but the key takeaway that is still ringing in my ears, something we heard from more than one speaker at Social Fresh, is that Facebook has matured. It’s true! Since the release of Graph Search in January, Facebook has released several powerful new tools that give marketers new and exciting ways to reach hyper-targeted audiences with relevant, effective content like never before. -
Develop an Audience-Centric Content Strategy
29 Apr 2013 | 12:09 amGoogle’s on-going quest to make search results more valuable to the user experience requires refining your content strategy so that it is highly relevant to your audience and potential customers beyond identifying obvious keywords around your products and services. But how do you develop a solid audience-centric content strategy for the digital age? Persona Analysis It begins with a well-defined persona analysis plan…When Find and Convert engages a new client, we do the prerequisite discovery that any respectable digital marketing agency delivers. Before we dive into keyword…
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EAT » Blog
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Can We Have A Difficult Conversation, Please?
16 May 2013 | 2:33 pmActionable insights and channel optimization through proprietary technologies — Is that really what you want to discuss? KPI’s and modified metrics? Sounds like great stuff if you are in optimizing mode, but are you looking to optimize, or innovate and change? Is your product/service so good that you are squeezing the best .000001 from an already out-of-this world-amazing thing? Or is optimization easier than the innovation and change that promise greater returns? How about we really get into it? How about we discuss the really difficult internal change that will help your business by… -
Jamming together
6 May 2013 | 9:05 amIn the early 90s I sang in rock band. We were very popular, had major label record interest and despite barely being able to play guitar I wrote most of the songs. How did I do this you ask? I had help, lots of help. Romas Banatis, knife maker extrordinaire was my muse. Romas would spend hours listening to me fumble through song parts. Sitting on milk crates next to one another, he would reconstruct my guitar parts with the patience of a saint and transform them from barely distinguishable notes into songs. “You mean like this?” “Faster or slower?” “Play me that… -
Shantytown Strategy and El Hombre Invisible
25 Apr 2013 | 1:24 pmThe Zone is a single, vast building. The rooms are of a plastic cement that bulges to accommodate people, but when too many crowd into one room there is a soft plop and someone squeezes through the wall right into the next house. —William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch Some projects resemble the sprawling, jury-rigged mazes that crop up along the outskirts of cities in the developing world—unplanned, unfriendly to outsiders, and somehow both precarious and entrenched. When you build or redesign a product without first addressing the fundamental questions ‘Who is this for?’ and ‘What… -
Declarations & ________
23 Apr 2013 | 9:05 amDeclarations vs. Invitations “The Balanced Scorecard is recognised as the world’s leading management tool for enterprise performance management and strategy deployment.” vs. “It’s happening right now. You in?” Declarations & Invitations “The World’s #1 Project Management App” & “Last week 5,794 companies signed up for Basecamp to manage their projects. Today it’s your turn.” Declarations vs. Interactions “World’s Best Coffee” vs. “Chrome Maze“ -
Better Time Management and the Power of Pine-Sol, Baby
17 Apr 2013 | 7:36 amIf I were craftier, I’d embroider Conran’s Rule of Housework* on pillows and trade them to agencies around town for cases of Diet Sunkist (aka ‘Daddy’s medicine’). There’s nothing like a time limit to winnow away the detours and eliminate those moments of self-doubt that drag fresh mornings into late nights. There’s no time for the fussiness that makes designs labored and heavy, no time to get lost in theory. Simplicity is speed and limitations mean freedom from distraction. The pressure of deadlines may be inspirational or paralyzing, but boundaries will always put…
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Direct Marketing Observations
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What’s Next for Tumblr?
21 May 2013 | 5:08 amYahoo’s recent announcement of its intent to purchase Tumblr has brought out the virtual fangs. Lets take a look at some of the more creative responses. Tumblr users are passionate and are worried about what will happen to their platform. Is that passion enough to keep their pages safe from being “Yahoo’ed?” If the deal goes down, Tumblr as you and I once knew it, may be done. Though the spin is that Yahoo will not screw it up, it’s tough to think that advertising, for example, does not become a focal point of the pages. The evolution of a “social”… -
Yelp is Broken and Social Flashmobs Apparently Rule
17 May 2013 | 11:03 amI was just reading about the social media meltdown of Amy’s Baking Company in Scottsdale, if you’re not familiar with it, the restaurant was featured on Chef Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares production that airs on the FOX Network. To give you a quick recap, things did not go well for the owners of the restaurant and for the second time since Ramsay has been doing the show, he walked away and essentially refused to help the restauranteurs out. This act in and of itself says a lot since in his own right, Ramsay can be pretty irascible. So for something to essentially send him… -
When content turns into an ad
14 May 2013 | 10:12 amIt can’t be good… I was going to go off on a rant, but the fact of the matter is…it can’t be good. You feel duped and cheated and misled. -
The Way Social Media Used To Be
2 Apr 2013 | 8:20 amFrom the cartoonery of John Atkinson and WrongHands we give you… Vintage social networking. -
Is Social Currency Counterfeit?
21 Mar 2013 | 8:58 amCheck out this image. Now I’m pulling this next blurb from Vivaldi Partners via wikipedia but pay attention to it: Vivaldi Partners defined social currency as the extent to which people share the brand or information about the brand as part of their everyday social lives at work or at home. Now, let’s fast forward to an article that Jay Baer wrote in which he states that online influencer outreach is overrated: I’m not suggesting that influencer outreach is useless or should be abandoned. But, it’s not magic beans. It needs to be looked at for what it actually is – the top…
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HubSpot's Inbound Marketing Blog
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A Chat With an Internet Addict Who Was Forced to Go Off the Grid
22 May 2013 | 6:00 amMy fellow inbound marketer Sam Mallikarjunan is an internet and social media junkie -- always connected, always checking in, always tweeting, always emailing. He went on a cruise with no internet for a week, and had to leave his cell phone and computer at home. Here's how it went. Me: Hey Sam! Thanks for talking with me. You just got back from a vacation, so I know you're probably quite busy catching up on stuff. Where'd you go? Sam: Hey Corey! Took a cruise to the Bahamas. I needed the laws of physics to separate me from my phone. Me: Haha yeah, sooo, that's the reason I wanted to talk to… -
The Future of Inbound: Shel Israel Looks Ahead to the 'Age of Context'
21 May 2013 | 1:00 pmShel Israel writes The Social Beat blog column at Forbes.com and has authored four books about digital media's impact on business. He's now working on his fifth book, The Age of Context: How it Will Change Your Work and Life with Robert Scoble, due to be published in October. I got a chance to catch up with Israel to talk about the latest trends in marketing: context, personalization, and the debate over tracking cookies. Here's what he said. Q. Can you tell us a bit about your upcoming book, The Age of Context? What are some examples of "context" we… -
Only Marketing to the Top of Your Fundraising Pyramid Is Hurting Your Nonprofit’s Future
21 May 2013 | 9:30 amThe top of your fundraising pyramid is just that -- a small, concentrated piece of your whole universe, made up of older, rich donors who, though important, won't be able to add to the strong foundation of your future fundraising efforts. While they’re reliable for contributing large sums of money to help you reach your yearly goal, they are high risk, high reward from an investment of time and resources perspective. The question to ask yourself, your team, and those at the top of your organization is, “Do we have the base (occasional donors), and more importantly, the reliable core… -
Are People Stealing Your Content? How (and When) to Fight Back [SlideShare]
21 May 2013 | 6:00 amIf you're drinking the inbound marketing Kool-Aid and regularly publishing content online, there's a good chance you may have experienced content theft at one point or another. Many of us are all too familiar with the feelings that follow the discovery of content thievery: your stomach drops, quickly followed by thoughts of "Why me?" Then the anger sets in. You’ve spent hours (or even days) creating content you think your buyer personas would love, only to have someone else reap the benefits on their own site? Not cool. At your core, it feels very wrong to have someone benefit from your… -
Your Designers Are Not Artists, and You Need to Stop Thinking That Way
20 May 2013 | 1:00 pmAs head of HubSpot’s creative and design team, I spend nearly every day acting as the translator between my designers and the rest of the company, particularly executives, marketers, and salespeople, (i.e. those folks whose jobs are often held to more formal or quantitative metrics). Obviously, it should come as no surprise that there is always at least some disconnect between designers and non-designers, especially considering the vast differences in both the day-to-day work and the success metrics of each group. However, having spent the last several years basically being the translator…
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MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog
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Looking to Hire or Be Hired? Turn to Social Media (Job Recruiters Love It, Too)
21 May 2013 | 6:42 amWith 98% of recruiters using social media in 2012 and the greatest opportunity for the staffing industry in 2013 being “access to passive candidates via social media,” the potential payoff for taking advantage of LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter for recruiting has never been stronger. My company, Bullhorn Reach, recently published the 2013 North American Social Recruiting Activity Report, based on data culled from the activities of more than 160,000 recruiters in the Bullhorn Reach user network in 2012. Here’s what we discovered. Which Platforms Are Popular for Job Recruiters? -
If Gamification Can Make College Fun, Imagine What It Can Do for Your Marketing
20 May 2013 | 7:05 amGamification. If you hear the word and immediately think of points, badges, and leaderboards, don’t worry—you’re not alone. The almighty Wikipedia defines gamification as “the use of game design techniques and game mechanics in non-game context to solve problems and engage audiences.” The idea is to take something fun and apply it to a situation in order to influence a particular behavior. But how is gamification applicable for real life? Does it really have application in the “professional” world? The answer, dear readers, is a resounding YES. Allow me to expand on… -
The Psychology of Sales: Six Facts Every Brand Should Know
17 May 2013 | 7:02 amDiscount retailers, such as Target, Macy’s, and J.C. Penney, have tried various pricing strategies over the years to lure customers to buy more of their products. The primary tool in the competitive arsenal is to offer the best value because they know that customers are motivated to seek out price savings and great deals on frequently purchased products. Seems simple right? Just offer low prices and people will come. That is not necessarily the case, though. Feelings Affect Our Shopping Decisions An economist would say that customers are rational beings who try to get the most value for… -
iStrategy Miami: Crucial Takeaways From the Digital Marketing Event
16 May 2013 | 6:55 amiStrategy Miami in April brought together an all-star lineup, including Facebook marketing expert Mari Smith, business development and marketing media executive Dorothea Bozicolona-Volpe of Social Espionage, and Ken Segall, formerly of Apple. For those folks who couldn’t make it to iStrategy Miami, here are some key takeaways from an action-packed two-day event. Harness the power of simplicity. “Simplicity is instantly likable,” says Ken Segall. To best serve your audience, boil complex concepts down to simple turns of phrase, and use common words, familiar to your audience. This makes… -
What Marketers Can Learn From Moneyball
15 May 2013 | 7:01 amAny CEO will tell you that running a company is a lot like running a sports team. You put together a strong team, give them the tools to become all-stars, and motivate them every step of the way to beat the competition. But many businesses aren’t operating on an all-star budget; when a company is growing, the funds are tight and the stakes are high. As CEO, I’ve always thought of myself as my team’s GM and now–as we’ve entered baseball season–I’ve been thinking about the success of Billy Beane, who, as the general manager of the Oakland A’s, used one of the smallest budgets in…
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Occam's Razor by Avinash Kaushik
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Excellent Analytics Tip #24: Obsess About Real Business Profitability
20 May 2013 | 3:05 amThe art of analysis often fails to deliver ginarmous success simply because of how limited our worldview is when we go about identifying bottom-line impacting insights. Hence, this is a post on a simple concept that will drag you out of your current "what is happening on my website?" comfort zone, and out of your Google Analytics, Site Catalyst, WebTrends worldview silo. Sounds like fun? It is. And you end up becoming rich and famous. Not too shabby, right? Macro Business Context: The Big Deal Digital is an obsession for almost everyone who reads this blog. Part of the reason is… -
Eight Silly Data Myths Marketing People Believe That Get Them Fired.
29 Apr 2013 | 2:40 amIt turns out that Marketers, especially Digital Marketers, make really silly mistakes when it comes to data. Big data. Small data. Any data. In the last couple months I've spent a lot of time with senior level marketers on three different continents. Some of them are quite successful, but sadly many of them were not. In the latter group I discovered two common themes: 1 Some absolutely did not use data to do their digital jobs. This group should be fired immediately, so I'm not going to talk about them. [A benchmark for you: If you are not spending 30% of your time in 2013 with… -
The Lean Analytics Cycle: Metrics > Hypothesis > Experiment > Act
8 Apr 2013 | 2:17 amThis should not be news to you. To win in business you need to follow this process: Metrics > Hypothesis > Experiment > Act. Online, offline or nonline. Yet this structure rarely exists in companies. We are far too enamored with data collection and reporting the standard metrics we love because others love them because someone else said they were nice so many years ago. Sometimes, we escape the clutches of this sub optimal existence and do pick good metrics or engage in simple A/B testing. But it is not routine. So, how do we fix this problem? This thought was in my mind as I was… -
Excellent Analytics Tip #23: Align Hits, Sessions, Metrics, Dimensions!
18 Mar 2013 | 2:24 amWeb Analytics tools have become pretty feature rich, and the future promises to bring even more goodies (Universal Analytics anyone?). But these features bring with them new problems that we hadn't imagined before. Mostly because the limitations in the tools meant we were unable to make these mistakes. Today's post is about a new problem I'm starting to notice, which only exists because our tools have become so much cooler and handed us so much power: constant mismatching of hit- and session-level metrics and dimensions. This particular problem exists primarily because… -
Excellent Analytics Tip #22: Calculate Return On Analytics Investment!
25 Feb 2013 | 2:02 amAnalysts: Put up or shut up time! This blog is centered around creating incredible digital experiences powered by qualitative and quantitative data insights. Every post is about unleashing the power of digital analytics (the potent combination of data, systems, software and people). But we've never stopped to consider this question: What is the return on investment (ROI) of digital analytics? What is the incremental revenue impact on the company's bottom-line for the investment in data, systems and people? Isn't it amazing? We've not pointed the sexy arrow of…
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SEO Copywriting
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SEO content marketing roundup, week ending May 22nd
22 May 2013 | 3:00 amIn this week’s latest and greatest online marketing news, it’s all about Google, Google, Google…with Yahoo coming in a close second via its purchase of Tumblr. Social media marketers are buzzing about “the new Google+, a stream with style and smarts” and its 41 new features. Other discussions in the forefront include Social Media Examiner’s 2013 industry report, Facebook’s continued status as the social network of choice after surviving its first year post-IPO, reputation management, and social media strategies. And of course, the SEO and search community is focused on all that… -
Scalable content generation strategy: The online marketer’s formula for success
21 May 2013 | 3:00 amWhen you are a large company or an agency, generating large volumes of good content can be quite a challenge. It can get expensive pretty quickly. It is also time-consuming. And in the end, high quality content is not a guarantee of explosive attention and viral sharing. In order for your content generation to be sustainable, it needs to be scalable. The formula for success is using fewer resources to generate more high quality content. In addition, your content needs to provide an excellent user experience and convey a consistent brand message, in compliance with brand standards. Yes, I… -
Penguin 2.0: Should you rewrite your evergreen site copy?
20 May 2013 | 3:00 amWelcome back! In this video of the SEO Copywriting Checklist series, Heather discusses the impending Google Penguin 2.0 update and what it means for site owners and evergreen web content. Matt Cutts, a distinguished engineer from Google, recently released a video announcing the next wave of Google algorithm updates. He specifically discussed Penguin 2.0, saying it will roll out this summer. So Google is giving site owners a big heads up! Also, on last weeks’ SEO Copywriting Certification call with Bruce Clay, he discussed Penguin 2.0 and what it means for site content. So Heather thought… -
How to fire a vendor (and still feel OK after doing it.)
16 May 2013 | 3:00 amI had to fire a vendor today. When it comes to giving someone the ax, I am a far cry from Donald Trump. Did I get pleasure from the experience? Heck no. Did I lose sleep over the decision? Sure. Did it need to be done? Yes. Fortunately, I’ve (finally) learned when to fire someone – and how to do it well. Chances are, you’ll have to fire someone someday. The writer who misses deadlines. The accountant who doesn’t return your calls. The consultant that isn’t teaching you anything new. It’s never easy – no matter why you have to let them go. Looking… -
SEO content marketing roundup, week ending May 15th
15 May 2013 | 3:39 amMarketers focus on predictions for the future in this week’s latest and greatest online marketing news, with talk of emerging trends, upcoming algorithm updates, and changing demographics. Content and social media marketers discuss the reality of a youthful audience and its preferences for mobile, social, and visual content. Meanwhile, YouTube introduces paid channels, Bing helps Klout out with its new “experts” feature, and local search shifts to mobile apps in a big (and affluent) way. The SEO and search community buzz about Matt Cutts’ forecast for SEO over the next few months,…
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Convince and Convert: Social Media Strategy and Content Marketing Strategy
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How the “Disrupted Generation” Responds to Marketing
22 May 2013 | 4:00 amIn the summer of 2012, as I sat around with my colleagues in our conference room one afternoon, we were jolted by an “aha” moment. We realized that the coming of age of the newest generation, the iGen (or generation Z) is right now and that there would be another disruption similar, but different, from the one of the past decade. It was time to hustle and really scrutinize this generation, which turned 18 in 2012. So we examined deeper… iGen is a generation born with consumer-driven capitalism at its core and altruism at its heart. Never before has there been a generation so globally… -
6 Ways to Make More Out of Your Facebook Ad Campaign
21 May 2013 | 4:00 amWhatever you think about Facebook, there’s one thing that’s hard to dispute: Mark Zuckerberg isn’t afraid to mix things up and try new strategies, and that’s especially true when it comes to advertising. If you don’t follow the social network closely, it’s easy to miss the newest advertising tools and tips. Let’s take a quick look at six things you can do to get more out of your Facebook campaign right now. 1. Don’t Let Facebook Do Your Bidding If you’re advertising a Facebook Page, Event, or App, and you don’t pay close attention, you might think you’re only option… -
Smart Marketing is about Help not Hype
18 May 2013 | 7:00 amCan I please get your help making my new book a smash hit when it releases next month? Please watch this… Through speaking engagements and such, I’ve sold a lot of copies of Youtility, and we’re headed toward the best-seller lists. But I could use a hand from you to make sure it does even better. We’ve produced thousands of hours of free content here, and I don’t ask for much. But I REALLY need you this week, please. Until Friday, you can take advantage of a collection of exclusive book-related bonuses, not available anywhere else. Plus, free shipping anywhere in… -
Contagion, Social Media, and Why Things Catch On
17 May 2013 | 4:00 amJonah Berger, Wharton @j1berger Jonah Berger, Marketing Professor at the Wharton School, joins the Social Pros Podcast this week to discuss his bestseller Contagious: Why Things Catch on, the science behind those viral marketing hits, and the importance of setting realistic and helpful goals with a viral marketing campaign. Read on for some of the highlights and tweetable moments, or listen to the full podcast. Please Support Our Sponsors Huge thanks to our amazing sponsors for helping us make this happen. Please support them; we couldn’t do it without their help! This week: From… -
3 Ways to Use Google to Be Better at PR
16 May 2013 | 4:00 amI’d like to let you in on a secret that most PR pros don’t think of: some of the easiest placement opportunities you’ll EVER land for a client (or your employer) are found using the most common online tool you can think of. Google. It’s completely under-appreciated as a PR tool. Let me share a few specific details, so you can get your company or your clients more business online. After all, when you do things that other PR pros don’t think of doing, or don’t know to do, it puts you that much further ahead of the game, right? It’s a win for you and for your clients. 1. Use…
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PR 20/20 Blog
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Blogger Outreach: A Tactic to Keep Your Strategy Fresh
16 May 2013 | 6:35 amThis is a guest post by Kristen Matthews, marketing and community manager for GroupHigh in Boulder, Colorado. She loves the collaborative elements of modern marketing so feel free to contact her for anything at Kristen@grouphigh.com and follow her on Twitter @Kristenwords and @GroupHigh! As outbound marketing tactics become obsolete, establishing relationships with bloggers who can promote your brand via word of mouth is becoming more important than ever. Now that modern consumers are wired to tune out traditional ads and have the self-empowerment to research brands on their own, marketers… -
Schema.org SEO Markup: What Non-Coder Marketers Need to Know
10 May 2013 | 4:37 amWhen the world’s largest search engines, including Google, Bing, Yahoo! and more, collaborate on an initiative to improve the indexability of the web, marketers should take notice. In June 2011, these search giants did just that, and the result was a new microdata mark-up called Schema.org. Microdata is simply HTML tags put around different web page content to provide valuable context to search engines. There are a variety of microdata tagging systems out there, so to help webmasters, and in turn themselves, leading search engines banded together to create a standardized tagging system… -
Work Smarter, Not Harder: Creating a Strategic Content Marketing Plan
8 May 2013 | 8:53 amHenry Ford and the assembly line. Steve Jobs and the personal computer. Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and Google’s algorithms. The common thread among these inventors and innovators is the desire to work smarter, not harder—either through enhanced processes, more powerful tools or better strategies. Throughout history, just when mankind thinks they’ve reached their limits, they reinvent the game, leaping forward to a new era of productivity. Content marketing is reaching a similar threshold: One by one, marketing teams are realizing they can’t produce enough content,… -
18 Marketing Performance Metrics that Matter
1 May 2013 | 12:35 pmThis article was originally published on the Marketing Score Blog. We decided to share it here as well because we think you'll find great value in it. Let us know what you think in the comments! Section 3 of the Marketing Score assessment focuses on marketing performance. At the end of the day, how does your marketing impact the organization? Marketing Score examines 18 factors, which, to varying degrees, affect your organization’s bottom line. Metrics such as cost of customer acquisition (COCA), customer lifetime value (CLV), retention rates, lead volume and revenue growth… -
Developing Your Marketing Superpowers: Resources for Young Pros
26 Apr 2013 | 6:06 amYou have to feel bad for Batman’s foes. Poison darts. Smoke bombs. Grappling hooks. Just when the bad guys think they know what’s coming next, they get a batarang to the face. Batman is rarely unprepared. And he always keeps the competition guessing, thanks to an array of tools, technologies and tactics that cross disciplines. If you’re not a DC Comics fan, Marvel’s Tony Stark offers a similar example. Stark’s design philosophy for each new Iron Man suit is simple: More weapons in more places. Just when you think he’s out of tricks, his left boot heel…
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Keysplash Creative
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Susan Gunelius Tops List of Women and Leadership Influencers
16 May 2013 | 4:49 pmSocial media influence moderation company Traackr created a ranking of the top women and leadership influencers, and KeySplash Creative, Inc. President and CEO Susan Gunelius ranks in first place. Using its Influencer Network Analysis feature, Traackr identified the people who are leading the online conversation about women and leadership. The Traackr report includes the top 49 most influential people online who are publishing content, talking about, and engaging with others on topics related to women and leadership. You can see Susan (and the blog she founded, Women on Business) in the… -
Epic Brand Twitter Fails: A Lesson in Brand Reputation Management [Infographic]
27 Mar 2013 | 6:26 pmKudos to Paul Mardsen and the team at Social Commerce Today who put together an infographic filled with examples of Twitter fails by brands for a course on social media reputation management for brands that they were conducting. The infographic not only collects some of the best examples for marketers to learn from, but Paul’s team is encouraging marketers to share it, repurpose it, and use it as they wish. They even created a clean version (devoid of expletives), an editable version, and a high-resolution version. All versions are available for download. Just follow the preceding links… -
The Danger of Putting All Your Eggs in the Facebook Marketing Basket
22 Feb 2013 | 3:08 pmDon’t put all of your efforts and budget into marketing on sites like Facebook which you don’t and can’t control. That’s a piece of advice that I’ve been communicating in my books, lectures, and content for years, and it’s a topic that’s gotten a lot of buzz since Facebook updated its EdgeRank Algorithm. It turns out that marketer’s page posts are only getting a 10-15% view rate. The EdgeRank update also led to a 40% decrease in organic post reach according to research from We Are Social and Socialbakers. Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm is… -
10 Easy Steps to Create a Company Page on LinkedIn and Facebook
22 Jan 2013 | 11:17 amIf your business doesn’t have a Facebook Page or LinkedIn Company Page yet, then you’re missing opportunities to broaden the reach of your marketing messages, build your audience of brand advocates, and grow your business. Recently, I wrote two articles for Forbes that break down the process of creating a Facebook Page and a LinkedIn Company Page in 10 steps each (links are below). Once your page is up and running, you can connect with people, add great content, launch some short-term promotions, and more. But you can’t do any of those things without a company page. If… -
The Illusion of Influence and Buying Fake Twitter Followers [Infographic]
3 Sep 2012 | 8:19 amWhile tools like Klout and Kred struggle to find ways to accurately measure online influence in a manner that companies can effectively use to build their brands and boost sales, a new infographic from Social Selling University (shown below) reveals just how widespread the problem of buying fake Twitter followers is. Couple that infographic with the Fake Follower Check tool from Status People that identifies the percentage of fake Twitter followers for any Twitter profile, and you’ve got some data that quantifies the ongoing illusion of influence that mars social media marketing. The…
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Social Media Explorer
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Do You Understand The Mathematics Of Social Marketing
22 May 2013 | 3:00 amOne of the advantages of having exposure to a large e-commerce company and the incredible talent within its walls is that you learn from some of the top minds in the industry. It was just a few months into my tenure at CafePress that I started to dive deep into learning from the team that runs one of the largest Internet retail operations in the world. And boy, have I learned. A common theme you’ll find in the discussions among the top engineers, technicians and marketers of these types of sites is with their metrics and analytics. Everything revolves around traffic, action rates,… -
10 Business Lessons from One of the Greatest Live Rock and Roll Bands in History
21 May 2013 | 3:00 amI was absolutely enthralled by a recent article about a band that, since 1988, has been near and dear to many of us here in my home town of Telluride Colorado, Phish. Phish ranks among the greatest live bands in rock and roll history, and a sizable subculture of Phishheads would argue that there’s been none better. Here’s a couple of summarized takeaways from the article, The Business of Phish: Over the past 4 years Phish has generated $120 million in ticket sales, yet by more typical measures of a band’s success (album sales – Phish’s are minuscule, Billboard Top 10… -
The Hockey Foundation
21 May 2013 | 3:00 amMy beloved Boston Bruins are currently working their way towards another Stanley Cup, so I thought today would be the perfect time to tell you about my friend Adam’s organization The Hockey Foundation. A couple of years ago when I first met Adam he was working for an NHL team trying to get them to embrace social media. They never fully understood it, he left and then he started talking about how he wanted to go to remote parts of the world where they had never heard of hockey and teach it to the kids. I vividly remember him first mentioning going to India to do this and my reaction… -
What A One-Hit Wonder Taught Me About Marketing
20 May 2013 | 4:19 amThere’s one phone number that most people can recite, regardless of demographic. And I mean full phone number, not 9-1-1. Think about it for a minute: What’s the one phone number than most everyone you know has in common they can recite without hesitation? 867-5309. Tommy Tutone’s hit from 1981 emblazoned the number in our minds, and while little more of the song is all that memorable, “867-5309/Jenny” has an incredible marketing lesson buried within it’s one-hit wonderness. The song is the probably drunken announcement of a man who finds the number of a… -
Highs and Lows in the Parent Blogging World
17 May 2013 | 3:00 amThere’s never a dull moment in the parent blogging world. This past month has brought new highs and lows to this group, a group I’m firmly enmeshed in both as an agency which works with bloggers and as the founder of a conference bloggers attend. (I also happen to be married to a parenting blogger – my husband blogs on his own dad blog as well as in a number of other outlets.) Mom 2.0 Summit The high was most certainly the Mom 2.0 Summit, a fantastic conference for moms (and others) who blog (there were many men in attendance, and many non-moms too – my husband joined me). This was my…
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9 INCH MARKETING
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12 Ways to Win Customers and Influence Word of Mouth
14 May 2013 | 6:37 amAre you giving your customers something to talk, tweet or post to Facebook about? The late Ted Levitt once said, The search for meaningful distinction is central to the marketing effort. If marketing is about anything, it is about achieving customer-getting distinction by differentiating what you do [...] -
Tips For Engaging Your Employees in Company Marketing Efforts
21 Apr 2013 | 8:41 pm…and How It Can Improve Your Overall Marketing Strategy Special guest post by Ray Nelson Have you ever walked into a store and asked a question about a product or service, then heard a pin drop as the store employee scrambled for an answer? Perhaps they provided [...] -
5 Easy Ways to Increase Employee Engagement
18 Apr 2013 | 4:58 amThe post was originally featured on James Lawther’s Squawk Point: After studying 1,001 examples of companies that give little unexpected extras to employees, here are 5 easy ways to increase engagement from the new book, “What’s Your Green Goldfish – Beyond Dollars: 15 Ways to Drive Employee [...] -
9 Keys to Winning the Hearts of Your Employees and Building a Strong Culture
16 Apr 2013 | 2:47 pmOriginally featured on MENG Blend: Making the Journey Motivation for employees is sagging. Recent reports show that motivation has fallen off at more that half of all companies. In difficult economic times, how can companies boost employee morale and drive high performance? The simple answer is doing [...] -
At QSR’s, convenience is key to the customer experience
11 Apr 2013 | 2:09 pmLessons from McDonald’s, Starbucks, Five Guys and Chick-fil-A There are two types of glue (giving little unexpected extras) in customer experience. Those that address value and those that address maintenance. The goal is to be seen as high value and low maintenance. Value is the “what” of [...]
