More and more, I am hearing marketers talk about how they have a strategy . . . and then proceed to say they are set because they have an editorial calendar.

At the risk of sounding ranty, I’d love to yell from the rooftops: An editorial calendar is not a content marketing strategy!

While this conflict may seem like an issue of semantics, the confusion and meshing of these terms point to a bigger issue.Continue Reading

Are you feeling in a rut with your marketing? Or are you looking to be energized? I turn to these quotes – from inside and outside our industry – when I need an injection of inspiration. I share this compilation to help you think differently about your content, focus on doing less, prioritize the important, and give yourself space to create.Continue Reading

For the past 10 years, Fast Company has published its list of the 50 most innovative companies. As Joe Pulizzi recently mentioned on the PNR podcast, all content marketers should study this list. (His favorite example from the list, which he detailed, is BuzzFeed.)

Tea in hand, I browsed the March 2017 issue. While the entire issue is worth a read, my favorite examples for content marketers are below. As you will see, many of these businesses have been built and expanded using the fundamental content marketing practices we have talked about for years (they’re great to use when you need to get support or build a business case). Other businesses are implementing ideas we marketers can learn from.Continue Reading

Web content and blog articles. We all need them, but what do we do with them as their numbers grow (and grow)?

It’s easy to get overwhelmed. How do you keep your content up to date? Which pages should you focus on? And what should you even do with the pages you are tracking?Continue Reading

Are you looking for ways to get your content out there while saving time? If so, have you considered republishing your best-performing posts?

This past year, we experimented with republishing our best posts on CMI. Thus far, the results are impressive. The republished posts perform well in terms of traffic, social shares, and email conversions. Additionally, they save our editorial team time. Continue Reading

While you can use the data from Google Analytics in infinite ways, you need to understand the four most helpful reports for your content marketing – traffic, navigation summary, traffic from organic search, and conversions.

Once you understand what this data is and how to track it, you’ll be able to mix and match insights to take advantage of opportunities with your web-based content, driving more traffic to your website and (more importantly) doing more with the traffic you have.Continue Reading

When Michael Jr., a Content Marketing World keynote presenter, took the stage, he admitted, “This is not my audience at all.” While this may sound like an inauspicious beginning, within a few minutes, there was a palpable shift in the room as the audience truly focused its attention – and turned off devices – to hear what he had to say next.

One of the key messages from Michael Jr.’s act is a simple statement: “When you understand your ‘why,’ your ‘what’ has more purpose.” By that he means, when you understand why you’re telling a particular story or – even more elemental – why your business exists, then your story or message can be on note.Continue Reading

Editor’s note: With so many things requiring your attention, it’s tough to know how to spend your time. This update of a previously published post shares one suggestion of how you should invest your time. 

You.

That’s the topic of my post today. You.

Last year, I participated in a panel for the Detroit Content Strategy Meetup, and one of the questions posed by our moderator, Chris Moritz, was this:Continue Reading