The greatest challenge facing content marketers is the production of the content itself. The 2010 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends Study shows this clearly: The biggest content marketing challenge identified was “producing engaging content” (36 percent) followed by the very...

Get ready to hear a lot more about Klout in the next few months. What is Klout?  In basic terms, Klout measures your online influence and your ability to drive interaction on the web. My good friend Drew McLellen wrote this excellent overview of Klout, but the power can be summed up in this paragraph: There...

With the latest figures showing that WordPress now powers around 22 percent of new active websites in the U.S. according to this TechCrunch article, it’s a good time to take a look at some tricks for using this CMS to optimize your site content  with a little help from you, the savvy content marketer.Continue...

Justin Bieber is currently one of the biggest pop stars in the world, but the question is, how did he get so big, so quickly? Fellow musician and singer Usher had a big part in making this happen by signing Bieber to his label, but other influences played just as big a part in helping him explode onto...

Social networks and search engines have changed the behavior of Intel’s business marketing audience of IT managers who are  constantly searching for information and evaluating new technologies even when they are not purchasing them. As marketers, we need to engage with them on topics they care about...

Out of 42 different content marketing tactics, the CMI Content Marketing Playbook and CMI community ranked testimonials as one of the top 10 tactics. Testimonials can definitely give your content that extra boost — and credibility —your audience is looking for. But here’s the thing: Receiving testimonials...

I had the pleasure of presenting to over 100 HVAC contractors today at HVAC Comfortech 2011 on how they can position themselves as THE home comfort services expert in their region. The central theme of the presentation was blogging. First off, blogging is just a tool...nothing more, nothing less.  But...

We’ve all heard of the 80/20 rule. You know, the one that states 20 percent of causes are responsible for 80 percent of results. For example, 80 percent of support calls are placed by 20 percent of users; 80 percent of speeding tickets are “explained” by the same 20 percent of excuses; or its original...

With the dizzying array of digital platforms — and the increasingly interconnected and social nature of those platforms — you have to have a strategic plan for managing your content efforts that goes beyond the “content is king” rallying cry. Publishing giants and local email newsletters, ...

In today’s hyper-competitive world, typical white papers and webinars are no longer enough to attract qualified leads. We’re all overwhelmed with data and facts. Adding more to the pile simply doesn’t work. So what makes some content offers stand out above the rest? It all comes down to perceived value...

If you did not hear the news, a few weeks ago Google purchased Zagat, one of the largest and most respected media companies devoted to restaurant reviews (see the company announcement here).  Most reviews of the buyout, like this one from the NY Times, were focused on how Zagat’s user-generated...

“The best part? It’s beatable.” – Kevin Spacey’s character, describing blackjack in the film, 21 A while back, those skilled in the art of counting cards were able to walk into a casino, mosey up to a table, and take the house for all it was worth. Eventually, as we know, the house caught on, and state-of-the-art...