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TheContentWrangler.com
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In Search of Professional-Grade Content Marketing
14 May 2013 | 3:07 pmScott Abel By Scott Abel, The Content Wrangler Most marketers just don’t get it. Twitter is not a fax machine. A PDF is not an eBook. Brands aren’t inherently interesting. Millions of people rely solely on smartphones to access the web. And nobody—except maybe your boss—checks your Facebook page in hopes of discovering your latest product announcement. In just a few short years, the marketing landscape has changed dramatically—but most marketers haven’t. It’s not entirely their fault. Change is hard and humans tend to resist it. Even marketers. Today’s consumers live in a… -
“Word Up!” Gets APE’d by Guy Kawasaki (That’s a Good Thing)
12 May 2013 | 11:00 pmEditor’s Note: Join us May 17, 2013 at 10:00AM PT for our BrightTALK webinar, Language Matters: How To Write Powerful Sentences & Paragraphs, featuring Marcia Riefer Johnston. Register today! It’s free. Marcia Riefer Johnston By Marcia Riefer Johnston Many thanks to The Content Wrangler, Scott Abel, for introducing me to Guy Kawasaki’s inspiring work and for encouraging me to tell this story. —Marcia Recently, I had an experience that any writer would give an arm for. I had my book APE’d by Guy Kawasaki. Who’s Guy Kawasaki? When big companies want a speaker to… -
Technical Communication Industry Benchmarking Survey Results Summary
5 May 2013 | 4:34 pmThis is a summary of The Content Wrangler 2012 Technical Communication Industry Benchmarking Survey, an informal, web-based survey that compared responses from over 500 companies from countries around the globe. The results are not scientific, but do provide us with meaningful data points and help us spot trends. For instance, one major trend we noticed is the adoption of structured XML content (44% of companies surveyed create XML content; 81% of those firms use DITA; 30% use custom DTDs; 16% use DocBook). The results of our research indicate that innovation is driven by complexity. The more… -
[Infographic] Interactive eBooks: Behind The Scenes
30 Apr 2013 | 8:00 amInteractive eBooks leverage the latest mobile and graphic technologies to take readers beyond the printed page with captivating interactive experiences to deepen the impact of the written word. Check out the workflow involved in converting a printed book to an interactive eBook (brought to you by Aptara). Aptara – Transforming Content into Knowledge -
[Video] Exploring The Need For Intelligent Content In eBooks
26 Apr 2013 | 1:30 amRobert Glushko, Adjunct Professor at University of California, Berkeley, School of Information opened the 2013 Intelligent Content Conference on Corporate Publishing. His talk centered around a recent project he undertook — the making of an interdisciplinary textbook. “It’s a hard project to write [an interdisciplinary text book] because it changes what a book is, a lot,” Glushko said. The solution, he discovered, “was to make it into an eBook” based on intelligent content. Glushko takes the audience on a journey as he explores this initiative. Along the…
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Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com
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When disaster strikes “someplace else,” first send money (continued)
21 May 2013 | 4:38 amIt is with deep grief that we learn of the magnitude of the loss of life caused by yesterday’s tornado in Moore, Oklahoma. That so many of the victims were children is especially sad. Parents, especially, know it is the realization of that which we fear the most. Below is a re-posting of a blog post I’ve written, in various ways, in the past. As I know is true for all of us, my thoughts and prayers are with the people who are now coping with the aftermath of this disaster: Over the years, I have written about many natural disasters and the human toll they’ve taken. I believe… -
A great idea from Nashville featured on CNN
20 May 2013 | 2:50 pm[It's National Bike Month. And yes, this is another post about bicycling. You'll really like this one. I promise.] Last fall, I had the privilege of spending six Thursday evenings volunteering at Nashville’s Oasis Center’s Bike Workshop. As I said in a Flickr set I posted at the time, during a six week session at the Workshop, disadvantaged kids get to choose a bike they will learn how (by doing) to take apart and then completely rebuild. At the end of the program, their work will be rewarded by earning the bike — and the knowledge to know how to keep it maintained. Last… -
Bike to Work Day is Friday. Here’s the route I take 2-3 times a week to Downtown Nashville
15 May 2013 | 3:36 pmI try to ride my bike to work 2-3 times a week, rain or shine, hot or cold. When I tell that to people who know where I live and work, they picture in their minds me riding down Nashville’s busy Harding Road/West End Corridor. “No,” I tell them. All but a few blocks of my commute is free from traffic and I can hear birds chirping the entire way. Indeed, most of the route is via designated bike lanes, greenways or limited-access streets. At a nice and easy pace on my commuter bike (think pick-up truck), the commute takes about 40-45 minutes. When I explain my route to those… -
On Chris Brogan’s podcast, taking about customer media, content and if living in Nashville is part of why I do things the way I do
15 May 2013 | 11:10 amRecently, Chris Brogan invited me onto his very popular podcast where we talked a lot about how companies and businesses are using media and content to connect directly with their customers. It’s sometimes challenging to explain what I do (especially to people with tweet-sized concentration), but Chris’ approach helped me come close. If you are one of the 12 readers of this blog, you may find it of interest. Or not. Either way, I had fun talking with him. -
How to be happy: have a great marriage
14 May 2013 | 8:15 amI’m glad to see that a PDF of this past weekend’s Baccalaureate Address by David Brooks has been posted on the Sewanee.edu website. It is filled with wonderful gems like this: “The first thing to worry about: Will I marry well? This is the most important decision you’re going to make in your life. If you have a great marriage and a crappy career, you will be happy. If you have a great career and a crappy marriage, you will be unhappy. I tell university presidents that since the marriage decision is so central, they should have academic departments on how to marry. They…
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Savvy B2B Marketing - Latest Blog Entries
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Savvy Week in Review: May 2
3 May 2013 | 8:06 amIf you are like one of our 5-year-old daughters, you're very excited to see May is finally here. The flowers, the baby animasls, everything so new! Speaking of new, here are our favorite new posts from the week. Enjoy! Good Reads for B2B Marketing - Staple Yourself to a Lead via @PointClearPD A wrap up of terrific reads for our wrap up. The B2B Website Audience Litmus Test by @ardath421 Don't waste time designing your site for those who aren't likely to visit it. How to Use EBooks Strategically to Reach Your Content Marketing Goals - by @writemartpam via @copyblogger You say… -
Week in Review: April 26
26 Apr 2013 | 2:15 amApril is flying by! But we've managed to catch some real gems in our nets this week from around the blogosphere. Here's hoping they reinvigorate you as much as the new life springing up all around us! For Brands, Small Is The Next Big Thing by @davidbrier via @FastCompany This is an interesting concept that has some relevance for B2B (especially software) businesses. 19 Warning Signs Your Infographic Stinks by @neomammalian via @KISSmetrics Please, please don't publish stinky infographics. Write drunk; edit sober. How to blog like you mean it by our own… -
10 Must-Dos for Successful B2B Lead Generation
22 Apr 2013 | 4:00 amWe are pleased to present this guest post by Clare Moorhouse, Search Manager for Torpedo Group in the UK, named one of the top B2B marcomms agencies in 2012. Read on for ways you can set yourself up for lead-gen success. Lead generation is the lifeblood of any business. Yet many companies struggle to capture, manage and convert meaningful leads for their business. Effective B2B lead generation requires strategic planning and persistent monitoring. Whatever type of B2B lead generation campaign you are planning, the basic principles of generating… -
Week in Review: April 12
12 Apr 2013 | 8:00 amHave spring fever? Want to try something new? For some great inspriration, check out favorite posts from the week. What else do you have to add? Which Company is Most Useful to You? by @JayBaer This is a question you need to ask in terms of your brand's value to your customers. Linkedin Founder Reid Hoffman's Advice for Entrepreneurs by @zachcb1 via @KISSmetrics Lots of great lessons here! Double Your Leads Instantly With This Simple Evergreen Tweak by Garrett Moon of @todaymade via @KISSmetrics (it's a two fer!) This is a great tactic, IF it's used properly. … -
Week in Review: April 5
5 Apr 2013 | 7:30 amThey say April showers bring May flowers. So while you're whiling away the time indoors waiting for all those new blooms, inject new life into your reading with these picks from around the blogosphere. Content marketing lessons sm companies can steal from big brands by @annhandley via @EntMagazine Actually, these are great lessons for ANYone. 5 SEO Tips: Take Your SEO Menu From Conventional To Inventive by @JuliaRosien via @ShellyKramer Great metaphor helps you make sense of SEO. Why Are B2B Companies Ignoring B2C CX Practices? by hmanning of Forrester Why…
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Social Signal: Latest Blog Posts
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Sketchnotes from the Digital Strategy Conference
25 Apr 2013 | 6:00 pmThis morning's Digital Strategy Conference sessions dug into social strategy: coupling online engagement with organizational goals. It's what makes the difference between flailing around and getting things done.I took notes throughout Sandy Gerber's indepth look at social strategy, and Nancy Richardson's account of lessons learned so far at Lululemon. (And I had the opportunity to speak on a great panel with a gang of stellar folks, applying their real-world experience to the audience's strategic questions.) -
Use sketchnotes and graphic recording to spread your speech's message
22 Mar 2013 | 11:44 amA social speech has the power to extend your message's reach beyond the audience in attendance. And one of the most powerful ways you can do that is by encapsulating that message in a self-contained, easily-shared piece of content: a social object.Think of it as a spur to conversation: something that people will share and talk about online. (Jyri Engeström first coined the term, but cartoonist Hugh Macleod has done a lot to put it into practical terms.) For your speech, that social object could take many forms: A great clip of the key moment from your speech. An infographic illustrating… -
Five ways sharing links can build relationships instead of breaking faith
11 Jan 2013 | 12:04 pmSuppose you read a tweet or a Facebook update: an urgent message about something truly vile that a public figure has said. Outraged, you click through... and discover that, actually, what they said is far milder. Or you click the "About us" link on an organization's web site... and you're taken to a rambling, vague philosophical essay. Or you search online on three keywords, click a promising result, and discover the page has nothing, nothing to do with your search terms. Or you tap a link to "Read more" on a mobile web page, and a 30-megabyte PDF begins to download slow-w-w-ly onto your… -
Social Speech Podcast, Episode 12: Mitchell Beer
27 Dec 2012 | 1:43 pmMitchell Beer has been a leader in conference communcations for more than a quarter of a century. His firm, The Conference Publishers, reports and repackages conference content - keeping it useful and relevant long after the closing gavel.How does that change in the social media era? In this episode, Mitchell tells me how conference reporting is evolving to take advantage of everything from YouTube to Twitter. And along the way, we gain some insights into how speakers and speechwriters can help their messages find a prominent place in those reports... and in the ideas participants take home… -
Alex's ebook unlocks the professional power of Evernote
20 Dec 2012 | 11:07 amIt wasn't that long ago that "notebook" just meant the paper kind that you'd carry to meetings, refer to as you worked, and jot random thoughts down in… provided you had it with you.Then came the web, and then smart mobile devices, and everything changed. Today's web-based notebook lives on your laptop, desktop, tablet, smartphone and web browser. And the most successful by far is Evernote.Synchronizing your notes across your various devices and the web is just the tip of Evernote's iceberg (or, if you prefer, the flyleaf of the notebook). Evernote does everything from handwriting…
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Article Writing & Marketing Insights - EzineArticles Blog
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How to Increase Your Authority as an Expert
21 May 2013 | 7:00 amAllow Your Authority to Blossom with Authenticity Imagine that you pass a woman planting a flower bed. You observe her as she vigorously digs a hole, punches a plant into the ground, covers it up, and then she repeats the process. To most people passing by, this woman who wields her shiny new trowel while wearing crisp garden gloves may appear to have everything under control. But you can tell she doesn’t. As a greenhouse expert, you decide to offer a few suggestions to help maximize the “blooms” of her labor. “Hello! I noticed your gardening technique and it looks… -
Getting Started with the EzineArticles Toolkit
20 May 2013 | 7:00 amStarting out? Changing your strategy? It’s tough! Helping you get started and preparing you for success is one of our passions. Check out the following EzineArticles “toolkit”, including resources and tools, to break down writing barriers and get a handle on your strategy to succeed in content marketing, article writing, and much more. Top 3 EzineArticles.com Resources Article Writing and Insights Blog The blog is your number one source to stay in tune with the latest and greatest information for your writing strategy. We publish hundreds of posts on the blog every year,… -
EzineArticles Is Now on Vine!
17 May 2013 | 7:00 amInformative and Fun 6-Second Videos Every year, EzineArticles provides 1,000s of motivational quotes, tidbits of information, training prompts, and much more in order to enhance your article writing efforts. Besides the Article Writing and Insights Blog, you can easily find us on popular social networking websites like Facebook, YouTube, Google+, Pinterest, Twitter, and now Vine! What’s Vine? Acquired by Twitter in October 2012, Vine shares content in motion. From serene scenes, to humorous pranks, to dynamic promotions, on Vine you can create short looping videos to share with your… -
Create Strong Emotional Drivers to Engage Readers
16 May 2013 | 7:00 amA Brief Story About a Dog … One of my team members has an old chocolate lab named Jed (whose name was inspired by the awkward Jed Clampett from The Beverly Hillbillies). If you’ve ever owned a dog well into his late years, you know all too well the details my team member uses to describe this poor old pooch: “He’s arthritic which causes him to fall over constantly, he’s overweight as a result of the arthritis, he smells like wet dog meets garbage, and every month is prone to more and more ‘accidents’ in the house. All this and that (censored language)… -
Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar Revision Checklist
15 May 2013 | 7:00 amGrammar Denial When you’re part of a writing community, such as EzineArticles.com, there comes a time when you’re asked to copy edit a friend or family member’s work. This recently was the case for me when I accepted a request to review a friend’s magazine. After an hour of review, I was surprised by the sheer number of grammatical errors and attempted to negotiate how to constructively help my friend. There were three stages to our conversation: Denial – “You’re too strict,” she said. Anger – Frustrated and feeling cornered, “I was…
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Pybop: Exceptional Web Content for Exceptional Businesses
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Your Brand Story: Write the Last Line First
14 May 2013 | 11:00 amPybop: Exceptional Web Content http://www.pybop.comHow Does Your Brand Story End? Last Lines in Letters and ArticlesI once worked with an editor who read the first and last lines of all query letters before deciding whether she’d read the whole thing. At the time, I thought she was mean. (Especially when it was a letter I ... continue reading Your Brand Story: Write the Last Line FirstThe post Your Brand Story: Write the Last Line First appeared first on Pybop: Exceptional Web Content by Shelly Bowen and Team. -
Exploring Your Brand’s Personality with Story
8 May 2013 | 10:35 amPybop: Exceptional Web Content http://www.pybop.comI’m declaring Wednesdays Creative Writing Day … and that means for brands, too! When you’ve worked with the same brand for a while, it’s easy to get stuck in a rut, writing the same things the same way for all your messaging — whether it’s website content or marketing copy. ... continue reading Exploring Your Brand’s Personality with StoryThe post Exploring Your Brand’s Personality with Story appeared first on Pybop: Exceptional Web Content by Shelly Bowen and Team. -
Writing Video Content: Strategy Makes It Easier
25 Apr 2013 | 10:31 amPybop: Exceptional Web Content http://www.pybop.com“Video today is like desktop publishing was 15 years ago — everyone thinks they can do it,” a colleague said recently. And the fact is, anyone can create a video. A video worth watching? That’s a whole ‘nother story. I recently wrote a one-minute video script for a brand introduction video. ... continue reading Writing Video Content: Strategy Makes It EasierThe post Writing Video Content: Strategy Makes It Easier appeared first on Pybop: Exceptional Web Content by Shelly Bowen and Team. -
Content Strategy Spring Cleaning Checklist
18 Apr 2013 | 2:47 pmPybop: Exceptional Web Content http://www.pybop.comIf you’re anything like me, you’ve been busy focusing on projects, campaigns and customers … and not your own brand. It’s time to do a reality check and some content strategy spring cleaning (for my brands, as well!). Review Your Core Messaging Go back and review your core messaging document. Have your ... continue reading Content Strategy Spring Cleaning ChecklistThe post Content Strategy Spring Cleaning Checklist appeared first on Pybop: Exceptional Web Content by Shelly Bowen and Team. -
To Perfect Your Craft … You Must Get Messy
8 Jan 2013 | 11:49 amPybop: Exceptional Web Content http://www.pybop.comLast month I spoke to designers and developers at the Inspire Conference in Europe about how content strategy can make design shine. I focused on traditional web and digital design processes, but as the day moved along, new questions started to poke at me: How can we, as creators, as creative problem-solvers, continue to evolve as we build walls of best practices around us?The post To Perfect Your Craft … You Must Get Messy appeared first on Pybop: Exceptional Web Content by Shelly Bowen and Team.
