Every industry has them – the indefatigable ones. The people who seem to be everywhere doing everything every single day.

You see they’re speaking at conferences (sometimes more than one in the same week). You read their articles, newsletters, and even books. You hear them interviewed on podcasts and videos. You follow their conversations on social media.

And you wonder, “Where do they find the time?”

In the content marketing industry, many of those paragons of productivity happen to be speakers at Content Marketing World 2019. We asked several for their secrets. And they gladly shared.

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So many good ideas get published on this blog in a year that it’s nearly impossible for one person to absorb them all.

Examples from 2018 Content Marketer of the Year finalists were so inspiring they stayed with me. When it came time to offer up our latest batch of ideas to steal, I found it hard to pick just one from each. But I made myself do it.

I looked for ones that can be applied in all kinds of organizations – B2B, B2C, big, small, and everything in between. Now I hope you steal at least one of these ideas – and then make it grand for your brand.

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Every week, I have the privilege of editing a column from CMI Chief Strategy Advisor Robert Rose. Each one contains a gem of wisdom – sometimes more than one. Giving each a final polish is one of my favorite tasks.

That’s because Robert’s columns challenge me to think beyond how to do a content marketing task and even beyond how to do things better. Instead, he makes me think about why we content marketers do what we do and about the role of content, the job of content marketing, and what success really feels like.

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Some of the best gifts are those you don’t realize you need, but once opened, you immediately see how useful they can be.

Unsolicited advice doesn’t always fall into that welcome-gift category. But Andrew Davis’ Unsolicited Advice column in Chief Content Officer typically does. He gives an unsuspecting company the benefit of his keen insight into how marketers veer off course and suggests how to get back on track.

Andrew delivers his helpful perspective with a dose of humor and generous offers to help. We share it now in the hope the lessons bring you good cheer.
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It’s time for content marketers and content strategists to take back control of their visual content strategy.

That’s the message Buddy Scalera delivered in a Content Marketing World talk earlier this year. It’s a topic close to his heart. By day, Buddy works as a mild-mannered content strategist in the pharmaceutical industry. By night, he’s an avowed comics geek who consults for Marvel Comics and teaches and writes about visual content strategy.

But don’t worry. He’s not suggesting you upset your relationship with your creative services or visual design teams. He’s suggesting you wrest control of your visuals from Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

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“Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.”

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Want to be a better content marketer? Don’t overlook the importance of technology.

Need convincing? Consider this: CMI’s 2019 B2B research found that 67% of the most successful content marketers rated their organization’s content tech proficiency as expert or advanced. Only 5% of the least successful content marketers rate their organizations as expert or advanced in content tech proficiency.

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Did you catch Joe Pulizzi’s talk at Content Marketing World 2018? In it, he revealed the secrets of life and marketing (sorry if you missed it).

I won’t give everything away here, but I will let you in on one of the (no longer secret) secrets: Cut everything from your day that doesn’t get you to your goal.

“To be successful, we need to remove what’s in our way of doing the great things,” Joe says. “We have to clear away all the distractions.”

It’s great advice. And, as Joe notes, it serves people like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett well.

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