Carly Stec says, “After 10 consecutive years of declining sales, Coca-Cola has finally made a comeback.The driving force behind its impressive turnaround?Personalization. Launched in 2014, the “Share a Coke” campaign created a buzz among consumers by replacing its brand name on the can with more than 200 popular names. By personalizing the product, Coca-Cola was able to grab the attention of the country and inspire the type of engagement it had been missing in years prior.While this is a clear demonstration of the power of personalization, Exact Target’s 2014... [...]

Diona Kidd says, “Content as a marketing strategy is reliable and cost-effective, but only if it generates high-quality leads. To succeed, you must not only create and promote content, but also analyze and optimize the content.If your content marketing results are falling flat, here are 7 reasons why it might be happening and what you can do about it.1) You Don’t Know Your Content’s ROIIf you do not understand how many people access your content, where your content is shared, or the new contacts it generates, chances are your marketing efforts are not nearly as effective as they... [...]

Corey Eridon says, “Ever start writing a piece and wonder if anyone’s even gonna read it?Not to make you paranoid, but … you should be paranoid.Chartbeat conducted a study in 2013 that indicates most readers are only getting about 60% of the way through a piece of content. The other 40% of the stuff you wrote? Well, you could’ve gone home early that day. (You can read more about that study here.)So why are people only reading a little more than half of the content they click on? If I was a betting woman, I’d probably lay some money on short attention spans —... [...]

Paddy Moogan says, “Content is an important part of any digital marketing strategy. Whether it be content for links, conversion, education, search or any number of things. In this post I want to focus on one area—content that drives awareness of your brand.One tangible way to measure awareness is by looking at new visitors that a piece of content attracts which is pretty easy (although not always perfect) using something like Google Analytics. There are other measures that can influence new visitors that I’m going to talk about as well:Social sharesLinksBoth of these can send... [...]

Carlton Hoyt says, “It’s time for us to develop content from a resource marketing paradigm. Providing something useful, as the dictionary defines resource, is core to fulfilling content marketingobjectives. We need to stop thinking about creating more stuff and start thinking about how to build things of utility that meaningfully help solve our audiences’ problems.Content vs. resourceContent can be a resource and a resource can be content, so it’s important to distinguish how we can differentiate the two. In brief:Content generally provides information. Resources provide solutions... [...]

Sujan Patel says, “Most of us publish blog posts the same way. We spend tons of time writing posts and optimizing them for search and social media. We then hit publish. We’ll excitedly watch as we see a burst of new traffic to our site … then get disappointed as we see the post’s popularity peter off.It stinks, right?Luckily, there are some things you can do to extend the shelf life of our content. In this post, we’re going to look at 10 essential techniques for making your content thrive beyond the initial publish-date promotion.10 Techniques for Keeping Your... [...]

Quinn Whissen says, “Let’s talk about guacamole.No, really. Let’s…The green, fresh delicious mush that we all crave — that dissolves in our mouth and is the perfect companion to the tortilla chip and a friend to the margarita. We all love it, and we can’t get enough of it.Now let’s talk about content marketing. Maybe not as delicious as our green, gooey favorite, but just as desirable. A crop of blog posts and thoughtful strategies can equal success for the most consistent of marketers. The phrase “content marketing” is the subject of much discussion in the digital realm... [...]

Baer says, “With Google+ Collections, you are now able to collect content into themes. While not exactly like Pinterest boards, they are probably the closest comparison we can make.Think of Collections as interactive magazines which not only feature content but also facilitate conversations with people passionate about a subject.It may be the biggest release on Google+ for the past two years or so. And for many, it is putting to rest that Google is sitting on its laurels when it comes to social.How to Make a CollectionEither from a Profile or a Page (in the case of businesses),... [...]

John Hall says, “American Express’ OPEN Forum stands out as a content marketing success story. By enlisting professional writers and focusing on quality, the OPEN Forum team turned its platform into a widely read site that has become one of the best client sources for American Express.American Express followed the lead of traditional publishers – something all marketers could stand to learn. The best traditional publications are consumer-oriented, while brands often publish with a “me” mentality. When a business becomes so focused on sales numbers, it can quickly turn off audiences... [...]

David Moth says, “Content marketing is currently one of the most important trends in digital, and it’s one that presents a huge challenge for Western brands hoping to expand into the Asia-Pacific region.It’s tempting to view the region as one entity for marketing campaigns, but language and cultural barriers mean that really isn’t the case.To find out more about how to approach content marketing in APAC, I spoke to Julia Tan from Mynewsdesk in Singapore.For more on digital marketing in Asia-Pacific, you can also check out our other interviews in this series:How Jetstar moved to... [...]