Mike Murray has shaped online marketing strategies for hundreds of businesses since 1997, including Fortune 500 companies. A former journalist, he has led SEO studies and spoken at regional and national Internet conferences. Founder of Online Marketing Coach, Mike is passionate about helping clients identify their best opportunities for online marketing success based on their strengths, his advice and industry trends. You can find him at his blog, Online Marketing Matters or on Twitter @mikeonlinecoach.
SEO page titles cause their fair share of confusion among B2B and B2C content marketers. In the old days, it was easy to throw a bunch of words in there with commas and rank well for some of those keyword phrases.
The SEO page title still carries weight, but other ranking variables matter as well. If the quality and quantity of inbound links had to go head to head with SEO page titles in a strange Internet game, the links would crush the titles.Continue Reading
Big companies can make huge gains with reasonably small adjustments to their SEO and content marketing strategies. The opportunities are staring them in the face. They just need to update existing content and be willing to create new website pages.
In my new study, Big Businesses Fall Short with SEO and Content Marketing, I took a close look at the Fortune 100 to size up how they’re dealing with basic SEO tactics for their website content. Their performance isn’t surprising on some levels. They command No. 1 rankings on Google and often fall safely on the first page of Google search results.Continue Reading
Editor’s note: Because great writing and technology continue to evolve and are essential in any successful content marketing plan, we’ve updated this post.
Consuming great writing is like listening to a great singer. If the performer makes an emotional connection with me – even though she misses a few notes – I eagerly listen to the rest of the song and anticipate the next performance.
I share helpful lessons on powerful and effective text with seven real-life examples, then provide 10 content writing tips and many more tools to help you win over as many of your readers as possible.Continue Reading
Time-strapped, budget-conscious B2B and B2C marketers can’t afford to make unwise choices with SEO and content marketing.
You won’t find a do-everything-for-me software product, but you can make excellent progress by continually asking these questions:Continue Reading
If you want to produce great content, it’s time to leave ordinary in the dust.
By the time you’re ready to promote your latest creation, you may distribute it in a popular medium like a PDF or a deck that makes its way to SlideShare. But the content itself also needs to be so exceptional that it commands attention — even in a crowded and competitive environment.Continue Reading
Editor’s note: Because blog marketing continues to evolve and is essential in any successful content marketing plan, we’ve updated this post.
Success at blog marketing depends on myriad content, design, technical, and promotional factors. Though it would be prohibitively exhausting to excel at all of them simultaneously, the good news is that there are many small changes you can make that can significantly improve the success of your blog content over the long term.
Whether you’re just starting to explore the world of blog marketing, looking to spruce up the look and feel of your existing blog, or are ready to take your efforts and expertise to the next level, the 57 tips on this handy checklist will support your journey to blogging success.Continue Reading
Creating quality brand stories requires skill, insight, and ongoing effort — it’s definitely not something that can be mastered overnight. But even if you had all of the time in the world, your brand’s business storytelling efforts probably won’t get any easier to develop and manage unless you have the right strategic plan in place.
What is business storytelling anyway? Definitions abound, but basically it boils down to brands sharing their messages in ways that engage audiences and drive them to take a desired action (like making a purchase, calling a sales person, downloading or subscribing to content, etc.).Continue Reading
“All the words I use in my stories can be found in the dictionary — it’s just a matter of arranging them into the right sentences.” — Somerset Maugham
I like Maugham’s understated way of referencing the skill and effort that goes into writing. But as content creators know, it takes more than just good grammar skills and a flair for words to be successful at marketing and web content creation. So, as we collectively kick off our web content creation efforts for 2014, I thought it would be helpful to compile some of the best practices CMI contributors have shared for web content creation — including a few observations based on my own personal experience.Continue Reading
Online marketers have many options as they create and refine their web content strategy.
Content Marketing Institute’s many contributors have offered a diverse range of ideas, tools, and guiding principles on how best to handle web content, including tips on how to achieve better conversions.Continue Reading
Content curation certainly has its supporters and detractors. Some suggest that it’s no different than aggregation, while advocates contend that it’s another way to share timely information and insights that support a brand and its corporate marketing goals.
Content Marketing Institute has covered the topic extensively from a number of angles. The following (curated!) collection is designed to give brands one-stop access to a diverse range of ideas and information to help them manage their content curation efforts. Continue Reading
