Brian Clark says, “I vividly remember the first time I heard Black Flag. It was in a kid named Mike Goodman’s bedroom, and the record was called Damaged. That’s how it was pre-Internet in suburban Houston. If it wasn’t on the radio or MTV, it was invisible — unless some cool kid turned you on to something new (who probably got it from the older sibling of some other cool kid). And by “cool,” I mean a misfit who couldn’t abide in a Top 40 world. My first impression was, “Wow, this guy is pissed off!” And sarcastic, sometimes funny, sometimes sad. I loved it. At the time,... [...]

Scott Brinker says, “I’m looking forward to speaking at the Authority Rainmaker conference this May in Denver, Colorado. As a longtime Copyblogger fan, it’s a great privilege, and I can’t wait to meet many of you. The title of my talk will be: How to Design Interactive Content — Moving Beyond Button Clicks and Form Fills. Which begs the question, what exactly is interactive content? Most content that we’re familiar with — blog posts, ebooks, reports, webinars, infographics, podcasts, etc. — is designed to be passively consumed by our audiences. They read, watch, or listen to... [...]

Danny Ashton says, “In my last blog post I explored the reasons why content marketing with visuals leads to significant improvements in web and social engagement. Now I bring you the proof, with a few real life examples I found while doing research. For more on this topic download Econsultancy’s Digital Content Strategy Best Practice Guide or book yourself onto the content marketing training course”. Three great examples of high-performing visual content marketing ‘Econsultancy’ Blog  [...]

Mary Wallace says, “Within the typical marketing organization, the people responsible for marketing technology (Martech) and those running Content Marketing are completely separate from one another. Martech is more technical in nature, involving if/then statements and ones and zeroes. Content Marketing is creative, evoking emotions and promising relief from pressing problems. Yet to drive lead engagement and fill the pipeline, the two must be tightly linked. Understanding The Two Sides Martech gets the content in front of the potential buyer. When used to its fullest potential, it encompasses... [...]

Gina Broom says, “The air is filled with the voices of unhappy affiliates: “Why isn’t my website getting much traffic? I targeted keywords in my content.” Or, “I’m getting traffic, but my site still isn’t doing very well. Why?” When we go and have a look at these websites, there seems to be a common theme. There’s nothing particularly “WOW” about them. There’s nothing that makes me want to bookmark them. There’s nothing that makes me want to share them with my friends. You might think, why!? I’ve done”. A Challenge... [...]

Matthew Turner says, “If you read the headline, “Portland Entrepreneur Raises $13 Million by Enticing 62,000 People to Buy His Cooler,” which part fascinates you? How about, “7,000 Hungry Folks Raise $55,000 for Potato Salad Project?” I imagine, if you’re anything like the majority, those large amounts of money stand out. After all, $13 million is a gigantic amount of cash, as is $55,000 for potato salad. But whenever I come across crowdfunding campaigns like these, it is the crowd of people who band together that captures my attention”. How to Crowd-Publish Your Content... [...]

Emily Alford says, “As Google+ segments into separate photos, Streams, and Hangouts products, marketers must strive to find a new way to navigate the often overlooked social media platform. Bradley Horowitz, former vice president of product for Google, will now be running Google’s “Photos and Streams” products, according to his recent Google+ post. The message carefully sidesteps any mention of Google+, however, leaving many to wonder whether this is the end for the oft maligned social platform. If so, what does this mean for marketers? Even as Google dodges questions about Plus,... [...]

Michele Linn says, “In a few of the interviews I have done recently, people have asked some variation of the question: What gets you most excited about content marketing these days? While I’m constantly interested in and thinking about content, one of the ideas that excites me most is intelligent content and the conversation that surrounds it. Yes, it may seem like the company line, as Content Marketing Institute recently purchased Intelligent Content Conference, but I’ll be honest. When I heard the acquisition news, I wasn’t all that excited. I thought the topic of intelligent content... [...]

Verónica Maria Jarski says, “How can marketers better create content that achieves optimal results? Here are five suggestions from a Captora infographic. Drive pipeline growth with data: “Research-driven campaigns get results and set your marketing efforts apart from the Internet noise,” states Captora. Some two-thirds of marketers say data drives their digital marketing, and 71% say it enables the delivery of more relevant messaging to more finely segmented audience, according to data cited by Captora. Another suggestion for creating content that rules: play on those heartstrings.... [...]

Sylvia Jensen says, “Managing content marketing can be stressful. This brief guide will show you how to use time and technology to maximize success without raising your stress levels. Successful content marketing doesn’t always involve mountains of content, but it does need some serious planning and management if you are to generate the expected leads and sales. Here are a few things you need to consider early on if you are to avoid problems. 1. Plan ahead Forewarned is forearmed. Failure to prepare is preparing to fail. You’ve heard it all before, but that’s because it’s... [...]