Sometimes it helps to take a step back and browse favorite websites for inspiration. In that spirit, the Content Marketing Institute offers its "100 Content Marketing Examples Guide," sharing how companies big and small, from various locations and industries, are producing successful marketing campaigns across multiple channels. Check it out and add your favorites.

Anna Ritchie shares her marketing team's recent webinar promotion across four different marketing channels -- LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and blogs -- specifically sharing how they effectively tailored their approach to best suit each of the social sharing platforms.

The cute, cuddly Panda bear has struck again. In the midst of Google’s latest algorithm change, many marketers are in a tizzy over how their search engine presence — and ranking — will be impacted. The SEO game keeps changing, and as a content marketer it’s important to understand what the changes are and how to use them to stay competitive. The latest change is actually designed to reward, not punish content writers (or at least the ones who are doing their jobs well). In a recent press release, Google states, “Search results, like warm cookies right out of the oven… are best when they’re fresh.” This time around, the algorithm change is designed to place relevance on the quantity of new content a site contains (remember, the focus of the Panda update earlier this year penalized low-quality content, and content farms). It’s been projected that these latest changes will impact 35 percent of all search queries. Continue reading

Becoming a thought leader isn’t something that happens overnight; for many companies, it doesn’t ever happen. However, in order to achieve the status of “go-to-resource” for a particular industry or market segment, your company will need to work day-in and day-out on its concerted efforts. (For background, read Michael Brenner’s piece on what thought leadership is and why you need it.) The most common way for companies to reach this enviable position is with a concrete content marketing strategy that’s designed to build trust with your target audience. How daunting and elusive does that feel, though? Build trust? How do you even start? Trust is something that can be built through education, engagement, and content. One way I’ve seen companies succeed at this is by building a content-driven online community packed with the valuable information your audience seeks in the ways they want to consume it. Here are some content steps a community-manager can take to host a site that builds trust...

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the need to add flavor and personality to your content marketing pieces by establishing your content style. An engaging content style is key to ensuring your messages are resonating with your target audience, but style can vary greatly, depending on what voice you need to use.Continue reading

There’s a little flip book of inspirational quotes that sits on my desk (in addition to the piles of files, hand-written notes and haphazard to-do lists) opened to a page that reads, “Content is of great importance, but we must not underestimate the value of style” (Maya Angelou). But as any writer knows, sometimes “style” is hard to incorporate into your corporate messages.Continue reading