Michael Brenner  says, “Intuitively it makes sense: the sooner a consumer is hooked on your brand — loyal to their core — the greater the lifetime value of that relationship. More years means more dollars, right?That straight line is certainly the case for some companies. There are others, however, for which the value in reaching millennials is far more nuanced. There are companies that seek to cultivate deep, personal, long-term relationships. That goal and how to reach it quickly and at scale makes today’s marketers sweat. Everyone wants millennials’ attention, loyalty... [...]

Fernando Labastida says, “The Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs publish a yearly study on benchmarks, budgets, and trends for North American B2B companies using content marketing. In October, they released their fifth annual B2B content marketing study for 2015 – a must-read if you’re in charge ofcontent marketing for your organization.And what consistently shows up every year is the large percentage of firms that don’t feel their content marketing efforts are effective. This year, only 38% of B2B companies surveyed felt their efforts were effective – a drop from... [...]

Courtney Eckerle says, “We all see things go viral on the Web or certain products that suddenly take off. It begs the question: Why do some things get talked about more than others?“And how by understanding that science can companies and organizations and individuals get their stuff to catch on?” said Jonah Berger, Associate Marketing Professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, during our phone interview.Jonah, who will be a keynote speaker at Email Summit 2015, has studied how products are used and why behaviors catch on. His book,Contagious: Why Things Catch On,... [...]

Kimanzi Constable says, “It’s every entrepreneur’s dream to see their content go viral. With more than 2.5 billion people online everyday, the possibilities are exciting. Despite the staggering opportunity, there are many other entrepreneurs. including some with the same message, trying to reach the same audience as you.If you are going to capture attention, and build your business, you have to stand out. One viral piece of content has put several entrepreneurs “on the map.” Creating viral content, however, is easier said than done. There are blog posts, videos, podcasts and books... [...]

Anthony Gaenzle says, “One of the biggest concerns facing companies when it comes to their content marketing is how to create enough contentto be effective, especially when faced with limitations in personnel equipped to handle such tasks. Growing your content marketing team by taking on another salary can be expensive, not only due to the addition of the salary itself, but also the cost of recruiting, interviewing, and making sure you are selecting the right candidate.While conundrums like this can bring about tension headaches, some simple solutions can help ease the pain of dealing with... [...]

Chow says, “I read this in a magazine I was reading and it was mentioned by JohnChow.com when I asked him this question for an expert post I was writing a few months back. This statement is very true and if you want enormous targeted traffic sent to your website, it’s all about writing the best content ever. This means creating content that solves a common problem and is in-depth, providing a complete solution. People love this type of content, and it increases the chance of someone linking back to it as an additional resource for other content online. However, you have to follow the fundamentals... [...]

Audrey & Drew say, “Back in 2013, Seer began testing the use of content distribution networks to help promote assets and valuable content across the web. Our goal was to test a variety of distribution networks to determine the best ways to pay for promotion on client content and assets. Overall, we wanted to test the impact paid content promotion had on assets that we had previously launched and to measure the impact of this traffic on the high-level goals of each client.For those of you unfamiliar with this form of content marketing, content distribution networks are quickly becoming... [...]

Michael Brown says, “Your keywords are included. Your title tags and meta descriptions are set. Your links have been added. Your content is now optimized, right?Wrong!These are all necessary steps in the content creation process, but none of them qualify as content optimization — at least not in my opinion.Content optimization is a popular term these days, and one that’s on the minds of most marketing agencies. But it’s a term that is widely misunderstood and misapplied, with negative consequences for both agencies and their clients. So what is content optimization? Here are... [...]

Martin Beck says, “Chances are you spend a significant amount of time producing your content. You dwell on the points you want to get across, you outline your content in a way that’s easily digestible, and you hit “publish.”Then… radio silence.One of the most important aspects of successful social media marketing is the promotion of the post — and to get your content shared, you need to understand your audience.Who shares your content? What triggers them to share this content? How do you inspire your audience to take action?Look Who’s TalkingHere are five levels of promotion... [...]

Ronell Smith says, “”Man, I’m sorry. You guys weren’t ready to adopt the brands as publisher mindset. I suspected you’d never be ready to do it successfully. I knew it; I could sense you knew it. I wish I’d spoken up when I saw the intra-departmental debates waging. That’s on me. My bad.”Those were my words to the executive of a midsize lifestyle brand I worked with in 2014. It took me months to get up the nerve to reach out and make it right, even though I’d done nothing wrong.He seemed to understand. But he did have a question that stopped... [...]