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Mike Paul's Blog
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Fill Your Summer (Fall and Winter) with Conferences and More…
6 May 2013 | 6:42 pmFor teachers, the year is coming to it’s inevitable close. I know that you’re all overjoyed that you’re getting a break for a couple of months, but there’s things to do during the summer… We all know that the summer …The post Fill Your Summer (Fall and Winter) with Conferences and More… appeared first on Mike Paul's Blog. No related posts. -
Gender Equity Presentation for Spring 2013
30 Apr 2013 | 12:19 pmI really don’t know if there’s anyone out there that is interested, but I like using this website as not only a soapbox, but as a reference point to my work that I’ve done in preparation to become a teacher.…The post Gender Equity Presentation for Spring 2013 appeared first on Mike Paul's Blog. Related posts: The 50 Most Popular Books for Teachers… for now… Can You Use the Xbox 360 with Kinect in Your Math Classroom? -
Can You Use the Xbox 360 with Kinect in Your Math Classroom?
14 Mar 2013 | 9:43 amI’ve been in some interesting sessions here so far at the KySTE 2013 Conference (some much better than others), but I had to sit down and talk a bit about some things I learned this morning that I think are …The post Can You Use the Xbox 360 with Kinect in Your Math Classroom? appeared first on Mike Paul's Blog. Related posts: The 50 Most Popular Books for Teachers… for now… -
KySTE 2013 Day One Wrapup
14 Mar 2013 | 4:52 amI’m sitting here writing this as I finish up a cup of coffee and prepare for the opening keynote of the KySTE 2013 Conference at the Galt House in Louisville, KY. Today, the real conference begins with the opening of …The post KySTE 2013 Day One Wrapup appeared first on Mike Paul's Blog. No related posts. -
The 50 Most Popular Books for Teachers… for now…
9 Dec 2012 | 12:48 pmFor those of you that may be new to the blog, you might not know that I’m a pre-service teacher. What in the world does that mean? Basically, I’m in school, working towards my degree in Middle School Mathematics education. …The post The 50 Most Popular Books for Teachers… for now… appeared first on Mike Paul's Blog. No related posts.
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Straight North Internet Marketing Blog
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Compete with a Goal: How Product Reviews Make Your Product Soar
21 May 2013 | 9:30 amAhh, to show up on Google’s first search page, your product or service prominently displayed, front and center, for all of the Internet to see. What a lovely thing, indeed. Everyone can find you; you are feeling pretty darn good about your business prospects, aren’t you? The question is: How can you make this a reality through product reviews? Product reviews can be used in clever and search-friendly ways — even helping you decide how to rank specific keywords and create healthy competition within your industry. Many people read product reviews before making a… -
5 Tips for Using Hashtags to Promote Your Business
16 May 2013 | 10:19 amAs more and more businesses establish their presence on social media, it becomes harder and harder to stand out from the crowd and make your message heard. One way to connect with users in your target audience is to use hashtags so that your posts and updates show up when users search for content in your niche. Hashtags became very popular on Twitter, but they can also be used on Instagram, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn. Learning how to use hashtags appropriately can help you to get more followers and more exposure for your brand, leading to more traffic and more sales and… -
7 Deadly Sins of Email
15 May 2013 | 1:59 pmIt’s a harsh reality: When it comes to email marketing, customers hold all the cards. If they develop distrust in your “from” line, there’s nothing you can do to get them to open. Worse yet, if they ignore your messages over the long haul or label your email as spam, it’ll hurt your future deliverability to other customers. Here are the top 7 email sins that will tick customers off: Forgetfulness You can’t let the thought creep into customers’ heads that your company has forgotten who they are or what they like. You’ve got to create a great customer experience, and that… -
7 Books Every Good Writer Should Read
6 May 2013 | 5:49 am“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.” -Stephen King To be a good writer is to be a good reader. I am amazed at the number of people I meet who have no education or writing background – let alone reading experience — who think they can write a book! Most talented writers are talented even without an education, but I have never met a good writer who wasn’t also educated about (addicted to) the written word. Are you an aspiring writer with no major reading behind you? Here is your primer. With… -
4 Awesome Traffic Building Strategies
1 May 2013 | 5:56 amIn a short amount of time, websites have come quite a long way. At one point in time, websites were thought to be just a small business or corporation enhancement. Currently, websites have become a vital part to the host’s success. This has come to such a point where websites could actually affect sales and even make or break the companies behind it. With this in mind, businesses by the thousands are armed with tools for search engine optimization, engaging in a battle that is no-holds barred in order to score the spot which is much-coveted: the top of a search engine’s list of results.
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Jeff Korhan
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Social Marketing is Relationship Selling
17 May 2013 | 4:16 pmThe Social Marketing Process ©Jeff Korhan Mainstream small business will more reliably get better results from social media if they view it more as selling than marketing. Why? Because effective relationship selling is personal, and now marketing is too. As social influences continue to profoundly affect business, just about every business activity is going to require relationship building skills. Traditional marketing or advertising was something you did – to your communities. Whereas, social marketing in our digital environment is something we do – with our communities. That… -
If I Were Starting Social Media from Zero
13 May 2013 | 2:30 amA couple of months ago without notice, all of the social media sharing counters on my primary website had reverted to zero. Just like that, thousands of shares that had accumulated over a period of nearly seven years had vanished. Why is this significant? Social sharing is what is known as “social proof.” It’s evidence that your site is active and worthy of the attention of new buyers that happen to be passing through. Not knowing if this action was recoverable, I settled into the realization that I may have to simply move on and start fresh. While the problem was… -
Social Media is Still Uncharted Waters
10 May 2013 | 3:52 pmWhen you are embarking on a journey whose destination is uncertain, you have to get comfortable with uncertainty. When it comes to social media, uncertainty has been, and for the foreseeable future, will necessarily be part of its use in your marketing equation. These are uncharted waters. Everyone is still learning. So, small businesses simply need to first get their feet wet, after which they will find their way if they follow a proven process, such as the one outlined in Built-In Social. What I’m Hearing Now that social media hype is beginning to fizzle, the truth is coming out from… -
Why The Best Products are Souvenirs
28 Apr 2013 | 8:10 pmMarketing expert Seth Godin has more than once noted that a book is souvenir – a vessel for ideas that allows them to be readily used and shared. I believe we can further expand on that idea. Have you ever considered that the products and services your small business creates are souvenirs too? What Exactly is a Souvenir? We often think of souvenirs as relatively low-value items that are purchased or received for free as a memento of an experience with a place, occasion, business, or organization. However, the original and primary definition of souvenir is to remember or come to mind. -
Small Business Social Media Accountability
19 Apr 2013 | 3:03 pmRecent tragic events here in the United States (and around the world) have heightened awareness of the global reach of media, especially social media, and the consequences for businesses using it. Small business advertising has historically been local, making it easy to craft messaging that is appropriate for the targeted audience. However, now any piece of digital content has the capability of reaching audiences far removed from those for which it is intended. This creates new responsibilities that many businesses are only just beginning to fully comprehend. Your small business may be local,…
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Sparksheet
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In Defense of Sales: Q&A With Daniel H. Pink
21 May 2013 | 10:39 amAs the title of your book suggests, the word “sales” gets a pretty bad rap. Why do you think that is? A lot of us think of sales as sleazy and slimy and manipulative because for a long time, most of what we knew about sales came from an age of information asymmetry. The seller always had more information than the buyer. When the seller has more information, the seller can rip you off. This is why we have the principle of “buyer beware.” I think that’s changed. We’ve gone from a world of information asymmetry to one closer to information parity. This transition – from buyers who… -
C2-MTL 2013 Live Feed
21 May 2013 | 4:07 amFrom May 21-23, Sparksheet will be reporting live from C2-MTL, an unconventional business conference in Montreal that’s all about the intersection of commerce and creativity. With a speaker roster that includes Richard Branson, Philippe Starck and Elle Macpherson, and an elite group of c-suite attendees (tickets cost upwards of $3,600), the event is sure to generate plenty of online buzz. This is our notebook of interesting and inspiring blogs, tweets, Instagram photos and other C2-related content from around the web, powered by our friends at Spundge. C2-MTL The Sparksheet team curates… -
Five Journalism Habits Brands Should Avoid
15 May 2013 | 5:07 amWilford Brimley plays Asst. U.S. Atty. Gen. James A. Wells in the 1980 journalism drama, Absence of Malice. As a longtime journalist, I’m happy to see so many of my colleagues finding work at brands and agencies as content marketers, brand journalists and all the other new roles and titles beginning to emerge. (Me? I’m a Director of Content!) At its best, marrying communications and marketing with a journalistic approach can result in quality content that’s of value to the public, as opposed to purely self-interested promotional copy. One unintended consequence, however, may be that… -
Marketing Lessons from the Wu-Tang Clan
13 May 2013 | 9:15 amIn the early 1990s, the rapper RZA (pronounced Rizza) formed a new creative partnership, or as I like to call it, a brandscape. His daring five-year plan was to leverage the distinct style of seven New York rappers to help the group reach number one on the Billboard charts and change the face of the music scene. This successful brandscape was called the Wu-Tang Clan. Creating a supergroup In a recent NPR story celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Wu-Tang Clan’s debut on the music scene, RZA recalled how the group developed unique personas designed to attract different sub-categories of… -
CTRL ALT Delete: Google+ Hangout with Mitch Joel
10 May 2013 | 1:25 pmIt gets harder every year to think of an industry that hasn’t been disrupted by the internet. Brands big and small are finding themselves sandwiched between a dead (or dying) business model and an uncertain future. Blogger, podcaster and Twist Image president Mitch Joel calls this state “purgatory” and in his new book, CTRL ALT Delete, he argues that it’s time for businesses and individuals to “reboot.” Mitch has been a friend of Sparksheet since the beginning and he joined us for a Google+ Hangout to talk about his thoughtful and thought-provoking book, which comes out on May…
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Content Mastery Guide
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Once You’ve Met, Then Connect – Taking Your Local Networking Contacts Online
14 May 2013 | 8:21 amThis is the third post in a three-part series about building online and offline relationships. In Part One we discussed how blogging can strengthen your credibility with colleagues in your local community. In Part Two, I shared my story of building my local network by starting online and then continuing those relationships in person. Now, let’s look at how to transform your network of clients, prospective clients, and referral sources into an online community that reads, shares and benefits from your content. Step 1: Research When you’ve met someone you want to stay connected with, see if… -
Five Things You Need to Know Before Starting a Business Blog
27 Apr 2013 | 8:05 amBusiness blogging is a proven way to keep your website fresh, which will satisfy both the potential customers who are looking for information and help, and the referral sources that are looking to send those customers your way. The referral sources could be friends, family members or business associates of your clients-to-be, your own network of professional contacts, or search engines. The more you blog about the topics that are important to your customers, the more credibility you will gain with these referrers. To help you get started on the right foot with your business blog, here are… -
Ten Ways to Fill Your Business Blog
16 Apr 2013 | 4:04 amA reader named Karen recently shared a common business blogging issue. “My problem, as always, is time. I write a couple blog posts, then I miss a couple of weeks.” Sound familiar? Donna had a similar concern, and after the Barrie Business Blogathon in January 2013 she wrote: “A whole morning, 9 to noon, all devoted to writing blog posts. I produced four blog posts that I was able to email to Linda, four feet away from me. As I wrote the next post, she improved the post I’d just sent.” Even if you’re not registered for the Blogathon, you can still devote time… -
How to Find the Permalink of a Social Media Post
8 Apr 2013 | 1:45 pmPeople are busy. If you want them to look at your content, you must get their attention, tell them why the information will be relevant, entertaining or valuable, and then make it easy to get there. Otherwise they will grow weary of clicking on your links in the future. While it’s great to promote each new blog post by sharing a “teaser” with your social media networks, you need to be sure to provide the right link. In a previous post about how to find the permalink of a blog post, I explained that the problem with just posting a link to your main blog page (called the “archives”… -
Reader-Focused Blogging: Set an Empty Chair at Your Blog
24 Mar 2013 | 5:30 amIn To Sell is Human, Daniel Pink lets us in on a success secret of one of the 30 wealthiest people on the planet – Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com. At every important meeting, Bezos leaves an empty chair at the table. Pink writes: “It’s there to remind those assembled who’s really the most important person in the room: the customer.” I often suggest to business bloggers that you write as if you’re talking to ONE ideal customer, imagining that person is sitting across the desk from you. Here are five ways to make that empty seat as welcoming as possible:…
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SchneiderB.com
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How to Create Content that Appeals to People’s Laziness
20 May 2013 | 6:51 pmThis is a guest post by Brett Lindenberg of the marketing blog 500amonth.com. Learn about Brett’s in-process guest-posting experiment to see what he’s up to right now. Want in on the secret to creating content that gets shared, bookmarked, and even re-read by your audience? Spoiler alert: This is not yet another post touting the benefits of writing great content or crafting a catchy headline. Although getting those elements right certainly won’t hurt your cause. The Answer: Create content that caters to other people’s laziness. I stumbled across this idea when reading this post on… -
Reading Assignment
17 May 2013 | 3:28 pmMake sure to check your mailbox! Your first assignment is to complete reading the book you’ll receive in the mail. The book is Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs by Brian Halligan and Dharmesh Shah. If you have any questions prior to our meeting in Pittsburgh please use this area in [...]The post Reading Assignment appeared first on Internet Marketing For Schools. -
Weekend Update – May18
17 May 2013 | 12:52 pmStuart Williams via Compfight Happy Social Media Saturday! Listed below in my Weekend Update are links to interesting things I found on the web this week: cool tools, great blog posts, or questions/comments from one of the SchneiderB.com online communities – anything that stuck out to me and I think is worth sharing. I encourage you to check them out for yourself! Blog Post: How to Integrate Google+ Into Your Online Marketing Initiative Google+ is Google’s social network and was launched in mid 2011. Although it took awhile to catch on in the social media marketing world, it’s… -
3 Marketing Lessons Schools Can Learn From Dollar Shave Club
15 May 2013 | 2:15 pmOne of my long time pet peeves has been the cost of disposable razors. I don’t consider myself cheap but I could never understand why good razors cost so much. Then I found DollarShaveClub.com! If you are unaware of what DollarShaveClub.com is about watch the video below. Now you might be asking what does DollarShaveClub.com have to do with school marketing? Let me explain by asking three questions for you to think about. 1. What do prospective families remember about your school video? The first time I watched the above video I was actually laughing out loud and did the unthinkable for… -
Weekend Update – May11
10 May 2013 | 7:00 pmLinh Nguyen via Compfight Happy Social Media Saturday! Listed below in my Weekend Update are links to interesting things I found on the web this week: cool tools, great blog posts, or questions/comments from one of the SchneiderB.com online communities – anything that stuck out to me and I think is worth sharing. I encourage you to check them out for yourself! Blog Post: Free Ways To Reach More People On Facebook - It’s been interesting to see the increase in social media ad spending as of late. A recent study based on a survey of over 500 online marketing and media professionals…
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OpenView Blog
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Customer Segmentation: What Is Customer Segmentation?
22 May 2013 | 5:00 amAt OpenView Venture Partners, we spend a lot of time working with our portfolio companies to help them focus on their best customer segments. This is the first step in creating a market dominating growth strategy and dramatically improves a company’s growth, competitive advantage, and economic model. A firm should select its buyers with great care. Not every customer is a good customer. A buyer who is too costly to service, too demanding, or too powerful may be bad for business.” — Micheal Porter What Is Customer Segmentation and How Do You Define a Customer Segment? At the… -
Market Exit Positioning: Lessons from Yahoo’s Acquisition of Tumblr
21 May 2013 | 9:44 amFrom time to time on this blog, I write about market exit strategies and provide market exit positioning tips based on case studies from the M&A market. As you probably know by now, yesterday, Yahoo!’s board approved the acquisition of Tumblr for $1.1B. This is the latest (and biggest) in a series of recent purchases that Yahoo! has made under Melissa Meyer over the last few quarters. Since Meyer took the reins at Yahoo!, it has been clear that one of her strategies was to use the M&A market to help reposition the company for future growth. Tumblr has had its eyes on Yahoo! and has… -
3 Tips for Creating a More Inclusive Workplace for Women
21 May 2013 | 9:15 amFocusing on these three factors can help you boost your hire and employee retention rates by developing a more inclusive workplace for women. As a startup, have you ever wondered why it may be difficult to attract and/or retain female employees within your organization? While there could be several reasons why this may be the case, let’s focus on three factors at the top of the list for many women when deciding whether to join or stay within an organization. 1) Focus on Improving Work-Life Balance Work and life priorities are always evolving and likely to change during an individual’s… -
Outbound Lead Generation Team Training: Expanding into New Markets
21 May 2013 | 5:00 amLearn why an asset package is such a crucial tool for outbound lead generation team training, especially for getting your reps prepared for selling into a new market. Earlier this year I wrote a couple of blog posts explaining the importance of training your outbound lead generation team, and what should be included in a new hire onboarding program. However, outbound lead generation team training shouldn’t stop after onboarding. I was recently reminded of this when we helped one of our portfolio companies develop an asset package to help them market their new product into the CPG and major… -
Pump Up Your Employee Development Process by Focusing on Strengths
20 May 2013 | 10:24 amMake your employee development process more effective by focusing on furthering your employees’ natural advantages. In a recent session at the Kellogg School of Management in Chicago — where I have been commuting every Saturday for the last two years pursuing a degree in Management — I picked up on a new approach to employee appraisal and development: Identifying and amplifying strengths. This can sound counter-intuitive to traditional HR practices, where employees’ skills and capabilities are evaluated according to some spectrum of competency, and the focus of performance…
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ideaLaunch
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Choosing the Topic of Your Blogs
20 May 2013 | 11:00 am“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.” This quote from the children’s book Dr. Seuss is also David Waller’s advice when asked what people, interested in making money via their blogs, should write about. Waller should know. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Storeboard.com, a Tenafly, N.J.-based website that bills itself as the “missing link between social networks and business directory sites.” Storeboard.com posts thousands of blogs every year. People can put their blogs into… -
Jumping Platforms: Traveling with Content
17 May 2013 | 11:00 amGetting the word out about your products or services is becoming a complex challenge as more opportunities present themselves. Every marketing platform, regardless of form or frequency, has a single unifying element: content. Without content, tweets are simply blank spaces, blogs are boring, and mobile ads fade into the background. Build the right backlog of content, however, and you have a self-sustaining juggernaut of marketing that works on your schedule and reaches your customers. Distinct Motivations If you already have content for your main website, you may believe you don’t have… -
The Welcome Mat: Why Your Landing Page Matters
15 May 2013 | 11:00 amYour landing page is the swiss army knife of the marketing world – it encourages customers to explore your site and discourages competitors from chasing a slice of your market share. It also tells vendors that you’re serious about what you do, as well as enticing search engines to hand over better rankings. This single powerful page of coding, content and aesthetic design can literally make or break your business, which is why optimization experts know that putting your best digital foot forward is vital. Here are a few landing page optimization tips that will help your site get… -
Speaking the Blogging Language
13 May 2013 | 11:00 amA dead blog is an unread blog. Blogs need to feel alive to draw traffic and hook readers. Bringing a blog to life requires more than simply posting content and calling it “good.” Blogs only flourish when they give readers a reason to care. A skilled blogger knows what their readers expect and understands how to meet those expectations. Plan for the clock Providing daily content is a popular solution for building a better blog. The truth is it does not matter how often you post. What matters more is when you post content. Plan to write for the clock instead of the calendar. Pay… -
Are You the Next Content Idol?
10 May 2013 | 11:00 amContent writing can feel a little like a TV reality show. Everyone with an online presence is competing to emerge as a top content resource. The judges are readers who choose which content is worthy of their time. Winning their favor takes a smart approach to cultivating content. How can a content marketing agency emerge from the crowd? It all boils down to developing a content development strategy that works. Aim for the front porch It can be tempting to reach for the stars with your content offerings. That’s not how it works. An agency should work on building an audience a step at a time.
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contentmeasures.com
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Use This Formula To Calculate Brand Engagement On Your Website
22 May 2013 | 1:30 amHow much of your website traffic is branded? In other words, how many visitors to your website already knew you existed? And, perhaps more importantly, how many didn’t? If your spending big bucks on awareness campaigns both on and off-line, the effect will be measurable in your website analytics. You just need to know where [...]The post Use This Formula To Calculate Brand Engagement On Your Website appeared first on . -
One Argument For Quantity in Content Marketing
6 Feb 2013 | 9:49 pmGravity is a function of mass. To be more precise: Gravity is the means by which objects with mass attract one another. The sun has a mass that is 330,000 times the mass of the Earth. The sun is a gravitational monster! The gravity of the sun is so powerful that other objects of massive [...]The post One Argument For Quantity in Content Marketing appeared first on . -
A Time-Tested Marketing Trick That May Make You Feel Like A Dummy
6 Feb 2013 | 9:37 pmIn 1950, the short-lived comedy sitcom The Hank McCune Show introduced the American TV audience to “canned laughter.” Most television viewers would describe “canned laughter” or “laugh tracks” as phony and obvious. But despite the scorn of TV watchers and critics, the laugh track has been with us since its debut over 60 years ago. Here’s why: [...]The post A Time-Tested Marketing Trick That May Make You Feel Like A Dummy appeared first on . -
Print and Steal This Headline Swipe File But Use It For Good, Not Evil
4 Feb 2013 | 8:07 pmEvery business owner that is working in the “digital age” should have a Headline Swipe File. I break out this document when I am writing: An article title A headline for a sales page An email subject line A name of a presentation A name of a video etc, etc And, I copy and paste [...]The post Print and Steal This Headline Swipe File But Use It For Good, Not Evil appeared first on . -
Why D.I.S. is Crucial to your Content Marketing Strategy
4 Feb 2013 | 12:46 amThe shift in marketing dollars from traditional advertising mediums to the emerging mediums available to us via the Internet has more to do with the consumers behavior than the seller. Many businesses today are holding onto the hopes that this is all a fad, that this will all go away. Then they can go back [...]The post Why D.I.S. is Crucial to your Content Marketing Strategy appeared first on .
