We’ve just added a new budgeting line item in our marketing plan: Content Marketing Research & Development (R&D). What’s the idea? Let’s start with the content marketing strategy.  Of course, we have: Customer Personas Their Informational Needs The Content Strategy Calls to Action Content Creation and Sourcing Key Distribution Points Syndication/Repurposing Opportunities Community-Building Activities Feedback Mechanisms and more Continue reading

I was reading a book last night with my two boys right before bedtime. In the story was a girl named Jan. Jan was new at school and was trying to make friends with the other children. Unfortunately, no one wanted to play with Jan, as she was left alone on the swing by herself during playtime. Why? Jan only talked about herself. She told the other children what a nice house she had; how many video games she had; about her cool dog who could do tricks; about how she was the most popular girl in her former school. It was all about Jan. And the kids didn’t just ignore her, they went out of their way to avoid her. Continue reading

Brian Solis and Vocus just released a research report about what marketing executives think of online influence. When asked what the single most important action a brand can take to increase their influence online, 50% of marketers answered – create and share compelling content. This research is in line with our recent findings that marketers are increasing their spending on content marketing. Continue reading

It never fails. Almost all the businesses we come in contact with continue to look for ways to promote their blog. Here is a handy list of common and some uncommon ways to market your blog. Promote it on your website. It’s surprising the number of small and large companies that actually have a blog, but it’s not promoted anywhere on the main site.  We like Top 42 blogger PR 20/20 that not only has the blog on the navigation, but also lists the latest three blogs along the right side of the website. Include the blog URL in your email signature. All employees are part of your marketing team today. Every time they send an email, it’s a marketing opportunity. Blog on Print. Put your blog address on your business cards, direct mail and print advertising. Fan Yourself. Many business owners forget to tell employees to fan their own sites on Facebook and Follow on Twitter.  Be sure employees know that you’d love if they shared relevant posts with their networks as well. Leverage...

I caught Paul Gillin’s column in B2B magazine yesterday on how curation is the new creation. This quote hit home: “…humans face a problem our species has never confronted before: We have too much information. Our challenge has shifted from finding what we need to filtering out what we don’t. Today, curation is nearly as important as creation.” Paul also points out that curation is as old as collecting itself.  It’s NOT new (although it’s the flavor of the month right now). Media companies have been curating content for centuries, but the idea of online content curation is something all content marketers need to consider as part of the content marketing plan. Why? Brands must position themselves as the trusted industry experts. To do that, curation must be part of the mix. Are you stuck on how exactly to do this?  If so, here are some ideas to chew on. Continue reading

Did you know… 9 of 10 B2B marketers leverage content marketing as part of their marketing programs? 51% of B2B marketers are increasing their spending in content marketing over the next 12 months? Over a quarter of the total marketing and communications budget now goes toward content marketing? Junta42 and MarketingProfs, along with American Business Media and the Business Marketing Association, just completed the most comprehensive survey about the practice of business-to-business content marketing ever produced. Continue reading

Download this free research from Junta42 and MarketingProfs to learn about the benchmarks, trends and budgets in B2B marketing in 2010.

For the past three years, social media has taken center stage for corporate marketers. In talking with many senior marketers, there was a drop everything mentality, meaning that many strategies within the integrated marketing realm were left on the sidelines while companies scrambled to figure out social media tactics, assign resources and determine why anyone would use Twitter. Over the summer, I had the opportunity to talk with marketers all over North America about their marketing plans and struggles. Of course, I heard the usual about social media, content creation, email and lead generation. To my surprise, though, there was talk about print.Continue reading

The answer is…Yes. According to a soon-to-be-released research report from MarketingProfs/Junta42, 55% of b-to-b marketers outsource some portion of their content marketing. Larger companies (1,000 employees or more) are 60% more likely to outsource than micro-companies (less than 10 employees). Makes sense, right?  Smaller companies with smaller budgets doing more with less resources. It may make sense, but business-wise, it’s not smart. In my opinion, 100% of companies should be outsourcing at least part of their content marketing. Don’t get me wrong…it’s natural to want to do everything ourselves. But get this…if we really want to position ourselves as the leading experts in our industry, we must outsource portions of our content marketing.  Why? Continue reading

The following is a guest post from Pam Kozelka, Junta42’s Director of Operations. My background is in social work.  I know that makes absolutely no sense, but as I got older and had kids I realized it wasn’t for me anymore (at least full time).  So now I dig content marketing and social media. I just read a post from MediaPost called It’s about the Consumer Stupid and it really resonated with me.  Here’s why. Lately a lot of the projects we have been getting at Junta42 are what we call content-only projects.  They are successful brands who know that they need good content to demonstrate thought leadership, or maybe to enhance their search engine rankings or social media, but these brands are not ready to take the leap to a full content strategy or a full turnkey project. It’s the “time to go get the content” strategy.  That means someone realized at the 11th hour that content was needed, but it wasn’t part of the plan in the first place. Why are we getting...

Okay…there, I said it. You’ll find no greater supporter of online content marketing than me, but marketers and agencies are talking up print for 2011. Yes, in the era of iPads and Apps, there is still a role for print. Jeff Jarvis recently wrote about how media companies need to ignore print. The physical costs of production and distribution are killing. The marketing cost of subscriber acquisition and churn are hellish. He’s right.  And if you are a media company that relies on most of your revenue for print, you need to post Jeff’s article on your forehead. But if you are a corporate marketer, there is an opportunity here. Here’s why: Continue reading

I spent my lunch hour today enjoying this video from Jason Calacanis about entrepreneurship. Toward the beginning of the video, Jason makes this comment: There are two types of people: Entrepreneurs and everyone else. Jason then goes on to talk about how entrepreneurs are Samurai’s and that people who work for other people without aspirations are like rice pickers. They settle. Tell us how you really feel Jason! For whatever you think about Jason’s comments, he is trying to make the point that the two groups, in general, have significantly different attitudes about what’s possible. Continue reading