Before I launched my business, I read the Bootstrapper’s Bible by Seth Godin.  It was and is invaluable. Every year or so, I dig it out of the file folders and re-read it.  I always find something new…something I didn’t realize the last time through. But every time, this is the statement...

As we all know, the Internet has enabled a wide range of marketing channels and methods. And ever since YouTube burst onto the scene in 2005, online video has become one of the leading methods for distributing marketing content. ReelSEO.com reports that in the course of 2009, the percentage of small...

There’s a great quote that I love that says, “Budgeting is just a way to worry about money before you spend it.”  As you get ready to move into the planning season for your 2011 budget, it’s a good time to start thinking about things you might do to increase your chances of getting increased...

Had an outstanding conversation with Mark Levy yesterday (who among other things is author of Accidental Genius). Mark gave me a crash course in something called free writing.  Free writing, also called stream-of-consciousness writing, is a writing technique where you write for a set period of time without...

As a content marketer, one of the audiences you need to be aware of is your linking audience. This consists of the individuals who publish, curate, report on, discuss, argue about and share info about your target market. This audience can include competitors as well as non-competing trade publications,...

Last month, I participated in Web Content 2010 (here is the presentation on higher purpose content marketing). Someone (who asked not to be named) sent me a number of tweets from that event that they found inspiring from my presentation.  I thought I’d share them here.  Enjoy! Create a brand message...

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...

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...

You probably think of Thomas Edison as a great innovator, but did you know he was also a brilliant marketer? He foresaw the creation and evolution of markets, and he worked passionately to bring his beliefs to life. While Edison didn’t use content marketing as we know it today to spread his ideas, there...

There’s a very important line at the beginning of the movie The Godfather II. Just after Michael Corleone, The Godfather (played by Al Pacino) gets shot at, he sits down his brother Tom Hagan and talks about an important lesson from his father. One thing I learned from my father is to try to think...

I’m really excited to announce the launch of the Content Marketing Institute (CMI). The idea of CMI is simple – while there are a lot of great blogs, books and experts out there in and around content marketing, there are still so many questions. How do I develop a content marketing strategy? How...

A blog post is like a miniskirt. It has to be short enough to be interesting, but long enough to cover the subject. courtesy of my friend Henry