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The Content Lab
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Yahoo!/Tumblr: All about Content, Data, and Mobility
20 May 2013 | 10:42 amOn May 20, Yahoo! announced it will acquire Tumblr — a deal that delivers on Marissa Mayer’s mission to build an organization focused on positioning both Yahoo! and its ad partners at the “center of users’ daily habits.” Tumblr is a rapid-fire content and community juggernaut. If Yahoo! doesn’t “screw it up” (as promised in its press release), Yahoo! will have a tremendous asset at the company’s disposal. Advertisers who might have ignored Yahoo! in recent years will want to take another look as Yahoo! builds an organization powered by content,… -
Avoid the Content Marketing Commodity Trap
17 Apr 2013 | 10:13 amContent marketing has gone mainstream. eMarketer just reported that business-to-business marketers are spending about a third of their budgets on content marketing, up from 26 percent in 2012, with the need to engage customers being the primary driver for the spend. A Gartner survey of marketing executives indicates that nearly half of marketers see content creation and curation as the top role of their social marketing teams. And a recent Adobe/eConsultancy study finds that “Content, in all its shapes and forms, is core to everything we do as marketers.” These reports suggest is… -
"Defiance": A Bold Transmedia Storytelling Gamble
15 Apr 2013 | 8:40 amAre you going to watch Defiance tonight when it premieres on the Syfy channel? Or perhaps you’ll play the Defiance game, which launched April 2 from Trion Worlds? The creators of Defiance hope you’ll do both. Defiance is a first-of-its kind hybrid online game and TV show being launched as a venture between Syfy and Trion. It’s also an attempt to cater to a highly engaged, billion-dollar audience: participants of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games. Defiance has generated considerable buzz (not all of it positive) from major media ranging from The New York Times to The… -
Benjamin Moore and iCrossing Create a Visual Story
11 Apr 2013 | 5:30 amHow do you celebrate your customer relationships? iCrossing and our client Benjamin Moore Paints have found a novel way: by creating a visual story together. Benjamin Moore has been an iCrossing client since 2011, when the leading paint manufacturer retained iCrossing to conduct brand strategy rooted in search marketing. Recently Benjamin Moore gave iCrossing the raw materials to create a visual story when the company sent us some of its new chalkboard paint customized in the iCrossing brand colors. We were given no restrictions on how we could use the paint. So after doing some… -
4 Thing Marketers Need to Know about Facebook Home
4 Apr 2013 | 2:41 pmFacebook’s long awaited mobile product, Facebook Home, is not about a new phone but about making Facebook a content platform for a mobile audience. Brands would do well to start thinking hard about how they’ll develop engaging content for a mobile audience on Facebook. For consumers, today’s announcement about Facebook Home is an obvious play to get a mobile audience to spend even more time on Facebook than ever before. While mobile experiences are currently centered around apps, Facebook’s aim is to center the experience around people. The focus on people is executed…
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Outbrain » Blog
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How To Use Social Media Like The Best SMB Marketers
13 May 2013 | 7:19 amThe online marketing world is expanding – having the biggest bullhorn isn’t enough to dominate the conversation anymore. Instead, the most interesting voice prevails in attracting an engaged audience. Social media provides a low-cost, attainable channel for small business marketers to take advantage of in order to compete with the big brands in the content marketing sphere. The Small Business Content Marketing Trends & Insights Report for 2013 found that SMB marketers use an average of five social media platforms, while enterprise peers use an average of four platforms. -
The Small Business Content Marketing Trends & Insights for 2013
7 May 2013 | 2:30 amWe recently shared our thoughts on how content marketing has become something of an equalizer for small businesses (SMBs) trying to compete in the same space as larger brands with their big budgets and seemingly unlimited resources. Rather than extract value via traditional and costly marketing channels such as display and search, sharing great content creates value for consumers and is a more effective way for SMBs to engage their audience. We’re always looking to share ways in which SMBs can better engage their audience with interesting and great quality content. To that end, we’re… -
The Natives Are Getting Restless
4 May 2013 | 12:37 pmThis article was originally published April 19, 2013 on All Things D. If you ask 10 marketers for a definition of “native advertising,” you are likely to get 10 different answers. While the concept is as old as advertising itself, what’s old is new again online and it seems everyone is rushing to redefine what it means to be native. As the river of venture capital dollars increasingly flows toward this buzzy new category, marketing platforms of all shapes and sizes are reaching out hoping to claim their seat on the raft. In many ways, the weeding-out process has already begun,… -
CCMeetup: The Fate of Journalism
25 Apr 2013 | 10:14 am[<a href="//storify.com/outbrain/ccmeetup-the-fate-of-journalism" target="_blank">View the story "#CCMeetup: The Fate of Journalism" on Storify</a>] -
User Engagement Follows Good Content, Not Ads
2 Apr 2013 | 8:49 amIn a recent AdAge article, Chartbeat presented interesting data about which parts of a content page receive the highest user engagement. A key take-away from their study was that the area of the page below the fold has higher engagement than many realize, higher in fact than areas of the page typically considered premium by advertisers (like top center). As a result, they conclude, marketers have been “placing value in the wrong place” by buying ad inventory where people are less engaged. While the data Chartbeat showcases is incredibly useful, the conclusion they are drawing from it is…
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@TMGmedia
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3 Ways to Engage with Today’s Empowered Consumer
20 May 2013 | 7:51 amThey say knowledge is power. If this is now the case, then consumers today are armed to the teeth with more of both in an increasingly competitive and dynamic marketing arena. First, let’s take a look at this ever-changing landscape: In 1970, consumers were exposed to an average of 500 ads per day. Today, this number is ten times higher. Brands are creating their own narratives, videos, and custom content—gradually transitioning to becoming the new media. Consumers’ relationships with brands have changed and consumers are now talked to, not at. (Heidi Browning Pearson, SVP of… -
50 Tweets From #WhatsNextDC Day Two That You May Have Missed
8 May 2013 | 12:47 pmDay Two of the What’s Next DC Marketing and Communications Conference did not disappoint. The larger venue at the Studio Theatre gave way to more speakers and more stages, which of course meant more sessions to choose from. I love having options as much as the next person, but I don’t know anyone who can be at two places at once. Do you? Attendees were forced to make difficult choices all day, such as whether to attend the World Bank’s presentation on incorporating Tumblr into its social media strategy, or Hilton Worldwide’s session on how retailers can engage and… -
65 Tweets to Energize Your Marketing Strategy from #WhatsNextDC Day One
7 May 2013 | 8:30 amI recently had the privilege of attending the What’s Next DC Marketing and Communications Conference at The Hamilton Live. This was my first ever industry event or business conference, so I had no idea what to expect. I just knew I was excited and prepared to be educated on some new strategies and to make some connections. One thing I was not prepared for on day one was the speed at which information was flying around the room. As I looked around, I saw some attendees on as many as three or four data-connected devices at one time. It seemed as if the moment a speaker had shared… -
Sentences Uttered at the Content Marketing Conference that I Can’t Unhear. (But I’ll Try.)
22 Apr 2013 | 7:01 amEarlier this month I attended the Custom Content Council conference in Chicago. It was my first CCC show, and I got a lot out of it. Some of it, I wish I hadn’t gotten. In among all the gleaming case studies, between the commonsense tips and around the novel ideas were some utterances so obviously crazy that I’m compelled to conceal their authors. “The line between helpful and creepy is thin, gray and curvy.” This is true for the content marketer who’s trying to follow consumers to the threshold of the bathroom door. But the consumer knows exactly when helpful turns into creepy, and… -
4 SEO Reasons Why You Need to Stop Ignoring Google+
16 Apr 2013 | 4:00 amIn the two years since its launch, it is no secret that Google+ has had its skeptics—myself included. However, it might be time to reconsider such hasty judgments. Recent data shows it has leap-frogged YouTube and Twitter as the second largest social network. Personally, I was never very familiar with what is now the world’s second largest social network. I had a page by default through my Gmail account, but never took the time to actually complete my profile. I always considered it to be just an attempt by Google to jump on the social media bandwagonproviding us with yet another…
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Maastary B2B Marketing Blog
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4 Ways to Ensure Your Digital Marketing Strategy Works
17 May 2013 | 10:29 amTo evaluate your digital marketing strategy, don't begin with your website. People often say to us. “My website isn’t working well. Can you help me with SEO? Or, I need to redesign my website, can you help me?” Unfortunately, starting with the website is putting the cart before the horse. Without an effective marketing foundation, the website is just an additional cost. Here are four steps to assess and realign your digital marketing strategy. Review Your Marketing Strategy: Your digital marketing strategy is a component of your over-all marketing strategy. As a result, it… -
B2B Web Marketing: Using HubSpot to Drive Sales via Social Media
7 May 2013 | 9:36 pmThe big challenge with web marketing today is that time has replaced dollars as the currency when it comes to building a successful online strategy. In the past, companies with bigger dollar budgets (and better agencies!) out spent their competition to get the best advertising placements. Today, while advertising still takes a large portion of enterprise budgets, it’s less effective. More must be done with digital marketing because the “eyeballs” have moved to a wide number of locations on the Internet and, in particular, social media sites. And the buyers who own those eyeballs… -
It’s Time to Transform Your B2B Web Marketing Strategy
26 Apr 2013 | 8:25 pmTen questions that indicate where in the spectrum of “buggy whip to maglev*” your current B2B web marketing strategy lies and whether you should rethink it – now! Have you a written document that describes your target market segments, your buyer’s journey and your target business personas? Without an objective and focused view it’s likely that your content marketing efforts will lack relevancy and appropriate personalization. The result could be poor quality leads and difficulty converting even seemingly good leads into sales. Are you influencing the influencers? PR and Media… -
Personas and the Buyers Journey Keys to Sales and Marketing Alignment
15 Apr 2013 | 8:16 amOver 85% of B2B buyers start their buying process on line and continue online through purchase and use of the product or service. The digital dialog is most intense in the early stages of the buyer's journey, but it continues throughout the entire purchase and ownership process. Marketing is the owner of the digital dialog for the company, and therefore must be involved throughout. Although sales has most of their work in the later stages of the journey, they must be prepared to answer questions at whatever stage they meet the buyer. As a result, alignment is a must to fill the pipeline with… -
Effective B2B Marketing: 4 Ways to Improve Sales Enablement
4 Apr 2013 | 9:06 amOver the past few weeks we've written extensively about the need for B2B technology marketers to understand the buyer's journey and to play a role in the sales process. One of their biggest challenges remains converting leads to sales. Often lead generation itself is not the issue; generating well qualified leads and then responding rapidly to them, is much more problematic. This post looks at four underutilized ways that marketing can better enable the sales team, helping to add new opportunities (qualified leads) to their pipeline as well as improving pipeline momentum and lead (to sale)…
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Content Marketing Blog
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Top Content Marketing Mistakes Many Businesses Make
21 May 2013 | 5:30 amMany brands are finally having an “a-ha” moment when it comes to content marketing. Although we’re making great strides in changing mindsets from traditional old-school marketing, there are still many mistakes being made by big and small companies alike. Here are the top content marketing missteps that are made most often. Throwing it out there to see if it sticks. Launching new content with no plan or clear direction is a waste of time and energy. Creating a content strategy with objectives and measurable results is essential. Putting too many chefs in the content kitchen. -
How to Avoid a Social Media Meltdown over Negative Reviews
15 May 2013 | 9:21 amIt makes every marketing manager’s heart flutter: the notification email that your company or client has been the subject of an online review. If you’re promoting good products or service, chances are the post on Yelp, Trip Advisor, or Google is good, and you can breathe a sigh of relief. But negative reviews happen even to the best of companies. It’s how you handle them that can actually put you back on top. And if marketers ever needed a lesson on what NOT to do, Amy’s Baking Company Baking Boutique and Bistro demonstrated that this week. The Scottsdale, Arizona bakery was the… -
Why Should B2B Marketers Work with a Content Marketing Agency?
8 May 2013 | 5:30 amThere has been lots of talk lately about how B2B small businesses are making great content marketing efforts and experiencing significant results from them. A recent infographic by digital publishing software providers Uberflip (see below) showed that 91% of B2B marketers are engaged in content marketing in some way and that 68% of CMOs intend to increase their content marketing budget this year. (a content marketing budget horray!) At SPROUT Content, we work with many B2B companies and most of them have either a one-person marketing team in-house or someone else in the company such as the… -
Content Creation is Breaking News
1 May 2013 | 5:30 amA newsroom is a bustling place with phones ringing, scanners relaying the latest emergency traffic and people scrambling to meet their deadlines. Change the scanner noise to a live webinar on your computer and this could be your marketing manager’s office. In the growing business of content creation, companies are becoming publishers and marketing managers are acting as news directors. They are tasked with putting out fresh, informative yet interesting content for their business on a regular basis. So, how do you keep up with it all? Whether you are managing a large mareting team or you are… -
Calling Content Marketing Agencies, How Are We All Different, Really?
25 Apr 2013 | 8:54 amIn the content marketing world, we spend a lot of time talking to each other. When we launched SPROUT Content in 2009, we spent so much time talking to Junta42 (thank you Joe Pulizzi!), guest blogging and “participating” in the industry that we forgot most prospects we talked to had never heard of content marketing. Our clients came to us because they needed website content or wanted to rank higher in search engines or to start a monthly newsletter, but not because they needed a “content marketing agency.” As Joe pointed out in his blog post, 4 Truths About Content Marketing…
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Content Marketing for Technology
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Business blogging pays off
9 May 2013 | 4:57 pmNot sure whether it’s worth your time to create and maintain a blog for your business? HubSpot’s latest survey on inbound marketing answers that question with a resounding YES. The survey highlights the fact that blogging is a remarkably effective means of inbound marketing: “Seventy-nine percent of companies who have a blog report a positive ROI for inbound marketing this year, compared with just 20% of those companies that do not have a blog.” [HubSpot 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report] But blogging requires time and persistence Business blogging delivers… -
Curating research as a content strategy
11 Apr 2013 | 9:50 amMy last blog on research as a content strategy talked about the many content marketing benefits of creating original research. But what if you don’t have the time or resources to create or commission original research? Research may still have a role to play in your content strategy. If you can’t create, curate. Research can be an important part of a ‘content curation’ strategy, in which you collect relevant and interesting content for your followers or customers. Find some interesting research and put your own spin on it. I did that recently in this post citing… -
Research as a content strategy
1 Apr 2013 | 5:52 pmIf you’re pursuing a ‘thought leadership’ strategy and want to make some noise, consider adding original research to your content marketing strategy. Got data? The key is coming up with good original research. Look through your own data sources. You may be able to find emerging trends in the course of doing business with your customers or buried in your ‘big data.’ One of my clients, ThreatMetrix, publishes threat trends discovered in its global threat network. Commission a survey. Another option is to commission research into your market or prospects from a… -
Social media in marketing: A work in progress
11 Mar 2013 | 9:12 amAre we getting any smarter about using social media in marketing? Not according to Duke’s most recent CMO survey. The Duke CMO Survey Twice a year, Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business conducts a survey of Chief Marketing Officers. What makes the CMO survey so interesting is the fact that you can track how things change over the course of the time between surveys. According to the most recent survey, both B2B and B2C CMOs plan to increase spending on social media – more than doubling the percentage of the marketing budget spent on social media in the next five years. -
A must-read for marketers: To Sell is Human
28 Feb 2013 | 9:43 amDo you feel uncomfortable when someone ‘confuses’ marketing with sales? Reading Daniel Pink’s new book To Sell is Human might change your mind. According to Pink, teachers, physicians, entrepreneurs and others are all in the business of selling. My only worry is that our conditioned aversion to the idea of sales will prevent more people from reading the book. The book’s premise is that most of us are in sales if we spend a significant part of our time trying to persuade people to part with resources (whether money, time, behavior change or attention). It includes a…
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Content Insights
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Sponsored Content, Branded Content, + Native Advertising
19 May 2013 | 10:57 amSponsored content, branded content, and native advertising. Oh my. When it comes to content, we're not in Kansas anymore. As the worlds of marketing and publishing collide, you might hear such terms thrown around. Let's take a closer look at these terms and their implications for marketers and media properties. First Things First: Definitions + Examples Branded content, sponsored content, and native advertising are sometimes used interchangeably, but there is an important distinction. Branded Content Quite simply, branded content is content that brands publish themselves on… -
Running Toward a New Market, Thanks to Content Strategy
2 May 2013 | 11:29 amKnown for its expertise in foot and lower body health issues, FootSmart took a risk by approaching a new market. They debated and discussed the idea of a specialty shop for a while until latching onto the idea of The Running Shop. Focusing on foot and lower body health products for runners, FootSmart knew The Running Shop had the best chance of working if equipped with powerful content. Lauren Schuman combined her expertise in online merchandizing and promotion with Content Science’s experience in content strategy to formulate a The Running Shop plan that connects to runners’… -
Give to Get Content Strategy Applied
29 Apr 2013 | 3:11 pmWe've heard for 10-15 years now that organizational silos—or teams and departments that don't coordinate with each other—hurt content. Does that ever really get solved? We know that a governance framework helps tremendously. But, that alone will never completely cure "silo syndrome." Why? Because even with the best process, the clearest roles and responsibilities, and the most useful training or documentation, at the end of the day people involved in enterprise content must want to help each other out. This plain truth nagged me recently as I planned… -
To Understand Customers, Understand Their Brains
17 Apr 2013 | 7:43 amTo discover whether content works, we acknowledge the limitations of traditional surveys and focus groups. As fans of qualitative usability testing, we like to understand behavior, emotions, and reactions to content—rather than taking what a person says at face value. The latest advances in neuroscience continue to reinforce the point that how we think we react does not match how we actually react. Content must tickle the right brain first and let the left brain analyze it afterward. In this post, we share some recommended reading about neuroscience, storytelling, and myth as additional… -
Three Videos Highlight Improving Healthcare
15 Apr 2013 | 6:03 amI mentioned a few highlights from the Healthcare Experience Design conference recently. Now, I have video. Dr. Sobel shared why he thinks inspiration and identification inspire behavior change. In contrast, Nir Eyal explained the power of habits to change behavior...and how to actually form a habit yourself. I spoke about some advanced issues in content and credibility. It's tough to inspire change without trustworthy content. For more videos from this fascinating event, check out Healthcare Experience Design on Vimeo.
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Jontus Media
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Strategic Planning for Productivity
16 May 2013 | 2:33 pmI recorded episode 91 of the show over a week ago but although it was ready to edit I just didn’t get around to it. Duh! If you’re using content marketing to market your business online you’ve got to keep the content coming. So why did I drop the ball ? Well, a mixture of client work and losing my mojo, I suppose. I just wasn’t happy with the episode and after exchanging a couple of mails with my good friend Jamie Wallace over at Suddenly Marketing I decided to scrap the episode and start over. So this week’s show is a more personal insight into my business and… -
Put Your Face on Your Blog
8 May 2013 | 12:20 pmIf you’re a consultant or solo entrepreneur you should put your face on your website. Preferably on the front page. It’s important that you’re visible. It’s important because it’s all about building trust and a sense of personality. After all, we do business with people. Show Who You Are I’ve written a lot about podcasting as a way of making it transparent to your potential customers just who you are and what you do. Video, of course, is also an incredibly useful tool for giving a clearer indication of who you are and what you do. It’s important,… -
What Makes a Perfect Homepage?
1 May 2013 | 1:49 pmThere is, I am afraid, no perfect homepage. Only the perfect homepage for your website. Still… A great homepage will answer the three Ws: Who we are, What we do and What we can do for you whilst you are here. It’s trickier than it sounds, though, because you have to get the balance right. Too many homepages put the emphasis on “Who we are” instead of focusing on addressing the needs of the visitor to the site. The BBC website doesn’t start out telling you who the BBC is, does it. You just get there and start consuming the news. Similarly, Nordiska Kompaniet… -
It’s Time to Launch a Podcast
29 Apr 2013 | 12:36 pmIt seems that wherever you look right now that podcasting is hot. Michael Stelzner, from Social Media Examiner, recently told the audience at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego that: Podcasting, Bar Nothing In Our Study, Is The Hottest Thing In 2013. Period! Pat Flynn, another very successful marketer, has had incredible success with his podcast, seeing it as one of the key ways in which he has been able to grow his business. In this episode of Online Marketing and Communications – Episode 90 !!!! – I encourage you to think again about the benefits of podcasting and suggest some of… -
What You Should Know About Branding When Digital Marketing
19 Apr 2013 | 5:27 amIt can be really difficult knowing where to start when it comes to branding – especially if you have to talk about it with a marketing professional! Would-be podcaster Craig McBreen On this week’s episode of Online Marketing and Communications I talk to American designer and branding specialist Craig McBreen. Craig runs McBreen Design but is equally active as a blogger, sometime video-caster and would-be podcaster. He also runs one of the best newsletters I’ve come across that’s both full of advice, support, and encouragement when it comes to building your online presence.
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Cohen On Content
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Cohen Rants Content
9 May 2013 | 10:24 amCohen Rants Content and Motivating Digital Signage Viewers. Click “>> Read more” or “>> Leave Comment” below to leave comments. -
Stuart Armstrong – ComQi
16 Apr 2013 | 12:29 pmPlease be warned! My interview with Stuart Armstrong, President Americas at ComQi, is long…12 minutes. But didn’t want to cut into Part I and Part II and ruin the flow. A lot of great info about where the digital signage industry is going and convergence with mobile platforms. Click “>> Read more” or “>> Leave [...] -
Jeff Dowell- #DSE2013
21 Mar 2013 | 1:03 pm“Combining print and digital at the in-store experience level”: Interview with Jeff Dowell, Global Marketing Manager, Digital Signage at 3M Optical Systems. Click “>> Read more” or “>> Leave Comment” below to leave comments.
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Industrial Marketing Today
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Does Your Website Content Meet the Needs of Industrial Buyers?
15 May 2013 | 9:40 amWhen was the last time you actually read the content on your industrial website? Put yourself in your buyer’s shoes and see if the current content will persuade you to [...] [ This is only a content summary. Please click on the headline to read the full article. Visit my website for more content on industrial marketing.] -
Industrial Content Marketing – Dazed and Confused
22 Apr 2013 | 7:24 amHow many of you remember the song “Dazed and Confused” from Led Zeppelin’s debut album based on a folk song by Jake Holmes? I am finding industrial content marketing in [...] [ This is only a content summary. Please click on the headline to read the full article. Visit my website for more content on industrial marketing.] -
Content Creation vs. Content Marketing – There’s a Big Difference
11 Apr 2013 | 9:50 amUnless you’ve been living under a rock somewhere for the past couple of years, you’ve surely heard or read about the power and the popularity of content marketing by now. 91% [...] [ This is only a content summary. Please click on the headline to read the full article. Visit my website for more content on industrial marketing.] -
Guest Blogging: An Important Strategy of Industrial Marketing
1 Apr 2013 | 9:22 amI’m sure by now you’ve heard about all the great benefits of blogging as a cornerstone of your content marketing. However, one aspect of this industrial marketing strategy that doesn’t [...] [ This is only a content summary. Please click on the headline to read the full article. Visit my website for more content on industrial marketing.] -
Content Marketing Challenges for Industrial Distributors
18 Mar 2013 | 9:47 amIndustrial distributors face a unique set of challenges when it comes to content marketing. These companies have traditionally depended on the depth and breadth of their line cards to highlight [...] [ This is only a content summary. Please click on the headline to read the full article. Visit my website for more content on industrial marketing.]
