Aaron Agius says, “Content marketing is one of the most powerful strategies businesses can use to cultivate relationships with existing followers and reach new customers, but far too many brands fail to utilize this technique properly.According to a recent report from Forrester, 87 percent of brands struggle to create content that their customers will want to read and share, and only 14 percent said they feel that their content is highly effective at building value for their businesses.Clearly, this illustrates the need for businesses to deliver more valuable and engaging content to their... [...]

Mark Yeager says, “Salespeople spend a whopping 30 hours per month searching for and creating marketing collateral, according to the American Marketing Association. That’s a lot of time to spend on something they really shouldn’t have to do…Where are all those materials that are constantly being created by the marketing department? Some 60-70% of content produced by B2B marketing departments is unused, Sirius Decisions has found.Companies are wasting massive amounts of time and resources on materials that are not exactly what sales teams need, or Sales simply doesn’t... [...]

Rachel Rodgers says, “If you’re doing it right, your digital media business is probably an intellectual property factory.Smart small businesses have a content creation conveyor belt and publish new content all day everyday, from ebooks to infographics.And while there is a lot of talk about the benefits of creating content, there is very little talk about protecting it.Yeah, I said it. Your content needs protection.Because your content is intellectual property, otherwise known as original creative works used in commerce“.Are These 4 Common Legal Mistakes Putting Your Content... [...]

Rainmaker team says, “Today’s guest on Hack the Entrepreneur has dedicated her life to making the world a better, brighter place … with the power of doodles.She was a Financial Empowerment Consultant and the founder of The Empowered Dollar. During this time, she helped millennials and low-income families fix their finances and feel empowered to take control of their financial destinies.Her latest and fastest growing venture is Art To Self, which she started earlier this year. It is a website and newsletter of daily art and inspiration sent straight to your inbox“.Stephanie Halligan... [...]

Brian Honigman says, “For those in the marketing industry, there’s very little doubt. Content marketing works.While there’s no debating that content marketing works, it only works if it’s done right; and one of the keys to doing content marketing right is to do it consistently.Woody Allen famously quipped that “80% of success is just showing up.” For content marketing this is certainly true“.A Guide For Creating Consistently Great Content‘Entrepreneur’ Blog [...]

Mark Walker says, “Everyone wants to get in on the content marketing act these days.According the Content Marketing Institute’s 2015 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Report, 86 percent of B2B marketers are now using content marketing as a tactic, and 70 percent of those surveyed are creating more content than they did a year ago.It’s not surprising — given the impact that can be significant — with high profile startups like Buffer and Hubspot and more established SaaS companies like Moz all crediting a large part of their success to content marketing. Non-tech brands... [...]

Arnie Kuenn says, “You’ve heard it before: To be successful with content marketing, your content must be catered to the customer. More specifically, content should speak to customer pain points and challenges throughout the buyer’s journey.However, to create content that is truly targeted, you need to understand exactly who your buyers are and what their journey looks like.Enter persona-based content marketing: creating and promoting content with a specific buyer persona in mind“.Why You Need A Persona-Based Content Marketing StrategyMarketing Land [...]

Hana Abaza says, “Being effective marketers in today’s world of emerging technology and changing attitudes requires us to look one (or several) steps ahead. Let’s discuss three – advocate marketers, money for distribution, and “automagic” integration – that are worth your attention from among the many helpful themes, trends, and studies detailed in the infographic created by our team at Uberflip, shown below.Lobby for an advocate marketerWhat do you do when you absolutely LOVE a product or service? I tell anyone and everyone who will listen how much I love my <insert shiny... [...]

Ronell Smith says, “If you think creating content for boring industries is tough, try creating content for an expensive product that’ll be sold in a so-called boring industry. Such was the problem faced by Mike Jackson, head of sales for a large Denver-based company that was debuting a line of new high-end products for the fishing industry in 2009.After years of pestering the executives of his traditional, non-flashy company to create a line of products that could be sold to anglers looking to buy premium items, he finally had his wish: a product so expensive only a small percentage... [...]

Rainmaker team says, “Ever find yourself scratching your head, trying to figure out what to write about on your blog?We’ve all been there.It’s tough to come up with blog post topics week after week, and it’s not easy to keep all those ideas organized, either.This week on Hit Publish, host Pamela Wilson invited three Copyblogger experts to share their best advice for generating a never-ending flow of blog post ideas“.How to Generate a Never-Ending Flow of Blog Post Ideas‘Copyblogger’ Blog [...]