Ann Gynn edits the CMI blog. Ann regularly combines words and strategy for B2B, B2C, and nonprofits, continuing to live up to her high school nickname, Editor Ann. Former college adjunct faculty, Ann also helps train professionals in content so they can do it themselves. Follow Ann on Twitter @anngynn or connect on LinkedIn.
We’ve all been there.
You attend a retreat designed to prompt innovative ideas. You participate in a focus group. Or perhaps you met with a consultant or internal strategist. Maybe you joined a brainstorming session in your department.
The gathering concludes with hope. People are inspired. Action plans or next steps may be discussed.Continue Reading
No one needs a reminder of how hard it is to predict the future with any accuracy. Still, you probably feel pressed to try. After all, it’s your job to keep up with (or, if you’re lucky get ahead of) audience preferences and industry shifts.
That’s why CMI chief strategy advisor Robert Rose put hard questions about the future of content to a panel of industry leaders. Their conversation in a webinar offers a sneak peek at the discussions expected at ContentTECH Summit later this month.Continue Reading
Your great content deserves a publicist.
A public relations strategy built around your content helps both PR and marketing teams meet their goals (which should, in turn, support business goals). It gives your PR colleagues a reason to talk about your brand in the media. It expands your content’s reach to new audiences through earned media coverage. And it increases opportunities to earn backlinks from authoritative sites, which could help your SEO rankings.
A PR strategy for your content should be an easy internal sell – it uses existing resources to obtain free distribution for the content you’re already creating. You can’t get more budget-friendly than that.Continue Reading
While painters and sculptors create the art, museum curators select the pieces to include in an exhibit.
The best curators understand the museum’s mission and audience and choose stories to create an experience that will draw in and engage visitors. They decide which artists to highlight and how to present the information for their audiences to consume.Continue Reading
Updated April 25, 2022
“Please don’t read this article.”
That’s the unintentional plea made by content writer after content writer.
They craft a boring lead that would make even the most well-caffeinated person fall asleep. They spend hundreds of words to get to the point. They get so “creative” that they miss conveying the purpose of the article.
Ultimately, they tell potential readers to look elsewhere for interesting, valuable content.
I have read all types of leads – many good ones, too – in thousands of submissions to the Content Marketing Institute. I’ve been editing for more than 20 years – at a daily newspaper, a trade publication, a law firm, a content marketing agency, etc.
The universal truth is that too many people write ineffective leads.Continue Reading
It’s time to stand up for your content marketing operations.
Yes, physically get up from your chair. Ask your content marketing peers to do the same. Stand together every workday for no more than 15 minutes. Share what you’ve done in the past 24 hours, what you plan to do today, and what hurdles you’ve encountered that could hamper your progress.
This daily exercise is just one part of turning your team onto an Agile content marketing approach.Continue Reading
Many content marketers are asked to do more without getting more resources. With audience attention harder to capture than ever, how can a creative content team cope?
Go to Raising Cane’s and study the menu.
If you don’t have time to go or aren’t near one of the chain’s 500 restaurants in 27 states and five countries, I’ll explain. The restaurants sell:
Five things. That’s it.Continue Reading
Updated March 31, 2022
When Dianna Huff decided to create a Wikipedia page for her client’s technology, she had no idea what she was in for. Making updates to existing pages was simple. How hard could it be to create a new Wikipedia page?
Incredibly hard, as she found out. The lengthy process felt more akin to writing a college term paper than to writing marketing content, Dianna said.Continue Reading
You don’t have to rely on Google searches to find helpful and relevant content marketing blogs and educational or inspirational resources.
Your peers already have vetted many options. We asked the Content Marketing Institute community for their go-to resources and rounded out the list with a query on Help a Reporter Out.Continue Reading
Does your content strategy use the “luck” of the green?
If you publish evergreen content, it does.
Evergreen content feels like a lucky strike – reaching a person at the exact moment they need it. Devoting some percentage of the content you produce to evergreen topics helps you get the most from your content marketing investment. It also can generate growth in subscribers, followers, or customers by serving go-to help and guidance website visitors want.
Think of including evergreen content in your strategy as seeding a forest of opportunities for your brand’s content marketing.Continue Reading