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ContentLEAD
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SMBs must use analytics to fine tune their email marketing efforts
22 May 2013 | 6:30 amEmail content analytics show SMBs what media inspires transactions online. Related posts: No more Saturday snail mail: SMBs must embrace email marketing 80 percent of businesses want more targeted email marketing What do SMBs get out of Pinterest’s new analytics tool? -
Proof that social media marketing offers bottom-line benefits
21 May 2013 | 10:30 amSmall business owners must engage in social media to improve their overall content marketing performance. Related posts: Jamba Juice franchise boosts sales with social media marketing Why Pinterest marketing is primed for building real business contacts Study: More than half of businesses close sales from social media marketing -
Three new Pinterest features create marketing opportunities for SMBs
21 May 2013 | 9:07 amPinterest introduced three new ways to pin content to the network, all of which can help B2Bs and B2Cs drive engagement. Related posts: Pinterest to implement updates to improve search and discovery Want to make money from Pinterest? You better upload original social media content New Pinterest features keep SMBs connected with customers -
SMBs must be ‘customer-obsessed’ for content marketing success
20 May 2013 | 1:29 pmSMBs' must maintain customer focus when using content marketing strategies for growth and engagement. Related posts: 72 percent of companies say social media marketing helps customer loyalty Bing urges small businesses to invest in content marketing for SEO How SMBs can see SEO success with smarter content writing -
New Pinterest features keep SMBs connected with customers
20 May 2013 | 10:13 amSMBs should take advantage of new Pinterest features to increase customer engagement and conversion. Related posts: Consumers buy after seeing Pinterest content Life just got a little more visual, simple for SMBs using Pinterest content marketing Pinterest helps small business social marketing get ahead in reaching young females
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Phelps Blog
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Are we truly communicating?
21 May 2013 | 5:50 pmWe're all in the communications business. But how do we know if we're really communicating with each other? One of the most fundamental ways is acknowledgment. The nature of their work necessitates that law enforcement and the military grasp this concept. In fact, military protocol says that for true communication to happen, there must be: 1. communication sent2. communication received3. communication acknowledged This makes good sense in our daily lives, as well. When we receive a request from family, friend or business associate, best practice is an immediate response… -
Branding your online newsroom
21 May 2013 | 5:44 pmSmart brands are turning their online newsrooms into centralized news headquarters that include news stories, photos, videos, financial and organizational updates, social media feeds, blog content, reviews and media coverage. What was once a simple webpage with a chronological list of press releases is now a constantly evolving source of fresh, compelling content. TEKGROUP International, Inc.'s "2012 Online Newsroom Survey" results showed that 97 percent of journalists surveyed consider an online newsroom important. Journalists use online newsrooms as major sources of… -
Selling it in - the Steve Jobs way
21 May 2013 | 5:40 pmSteve Jobs had it right so many times and in so many different ways. I recently stumbled on yet another way his brilliance transcends his untimely death. Here are my five favorite rules the Oracle of Palo Alto followed when selling his ideas: Write a single sentence description for every idea. Concise enough to fit in a 140-character Twitter post? Now that's strong. Create a villain — a problem in need of a solution — that allows the audience to rally around the hero. Let that hero be you and your product/service. Stick to the rule of three. Divide the presentation… -
Reaching a re-emerging target audience - Meet H.E.N.R.Y
21 May 2013 | 5:39 pmA consumer demographic has re-emerged since the recession and, while they are small in numbers, they are strong in spending. Prepare to get reacquainted with HENRY. HENRY stands for "High Earners Not Rich Yet." Currently defined as those making $100-$250K, they encompass about 21 million households and represent 90 percent of affluent consumers, which in total account for more than 40 percent of all U.S. consumer spending. They are the "heavy lifters" when it comes to economic spending. Unity Marketing's "Annual State of the Luxury Market Report"… -
We got engaged! At Knowledge Tap, that is.
2 May 2013 | 12:48 pmSmart brands are grabbing consumers' attention in bold ways—from innovative 3D projection on landmark buildings and mannequins to rich, multi-screen experiences that enable viewers to dig deeper into the content they want, to apps that encourage users to explore and share music, ads and TV shows. Inspired brands have found a way to reach consumers using traditional media in non-traditional ways.This was the conversation held last Wednesday at our latest Knowledge Tap event – Let's Get Engaged. Industry experts Joshua Cohen, president & CEO of Pearl Media; Garrett Jamison,…
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HarrisonAmy
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CMS! Episode 6: Choosing Your Tone of Voice in Content Marketing
21 May 2013 | 12:22 amIt’s not what you say but the way that you say it right? Never is this more true than in content marketing. The tone of voice you choose in your blog posts, sales pages, or promotional reports can damage results if it doesn’t suit the style of your reader. Watch this week’s episode of Content Marketing… Stripped! to find out more. How do you talk to customers face-to-face? It’s easy to forget when you’re writing, that content marketing is a conversation with your customer. When working with clients who are struggling to find the right tone of voice I ask… -
10 Ways to Hook Blog Readers With Your Opening Line
17 May 2013 | 2:14 pmCan you take them down the rabbit hole with your writing? Want to grab your reader’s attention with the first line of your next blog post? Have them pause… forget their to-do list and get lost in your words? Then read this: The power of an opening line There’s plenty of copywriting advice out there on how to write an attention-grabbing headline, but once you’ve got that licked, it’s the first line that pulls your reader into the meat and potatoes of your article. And having something to help you write a gripping first line isn’t just for the benefit of your… -
How to Create a Rockstar eBook Worthy of Fame and Fortune
16 May 2013 | 3:54 pmAn eBook to wow crowds A few years ago when businesses realised that a good eBook could be sold online there was a lot of excitement. Tales of 5 figure launches, bazoodles of copies sold and overnight internet fame created quite a buzz. During that time I heard excited chatter in the hallways and corridors of the internet (hallways exist in the internet… you have to smash through a wall somewhere to find them – a bit like getting to Hogwarts) Just gather up a few blog posts, bundle them together and sell it as a $47 eBook. Shift 100 of them and you’ve made over $4,500 for a… -
CMS! Episode 5: How To Start A Conversation With Your Customer Using Content
14 May 2013 | 4:26 amIn today’s episode we look at how to start a conversation with your customer using content. If you think your content is scaring away customers too soon, watch the show below: Every time you publish content you are potentially starting a conversation with a future customer. But as we’ve seen in the video, making small talk can be tricky. If you don’t say anything relevant (or say anything at all) you’re never going to build a relationship. But if you push for the sale too soon, you might scare away potential customers. So you want to create content marketing materials… -
“Monkey Features!” Don’t Market to People Who Hate You…
10 May 2013 | 2:11 amI grew up in a tiny village, attending a small Church-of-England primary school. We were helpful to others, considerate and sensitive. At 11 we all moved up to ‘big school’. From 250 pupils to 1,600. And I learned a painful lesson: Ginger kids really stick out. October 18, 1994 Today was a bad day a boy pinched my bum and I was really embarrassed then some boys called me monkey features and that upsets me. Do I really look like a monkey? Maybe it’s just because of my hair though I think not For 7 years the taunts were relentless. I did envy friends who took the shortcut…
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Brafton
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American youth remind us Facebook matters most for social marketing
22 May 2013 | 6:40 amCertain businesses manufacture products specifically for younger demographics. Finding the right marketing channels to reach these prospects has become increasingly difficult with the array of new social networks, mobile devices and internet access points available to teens today. A recent survey from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, in conjunction with Harvard's Berkman Center, evaluated younger Americans' (12-17) social media habits. The findings will help brands develop effective social media marketing campaigns. Never doubt Facebook's dominance Unsurprisingly, 95 percent of… -
Penguin-phobia strikes fear of bad linking in marketers
21 May 2013 | 1:20 pmMarketers don't know the exact date of Google's Penguin algorithm update, but they are already preparing for it, according to BrightEdge's 2013 Search Marketer Survey. The first three versions (Penguin 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2) have been punishing sites with spammy link profiles since they were introduced last year, and the upcoming release is expected to have a major impact on marketers' SEO strategies in 2013 and beyond. To remain in good standings with Google's search crawlers, marketers are keeping close tabs on internal site links. The survey found 36 percent think it's much more important to… -
Bloggers defect from Tumblr to WordPress after buyout
21 May 2013 | 11:30 amMany people were surprised to find out that Yahoo acquired Tumblr, a site that was performing well with 900 posts per second and 300 million monthly active unique visitors. However, it appears that a number of individuals were also unhappy about the transaction. A post from WordPress' founder Matt Mullenweg reported an uptick in blog imports from Tumblr to WordPress, which he interprets more as validation of web content publishing's importance and less as a bad omen about the deal. On Sunday night, Mullenweg wrote that import rates between the two online content publishing sites spiked. -
Brafton to answer your content marketing questions at IRCE 2013
21 May 2013 | 10:30 amBrafton will attend the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition at McCormick Place West in Chicago on June 4-6. The event draws a highly engaged internet marketing audience and features some of the industry's brightest minds. Visit Brafton at booth #531 to speak with one of our business development executives about how content marketing can drive qualified search traffic back to ecommerce hubs and increase conversions. IRCE presents keynotes from Al Gore, 45th vice president of the United States; Hiroshi Mikitani, chairman and CEO of Rakuten and Mindy Grossman, chief executive officer… -
What social marketing strategies do B2Bs use? What about B2Cs? [data]
21 May 2013 | 9:30 amSocial content has become a linchpin for B2B and B2C marketing success. Nearly all (97 percent) of marketers have already integrated social media into their content marketing strategies, and 86 percent say their efforts are important to their businesses, according to the 2013 Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Social Media Examiner. When social media first hit the scene, critics might have not believed it was worthwhile to market on free networks. That perception is changing as more participants recognize that promotional efforts on Facebook and Twitter impact their bottom lines.
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Content Writing Blog: Content Gyan
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Why you can’t ignore content marketing as an SEO expert
15 May 2013 | 10:32 pmThe title of this blog post comes with a touch of irony. I address you as an SEO expert and then I try to explain why you cannot ignore content marketing. But it is not a complete irony – I still come across well-meaning SEO professionals who think that content is important, but it is optional and good search engine rankings don’t necessarily depend on good content. So this blog post is for them. You may also like to read Why SEO companies are putting more stress on content writing?. What exactly is SEO? Is it merely getting good search engine rankings? I remember once a client came… -
Link building with content writing
6 May 2013 | 9:47 amLink building got quite a beating after the first Google Penguin update but it is still considered one of the most effective ways of improving your search engine rankings, especially when it is hinged upon quality content writing and well-meaning content marketing. Why do you need link building? In case you have been living inside a cave (nothing wrong or extraordinary about that) Google uses incoming links to your website in order to rank it. The more high-quality incoming links your website or blog has accumulated, the higher are going to be it’s search engine rankings. It’s… -
7 advantages of having a business blog
23 Apr 2013 | 2:32 amAre you still wondering what are the advantages of having a business blog? You may find yourself facing this question especially when you’re planning to invest time and money in this particular aspect of your online marketing effort and just like any other function of the business, you have to decide what are the advantages and disadvantages of having a business blog. The advent of social media has definitely disillusioned some people. Many have started claiming from the rooftops that the days of blogging are numbered. They actually don’t understand blogging. You see, blogging was… -
Does SEO content writing improve your search engine rankings?
19 Apr 2013 | 10:20 amHow is SEO content writing different from regular content writing? Does it matter that you pay attention to how you are arranging content on your web pages and blog posts in order to improve your search engine rankings? Right now it does, in the future, things may improve and perhaps the search engines will be able to rank URLs according to their actual value rather than the words being used. The fundamental challenge of content writing, especially on the Internet, is, striking a balance between meaningfulness of the content and SEO. Frankly, there is no escape from paying attention to the… -
Inbound marketing with content writing
16 Apr 2013 | 10:48 amContent writing and inbound marketing are interrelated. Not much explanation is needed for the former term, but the latter may require some explaining. Inbound marketing is the opposite of outbound marketing (you may also call it conventional marketing). We live in an interconnected world. This connection is not through businesses, companies and organizations, it is through the people. Of course these people use platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus or blogging to share their thoughts and opinions, but at the crux of everything that goes on, it is the people-centric conversations…
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Content for Biz Blog
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The Buzz About Content Marketing
17 May 2013 | 4:18 pmThe Buzz About Content Marketing from jmariecostin -
Can Content Bring More Parts & Service Business?
14 May 2013 | 9:16 amIn preparation for this week’s AEM Marketing Council Meeting focused on CONEXPO-CON/AGG, I’ve... -
Trade Show Content Marketing Ideas That Work
13 May 2013 | 10:45 amTrade shows attract quality audiences with one in every two attendees planning to buy during the... -
Is Your Content Animal, Vegetable or Mineral?
7 May 2013 | 6:24 amSome companies value their content as much as the products they sell. As a service content can... -
Does Your Content Travel Well Across Channels?
11 Apr 2013 | 7:05 amThink of a well-packed suitcase. The size limits its capability, but not its function. Constraints...
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Content Strategy Hub
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Six Ways Accountants Can Use Content To Boost Their Bottom Line
17 May 2013 | 10:03 amAs a former accountant I recognized that there is a knowledge gap in the marketplace. After getting a Master’s degree in accounting from one of the highest rated programs in the country, I realized I knew plenty about accounting but close to nothing in terms of marketing. That is obviously a problem for anyone trying to start their own business. Because every business is in the business of marketing. Self-employed accountants aren’t in the business of accounting…they are in the business of marketing their services. Making the problem worse, accountants are often put into a… -
Value Proposition Testing: Optimize Through Email in 5 Easy Steps
13 May 2013 | 10:36 amCrafting a value proposition that speaks to your target audience can make a world of difference. People have wants and needs. And if you can explicitly address those wants and needs in your value proposition, you are much more likely to get more leads, and in turn more customers. But how do you craft a successful value proposition? You can address features, value branding. There are so many choices. But just assuming which part of the offer you should address can get you into a whole lot of trouble. In today’s post, I want to share with you a video from MECLAB’s Marketing… -
Weekly Roundup: Marketing Goodies & Tools to Simplify Your Life
28 Apr 2013 | 10:41 amThere is a lot of content on the net. It can be pretty difficult to sort through it all and figure out what’s worth spending your time on. I’ve written about content curation in the past, and decided to put curation into action by starting a weekly roundup post. This is the first one. Maybe the first of a weekly series. We’ll see if you like it . If you came across something awesome this week that you don’t see here (which is very likely) feel free to share it in the comments below. Cool New Tools Added to the Toolbox: The first thing I want to start with this week… -
Business Productivity: The Business Demon Lurking Over Your Shoulder
23 Apr 2013 | 10:14 amThis is a business demon A lot of people jump into business after reading “The 4-Hour Workweek” and assume that it’s all going to be roses and butterflies; sipping umbrella drinks while lounging around on the beach (or riding a horse?) while your money rolls in. Of course, if you actually read the book (shocker!) you’ll find that there is actually some work to be done. The book itself is great and has tons of lessons. The problem is that this “business is easy” myth is perpetuated by the unfortunate spread of online scams like the Empower Network (yes,… -
Target Audience Examples: Three Commercials That Have it Figured Out
18 Apr 2013 | 11:09 amOne of the first steps that are mentioned for any effective marketing plan is figuring out your target audience; the people you want to deliver your message to. On the face of it, that seems like a very simple thing to do. But it turns out that when you try to put it into practice it becomes a bit more challenging. Different people learn in different ways. But I personally like to see examples. And I know that there are other people that feel the same way. When you see examples of things being put into practice, its easier to visualize what you have to do yourself. So today I compiled three…
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B2B Digital Marketing
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When Marketing Automation Is the Wrong Solution
21 May 2013 | 4:28 amYou wouldn’t jump in your car to go from the living room to the kitchen or pull out the chainsaw to cut a stick of butter. Just because it is a more more powerful solution doesn’t mean it is necessary or advisable. Marketing automation is quickly becoming like the self-driving car for B2B marketing. Led by Eloqua (now part of Oracle) and Marketo (with a very successful IPO last week), today marketing automation companies are collectively worth billions. But like the self-driving car, just because you can doesn’t mean you should. When Marketing Automation Is Unnecessary Like… -
6 B2B Marketing Mistakes That Are Easy To Make
16 May 2013 | 4:15 amThe hardest mistakes to avoid are the ones that don’t look like mistakes at all. Last week we shared 5 B2B marketing mistakes that are hard to avoid, and asked for your contributions to complete the list. Below are six more mistakes, including your contributions, that are deceptively easy to make in B2B marketing. 1. Assuming Your Audience is Just Like You Mistake contributed by Dara Schulenberg and Traci Browne They aren’t. Study your audience, talk to them, ask them questions, strive to understand them. Then test marketing that is created for your audience, not for you. If you… -
B2B Marketing: Moving Beyond Campaigns
14 May 2013 | 4:15 amIs your B2B marketing activity still built around a series of campaigns? Q1: Security Q2: Cloud and Mobile Q3: Lower Cost Q4: Compliance Like an old Model T, it might look nice, but it just isn’t practical anymore. What if someone is looking for a solution to improve compliance, but its only Q1? Should they wait until you roll our your compliance campaign? Of course not! Today, B2B marketing must always be on. Your prospects’ needs don’t map to your quarterly communications plan. Consider the following statistics: 57% of the buying process happens before a buyer contacts… -
15 People Every B2B Marketer Should Follow On Twitter
9 May 2013 | 4:26 amAs a B2B marketer, it is easy to find people to follow on Twitter, right? Big names in B2B marketing, content marketing and social media seem to be everywhere. But what about those hidden gems, the people that don’t post frequently, will still have a conversation and don’t seem to always share the same thing or spout the same idea? They will add the variety and perspective your Twitter stream just may be missing. Here are 15 hidden gems B2B marketers should be following. They cross a range of topics, but all focus on B2B directly or add perspectives I’ve consistently found… -
5 B2B Marketing Mistakes That Are Hard To Avoid
7 May 2013 | 12:25 amThe hardest mistakes to avoid are the ones that initially look like the right decision. We all make mistakes. Sometimes you can see them coming, other times you only see them in hindsight unless you already know what to look for. What mistakes should you see coming? Here are five mistakes that often don’t look like mistakes until after all is said and done, pulling from my own (regrettable) experiences. 1. Chasing Random Acts of Marketing It should be easy to avoid a random act of marketing but it is extremely difficult to pass up a great marketing opportunity. Sometimes telling the…
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Right Mix Marketing Blog
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The Most Social Companies (in the Least Social Industries) #Infographic
19 May 2013 | 9:15 pmOne of the things I tell potential clients is that being social (e.g. actively using social media) in industries that are typically viewed as less of a fit for social media can be a great way to stand out, to show thought leadership and to reach new audiences (or your existing audience in new ways). For example, Indium corporation has been a great example of a company that embraces blogging and social media – and they’re in the solder paste business! An example of a company that I feel is doing a great job of social media and content in the B2B software space is SAP. You can see… -
Restaurant Marketing Trends 2013
14 May 2013 | 2:33 pmRestaurants are right at the nexus of several key marketing trends. They are all about being social (unless you like to dine alone), they’re local businesses (it’s hard to ship a hamburger), and their customers are passionate about food and love to talk about it. They love to take pictures of their meals and they love to post reviews online. Also, people quite often will find restaurants while on the go – so mobile becomes very, very important. Now, understanding the context, what are the trends for restaurant marketing in 2013? 72% trust online reviews over other sources… -
Don’t I Know You From Twitter? Taking Your Online Relationships Offline
6 May 2013 | 4:39 pmGuest post by Linda Dessau (see also #1:”How Business Blogging Can Build Credibility Offline” and #3: Taking You Local Networking Contacts Online) When I moved from Toronto to Barrie in 2010, I didn’t know a soul. Yet I never felt alone, because I’d gotten a head start on building a business community here. I used a Twitter directory to identify local business owners with related services, who were also active on Twitter (another thing we would have in common). I put them all into a private Twitter list and used Hootsuite to keep them front and center in my attention. (Today I… -
Can You Measure Content Marketing & Social Media ROI?
2 May 2013 | 11:20 pmGuest post by Michael Higashi The catch phrase of 2013 seems to be “Big Data” – the concept of how massive amounts of strategic data collection (can you say “google”), analysis and targeting can generate huge ROI for businesses. I’ve written how I believe technology for marketers has finally caught up (technology-wise and cost-effectiveness) to where “lazy marketing” is no longer a valid excuse. Do you know which of your marketing channels are bringing in the most customers? In today’s multi-channel world, it can be tough to tell. -
5 Traits of a Successful Local Business Blog
1 May 2013 | 10:41 pmGuest post by Jeff Machado When people ask me the No. 1 change they should make to their website, I always the same thing: add a blog and update it often. But, the reality is starting a blog for your local business comes with unique challenges that can prevent you from gaining the momentum you need for your blog take off. When done right, though, your blog can help you build an audience in your community and generate qualified leads for your business. Here are the traits you want to focus on in your local blog to help you get there. 1. Educational and Informative Too much emphasis on your…
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The Integrated Marketing Blog from D Custom
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You might be wasting your time developing a mobile app
21 May 2013 | 6:30 am“Look for our ad on TV!” is to the ‘70s what “download our mobile app” is to this decade. The television ads you were supposed to watch for were usually annoying and self-serving, and unfortunately, many mobile apps today suffer the same fate. Thousands of companies have spent a lot of money to develop mobile apps that effectively serve little to no purpose. The problem lies in the fact that the same laws that govern traditional marketing hold sway in the mobile world as well. The post You might be wasting your time developing a mobile app appeared first on D Custom. -
Friday Five: the NBA’s new social media awards
17 May 2013 | 11:43 amRead about the NBA's latest social media campaign, plus the viral backlash against Abercrombie & Fitch's CEO, Oreo's new animated campaign, an app that lets you boycott manufacturers you don't support, and how Carnival used Spotify to connect with millenials in this week's Friday Five. The post Friday Five: the NBA’s new social media awards appeared first on D Custom. -
Add to your content strategy through cause marketing
16 May 2013 | 8:20 amBrands like Nike, Dove, Chipotle, and Aeropostale are partnering with nonprofits to harness the power of cause marketing. Research shows people are more likely to support brands with a purpose. Cause marketing can help or hurt your brand, depending on how effectively it’s used. There’s a right way and a wrong way to support a cause and increase brand loyalty in the process. Here are some dos and don’ts for your marketing team to help you utilize cause marketing as a part of your overall content marketing strategy.The post Add to your content strategy through cause marketing appeared… -
Friday Five: YouTube launches paid channels
10 May 2013 | 7:55 amRead about YouTube’s new paid channels, plus the rise of brand storytelling, how to improve your webinar hosting skills, the importance of testing in content marketing, and how brands celebrated Star Wars Day in this week’s Friday Five. The post Friday Five: YouTube launches paid channels appeared first on D Custom. -
What our interns learned about content marketing
9 May 2013 | 9:53 amWe had a pretty amazing group of interns this spring. From blogging, editing, and social media to brainstorming, designing, and researching, they’ve pitched in on pretty much everything that we do at D Custom. They were a font of enthusiasm and fresh ideas, and they contributed some great content. Some of them are moving on to [...]The post What our interns learned about content marketing appeared first on D Custom.
