David Bowen says, “No marketing strategy is effective anymore without good content.It’s the cornerstone of engaging with customers on social media channels, ranking in search and your vehicle to demonstrate your brand and values as a business.With 73% of marketers having stated that they planned to increase their budget spend on content marketing in 2015, it’s abundantly clear that good content has become a major ecommerce marketing priority“.How well are you combining content and commerce?‘Econsultancy’ Blog [...]

Chris Handy says, “After several attempts at getting it right Apple has recently announced their newest foray into News, with their new native app coming this fall. The News app will feature aggregated content that can be customized specifically for the iPhone and iPad experience.Publishers will have access to a set of tools to shape their content in a way that will provide the optimal viewing experience for readers viewing their content on iOS devices. The reader experience will be enhanced by the fact that it is automatically loaded and readied in the app itself, rather than the user... [...]

Kelsey Meyer says, “In college, I loved preparing to write research papers. I would outline the steps I had to take, research my topic, pull out specific stats, supplement them with my own analysis and then present my professor a paper I was proud of.Mapping out my plan of attack was somehow energizing and relaxing at the same time. I know I’m probably in the minority on this because most people (especially marketers) would prefer to get straight to the action.This is probably why only 35 percent of B2B marketers have a documented content-marketing strategy. But without a visible roadmap,... [...]

Erik Devaney says, “In marketing, as in life, situations will inevitably arise that require a certain amount of scrappiness. And a spur-of-the-moment, quick-turnaround-required content push — while not ideal — is a situation you ultimately might end up facing.Maybe it’s the end of the month, and your boss is freaking out. “We need more leads!” is the battle cry. ”And we need you, [your name], to create and promote some new content pronto so we can generate those leads!”Or maybe you’re facing that classic, high school-era, “Oh-crap-I-totally-forgot-my-presentation-was-due-tomorrow”... [...]

Robert Rose says, “The reinvention of marketing is a road, not a door.We’ve certainly had a few adventures over the last year as we’ve helped enterprises of all sizes work through elements of theircontent marketing journeys. One of the biggest insights I’ve had is how many of the content marketers come to success with absolutely no idea when they crossed over from “struggle” to “success.” It’s as if one day they just woke up and realized they’ve been operating in a completely different way and, yeah, it’s working.This is what I mean by that first sentence. You start... [...]

Rainmaker team says, “Digital + Recurring Revenue = Win. Easier said than done, right?As discussed last week on New Rainmaker with Brian Clark, digital products and services plus subscription revenue are The Two Components of The Perfect Online Business Model. Let’s talk a little more about the subscription side of things.This week, author and entrepreneur John Warrillow joins Brian as co-host, and they’ve got three models for you to contemplate when piecing together your perfect business. John is the author of The Automatic Customer: Creating a Subscription Business in Any Industry... [...]

Jessica Ann says, “Let’s face it: You’re either a right-brained or left-brained content marketer. If you’re a right-brained marketer, then the term “audience data” probably makes you squirm uncomfortably. But if you’re a left-brained content marketer, you eat things like audience data for breakfast. Mmmm …data.Here’s why: Right-brained marketers generally depend upon intuition to solve problems and process information, while left-brained marketers process information in a data-driven way.It’s important to know your brain’s direction because, for better or worse, your... [...]

Kristin Hovde says, “Creating a successful B2B content marketing strategy is easier said than done; many marketers have different views on what works and what doesn’t. Eighty-six percent of digital marketers are using content as a way to educate and inform their audience, according to MarketingProfs.If you aren’t seeing results from your content marketing efforts, then there could be one thing standing in your way of it being a success: relying on your memory instead of writing it down.When you are writing countless pieces of content and dispersing them to several different websites,... [...]

Verónica Maria Jarski says, “You’ve created the content. Now, you need to measure its effectiveness to know whether your content is hitting its mark.The following infographic by Curata offers 29 content marketing metrics, such as consumption, retention metrics, sharing metrics, engagement metrics, lead metrics, sales metrics, and production/cost metrics.For example, “you can track retention of existing email list subscribers by keeping an eye on unsubscribes and opt-outs,” states Curata.“Similarly, you’ll want to track new subscribers to see if you can grow... [...]

Graham Charlton says, “Some people may hate the term, but there’s no doubt that content marketing has caught on big time. As many people point out, there isn’t anything especially new in the concept of using content to attract customers, but what’s new is that content marketing roles are being created, and teams are being restructured.Content is becoming more tactical as a result.Here’s a selection of 15 of the best content marketing tips…Define your target audience before you start to produce contentThink about audiences rather than customers. The aim... [...]