There is an old yarn that, when it comes to a ham and eggs breakfast, the chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. The most common question I get from clients when I recommend a healthy diet of content is, “And how is giving away content going to increase sales?” It can seem like content marketing...

So much has been written about content creation, and it’s easy to get excited about the possibilities. However, have you ever noticed that everyone is gung-ho when the project starts, but things fall apart months later? Do you find yourself asking the following questions: Why is there always a content...

According to a new Accenture study, more chief financial officers (CFOs) are expanding their role beyond finance in the wake of the recession. These new responsibilities mean CFOs are much more involved in the buying decision process, which is critically important for content marketers to understand...

Had the pleasure of listening to Pawan Deshpande, CEO of HiveFire, yesterday at the Content Marketing Strategies conference (I will be speaking on a panel with Pawan at SXSW and he will also be speaking at Content Marketing World). Pawan discussed the five steps to content curation and I wanted to share...

How social media use by one company uses internal conversations to increase trust and ultimately sales conversions. Case study featuring Facebook, Twitter, and blog.

Why is an influencer strategy so important? 1. It can help drive your social media execution. 2. It can be a core part of your search engine optimization strategy. 3. Ultimately, if done correctly, it will drive sales and position your organization as one of the leading experts in the field. There is...

At one time or another, we’ve all been there — stuck in a queue, waiting somewhere for something. Sitting, watching, waiting, looking at our watches. While waiting, maybe you nabbed a terribly wrinkled, outdated Sports Illustrated or People on the table or wall mounted magazine rack. Or maybe you...

Over the years, I’ve had many B2B manufacturing clients want to include what I refer to as “so what?” information on their Websites, blog posts and press releases. This “so what?” information includes seemingly useless facts such as the square footage of the manufacturing plant or that the company has...

“Courtship consists in a number of quiet attentions, not so pointed as to alarm, nor so vague as not to be understood” ~ Laurence Sterne Like courting a love interest, your content needs to show prospects you’re interested in more than just a quick sale. If you initiate conversation by talking about...

There are times when you need information from experts for your content. Subject matter experts are critical when creating compelling content. These are the people writers and marketers rely on to provide the background information or technical details that give your content authenticity and credibility...

Year 2000: I started working in the custom publishing business doing account management work – producing custom magazines and newsletters (mostly print) for B2B brands. Year 2001: First used the term “content marketing” while I was Penton Media (the largest independent trade media...

The groundbreaking Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends research from Junta42 and Marketing Profs showed the differences in content marketing tactics used across industries and by companies of all sizes. It was revealed that when it comes to content marketing, large companies (more than 1,000...