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Marketing Technology for Growth
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Want to Increase Website Conversion? Fix These 5 Areas
20 May 2013 | 10:43 amEver been told your website is all flash and no cash? If so, you’re probably sitting on a high-octane brochure website that has little else to offer. Somewhere down the line you forgot to create a coherent site structure or any form of rational organization; site visitors don’t know where to start. What about interoperability and interactivity? Come on, the experience is bad enough on PCs; mobile users don’t stand a chance. Social share buttons? Those are for companies that have content to share. Forget about on-site analytics; you’re not even sure anyone is visiting your site. If… -
Inbound Marketing: A Salesperson's Perspective
17 May 2013 | 10:52 amWednesday night is volleyball night for this guy, and like many people in their mid-20s in a new city, my team consists of people in the same work field, in my case salespeople. After our domination (or lack thereof) on the court, we started discussing the things salespeople talk about: prospecting, leads, how much we hate cold calling, etc. While talking about what my company does with my new teammate, Ben, we started in on a long conversation about inbound marketing and what it means to a salesperson. Here are the benefits I outlined for Ben… There’s a Way to Limit COLD CALLS!? I joked… -
Why I’ve Got My Head Stuck in the Google Cloud
14 May 2013 | 4:02 am“Life gets a bit easier when your Google products work well together…” I couldn’t have said it better myself. In truth, I didn’t say it at all; this gem was plucked from a recent post on Google’s Official Gmail Blog announcing the company’s latest integration, this time of its heretofore disconnected free data storage offerings, Google+, Drive, and Gmail. For me, the Google post served as a reminder of three stark truths: 1) the gang from Mountain View is rolling out new products and services faster than I am loosing hair fibers (which is pretty fast), 2) these products and… -
The Best Branded Content of the Week: May 12, 2013
12 May 2013 | 5:49 amSome very cool branded content popped up this week from a few unexpected sources. Not only is this content unique and original, it is coming from companies new to the branded content game. It just goes to show that creative content marketing can be beneficial for just about every business. Puma — Dance Dictionary To promote the launch of its new fragrance, Puma has created a “Dance Dictonary” that encrypts words into dance moves. Visitors to the special Dance Dictonary microsite are invited to create messages that are then converted into unique dance moves and edited together to… -
YouTube Paid Channels: What Do They Mean For Your Brand? - #MarketingTechMin
10 May 2013 | 4:24 amYesterday, YouTube introduced a pilot program called YouTube Paid Channels. So far, about 50 paid channels have the ability to charge viewers for a subscription and there are plans to expand this to more partner channels in the future. Not surprisingly, there has been a great deal of uproar online following the announcement. It is definitely clear that not everyone is happy about the idea of paying for online video. This week, Spencer and Jacey discuss YouTube's new business model and the potential implications it could have for your brand. If you find their insight useful, be sure to tune in…
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Legal Internet Marketing Blog
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Even Google+ Needs a Redesign
16 May 2013 | 10:07 amIf you’re in the Internet marketing business or run your own company’s online campaign, you’ve probably heard about the 6th annual Google I/O conference in San Francisco that began yesterday and will last until May 17. Mainly targeted for software programmers, the developer conference has raised eyebrows and drawn the attention of many. One of the biggest highlights so far is the Google+ redesign. If you’ve ever felt like a website redesign wasn’t worth your time or money, think again. If Google launches a redesign of its social platform, it shows us that there is always room for… -
Hit by a Google Panda Update and Don’t Know Why? The Answer Might be in Your Content
15 May 2013 | 9:00 amContrary to what you might think, Google’s ultimate goal isn’t to sabotage your website’s search engine rankings. What makes Google the powerhouse that it is rests in its desire for webmasters to create the best user experience possible. All of the recent and up-and-coming algorithm updates are structured with this objective in mind. You have to remember that Google provides a service to the public. Whatever terms we enter into search, we expect to quickly and easily find the information that fits without having to do a lot of sifting through irrelevant or poorly written material. While… -
6 Tips on How to Blog When There’s No Time
13 May 2013 | 9:00 amWhether you’re a lawyer, mom, or SEO, or all of the above!, we all face the same problem – we have no time. Or at least, this is how most of us see it. If you love doing something, shouldn’t you make the time for it? I know, easier said than done. What about blogging? If you love to write, writer’s block still happens, and you may not have the time to sit at your computer for hours on end waiting for the words to come. If you hate to write, blogging can be that much harder. However, not being a writer or hating to write are not excuses for neglecting to blog if you run a business. If… -
Creativity and Online Content for Marketing, Not as Different as You Think
9 May 2013 | 2:04 pmFor many, the process of continually writing online content for a marketing campaign can be a draining task. While creating new content that has not been on a site before, or hopefully on any other site, is vital, a writer may feel like he or she is running out of topics or creative juices. If this is happening to you, do not be afraid, you are not alone. However, do not let yourself simply accept the idea of running out of creativity or topics. This will lead to monotony, which in turn leads to bad writing, which can negatively impact the strength of a marketing campaign. But what can you do… -
Link Building: The Common Denominator of SEO
30 Apr 2013 | 2:33 pmLinks seem to be the one thing that everyone wants to get their hands on. There are many misconceptions surrounding link building methods, so how do you know which way is best? No matter what tactics you’ve heard, relevant content is necessary to keep the common denominator of SEO alive. You also have to network and do your research. All of these factors cannot be rushed or fabricated. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news…but it’s actually good news! Patience is a Virtue, Blah Blah Blah The crackdown on spam-like linking and poor quality SEO can actually help your site rank better by…
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OpenView Blog » Kevin Cain
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Pump Up the Volume: What’s Your Content Promotion Strategy?
13 May 2013 | 2:33 pmIf you’ve ever taken the time to create a high-quality piece of B2B content, then you know that there’s nothing more frustrating than when it doesn’t get properly promoted. I mean, what’s the point of creating great content that never gets consumed? And yet, effective content promotion seems to be a recurring challenge plaguing many of the content marketers I talk to. They put huge amounts of effort into publishing informative eBooks, visually stunning infographics, and compelling reports, but then for some reason drop the ball when it comes to promoting their content… -
How to Make Everyone Part of Your Content Marketing Team
29 Apr 2013 | 2:33 pmPsst… want to know a secret? You don’t need to hire dozens of writers and editors to be successful at content marketing! In fact, here at OpenView, our content marketing team consists of just three people — not a heck of a lot considering the considerable volume of blog posts, eBooks, articles, and more that our in-house content factory produces. If you’ve read my blog before, you know that in the past I’ve described the different roles that you could need on a content marketing team, and hopefully you’re duly aware of the importance of hiring a managing editor. You may also… -
Is Customer Segmentation the Key to Your B2B Website’s Success?
15 Apr 2013 | 11:45 amThere are many factors that determine how successful a website is, such as its navigation, searchability, and design. For B2B businesses, another make-or-break factor is whether or not their sites are set up for customer segmentation. In other words, those sites need to encourage visitors to self-select into specific groups based on who they are and/or what challenges they face. Doing so will allow you to direct visitors to targeted content that has the greatest chance of resonating with them. Follow the advice outlined below, and your website will have greater impact by leveraging the… -
Do Your B2B Communications Drive Business… or Belong in the Toilet?
8 Apr 2013 | 1:35 pmUnlike modern art, B2B communications are pretty cut and dry. Whereas artists will always find ways to argue the virtues of a hanging a toilet bowl in a museum (I’m looking at you Marcel Duchamp, because for the life of me I can’t figure out why “The Fountain,” pictured here, is so widely heralded as an icon of twentieth-century art), when it comes to B2B communications there’s far less room for debate. Sure, we can all evaluate the merits of someone’s writing, but to be successful, B2B communications need to do a lot more than just read well. They also need to help you achieve… -
Staffing Up: Who’s Going to Run Your Content Factory?
2 Apr 2013 | 6:12 amIf you think building a content factory is as simple as hiring a writer to crank out a series of articles or eBooks, you’ve got another thing coming. The truth is that it takes a diverse team of talented professionals to produce the kind of high-quality content that will help drive your business forward. Admittedly, that’s not exactly what resource-constrained CEOs want to hear. After all, adding a bunch of new employees to your payroll is almost always going to be a tough sell. The good news, however, is that you don’t actually have to hire a big team. Most expansion-stage…
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Content Equals Money
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6 Ways to Jumpstart Your Marketing Now
22 May 2013 | 5:00 amMarketing can involve a lot of waiting around: waiting for collaborators to add their touches to ads, waiting for your writers to turn over completed copy, waiting to collect data about your previous efforts. Let’s take a look at some of the ways that businesses can easily add to their marketing strategy in an instant. Expand Your Social Sometimes, it seems like there’s a new way to interact with customers on social networks every other day, yet most businesses tend to stick to the ones we know and love. Stay abreast of new social media revolutions, and create new profiles on some of the… -
Mobile Apps vs. Google: Google Still Comes Out On Top
21 May 2013 | 11:00 amIn the last 5 years, mobile has grown into a highly competitive market that compels businesses that want to thrive to develop elaborate mobile-specific strategies. With more than a billion mobile users, mobile is absolutely pervasive in modern society. A recent article in the New York Times caught my attention due to its surprising suggestion that the rise of mobile and particularly mobile apps poses a danger to the utter dominance of Google. Especially within the SEO community, we all recognize the clout of Google. With around two-thirds of the search market under its control, Google is… -
Anthropologie: Small Business Branding Lessons From a Major Brand
21 May 2013 | 5:00 amWalk through just about any mall in Knoxville, Tennessee, Kalamazoo, Michigan, or Spokane, Washington, and you’ll hardly know you ever moved across the country. Gap. Starbucks. Apple. From the lighting and display to the merchandise and employee uniforms, everything is exactly the same. Herein lies the charm of Anthropologie, a clothing and home goods retailer that has completely turned its back on the mass-experience approach most retailers have chosen. Anthropologie, owned by Urban Outfitters, Inc., isn’t a small company. However, they use many business-branding techniques that can work… -
Interview With CrowdCases: How Designers Can Change the World
20 May 2013 | 2:00 pmEarlier this month I wrote a blog post about non-profit branding, focusing on charity: water specifically. The post happened to catch the eye of social entrepreneur Dwight Peters. Dwight is the founder of CrowdCases, an innovative, brand new startup that’s changing the world with graphic designers and their art. His business model brings together crowdsourcing, charitable causes, and art in a completely new way… How It Works Every Sunday, CrowdCases selects a social cause and issues a design challenge. Graphic designers have the week to create a design for an iPhone and Samsung Galaxy… -
Rumor Mill Was Right: Yahoo to Buy Tumblr for $1.1 Billion in Cash
20 May 2013 | 10:14 amAcquisitions by big tech companies is always an enjoyable subject to read and talk about. I still remember all of the talk about Facebook’s purchase of Instagram back in April of last year. There is plenty to talk about when covering acquisitions in terms of strategy, but it’s also interesting to discuss whether the investment will pay off. It has been confirmed now that Yahoo will buy Tumblr for $1 billion. $1 Billion for Blogs Ten years ago Google paid an undisclosed amount of money for Pyra Labs’ Blogger. Today, Yahoo is spending $1.1 billion in cash for another popular…
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Velocity Partners
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Like code for “I give a shit”
17 May 2013 | 5:11 amOnline no one can tell if you sweep the shop floor. How do you show you give a shit? -
No you can’t guest blog on our site
16 May 2013 | 1:21 amDear anonymous link-builder, no you can't guest blog on our site. Because you are lazy, stupid and dishonest. -
Content marketing: get the Innovator’s Dividend
13 May 2013 | 1:49 amDoing new things in content marketing gets you the Innovator's Dividend. Here's why you want it and how to get it. -
The Content Marketer’s Progress: Surviving the Slough of Despond
9 May 2013 | 7:33 amEvery great content journey must find a way to keep best practice methods intact. -
The Future of Content Marketing: Five Beyonds
7 May 2013 | 8:50 amWhere is content marketing going? Doug took a shot at answering this at the B2B Huddle last week. Slides here.
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Video Maker Tips
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Spotlight: Last-Bench! Uses GoAnimate For Business To Come In First With Learners
22 May 2013 | 5:30 amScreen shot from “Homogeneous” lesson. Welcome to our newest section on Video Maker Tips: Spotlight! Occasionally we’ll feature guest posts from real GoAnimate and GoAnimate for Business users who are using our product in an interesting way, as well as highlight industry experts and their use of online video. Next up is a post by Sajid Chougle of Last-Bench! Find out how he and his team use GoAnimate for Business for their educational company here: At Last-Bench!, our goal is to promote and achieve PRACTICAL LEARNING by integrating formal education with quality… -
Press And Mentions: 5 Affordable Tools To Make Videos For Your Business
16 May 2013 | 5:30 amImage via Olinda Services Welcome to our Press And Mentions section, where we’ll show off some of our favorite mentions from around the web that feature GoAnimate for Business and our popular consumer site, GoAnimate.com, out in the wild! In today’s post, we want to show off a nice mention in a post on Onlinda Services’ blog. Read a snippet here: Creating 3D animation videos with maximum effectiveness and minimum effort is a delight with GoAnimate. Cartoon and animation advertisements work wonders for marketing and this tool makes it all the more efficient. The… -
Press And Mentions: Case Study: Marketing Agency Increases Leads 40% With GoAnimate Video
9 May 2013 | 5:00 amWelcome to our Press And Mentions section, where we’ll show off some of our favorite mentions from around the web that feature GoAnimate for Business and our popular consumer site, GoAnimate.com, out in the wild! In today’s post, we want to show off one of our favorite case studies that got picked up by .bizMarketing Magazine. This article is now live on their digital magazine. Read a snippet here: He reports that over the two-month period after Greystack posted the video, its website traffic rose 250 percent. Furthermore, according to Troia, Greystack’s leads have increased… -
Press And Mentions: Textual Animations
2 May 2013 | 2:34 pmImage vie e-Learning Stuff Welcome to our Press And Mentions section, where we’ll show off some of our favorite mentions from around the web that feature GoAnimate for Business and our popular consumer site, GoAnimate.com, out in the wild! For today’s post, we want to show off a great mention by James Clay on his blog, e-Learning Stuff. Read a snippet here: “I sometimes find that though I like a particular tool or service, finding a way to allow access for all our staff and learners, on the assumption that only a few would actually use it to begin with, is quite… -
The 10 Most Useful Email Marketing Software Products
29 Apr 2013 | 2:13 pmEmail image by Shutterstock. Email marketing is one of the most powerful tools in any marketer’s arsenal. Think about it. Your email list is invaluable – a database of customers or subscribers is a goldmine. Done right, sending your users valuable and targeted messages will result in higher conversion and engagement rates. Aside from company newsletters, updates, and special deals, what else can you offer your mailing list? Start by thinking about your touchpoints. When do users interact with your products or services, and how can you capitalize on those interactions? There are…
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Content Row
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3 Steps to Creating a Google+ Authorship Photo to Enhance Search Results
22 May 2013 | 5:35 amInternet marketing wizards are always looking for a magic bullet (or a whole clip of bullets) that will lead to an increase in free traffic. Most of the low-hanging fruit that Internet marketers have chased over the years, however, have been plucked away by the long, strong arm of Google. Link-farming worked for longer than it should have; meanwhile, some marketers still haven’t gotten the memo that keyword stuffing is also an obsolete tactic. The majority of decent marketers these days know that it’s a combination of killer content, savvy social media, and legitimate… -
Keep Old Content Relevant for New Traffic
11 Feb 2013 | 10:38 amYour content may be old, but it still has something going for it. Organizations often suffer from myopia when it comes to content. They write a piece, publish it, forget about it, and continue onto the next article repeating the same process, all the while forgetting about posts already written. Those posts are sitting there, completed, ready to do their job entertaining and informing your readers. But they are sitting there, forgotten. Think about all that content you have sitting around suffering from this middle child syndrome, jealous that your attention is only on its newest siblings. In… -
Why Infographics Make Great Content [Infographic]
6 Nov 2012 | 7:05 amAn infographic from Neo Mammalian Studios, an infographic creation agency, attempts to explain how visualizations affect that way that we perceive and understand data. The meta-infographic uses research from a variety of sources, including Google Analytics, to show the apparent value of visuals. Neo Mammalian Studios notes that 99 percent of all sensory information is filtered out by the brain almost instantly due to the sheer volume of information that we process every day — about the equivalent of 174 newspapers for a typical Internet user. This means that only 1 percent of… -
Why Great SEO Content Doesn’t Need to Be SEO’d
14 Sep 2012 | 3:01 pmIf you’ve owned or managed a website any time in the last decade, you’re probably already familiar with the basic concepts of search engine optimization. SEO is an established set of techniques that aim to improve your website’s search engine ranking. In the past, a website with highly optimized content could easily rise to the top of Google or Yahoo! by tricking search engine spiders. Some of the most common SEO content techniques included: Keyword Spamming – This is one of the most common SEO content techniques and involves repeating a certain keyword or phrase a… -
Positive Content Has a Better Chance of Going Viral, Study Says
6 Aug 2012 | 6:15 pmStop being such a Debbie Downer if you want your content to go viral. A paper by University of Pennsylvania Wharton School professors Jonah Berger and Katherine L. Milkman indicates that web content is more likely to go viral if it creates a positive response in readers. People share media for a number of reasons, including altruism, a need to appear helpful or knowledgeable, and social transmission. Social transmission essentially encompasses everything that people do to relate with one another, build relationships and ease tension. In a survey cited in the study, nearly 60 percent of…
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The Wikipedia Marketing Blog
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3 Keys to Successful Content Marketing on Wikipedia
20 May 2013 | 4:25 amThis blog was first published on SocialFresh. Offering content to Wikipedia's editorial community is different than traditional content marketing. The content is rule-bound. The editors are thorough. And we must produce neutral content about the company, rather than a thought-leadership subject. Some companies have such strong opinions about themselves and certain controversies they are involved in, it can be an emotional process to write neutrally on it. Recently I've seen many public relations professionals following the best practices established by Chartered Institute of Public Relations,… -
Five Lessons from British Petroleum's Wikipedia Debacle
24 Mar 2013 | 4:01 pmWikipedia's content on the Prudhoe Bay (depcited above) oil spill was written by British Petroleum This time it's British Petroleum who is at the center of media controversy for their participation on Wikipedia. BP's corporate communications team has been participating on the Talk page of BP-related articles for about a year, but Wikipedia's editors grew uncomfortable when entire rewrites of content written by BP regarding their environmental record were copied and pasted into the article by volunteers. BP followed Wikipedia's policies… -
6 Ways For PR Firms To Ask For A Correction On Wikipedia
18 Mar 2013 | 6:55 amThis post was first published on SocialFresh. Qorvis recently joined the ranks of PR firms like Bell Pottinger, Portland Communications and Finsbury that stand accused of manipulating Wikipedia entries for their clients. Something that stood out from the summary at The Daily Dot was that Qorvis is defending their actions with a familiar tune - accusing Wikipedia of not providing reasonable processes to correct errors and have their clients' reputations treated fairly. That inspired me to write this post on six ways to correct errors, address bias or contest content ethically and safely as a… -
Why so ashamed? Doing PR on Wikipedia you can be proud of
28 Feb 2013 | 10:22 amWhen was the last time you saw a Wikipedia component included in a marketing case study or award nomination? Public relations professionals are eager to brag about our work, but apparently not about what we do on Wikipedia. At a recent American Marketing Association conference on social media, I asked the panel of speakers what their company's policy was on Wikipedia. The panel had been pulled together at the last-minute. They were those eager for the publicity, on the edge of their seat, microphone in-hand. One speaker was so bold as to discuss a client's CEO that started following XXX… -
Wikipedia organizes to respond to public relations editing
3 Feb 2013 | 10:22 amSome red tape can be a good thing.82,000 82,000 Euros have been awarded for a project led by the German Wikipedia community to figure out the best way to handle "paid editing." That's the term used by Wikipedians to describe editors paid by a client or employer, such as public relations participants. Historically, the German Wikipedia has been known to establish precedence for other language Wikis, so this may lead to global progress in the relationship between the PR and Wikipedia communities. The project aims to create more consistent and clear guidelines for ethical participation by…
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Function Writing Group
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Part 2: How Freelance Copywriters Meet, Greet & Monetize in 6 Months
15 May 2013 | 5:00 amThere’s no point in me lying to you at this point, right? Right. Becoming a freelance copywriter is about much more than just making the decision to switch to a freelance lifestyle and reading online resources – one needs friends in order to start getting paid. If I wanted to lie, I’d tell you that once you take a few online courses, say from Hubspot or Copyblogger, that a surging mass of zombie-like clientele will storm the door to your downtown exposed brick-laden shared workspace. This is part 2 of a two-part mini-series. Here’s part 1: How to be a Paid Freelance… -
(Part 1) How to be a Paid Freelance Copywriter in 6 Months
2 May 2013 | 10:30 amGetting paid to be a freelance copywriter is a wonderful gig: you get exclusive access to great parties your own bathroom, no one steals your sandwiches out of the fridge, and best of all, you don’t have to wear pants. Like, ever. This is the first in a two-part mini-series for people who want simple, tangible steps to becoming a paid writer. Alright, honestly, being a freelance copywriter isn’t ALL champagne and silk toilet paper all the time. What it is, however, is a rewarding, creative and interesting job that encourages daily personal development and life-long learning. I… -
How to Write Radical Headlines Without Even Trying
17 Apr 2013 | 1:14 pmIf you’re anything like me, you’ve gone through the five clinical stages of grief when trying to decide on an appropriate headline for an article, blog post or obituary: This is the greatest headline ever! OH GOD CRIPPLING DOUBT This headline accurately and scientifically introduces the subject of my piece. This headline is so boring, no one will read my article, I need to quit writing, pass the ice-cream How do I write a better headline that encourages new and existing traffic to read my post? Look, we all know that headlines are the most important element to getting your posts… -
5 Reasons Why Blogging Ain’t Pointless
