Tools are funny things. If you’re familiar with the problem you need to fix, and you understand how, when, and why to use each tool, they’re incredibly helpful. They save you time and money and help you do a truly professional-quality job. But if you just want to fill a big toolbox full of shiny new tools because you think it’s necessary for some vague reason, they’re a staggering waste of time and money. Building a new content marketing team or large-scale initiative is like building anything else. If you want to do a professional job, you need professional tools and you need to know how to use them. You don’t need to start with every tool—just start with what makes the most sense for your team and go from there. Continue reading

My daughter showed me a video about skin cancer on YouTube called “Dear 16-year-old me”.  It’s a great example of content that humanizes a difficult subject and effectively engages a target audience. At the very least, my 17-year old was watching it, sharing it, and talking about it along with a million or so other people. When I asked my daughter how she thought people would respond if the company just posted an article about melanoma on its website, I thought she’d say something like, “Nobody would read it”. Instead, her answer surprised me. She said, “Nobody goes to websites.” Continue reading

There’s been a ton of great discussion about content activities, methodologies and deliverables. For most of us, that makes up the bulk of our work. But if you don’t have a conceptual framework for those activities, I’d argue that you’re not really practising content strategy. Here are five ways to think about content strategy that will ensure your content efforts are always strategic. What is content strategy, anyway? Content strategy is not a single solution or deliverable. It’s a process and a mindset. If you approach your content marketing initiative knowing that it will constantly evolve, and that you’re guiding its evolution, then you’re practising content strategy. Continue reading

If you’re putting together a new content marketing strategy, you know how much work there is to do. With your attention pulled in so many directions, it’s surprisingly easy to forget about defining specific content requirements. Too many companies just set their employees loose to create articles or blog posts. While this isn’t necessarily the worst idea, it doesn’t support a clear focus for the content. You want your content to strike the right balance between being informative and entertaining while also making sure it supports a larger company strategy. When working with my clients, I take them through a series of exercises to help define the right content mix for their business.Continue reading