It seems everyone is jumping on the content marketing bandwagon these days. Even though we are indeed all publishers today, and that content marketing is now a core and growing part of the marketing toolkit for the majority of brands out there, there are times when brands need to say no. Yeah, I said...

The quest for the right mix of content on a corporate site is the holy grail for marketing groups. In a very common scenario, marketing  departments are given the budgets to develop content, and they create marketing material that is clean, crisp and clear. They plan content so that visitors are led...

Meet Lou. Lou is a marketing manager for XYZ Corp. Lou receives new website content from his copywriter and sends it to the internal team to review. The sales manager emails him afterward. “I love it!” he says. “I have just a few small changes to make.” Lou’s brain twitches....

Maintaining a successful business blog is easier when you have clarity and a plan. Yet so many of my clients and business associates just start blogging. They’re full of inspiration and passion. …And I always say “Go fer it, blog on!” A few months down the road I see them limping along,...

Is it possible that a tour guide can teach you a thing or two about your “About” page? Yessiree, it certainly is possible. How so?Continue reading

One of the most powerful forms of content marketing is the ebook. Never before has a medium allowed an idea (or a product) to spread instantly to millions of consumers the way that the Web does. Ebooks are true examples of content marketing at work, and they hold the potential to influence many thousands...

Though it’s said you can’t judge a book by its cover, you can decide if you want to read it – especially if the book we’re talking about is a magazine. Think about it. Given the choice, if you’re waiting at the doctor’s office with nothing to do, and you see two health magazines on the table in front...

How important is video to your content marketing strategy? If you guessed “Very,” then you are correct! (*Ding ding ding* We have a winner!) Video has increasingly become a mainstay medium for distribution and consumption of content online, and it continues to grow in popularity, scope,...

Creating good content is hard work. Don’t make it harder than it needs to be. With a bit of effort, you will likely find that plenty of valuable content already exists within your own organization–you just need to train your eyes to see it.  Continue reading

There’s plenty of discussion about the lack of alignment between sales and marketing. But less is said about the smaller misalignments that threaten to derail content-development projects – or at the very least, greatly minimize the ultimate impact of content assets such as white papers and eBooks....

Below is the presentation I gave at the Web Content 2010 conference, the leading US conference covering the art and discipline of content strategy. First, how do we develop a higher purpose for our company? Our brand purpose should: be elegantly simple be crystal clear be innately inspirational have...

What’s the first step to becoming a content marketer? You need to think like one. Sounds basic, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. Content marketing can’t thrive in some environments While having a content marketing mindset may sound simple in theory, I regularly meet sophisticated...