Content Strategy

The cornerstone of effective content marketing is developing a rock-solid content strategy.

Here are some posts to help you create yours:

You’re a Human, Act Like It. Unless You’re OK with Being a Digital Marketing Failure

human digital marketing superior to robot digital marketing

Audiences are made of people, they aren’t made of logos. And when building an audience, you must connect with other people as a person, not as a logo. There are very few that can succeed while ignoring this basic mantra. According to the law of averages, you are not one of them.

5 Reasons the Intern Shouldn’t Run Your Social Media Campaign

carrying the load alone as a social media intern

Your intern has more Twitter followers than you do. That is great. But what happens when she gets offered that gig with the agency across town? Will your corporate blog survive? How about that snarky Twitter account or well-maintained Facebook page? Though much of management is wearing the “social media strategy” hat in the board [...]

Why It’s OK For You to Hate This Blog Post

velvet rope showcasing theme of exclusivity

We spend a lot of time wooing people to like us. “Follow us on Twitter!” “Like us on Facebook!” “Get our email updates!” “Share us with your friends!” “Please hang out with us Friday night!” (OK, so that’s from my personal life, but you get the drift.) And it makes sense that we do, kind [...]

The Boy Scout Handbook of Social Media

boy scout social media

The lessons the Boy Scouts taught me about being a good citizen are the same lessons that can be directly applied to your organization’s social media strategy.

4 Boardroom-Approved Reasons for Content Marketing

content marketing for the board room

The CEO of your organization doesn’t give a damn about your Klout score. She’s not interested in the achievements you’ve unlocked or what your social media “style” is. It’s not that she’s cold-hearted or mean-spirited. It’s just that none of that contributes to the bottom line. And that’s what she’s got her eye on. So, [...]

How to Enter the Circle of Trust With Your Audience

building trust online

Building trust is hard enough to do in the real world (remember trying to convince your girlfriend’s parents you were worthy of their daughter?), but building trust online is even more difficult. Fortunately, social media affords organizations the opportunity to build trust with consumers online, but only when done correctly.

Don’t Propose Marriage on the First Marketing Encounter

will you marry me

It’s pretty easy to get carried away when you’re excited about the possibilities of a potential relationship. You feel the connection. They’re just your type. And they even seem mildly interested in what you have to say. So then, of course, you pop the question. You ask them to marry you. And then they get [...]

4 Must-Haves for Must-Have Brands

branded tattoo

When money’s tight, people look at their budget and separate things into two columns: must-have and might-have. And lately, branded goods haven’t been making it into the latter column as much as they used to, as a recent Harris Poll has found that 62% of people are making the choice to go “generic” instead of [...]

The Best Practice is Practice

best practice is practice

We spend a lot of time reading how-to articles, case studies, and best practices. We want to make sure we’ve got the best advice and the surest path to success. We want to see how others have conquered problems in the hopes of replicating their success. And who can blame us? We don’t want to [...]

Keep Your Brand Promise: An Argument for Less Cowbell

keep your brand promise no more cowbell

There’s probably a specific reason your customers love you. It may not be glamorous, it may not be pretty, but it’s real. And it’s the reason you’ve earned their devotion. But time after time, organizations will abandon their core in order to chase the proverbial shiny object de jour. The notion is perfectly illustrated in [...]

The Truth About Branding (And Nothing But The Truth)

robin fisher roffer of big fish marketing

AMC’s hit television drama Mad Men is famous for its depiction of the hard-drinking, hard-working Madison Avenue ad man—the Don Drapers and Roger Sterlings of the world who churned out corporate slogans over pre-noon cocktails and pulls on their Lucky Strikes. The daughter of an ad man who grew up in the late sixties and [...]

Solve Problems for Your Customers with Content, Don’t Create New Ones

don't create new problems with content

We in marketing love us some big ideas. Attention-getting, jaw-dropping, breathtaking ideas that captivate our audience and sway them into taking action. It’s how we get noticed. It’s how we win awards. It’s how we achieve ROI. Or so we think. On paper, the ideas we come up with are brilliant. The storyboard is compelling. [...]

