June is the perfect time to reflect on your content and marketing strategy. What’s working? What isn’t? What needs to change going into the next season? What should we double down on?

But before you do. Take a deep breath. Pause.

Reflecting on anything in 2022 feels particularly challenging. COVID-19? Everybody’s got it. Global conflict? Almost as bad as can be. The economy? Slowing. Inflation? Rising. Ugly politics and unpopular decisions? Inevitable.Continue Reading

So many articles tout the advice to “know your why” that the phrase is now a marketing cliché. And, yup, this article will talk about that adage.

But there’s a twist. I think that advice steers content marketers wrong.

The idea of finding the “why” behind what you do caught on almost a dozen years ago due to Simon Sinek’s book (and accompanying Ted Talk) Start With Why.

From a marketing and brand lens, Sinek’s idea was simple: He claimed, “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.” Therefore, he suggested, brands should start their positioning with their why.Continue Reading

Once upon a time, I had a marketing boss who would ask me about our efforts at brand building: What were the results? What value did they add to the business?

My answer was always the same: “good things.”

In our 2022 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends research, we find 80% of marketers say “creating brand awareness” is the goal they achieved using content marketing. Interestingly, “building credibility and trust” is number two with 75%, “educating audiences” follows at 70%, and “building loyalty with existing clients/customers” is 60%.Continue Reading

My old boss, the CEO of a former employer, was one of the best salespeople I’ve ever known.

He could work a room, listening and knowing just the right thing to say to keep interest piqued and drive value in the conversation. Just as importantly, he knew exactly (and I mean exactly) when to end the meeting and walk out the door. It’s just like show business, “leave them wanting more.”Continue Reading

Should you try to personalize your content? Is it even possible?

Much of the content advice you’ll read says yes (while acknowledging how hard it is to do).

But a recent article in Marketing Week proclaimed personalization unachievable.

The authors cite two reasons to give up on personalization. The first is that real personalization is impossible because it assumes you have perfect data on every customer. The second “fatal flaw” (as they call it) is that personalization doesn’t work even if you have perfect data on everyone.Continue Reading

One of my favorite scenes in a movie is from Men In Black. Jay, played by Will Smith, is a new “man in black” and has just dealt with his first aliens. He asks his boss Kay, played by Tommy Lee Jones, why they don’t just tell the world that aliens exist. Kay says humans simply couldn’t handle it. Then, he adds this:

Fifteen hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was the center of the universe. Five hundred years ago, everybody knew the Earth was flat, and 15 minutes ago, you knew that humans were alone on this planet. Imagine what you’ll ‘know’ tomorrow.

He perfectly encapsulates that even though we humans can intellectually comprehend something new, it’s often difficult for us to take it in and make rational changes.
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Wanna start a fight among content marketers? Ask four content marketers whether blog posts should include the date of publication.

You’ll probably get five or more opinions. Yes, you read that right – at least one of the people you ask will likely have at least two opinions.

There are good arguments on both sides. I see the point made by those who say that you can’t correctly cite any content that isn’t dated. And I understand the argument that says including the date will eventually make your content seem old, even if it’s “evergreen.”Continue Reading

Many people talk (and write) about how the B2B marketing process has changed. But they overlook how the entire buying process has changed.

Volumes of research and points of view articles explore how digital marketing needs to change to meet the needs of the modern B2B buyer. Heck, I’ve written plenty of them.

But it’s not a one-way street. The Internet and associated digital technology have also upended the way B2B customers research and purchase things.

You’ll find it easier to adapt your B2B marketing process if you first understand how B2B buyers’ journeys have changed (and why).Continue Reading