In a recent post on content marketing strategy, Britt Klontz described a common problem: Helpful content is often scattered across a website, getting posted in multiple locations (and in multiple formats) rather than in a structured, centralized place. The solution, she contends, is to create a resource center: “Essentially, a resource center is a site within a site, where all of your content is organized.” Continue Reading

More is always better, right? It would only make sense. More space permits you to share more information. More time permits you to write better. And more options permit you to share your message with greater impact.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way, especially in today’s fast-moving content marketing world. Effective content marketing requires getting your message out in a timely and consistent manner. Success requires ongoing productivity — not just isolated moments of brilliance.Continue Reading

Several exceptionally helpful, relevant books have hit the market since my last round-up of recommended books for content marketers.

The seven books outlined below complement essential content marketing guides like Joe Pulizzi’s Epic Content, Jay Baer’s Youtility and Andy Crestodina’s Content Chemistry. Though they offer a narrower perspective than the above books, they compensate by going deeper into specialized topics that are essential for successful content marketing, such as creativity, presentations, productivity and visual thinking.Continue Reading

With blogging becoming a key content marketing activity, it’s crucially important that businesses large and small work as efficiently as possible in order to create a continuing flow of fresh, relevant blog content.

The more you blog, the more you need a simple, scalable way to track your previous blog posts and plan your future blog content.Continue Reading

Books make perfect gifts for content marketers, whether they’re family, friends, coworkers, or your staff. Similar to last year’s holiday gift book guide, here are some of the best content marketing books published in 2013 — any of these would be a great resource for advancing your skills and achieving greater success in your content marketing efforts.

All in all, 2013 has been an exceptional year for well-produced books filled with fresh insights from both established authors and newcomers. The following titles (arranged alphabetically by primary author’s last name) can make significant contributions to all content marketing professionals, whether they work in corporate, agency, or self-employed settings. Continue Reading

I’ve been fascinated by previous articles about content marketing team building and, especially, the frequent emphasis placed on recruiting ex-journalists to your content marketing team.

However, I think content marketers are overlooking a significant resource: former teachers. Here are some of the general characteristics that make experienced educators excellent candidates to fill a content marketing job. Continue Reading

In my opinion, one of the most important posts on content marketing this year was Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose’s, Build a Successful Content Marketing Strategy in 7 Steps.

The post remains significant, not only because of its content (which includes a concise summary of the Content Marketing Institute’s philosophy), but also because it introduces the white paper they coauthored: The CMI Content Marketing Framework: 7 Building Blocks to Success.

This Framework is an example of white paper marketing at its very best. Just 10 pages long, it concisely communicates the principles that drive CMI. It also reflects a perfect partnership between text and graphics. Continue Reading

As Joe Pulizzi emphasized in a recent article describing the 5 essentials involved in creating content perfection, success involves both the creation and curation of helpful, relevant content.

Yet, in our era of limited time and budget resources, how do you measure the quality of your day-to-day and week-to-week content curation efforts? As Joe writes, “Your job, like that of a museum curator, is to unearth the best content on the planet in your niche, so that your museum doesn’t close down for a lack of visitors.”

To help you as a content curator to gauge the quality and consistency of your content curation efforts, I’ve created the simple worksheet below. Here, find out how you can use it to score your ability to discover, share, and improve your efforts to create “the best content marketing on the planet” on an ongoing basis. Continue Reading