The Lifespan of Social Media Content (Or, the Fish, the Stream, and the Shore)

life and times of social media content

There are a lot of analogies being passed around when it comes to where to publish social media content: “Fish where the fish are.” (You should focus efforts predominately on Facebook and Twitter.) “Don’t get lost in the stream.” (You should build your own presence, so you avoid getting lost on Facebook and Twitter.) “Rent, [...]

Why Content Matters

lori rosen custom content council

Lori Rosen is executive director of the Custom Content Council (CCC), a membership organization representing nearly 90 publishers of custom print and online media. Rosen and several members of her organization are fresh from the CCC’s annual meeting in Charleston, S.C., where new research showed that 81 percent of chief marketing officers said they planned [...]

6 Content Marketing Lessons from Warren Buffett

content marketing warren buffett

Warren Buffett would have made an excellent blogger. Unfortunately, he’s too busy finding places to stack his piles of money to give it a shot but he really could have been something special. He’s been through highs and lows in the stock market, and has always managed to come out on top. Along the way [...]

6 Social Media Marketing Roadblocks and How to Plow Through Them

content marketing roadblocks

The race is on.   Social media provides a track for organizations to connect with their audience like never before. But the road is not always smooth. A recent survey by HiveFire highlighted 6 of the most common roadblocks that hinder progress for organizations when it comes to implementing their social media marketing initiatives:

The Future of Marketing: Cling to Your Core and Your Customers

cling to your customers

Robin Fisher Roffer is a marketing force to be reckoned with. She’s crafted campaigns for brands people use and rely on every day. CNN using their Gulf War moment to launch into the permanent limelight? Her lightbulb. The evolution of the FX brand? Yep, hers, too. Bloomberg Television’s web expansion? Uh huh. And, oh yeah, [...]

Sign of the Times: Content Professionals Weigh in on the NYT Paywall

content professionals react to nyt paywall

The iron curtain of content is coming. Sort of. Ok, so maybe it’s more like a chain-link fence. Regardless of its structural integrity, one thing is certain: the New York Times will finally erect its long-awaited paywall. Here’s how it works:

What the Top 10 Blogs in Content Marketing Are Doing That You Probably Aren’t

what the best content marketing blogs do that you probably don't

If you want to have one of the most-read blogs in all of content marketing, the formula is actually pretty simple. All you have to do? Write 2.4 posts per day with an average word count of 1,278 every day for the next 6.7 years. Think you have the stamina?

4 Secrets to Building a Good Website

secrets to a good website

Eureka moments can happen anywhere. Mark Zuckerberg first tinkered with the code that would spark the social media revolution in his Harvard dorm room. Harry Potter came to J.K. Rowling in a dream. Howard Schultz envisioned a coffee empire while standing in line at a café in Milan. In the case of Schultz, the Brooklyn-bred [...]

5 Editorial Resolutions for 2011

5 Editorial Resolutions for 2011

I’m not learning to tango in 2011. Nor am I going to take a painting or sculpting class. And I probably won’t get around to climbing Kilimanjaro. But I did jot down five things that I’m going to keep in mind as my staff and I map out the year ahead. (Yeah, I know—it’s hard [...]

Content, In Style

burberry and branding

When you think of Burberry, what comes to mind? Stodgy British trench coats? Hardly. In the last four years, the 150-year-old brand has transformed itself into a digital fashion empire, with CEO Angela Ahrendts as the driving force behind the evolution. The result is a record year for the brand, with total revenue up 21% [...]

Why Your Homepage May Matter Less Than You Think

front door of website

Think of the last time you worked on a website redesign. Excitement was in the air. Brains were storming and being picked. And there was a lot of talk about what should be included on the homepage. But was it too much talk?

Shred the RFP

shred the rfp

Relying on an RFP process can often lead to you selecting the company that is the best at responding to RFPs, not necessarily the company that is best at creating and implementing a custom media strategy. So, how can you whittle down the options without an RFP? Focus on these nine best practices to choose [...]

← Previous Entries

Next Entries →