10 Apr 2013 | 6:00 amWe’ve talked a lot about blogging as a specific content marketing tool over the last month or so, and much of our conversation has revolved around the power of copywriting and other creative forms of content as a means of flexing your technical chops. However, it’s time for a little honesty. I’m Busy, Therefore Blogging Is Pointless Content creators all arrive at this conclusion from time to time. We ditch blogging and marketing ourselves for a myriad of legitimate reasons, such as: Our families demand attention. We outgrow the need to talk about ourselves on the internet. -
How to Write Useful Blog Posts (That Don’t Overwhelm Your Audience)
4 Apr 2013 | 5:00 am1. Get to the Point People crave instant knowledge. No one really wants to read a long, drawn-out introduction about the point of your blog post. That’s what your headline is for. Sure, there are occasions where it’s fun hilarious strategic to flex your copywriting muscles in order to build a story around your post, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. What will happen if I ignore this rule? Readers will get bored and your post won’t get read. We want to inject a healthy blast of useful knowledge straight into our readers’ veins without messing…
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Business Strategy Innovation
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Now Available in Spanish – Nine Innovation Roles Cards
21 May 2013 | 5:41 pmI am proud to announce the Spanish language design of my Nine Innovation Roles card deck, made possible by the translation efforts of Vanessa López De la O from Mexico. Spanish speakers can read more about the Nine Innovation Roles … Continue reading → -
Partners Wanted – Taking Nine Innovation Roles Global
15 May 2013 | 5:24 pmI was in Boston, MA last week for the Front End of Innovation conference and had the opportunity to train dozens of potential corporate Nine Innovation Roles trainers as part of my quest to set the Nine Innovation Roles free … Continue reading → -
Free Nine Innovation Roles Train the Trainer Session
5 May 2013 | 10:33 amI will be in Boston, MA this week for the Front End of Innovation conference May 6-8, 2013 at the Seaport World Trade Center, joining 650+ innovation managers and thought leaders from around the world who are serious about learning … Continue reading → -
Las Ocho I’s de la Innovación Infinita
4 May 2013 | 6:37 amGracias Vanessa López De la O para su traducción! Algunos autores argumentan que la innovación exitosa es la suma de la idea más la ejecución; otros hablan más de la importancia de la intuición (insight) y su papel en impulsar … Continue reading → -
Latest Radio Interview with The Health Maven
30 Apr 2013 | 4:37 pmI’m proud to share with you the link to my latest radio interview. This time I had the opportunity to sit down and chat with LeAnna J. Carey (@thehealthmaven), host of the popular radio program The Health Maven – Innovation … Continue reading →
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Content4Demand
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Multi-Platform Content Marketing: Sometimes It’s Necessary, But Sometimes It’s Not
21 May 2013 | 1:50 pmAn interesting blog post by Joe Pulizzi recently appeared on Business2Community. It summarizes some of the most important lessons he’s learned during a his career as a content marketer. My favorite might be this one:You don’t have to be on every platform to assemble a killer content marketing campaign. In many cases, it’s smart to weave your story onto multiple platforms. It’s entirely possible to have a killer webinar series, amazing blog, outstanding video program, and cutting-edge digital magazine all at the same time. But there is another way. You may decide to focus and… -
For B2B Content, Sometimes Less Can Be More
9 May 2013 | 12:44 pmB2B marketers talk a lot about content creation. A lot of that talk centers around how hard it is to get enough content; we throw around phrases like “feeding the beast” and point to surveys that consistently show how a lack of content is a major headache for marketers. At the SiriusDecisions Summit this morning, we got a case study that took a different, and refreshing, point of view on this topic. Joe Levin, Head of Sales Enablement at CDW, said the company had colossal content challenge on its hands: four content portals, more than 20,000 pieces of content and no unified search… -
B2B Content Sharing: The Surprising Benefits Of A Balanced Attack
26 Apr 2013 | 6:13 amThe results of our 2013 B2B Content Preferences Survey continue to offer up food for thought. There’s a comprehensive summary available at Demand Gen Report, but today I wanted to share some results that didn’t get as much attention when I wrote that DGR feature. Here’s the raw survey data, which I think is descriptive enough to include here: First, let’s set aside the outliers: Podcasts are increasingly rare as B2B content assets, and interactive presentations (such as Brainshark or Slideshare) are an up-and-coming format that is still gaining traction. Next, look at… -
Consistency: Your Content Marketing Secret Weapon
23 Apr 2013 | 5:25 amDuring his Content2Conversion session yesterday, Joe Pulizzi packed a lot of good ideas into the space of 15 minutes. But one particular point stuck out, because it’s something almost every content marketer can relate to. Here’s the relevant data point Joe cited: 85% of all corporate blogs have published five posts or less. Think about that. These companies spend thousands of dollars on content strategies, development and management. They’re on board the content marketing train, and they expect great things from their investments. Yet they’re surprisingly quick to… -
The 5 (Actually, Make That 6) Types Of Social Media Complainers
19 Apr 2013 | 9:40 amToday, a fun infographic from Pardot. If you work the social media/customer service space, your smile may be a little forced, since this can surface some painful memories: (Embedded from Pardot.) Can we apply this model to interactions with B2B customers? In many cases, we probably can. People are people, and the folks who feel the pain when a product or service makes their job harder will be the ones who jump on Twitter or LinkedIn to make sure that you feel some pain, too. And as frustrating as these folks can be, they’re arguably better than a sixth type of complainer: the one…
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Reputation Capital: Premium Content for B2B Inbound Marketing
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Public Sector Case Study: The World Bank Wows Fans with Tumblr
21 May 2013 | 10:00 amThe big news in social media this week is Yahoo’s purchase of Tumblr for $1.1 billion with a promise “not to screw it up.” If you don’t know what Tumblr is, never fear, TIME Technology Editor Doug Aamoth wrote a great explanation to help you understand some of the basics of the popular blogging site and today I’m going to share a Tumblr marketing case study from the folks at The World Bank, so you can see how even in the public sector brands are putting it to work. How The World Bank Got Started With Tumblr The World Bank has been active on social media for more… -
Financial Services Spotlight: Content Marketing for Banks
20 May 2013 | 5:04 amThis guest post is by Angela Long, an independent marketing strategy consultant with 19 years of financial services experience, including positions in marketing, research, analytics and strategic planning for commercial banks and their insurance and investment affiliates. She has a master’s degree in marketing and a bachelor’s degree in journalism, both from Louisiana State University. Content marketing is a hot topic these days, but it’s not really a new idea. In fact, some of the first examples of content marketing date back to the late 19th century and early 20th century. -
Content Marketing News Roundup: Small Business Marketing Edition
17 May 2013 | 7:05 amGetting the word out, reaching prospective customers and generating quality leads are among the biggest challenges small businesses and startups face as they strive to help their companies thrive and grow. This week, I’ve gathered a collection of articles about small business marketing that offer advice for small business owners and demonstrate that small business marketing is headed in the direction of digital and away from more traditional formats, such as print ads, printed newsletters and direct mail. How To Use Social Media Like The Best SMB Marketers by Gabie Kur at Business 2… -
Content Delivery: How to Provide Value at Every Turn
16 May 2013 | 5:24 amDuring our How to Drive More Traffic webinar last week, one of our panelists got me thinking about delivering value. Ian Greenleigh is a marketer who specializes in social strategy at Bazaarvoice and has a new book, “The Social Media Side Door,” coming out soon. One of Ian’s tips on content delivery that really got me thinking: Offer value everywhere you can — including in marketing emails and on landing pages. As a marketer, your ultimate goal should be to elicit a “warm fuzzy feeling” from every person who visits your website, opens your email or… -
Content Marketing: You’re Not Selling “Words,” So Stop Buying Them
15 May 2013 | 5:25 amOver the years, I’ve worked with a number of really amazing editors and writers — many of whom are now looking to pursue content marketing work. They often have questions about how I made that transition successfully. It’s rarely a question of the quality of their work. Rather, it’s the way they sell themselves to the marketing folks they are trying to work with. They use the jargon of publishing, instead of adopting that of marketing. My refrain: “Nobody in marketing gets up in the morning thinking ‘today I’m going to buy a bunch of…
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Pamorama | Social Media Marketing Blog
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7 Facebook Marketing Case Studies
19 May 2013 | 4:26 pmLearn some inventive ways to integrate Facebook into your social media marketing strategy. Every day, businesses are inspired to bring creative marketing ideas to life on Facebook in ways that have a real impact on their bottom line. Many have discovered how to leverage their Facebook communities to strengthen brand loyalty and communicate directly with customers. As your company invests in the social network for marketing, advertising, and branding, it’s useful to have a few examples of what others have done with the platform. These case studies look at the goals, approaches, and… -
50 Top Tools for Social Media Monitoring, Analytics, and Management
12 May 2013 | 1:01 pmUse these platforms to manage, measure, and analyze your social media marketing initiatives. To succeed in today’s connected world, you need to build a community around your company, brand, and products. Over the last decade, social media monitoring has become a primary form of business intelligence, used to identify, predict, and respond to consumer behavior. Listening to what your customers, competitors, critics, and supporters are saying about you is key to getting great results from your social media campaigns. There are countless tools out there, offering many ways to analyze, measure,… -
Understanding Facebook EdgeRank [Infographics]
5 May 2013 | 1:03 pmGive your posts a higher probability of appearing at the top of users’ News Feeds. The News Feed — in the center column of your home page — is a list of stories from the people and pages you follow on Facebook. Customized and continuously updated, it is designed to make the most out of the time you spend on the social network by serving up the information that’s the most meaningful to you. News Feed stories include likes, status updates, app activity, photos, videos, and links. According to comScore, 40% of time on Facebook is spent on the News Feed. When a user logs in, there… -
Use Pinterest Web Analytics to Jumpstart Your Social Media Marketing
28 Apr 2013 | 3:54 pmPinterest Web Analytics gives site owners insights into how people are interacting with pins that originate from their websites. With more than 48 million users, Pinterest is one of the most popular social networks on the Web. Rather than telling people about your products, Pinterest makes it possible to show what you have to offer. Companies are increasingly using the platform to reach new audiences, increase visits to their websites, and generate leads and sales — and it’s working. As I noted in a previous post, Pinterest users spend more money, shop more frequently, and… -
The Role of Color in Marketing [Infographics]
21 Apr 2013 | 3:09 pmUse the right colors to increase brand recognition and drive purchasing. It’s more important than ever for brands to project their value. Marketers in general understand the need for consistency in color and design. But it’s also vital to move beyond the standard logo and tagline and take a holistic approach to evoking emotions among potential customers across all of your marketing channels — including social media sites. You can use color to your advantage. Color is a form of non-verbal communication and an important part of our daily lives. The underlying emotions that…
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Create Better Content
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Why The Magic Lantern Raw Developments Matter...
20 May 2013 | 4:08 pm14-bit Raw Video on my Canon T3iIf you follow a lot of film blogs like I do, chances are you have heard more than enough about what the guys over at Magic Lantern have been able to do with their ever evolving software add-on.Side note - If you have never heard of Magic Lantern go Lifehacker has a thorough article explaining how it can supercharge your Canon DSLR.Just recently the guys over at ML discovered how to shoot Raw video on the Canon 5D Mark III and Canon 5D Mark IIBy keeping the shutter open to constantly capture raw images up to 24 frames per… -
Create Better Content.
17 May 2013 | 11:07 am"Pick up a camera. Shoot something. No matter how small, no matter how cheesy, no matter whether your friends and your sister star in it. Put your name on it as director. now you're a director. Everything after than you're just negotiating your budget and fee." - James CameronWe all have our own personal opinions about James Cameron and his work but you have to appreciate that quote. The more you create the better you will become. I've been toying around with the idea of starting a blog for quite some time. I didn't start initially because I wanted to try something different,…
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thereadywriter.co.uk
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Why ‘So what?’ are the two most powerful words in your sales copy
21 May 2013 | 7:13 amFind out the two little words that can transform your sales copy in minutes -
Six FAQs about Author Rank and Authorship
7 May 2013 | 3:13 amExplaining Google Author Rank and Authorship to industry newbies can be a path strewn with confusion. Our quick answers to these six FAQs should provide some clarity about these two developments from Google. -
Preparing your business for Google Authorship and Author Rank
2 Apr 2013 | 3:53 amAuthor Rank – when it is launched – and Authorship offer great opportunities for your business in terms of your search engine rankings and the potentially higher sales that can come with increased visibility -
Google Authorship – what it is and why it can make or break your business website
18 Mar 2013 | 6:00 amGoogle has finally found a way to provide high-quality, authenticated content for their customers. It’s called Authorship, but what does it means for your web business? -
How to write product descriptions – a quick guide
5 Mar 2013 | 7:12 amIf you are a retailer, they are the most important weapon in your sales arsenal. But, how do you write product descriptions that also converts into sales for you?
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PRWeb Learning Center Articles
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Free Guide: 15 Digital Marketing Tactics!
15 May 2013 | 11:20 amLearn the latest Digital Marketing best practices, tactics and strategies to help you engage your target audience and key influencers. -
Guide to Cyber Monday Marketing
12 Nov 2012 | 8:58 amIf you’re not on Google’s front page this Cyber Monday, you’ll be lost in the noise. Use PRWeb and get your business to the top this holiday season. -
A Three-Step Guide to Creating Online Publicity for Your Business
27 Sep 2012 | 10:27 amThere is no better marketing tool than publicity. Follow this simple 3-step guide to get your story in the news today. -
Press Release Templates Offer a Road Map and Allow for Creative Navigation
28 Aug 2012 | 7:54 amDiscover which key elements make up an effective press release format that appeals to your target audience in this post from PRWeb. -
Small Business Marketing: Optimizing for a Local Audience
9 Aug 2012 | 12:33 pmDiscover how to optimize your content for a local audience as part of a holistic small business marketing effort in this post from PRWeb.
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Inbound Marketing Blog
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3 Baby Steps to a Content Marketing Strategy
22 May 2013 | 5:05 amTake a Running Start After years of working as a content marketer, some things eventually become a part of daily life. Keywords are like breathing, and content calendars are more important than daily planners. I reached this point in my career about two years ago, and since then, the basic concepts of content marketing have just been a part of who I am—not just what I do. Until this week, I had no idea I had reached this level. I believed I was simply a writer. Writing books, writing music reviews, writing marketing content—it was all just words to me. My epiphany came when a few friends… -
The Top 5 Social Media Marketing Tools You Need to Check Out
21 May 2013 | 5:05 amBoost Your Social Media Strategy Are you looking for new ways and tools to help manage your social media marketing campaigns? Would you like to learn how to gain a better insight into your target audience or compare your company against your competitors? The following are five social media management tools that you need to check out, to identify whether they're 1. PlagTracker: Keeps Your Content Original and Copy-Free If you are looking for a way to make sure the content you write for your company is plagiarism free? Then plagarism checker PlagTracker twill help… -
7 “Boring” B2B Brands With Amazing Facebook Content
20 May 2013 | 5:05 amB2B Social Media Strategy Brilliance Would you rather look at pictures of delicious cupcakes, or power cords? It’s an unfortunate reality that some brands have a built-in disadvantage when it comes to producing engaging social media content. No matter how artfully you’ve presented a picture of your brand’s car parts, it lacks the mass appeal of food, or fashion. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t develop an engaged following, or serious social media promoters. It just means you need to work a little harder to achieve the attention you deserve. To inspire your pinning,… -
Internet Artifacts: 7 Websites From the Days of Yore
19 May 2013 | 5:05 amPreviously the Greatest Things Since Sliced Bread It’s amazing how technology has evolved over the past 20 years. From clunky desktop computers to sleek and inconspicuous smartphones, our devices have become faster, stronger, and better. So have the websites that we visit on a daily basis. Inspired by our past post on gone and almost forgotten Facebook features, we’ve compiled a list of some Internet sites that were once web giants. 1. GeoCities In 1999, GeoCities was the third most visited website on the Internet. Originally, it was a web directory where users could place their pages in… -
How the Internet Has Changed the English Language
18 May 2013 | 5:05 amDoes “Rick Rolling” Ring a Bell? What does it mean that some people, instead of just saying “by the way,” use its acronym “btw” (which actually takes fewer syllables than saying the entire phrase, fyi)? Some may say that it’s sad evidence that our language is being polluted, while others may say it’s just a reflection of modern times. Which ever side of the language debate you’re on, there’s no denying that the Internet has changed how we speak and talk. Here are a few things that have happened to the English language, thanks to the wonder of the world wide web. 1. It’s…
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Brandpoint » Blog
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Your audience couldn’t care less? How to get their attention quickly
2 May 2013 | 11:55 amAdmit it, you probably weren’t paying much attention when everyone in Washington was talking about the sequester budget cuts earlier this year. It all seemed very abstract, and there was a lot of political posturing. We heard a few things about air traffic controller furloughs, but as the March 1 start date came and went, and nothing seemed to happen, we all stopped paying attention. Until we started to see those lines at airports. Now, instead of some abstract government fiscal debate, it was a situation that was affecting millions of people by causing thousands of flight delays to cascade… -
Major brands that are making the most of content marketing
30 Apr 2013 | 12:54 pmAs social media continues to influence how consumers use the Web, brands and businesses small and large need to execute a daily content marketing strategy. Content marketing is more than a blog and Twitter. Content marketing is strategy built with a variety of Web-ready content consumers can engage with that helps them develop trust and relationships with their favorite brands and businesses. Content marketing can include videos, blogs, photos, webinars, charts, infographics, podcasts and more. A well thought-out, informative and customer-driven content marketing plan will shape your… -
Our Audience and Placements Show Record Growth – 4/2/2013
24 Apr 2013 | 9:19 amAt a time when some companies use estimating techniques to show placement results for PR articles on their distribution networks, Brandpoint remains a “what you see is what you get” supplier that reports only actual placements. Starting with Gatehouse Media in 2010, our growth story is real, and nothing short of amazing: When it’s time to measure actual article distribution, Brandpoint emerges as your most reliable and robust network. In 2013, PR articles in the Brandpoint network will… -
14 Ways to Link Social and SEO – by ClickZ
24 Apr 2013 | 9:09 amPublished April 23, 2013 Today it’s quite normal, and in fact standard, for companies to expend amazing amounts of time and resources on social media marketing. But it’s clear to me that one simple fact is constantly lacking in their strategies and tactics – SEO. That fact is that success in social, especially for B2B companies, is very often realized through search. People aren’t just finding out about your products, services, and industry thought leadership through your tweets, posts, and other social chatter – they’re finding your content that has been… -
4 Truths About Content Marketing Agencies – by Joe Pulizzi – Content Marketing Institute
23 Apr 2013 | 7:09 amRead Live ArticleThe post 4 Truths About Content Marketing Agencies – by Joe Pulizzi – Content Marketing Institute appeared first on Brandpoint.
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Content Warfare Blog
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How to Unlock Hidden Long-tail Keywords Your Competitors Don’t Know Exist [Video]
21 May 2013 | 3:55 amI hope you already realize choosing the correct keywords for your content is extremely important to your content marketing success. If not, from now on using the correct keywords are very important. Unfortunately for most of us, the keywords that logically make the most sense to attack are also the hardest keywords to actually rank for in Google Search. Unless… we unlock the power of hidden long-tail keywords our competition doesn’t know exist. Long-tail keywords are any keyword phrase longer than three words. Traditionally, content marketers haven’t spent much time… -
A Golf Lesson in Content Marketing Success {Letter #8}
20 May 2013 | 4:10 amA golf lesson on content marketing success. This is the eighth letter in a series on Professional Content Marketing. World class golfers like Tiger Woods see the game of golf differently than you and I… …but the hard reality is that difference has nothing to do with their athletic abilities, work ethic or God given talent. It would be much easier to accept our lack of success if this wasn’t true. It’s much easier to accept the success Tiger Woods has achieved, including fourteen major golf championships, if it were all the result of simply being chosen by some… -
7 Secrets of Storytelling Success (from a recovering corporate writer) {Letter #7}
15 May 2013 | 3:13 pmStory sells… This the seventh letter in a series on Professional Content Marketing. “Stories are the currency of human relationships.” ~ Robert Mckee Storytelling is embedded in our DNA. Before human beings were putting their stories on cave walls, they were passing along survival strategies through stories. Fast forward to today and consider how much we are willing to pay and go out of our way just to experience a great story. Have you been to the movies lately? You’re going to pay $12, sit in an uncomfortable seat surrounded by 100 strangers just for opportunity to… -
13 Digital Marketing Weaknesses Turned into Strengths | #28 Content Warfare Podcast
12 May 2013 | 5:14 amHave you ever become frustrated with digital marketing? Don’t worry… we’ve all been there. Digital marketing at face value seems intuitive. You write a couple blog posts, connect with a couple people on Facebook and BOOM… things start to happen. Unfortunately this just isn’t the case. Over time we develop weaknesses, activities we struggle with so much the desire to continue marketing our business online disappears. Fear not, digital marketing hope abounds! In this week’s episode of the Content Warfare Podcast we discuss how to turn 13 of the most common… -
Permission to Start: A Short Manifesto on Creating More Content {Letter #6}
9 May 2013 | 6:52 amThis is the sixth letter in a series on Professional Content Marketing. You’re going to have days void of creativity and originality. Become comfortable with this fact of content creation. There’s no tool, trick, tip, tactic or strategy that will allow you sidestep “The Block.” …and “The Block” does not discriminate. Yet professional content marketers continue to create content at a relentless pace where amateurs find themselves bloodied and beaten licking their wounds as far from a keyboard as possible. How do they do it? The answer to this question…
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Content Marketing Cardiology
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Women entrepreneurs: Why you’re not the problem in your business
6 May 2013 | 7:33 pmIn my work as a content marketing mentor, I've seen it's not uncommon for women entrepreneurs to doubt themselves, especially when things don't seem to be clicking for them. -
Traditional marketing is dead and inbound marketing buried it!
