Jodi Harris is director of content strategy at CMI. She describes her role as a combination of strategic alchemist, process architect, and creative explorer. Prior to this role, Jodi spent over a decade developing and managing content initiatives for brand clients in the entertainment, CPG, health care, technology, and biotech industries, as well as for agencies and media brands. Follow her on Twitter at @Joderama.
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).
Updated Aug. 16, 2021
It may not be trending like TikTok or offering the thrill of listening in on a celebrity group conversation like Clubhouse. However, Instagram still reigns among the most powerful and provocative platforms for social media content marketing.
With plenty of creative possibilities, targeting opportunities, and personalization potential, the visual-centric site offers plenty of ways to connect with high-profile tastemakers, break through the competitive noise, and build active, engaged communities.Continue Reading
Who doesn’t love immersing themselves in a compelling video?
Our collective passion for this engaging medium has spurred numerous innovations in just the past few years, from DIY-friendly mobile filming and editing tools to video-centric social channels like Twitch and TikTok to more intelligent automated systems that can make scalable, data-rich video campaigns a breeze to create and deploy.
Updated July 27, 2021
Before online influencer marketing became a major thing (and way before it was legitimized as a structured technique or a lucrative career path), it was known as word-of-mouth marketing.
As a kid, I learned about the concept by way of a popular commercial for Faberge Organics, in which a smiling Heather Locklear shared her secret for bouncy hair with two friends, who in turn told two friends, and so on, and so on …
Though the underlying mechanisms of the “tell-a-friend” technique remain largely unchanged, social media has fueled its evolution into a strategic discipline infinitely more targeted, impactful, and scalable than anything the 1980s Faberge’s marketing team could have predicted.Continue Reading
