I started in the publishing industry over a decade ago. At that time, we used an antiquated publishing strategy called the “three-legged stool.” The concept was that, in order to be the industry’s leading media content provider, we needed to be the expert provider of information using...

With just a couple Google searches, you quickly realize that while everyone is telling you to research your buyers, no one is telling you exactly how to do it. Some of your initial questions may include: What should I look for? What resources should I use?Continue reading

Do you want to use analytics more often to make decisions based on data instead of instinct? To do this, you not only need to have a good understanding of analytics, but you also need to present them to your team in a way that is useful to them. Last week we looked at why analytics programs are important...

Have you recently started a group blog or are you struggling to maintain one? In a comment on another blog I write for, Savvy B2B Marketing, someone recently told me he was starting a group blog and expressed this concern: “Our biggest challenge will probably be publishing a continuous flow of interesting...

Listened to Chris Baggott from Compendium talk yesterday at the AMA Content Marketing conference about the power of mixing social and search. Here are some stats from Chris that will get you thinking: 88% of clicks come from organic search (left side). The remaining 12% of clicks go to paid keywords...

How do you know if your content is hitting the mark? Not only does it need to get you on your prospects’ radar, but it ultimately needs to compel them to engage with you. To keep things simple, I suggest B2B marketers focus on three questions.Continue reading

“If people aren’t talking about you, they’re not talking about you for a reason. And the reason isn’t that they dislike you. They’re not talking about you because you’re boring.” ~ Seth Godin The formidable challenge for marketers of boring brands is that you have to present content that is remarkable...

First, I read this post from Seth Godin that made me think about the lost opportunity by many marketers, so focused on new media, that they forget the content marketing tactics that customers are actually engaging in.  But more on that in a second. Second, I spent the evening talking to HVAC contractors...

Why do you read the Content Marketing Institute blog? Is it to find out what services Joe Pulizzi and his team at CMI and Junta42 have to offer? Or are you more interested in their analysis of the latest trends, research and tips on content marketing? A “reader-centric” blog focuses on the...

All too often, I’ll ask a client a question, and they’ll readily have an answer. But when I question the answer and ask for a source, they’ll tell me, “We just know.” I don’t have to explain why this is SO wrong, and yet we all do it all the time. Instead of finding proof for our assumptions, we base...

A corporate blog can be a key component to any marketing strategy for B2C and B2B companies. Most corporate blogs are authored by multiple employees, which means your company will be able to create a larger volume of valuable content for your target audiences. Even though multiple authors spread out...

This article from Sports Illustrated intrigued me.  It’s a feature on Texas Ranger’s pitcher C.J. Wilson. In it, Wilson says “Talent is irrelevant…I’ve got much less natural talent than lots of other pitchers…I wasn’t even the best player on my Little League...