29 Apr 2013 | 6:37 pmContent marketing and inbound marketing are relatively new terms in the marketing sphere but if you’ve been burying your head in the sand, it’s time to pull it out! When I was at uni (many, many years ago) and studying communication, the interruptive marketing model was drummed into us. Here’s what we were taught: What’s [...] -
How to Market New Software: Why women developers may have an advantage in a male dominated field [guest post]
15 Apr 2013 | 5:26 amIt is in the marketing of their software that female developers may hold an advantage over their male counterparts, especially with the rising dominance of relationship marketing. -
Best Instagram content marketing tips, tricks and tools for your small business
9 Apr 2013 | 5:06 pmInstagram is a tool that is starting to gain a lot of ground with savvy content marketers. If you’re not familiar with this app, here’s a brief rundown. Instagram is a visual social media platform where you can take photos on your smart phone, add a vintage frame and camera filter to it to make [...] -
5 Ways to Unlock Pinterest’s Hidden Value for your small business [guest post]
3 Apr 2013 | 3:55 amThere is huge hidden value to be gained from using Pinterest for marketing your business. With Twitter and Facebook content is published, it gains some attention, then fades. Pinterest is different.
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Content and Curation Marketing Software and Services
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The State of B2B Content Marketing [Infograph]
21 May 2013 | 11:16 amThe infographic below from Uberflip focuses on the B2B Content Marketing space. While the lead 91% number is often quoted, I believe if narrowed down to those who are “actively” performing content marketing as a strategy, the number would be much less. In the small to mid-sized enterprise space where we work, this number is certainly smaller. While most companies are testing or trying to use content in their marketing mix the major problems we see are a lack of strategy, low value content and consistent execution. One company we recently talked with paid a freelancer, overseas, to… -
Is Your Enthusiasm Killing Your B2B Sale?
16 May 2013 | 3:36 pmContent marketing centers around building trust with your audience (leads, influencers, prospects, and customers). Companies engage without hard selling as a means to drive profitable customer action. Their tools are content pieces that answer questions and educate. The medium is the internet, be it search, social media, or email. From a B2B standpoint, content marketing often concerns itself with generating leads that are sales ready or sales qualified. These leads are then handed off to a sales representative. From a business perspective, content marketing efforts are for naught if trust… -
B2B Marketing: 9 Ideas for Solving Your Biggest Content Challenges
15 May 2013 | 8:19 amThis blog post by Michele Linn from Content Marketing Institute tries to answer a question by our own Andy Detweiler, and thus I want to one of the first to curate it. She mentions “curtation” under the quantity answer, #2. I would argue that curation can and should be used under #1, engagement and #6 variety. After-all one of the fundamental tenants of content marketing is to engages with your customers and prospect without hard selling to drive profitable customer action. One great way to engage leads is to share with them curated content though social channels, an email… -
“45% of Leads End up Buying”
13 May 2013 | 8:39 amThis is a remarkable number (45% of leads end up buying) and would surprise most of both sales and marketing people. It did me. But, once you read article by Marketo (excerpt below) that talks about this it become more believable and understandable. The questions become how enterprises define a qualified lead and the time frame involved. It is a good read. Why Salespeople Don’t Follow Up on Good Leads 45% of leads end up buying Here’s a statistic that would surprise reps like these — and might surprise some marketers as well: about 45% of business-to-business leads, that is… -
The Mathematics of Revenue Cycle Strategy
9 May 2013 | 8:20 amThis blog post from Marketo talks about the math of the B2B enterprise revenue cycles. It is crucial that business understand what a qualified lead is actually worth to them — not to mention what is a qualified lead actually. Of virtually all the prospect and customers I have talked with thus far this year only one (1) could answer the question of how much a lead is worth to them — when we started. Once more, upon further discussion they could not tell me where their leads came from, how much they were spending per lead, nor segment this number for different market verticals…
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B2B Inbound Blog
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How to Make a Podcast More Visible in iTunes
12 May 2013 | 9:20 amBloggers love it when you comment on their articles, link to and share them with their friends and followers. You can do the same for podcasters - and they too will love you for it. Why? Leaving comments, sharing and linking to blog content helps the blogger in many ways. Most importantly, these activities foster engagement and helps the blog and blogger to grow. I'm not just talking about growing one's audience and influence, but it helps the blogger develop writing chops. It informs and helps to hone one's craft, voice and message. Advantage Podcasters Podcasters can have all that,… -
Clash with Conflict to Create More Engaging Content
1 May 2013 | 9:07 amSometimes, even well-written headlines, web copy, landing pages and blog posts fail to engage and move people to take action. By take action, I mean to sign-up to an email list, download a white paper, buy something or just make a tiny shift in consideration of an idea or different course of action. This is, after all, the goal of content marketing - to persuade and trigger action. This is what the Content Marketing Institute clearly indicated in the article What is Content Marketing?: "Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to… -
Doing Our Work in the Face of Tragedy
16 Apr 2013 | 12:17 pmIt is with the deepest of sympathy and love for Boston and all those touched by this tragedy that I offer these inadequate, yet heartfelt words. Yesterday I was gripped with shock and sadness over the terrible tragedy at the finish line of the 117th Boston Marathon. I was deep in work when, for some reason, I happened to check Twitter and saw a series of tweets about what had just occurred. Desperate to receive and share information, I flipped on the TV to the news and network channels, monitored Twitter, Facebook and texted my wife. I have many friends, former colleagues/co-workers, business… -
How to Setup an Editorial Calendar with Workflows in DivvyHQ
12 Apr 2013 | 10:39 amThis is a companion post to a podcast I published with guest, Brody Dorland of DivvyHQ - the spreadsheet-free, cloud-based editorial calendar application. Check out that podcast with show notes here: Brody Dorland on DivvyHQ the Spreadsheet-Free Editorial Calendar. What I'm going to do in this post is show you exactly how I use DivvyHQ to set up a blog content project in the calendar and take it through the idea stage through to production. I will use B2B Inbound and this exact blog article as the example, but it could just as well be any content project or something setup for a client. Side… -
2 Ways to Begin to Write a Blog Post
20 Mar 2013 | 6:41 am"Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now." - Goethe, as quoted by Steven Pressfield in The War of Art That being said, there are two ways to begin to write a blog post. Of course you need a topic that interests you. That's a given. Because if a topic is unknown or doesn't interest you how could you begin to write? Some would argue to just pick a topic the audience wants to hear about. But that can lead to a bland, or worse yet, a me-too nothing new composition. No, it must come from you. Something that fascinates,…
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Copy Points
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Where's Your Proof?
22 May 2013 | 4:52 amAt a turning point in the novel Great Expectations, the central character is told by his attorney, “Take nothing on its looks; take everything on evidence. There’s no better rule.”Are you counting on looks to persuade prospects? Or does your copy provide the proof points they require?To move prospects from interest to desire, proof points are mandatory. They give prospects the evidence they need to believe what you claim might be true. But in the rush to distinguish their products from competitors', marketers often neglect to provide even the most common… -
Should Your Copy Forgo Good Grammar?
16 May 2013 | 3:57 amBad grammar in an ad's headline caught my eye recently. (The ad comes from a company that rents furniture to tradeshow exhibitors.)YOUR VISION. OUR FURNISHINGS. IT GETS YOU NOTICED.What could the copywriter have been thinking?The combination of "Your vision" and "Our furnishings" gets you noticed;The two antecedent nouns (one of which itself is plural) don't require use of a plural pronoun; or"It gets you noticed" sounds livelier than "They get you noticed."Should your copy forgo good grammar? The answer's yes if:The rules of grammar weaken your argument, andYou're… -
Watch Your Language
14 May 2013 | 4:08 amThe father of phrases like death tax (a.k.a. estate tax) and climate change (a.k.a. global warming), Republican strategist Frank Luntz employs focus groups to examine words’ emotional content.His goal is to find words that will change people's visceral reactions to hot-button issues.In a 2012 speech to the Washington State Chamber of Commerce, Luntz advised business executives to revise some of their pet phrases. He recommended they replace :Free enterprise with economic freedom; Middle class with hardworking taxpayers; and Business climate with healthy… -
Six Principles of Persuasion: Scarcity
13 May 2013 | 3:37 amPart 6 of a 6-part seriesYou're feeling the power of scarcity when you pay $900 for a ticket to see The Rolling Stones.According to Robert Cialdini, we're susceptible to scarcity because loss seems terrible.Faced with scarcity, you let emotions cloud your brain and throw caution to the wind.Scarcity is why deadlines drive sales; why "limited editions" disappear from shelves; and why censorship or prohibitionactual or threatenedincites panic buying.Want to persuade someone? Give him a deadline. -
Six Principles of Persuasion: Authority
12 May 2013 | 3:32 amPart 5 of a 6-part seriesYou're feeling the power of authority when you accept without question the auto mechanic's recommendation to replace your tie rods.In Influence, Robert Cialdini writes, "We are trained from birth that obedience to proper authority is right and disobedience is wrong."Heeding an authority is wisewhen her expertise is genuine. But trouble lies in the fact we're vulnerable to symbols of authority:Titles, certifications and professional designations;Uniforms and business suits; and Trappings of success (trophies, limos, posh offices, club memberships,…
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blog.colosimarketing.com
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Inbound Marketing Workflow for Professional Services Firms
16 May 2013 | 2:44 pmInbound marketing aims to create content people love. What does that mean? Create content people love? To understand this concept, begin by referring to the inbound marketing workflow provided below. This workflow aims to provide insight as to how to apply resources to put these methods into practice. It is also a tool for making greater strides in nurturing the relationships in a manner that is in alignment with meeting a firm’s business goals. The inbound marketing lifecycle stages include: (1) attract visitors, (2) convert leads, (3) close clients and, then (4) delight… -
Illustrate Ideas and Showcase Visual Content on Pinterest
26 Apr 2013 | 9:29 amWhen it comes to social media channels, Pinterest tops the chart for using visual content as an inbound marketing tool. Visual content in the form of an image or video can communicate a qualitative or quantitative viewpoint. They can show a vision or assist audiences with visualizing how to execute a plan. A series of images or a video can also show change. Combining this social media channel with a solid inbound marketing strategy, will help your audiences see how your firm can use pictures to illustrate ideas and provide solutions. Try telling a story about your firm by… -
Deliver the Magic of Digital Storytelling to Your Audiences
11 Apr 2013 | 10:40 amAs a professional services marketer, you are tirelessly looking for new ways to engage your audiences. It can get discouraging to perform traditional marketing methods and not know if you are really making a connection. You attend professional seminars and lectures that cover important points to consider. However, you can’t seem to find the right ingredient that allows you to bridge the gap from concept to emotional connection with your audiences. Along with many other marketing professionals, you’ve known your firm’s story for a long time. The story is part of the… -
Set the Stages for the Inbound Marketing Funnel
4 Apr 2013 | 7:20 amTraditional prospecting and go/no go practices are difficult to analyze. At the prospecting phase, it is not easy to know which messages are on target and which messages are completely missing the boat. At the go/no go phase, you cannot quantify the level of a prospect's interest. Inbound marketing methods make it possible to determine which messages are resonating with your audience and also gage the level of interest. This post aims to help you set the stages for your firm's inbound marketing funnel. Let's imagine how your firm’s inbound marketing funnel may look. Picture… -
Fire up Lead Generation With Repurposed Proposal Content
22 Mar 2013 | 10:27 amMarketing professional services constantly requires content generation. We are always responding to requests for qualifications and requests for proposals. Once we are done, these responses are filed away and referenced for yet another response. Why not take a fresh approach with your writing skills? Try repurposing proposal content to create eBooks that highlight your firm’s expertise in the markets it serves. If you can write great proposals, you can write an eBook that generates leads. Source: elemenop.tumblr.com via Brooke on Pinterest Let’s spark…
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Insights
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Website Redesign and Effective Inbound Marketing
20 May 2013 | 2:35 pmA recurring theme for businesses today is, “we have a website, but we don’t like it” or maybe they do like the website, but it’s not capturing the leads and generating the business that they’d like. Here is where website redesign comes in. Some might be tempted to tell these folks they need an entirely new website (which is occasionally the case), but a refresh might be all they need. A website is like a car. You don’t need a whole new car when your change oil light comes on, but your car does need regular maintenance (oil changes, tire rotations, tune-ups,… -
How Buyer Personas Are Key to Enterprise Inbound Marketing
15 May 2013 | 6:38 amWe all know that customers can’t buy things they don’t know exist. Identifying and reaching them is crucial to the success of any business. With this in mind, defining buyer personas is the foundation for your enterprise inbound marketing strategy, and is crucial for creating and disseminating content that will appeal to and reach your target audience. Let’s look at out how to create your buyer personas and consider the people in and outside your organization that shape your content development process. Who is Your Customer? Who are your customers? If you’re unsure of the answer to… -
Essential Components of a Strategic Website
13 May 2013 | 6:30 amTake a Hard Look What is the first impression your website gives? If it went on a job interview, did it show up in pajamas or in a suit? Your website is your calling card to the internet world. A few key things to look for: clear and consistent branding, diversified content, and a killer homepage. Clear and Consistent Branding Professional websites with great presentation are vital to capturing and retaining your audience’s attention. It’s important that your website presents a clear picture of your company’s purpose and what is has to offer. Use visuals to engage your audience and… -
How Enterprise Can Utilize Social Media for Inbound Marketing
6 May 2013 | 11:30 amA shift in focus from outbound marketing tactics (telemarketing, direct mail, trade shows) to inbound marketing (social media, blogs, corporate websites) has been driven by increasing digital and internet capabilities and usage and changed the way companies interact with customers. We’ve moved from an era of information scarcity to information abundance. This might mean the power is in the customer's hands, but it also means you have a slew of powerful, fairly easy ways to connect with them. Here is where social media comes in. If you’re a B2B company, you’re likely not as worried about… -
3 Search Engine Optimization Tricks That Need to Die
3 May 2013 | 9:40 amSearch Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important component of your inbound marketing strategy. Good SEO practices help prospects find you, generating traffic to your website and capturing potential sources of revenue. Unfortunately, there are a few SEO tactics still out there that are tricks and actually hurt your chances of getting higher on search engine page rankings. If someone encourages you to try something that sounds like one of the 3 tricks below, take a careful look because it could be a signal to run the other way. You might have heard the terms white hat and black hat SEO.
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Yaagneshwaran on Business!!
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LivingSocial®- What went wrong?
2 May 2013 | 11:30 pmLivingSocial®, the daily deals site. What went wrong? The hackers gained access to customer data on their servers including emails and encrypted passwords. Although the company feels the passwords are encrypted and it would be difficult to decode them, more than 50 million of their users have been asked to reset their passwords. Now, does encryption save you? Encryption is all about transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge. So, if a third-party possess the knowledge to decrypt it, your information is safe no more! -
Competence or Chance?
1 May 2013 | 8:47 pmYou got competence? What next?? As we get more experienced, we get better, more competent, at least ideally!! So we all fall in love with that competence, appreciate it and protect it. What happens then? We stop looking at the possibilities from then on. People reach their peak and suddenly everything for them or about them starts nose-diving. Isn’t it? Looking out for possibilities and innovation open new horizons for you. You will be in a place where you are required to do something that you haven’t proven to be good at. After all, if we were so good at it that the outcome was…
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Convert With Content
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Content Curation - Overview
14 May 2013 | 4:18 pmAnalytics are like a drug to me. I am addicted. Okay, I guess I can say that about LinkedIn too. But in all honesty, not a day goes by where I'm not logging into our statistics to see where our traffic comes from. More often than not, I'm seeing traffic coming from specific content related sites. It is partly an effort of our own blog promotion and partly a reaction to content curators out there who are sharing our content. This makes a blogger very happy! In this article, we'll get down to business about how you can curate content for branding yourself and your business as an expert in your… -
BundlePost - A Social Media Streamlining Tool
13 May 2013 | 3:16 pmIf you are anything like me, your morning might look like this. 6AM the alarm is buzzing. Stephanie rolls over in bed and places her arms far above her head, extending into a deep stretch. One turn to the left in a fake-stretching move and bam, cell phone is in hand. A click to my email application to give it enough time to load while I head on over to my Twitter app. Check the replies and do a little hashtag search. Respond if needed. From there it's off to Facebook, mentally taking notes of anything I might need to address. Any news? Anything that needs immediate response? Okay, I'm done. -
How To Use Twitter Search To Find What You Are Looking For
10 May 2013 | 5:08 pmTwitter is a powerhouse. If you take a look at the stats provided by StatisticBrain, you'll soon see the vast magnitude of the network. While there is a lot of noise on the network, there is also a lot for you to gain if you can learn how to break through the noise and deliver what it is people are looking for. Here's how. Twitter Stats Total number of active registered Twitter users -554,750,000 Number of new Twitter users signing up everyday - 135,000 Number of unique Twitter site visitors every month - 190 million Average number of Tweets per day - 58 million Number of Twitter search… -
Pros And Cons Of Different Types Of Social Media Contests
9 May 2013 | 4:40 pmCurrently we're running a Mother's Day contest for a client of ours. In fact, this client loves contests and we totally get that. We know that contests are great for increasing engagement and also great for things like gathering emails. For this particular client, we've run a "Pin It To Win It" contest, a "Photo Upload" contest, and currently, we are running a sweepstakes. All of these varied types of contests serve a different purpose and have had different results. In this article, I'd like to share the pros and cons of hosting each type of contest. Don't forget—the results of your… -
9 Twitter Tips & Tricks
8 May 2013 | 1:54 pmTwitter is one of those tricky networks. The users who have been on for the longest time will have more followers than those who are new to the Twitter game. These Twitter tricks will help you get the most out of your Twitter strategy, while increasing engagement and followers. 9 Tricks & Tips To Get "Good" At Twitter 1. Chose A Good Name This can be your business name or your personal name (Though, of course, you can have both). The important thing to remember here is to create something that is easy to remember and not too long. Remember—on Twitter, characters count. If anyone…
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scribewise.com
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Content Writing: Do This, Not That
21 May 2013 | 9:32 amWhen it comes to demystifying the enigma of content marketing, you have probably wondered what in the world is content writing? With all of the different definitions swirling around out there in the great wilderness of the Internet, anyone would have trouble figuring it out. First, let’s define content marketing, which is not a fad campaign. Content marketing is a philosophy for the long term. It’s the creation and distribution of written work and multimedia that has been strategically designed to connect with consumers and raise brand awareness. Whether you’re providing helpful… -
Content Curation is Where Your Content Strategy Starts
20 May 2013 | 5:04 amSo, you’ve realized that implementing a content strategy is smart business – a new marketing approach that will create a tighter bond with your audience and has the promise of greater ROI than traditional marketing approaches. But now it’s time to start creating content, and you’re stuck. Content creation is hard work, and it never stops, and everyone in your organization seems busy with their primary duties. Of course there are resources you can deploy to help with the day-in, day-out rinse and repeat of content creation. However, just because you haven’t quite solved the content… -
6 Social Media Lessons From Those Sorry Mofos At Amy’s Baking Company
15 May 2013 | 2:14 pmI just checked in at Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique and Bistro on Facebook. It’s been a couple of years since I was even in Scottsdale, but it seemed like an amusing virtual kind of thing to do in light of the explosion of social media attention the place is getting. And that attention ranges from gently derisive all the way to aggressively ugly. Amy’s Baking Company Facebook page likes have increased by 2000 percent in 48 hours. These are not genuine endorsements, but attention of the horribly wrong variety. Following a two part profile on Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares in… -
Content on Pinterest is the Key to Winning A Woman's Heart
14 May 2013 | 1:09 pmThat box of chocolates and bouquet of flowers are so three years ago; cheesy commercials and stereotypical print ads geared towards women are out. Pinterest, and all of its visually organized content glory, is in. The rapidly growing social platform that allows users to share visual content that links back to the site of origin has gained serious credibility among females over the last couple of years, and forward thinking brands are getting a piece of the pie while it’s still hot Why? Because women actually trust it. Most people are aware that the user demographic of… -
The Art and Science of Content Creation
13 May 2013 | 5:16 amThe rise of content marketing has marketers scrambling for solutions to the content creation conundrum – the truth is that producing engaging, shareable content is difficult. And so, like manic dieters, businesses are searching for quick fixes, racing to find “the solution.” And that often means turning to technology for a “scalable, turnkey solution” – there are plenty of VC-backed companies promising to solve your content needs with their magical algorithm-based content machine. The proliferation of marketing automation tools such as our friends at Hubspot (which is an…
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Social Media Explorer
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Do You Understand The Mathematics Of Social Marketing
22 May 2013 | 3:00 amOne of the advantages of having exposure to a large e-commerce company and the incredible talent within its walls is that you learn from some of the top minds in the industry. It was just a few months into my tenure at CafePress that I started to dive deep into learning from the team that runs one of the largest Internet retail operations in the world. And boy, have I learned. A common theme you’ll find in the discussions among the top engineers, technicians and marketers of these types of sites is with their metrics and analytics. Everything revolves around traffic, action rates,… -
10 Business Lessons from One of the Greatest Live Rock and Roll Bands in History
21 May 2013 | 3:00 amI was absolutely enthralled by a recent article about a band that, since 1988, has been near and dear to many of us here in my home town of Telluride Colorado, Phish. Phish ranks among the greatest live bands in rock and roll history, and a sizable subculture of Phishheads would argue that there’s been none better. Here’s a couple of summarized takeaways from the article, The Business of Phish: Over the past 4 years Phish has generated $120 million in ticket sales, yet by more typical measures of a band’s success (album sales – Phish’s are minuscule, Billboard Top 10… -
The Hockey Foundation
21 May 2013 | 3:00 amMy beloved Boston Bruins are currently working their way towards another Stanley Cup, so I thought today would be the perfect time to tell you about my friend Adam’s organization The Hockey Foundation. A couple of years ago when I first met Adam he was working for an NHL team trying to get them to embrace social media. They never fully understood it, he left and then he started talking about how he wanted to go to remote parts of the world where they had never heard of hockey and teach it to the kids. I vividly remember him first mentioning going to India to do this and my reaction… -
What A One-Hit Wonder Taught Me About Marketing
20 May 2013 | 4:19 amThere’s one phone number that most people can recite, regardless of demographic. And I mean full phone number, not 9-1-1. Think about it for a minute: What’s the one phone number than most everyone you know has in common they can recite without hesitation? 867-5309. Tommy Tutone’s hit from 1981 emblazoned the number in our minds, and while little more of the song is all that memorable, “867-5309/Jenny” has an incredible marketing lesson buried within it’s one-hit wonderness. The song is the probably drunken announcement of a man who finds the number of a… -
Highs and Lows in the Parent Blogging World
17 May 2013 | 3:00 amThere’s never a dull moment in the parent blogging world. This past month has brought new highs and lows to this group, a group I’m firmly enmeshed in both as an agency which works with bloggers and as the founder of a conference bloggers attend. (I also happen to be married to a parenting blogger – my husband blogs on his own dad blog as well as in a number of other outlets.) Mom 2.0 Summit The high was most certainly the Mom 2.0 Summit, a fantastic conference for moms (and others) who blog (there were many men in attendance, and many non-moms too – my husband joined me). This was my…
