Jodi Harris is director of content strategy at Informa Connect. She describes her role as a combination of strategic alchemist, process architect, and creative explorer. Jodi previously served as director of editorial content at Content Marketing Institute and spent over a decade developing and managing content initiatives for clients in the entertainment, CPG, health care, technology, and biotech industries, as well as agencies and media brands. Follow her on Twitter at @Joderama.
Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate! Even if this U.S. holiday isn’t really your thing, it’s a great time to think about all we have to be thankful for.
Despite all the compounded challenges of the past 18 months, brands have risen to the occasion, innovating their approaches to forge stronger audience connections.Continue Reading
Your videos can’t just sell and tell. They need to resonate on a human level – reflecting your audience’s personal perspectives and real-life experiences, speaking to them as humans, and giving them a sense of belonging and community.
The increased demand for video and other visual content that communicates both clarity of purpose and authentic compassion was a hot topic of conversation at Content Marketing World 2021.
The advice shared by our expert speakers is worth seeing for yourself – there’s still time to catch these sessions on demand. I’ve gathered some highlights here.Continue Reading
You might not consider customer retention the primary goal in your content marketing strategy. After all, you can’t retain customers if you haven’t acquired them, and no business can reach future revenue targets with nothing but last year’s receipts.
But you may want to think again. As CMI founder Joe Pulizzi says, it makes sense to make your current customers’ informational needs and pain points your top content marketing priority: “Only after you perfect the loyalty experience and turn customers into evangelists should you look at other parts of the buyer’s journey.”Continue Reading
Most of the work we do as marketers is focused on the future – predicting it, transforming our businesses to succeed in it, and helping our customers solve their expected challenges.
Yet, the overarching theme at Content Marketing World (among the many takeaways around innovative technologies and practical guidance) sprang from something powerful and ancient – the emotions, experiences, and need for personal connection all humans share.Continue Reading
No matter how successful your content is, you can always identify and pursue optimization opportunities and use your analytics data to guide you.
Unfortunately, even the most experienced content marketers struggle to track the most helpful metrics and access, organize, and interpret the data. Even minor miscalculations can take content performance in the wrong direction.Continue Reading
People are innately wired to connect and develop relationships – it’s one of our most fundamental needs as humans.
Face-to-face networking at industry events is fundamental for professional survival. (And advancements in virtual events mean face-to-face is no longer synonymous with in-person.)
Whether in the same physical or digital space, you can gain valuable contacts at conferences.
Of course, not everyone is a networking natural; and even the most socially adept conversationalists can struggle to find the right people to talk with, strike up and sustain useful conversations, or turn sparks of interest into solid business opportunities after the event is over. Continue Reading
When your content marketing program is starting, almost anything is likely to make a positive impact on your audience and your business goals. With minimal effort, you might see new consumers engaging with your business, brand conversations picking up speed, website visits increasing, or even more leads and sales inquiries rolling in.
As time goes on, you may find progress slows or stops altogether. Some of the causes may be things beyond your control, such as the competition for audience attention, shifts in consumption behaviors, or evolving consumer trends and needs. But some of the reasons are within your control. Even minor mistakes and missteps can throw your entire content program out of whack.
Here are four common mistakes often made by content marketing teams, along with signs, symptoms, and corrective actions to put your content engine back on course.Continue Reading
Updated Sept. 7, 2021
No matter how much time and care you put into your strategy, editorial plans and processes, and content, your brand’s potential for success often lives or dies by your distribution and promotion choices.
The distribution phase is where you put your goals, audience insights, tactical choices, and creative executions to the test. And with so many media channels and platforms and so many messages competing for your audience’s attention, you also need to promote your content (through social media or other paid and unpaid techniques) to fulfill its marketing promise.Continue Reading
Many skilled and experienced marketers still struggle to understand what’s so difficult about content marketing.
On the surface, it seems deceptively simple: You get some writers and designers together, create compelling content, publish it where your audience is likely to find it, and wait for the customer calls and purchases to roll in.
But eventually, you realize doing this bare minimum won’t get you far. A lot more work needs to happen behind the scenes to deliver initial success – and keep it properly fueled, focused, and functional over the long term. And that doesn’t even include securing buy-in for your content marketing business case in the first place.
There’s no quick or easy shortcut for achieving success with content. But there is a reliable process that, according to CMI’s 2021 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends research, 60% of the most successful B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy. That strategy should center on three key pillars:Continue Reading
Updated Aug. 24, 2021
No matter how well thought your strategy is and how much buy-in and budget you secure, the success of your content marketing program ultimately hinges on a single, critical component: having the talent to execute your plans.
That puts skilled writers in a position of power. Despite the looming specter of artificial intelligence bots, even the most sophisticated systems aren’t yet equipped to match the emotional depth and resonance of a story crafted with care by humans (though they’re getting closer).
