Content Marketing How-To Advice, Case Studies and Samples

What PIPA and SOPA Mean For Marketers

By Christine Dunn | Published: January 24, 2012

What PIPA and SOPA means for marketers Last week’s protests of SOPA and PIPA by Wikipedia, Google and other online companies not only publicized the debate about pirated content on the Internet but, for the marketing community, intensified concern about “fair use” of content and the laws governing copyrights, trademarks and patents. Read More »

Posted in Breaking News | 2 Comments

Author: Christine Dunn

Christine Dunn has almost two decades of experience writing about finance and business issues. As founder and president of Savoir Media, she works with companies and executives on developing strategic, integrated media and marketing programs. Prior to starting her award-winning company, she worked at Bloomberg News, where she served as Boston Bureau Chief and ran industry coverage for several national teams of reporters, including consumer/retail, mutual funds and education. She also authors "Dollar for Dollar," the personal finance blog on The Boston Globe's Boston.com website. Follow her on Facebook www.facebook.com/ChristineODunn or on Twitter @ChristineODunn.

How to Join the Ranks of Best-in-Class Content Marketers

By Stephanie Tilton | Published: January 24, 2012

What sets best-in-class marketers apart from average marketers? For starters, the best content marketers spend more, align with the buying cycle, and secure executive buy-in, according to the B2B Content Marketing: 2012 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends report, published by the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) and MarketingProfs.

Let’s review a few of your options for going from average to marketer par excellence.

Posted in How-To, Managing the Process, Social Media | Tagged Buyer Persona, Buying Cycle, Content Creation, Engagement | 6 Comments

Author: Stephanie Tilton

Stephanie Tilton is a content-marketing consultant who helps B2B companies craft content that engages prospects and customers, nurtures leads, and advances the buying cycle. You can follow her on Twitter @StephanieTilton or read more of her posts on Savvy B2B Marketing.

5 Places to Find Inspiring Content Ideas

By Louis Rix | Published: January 23, 2012

Content creation is a tricky beast. You may be given limited material to work with, yet you’re expected to constantly develop new content. The well goes dry sometimes, especially when you’ve written about the same topic three months in a row. So, how do you make sure your fountain of ideas never runs out?

The first thing you must do is expect to come up with new topics. When you’re weary of coming up with new ways of saying that Frank’s Floorng has the best deals in town, it’s easy to fall into the mindset that you won’t come up with any new ways to say it. That’s what we like to call a self-fulfilling prophecy. You can’t tell yourself you won’t be creative and then expect your mind to see through itself (!) and be creative. Approach your content development with an open mind and a willingness to find inspiration in random places.

Where might inspiring content ideas come from?

Posted in Content Ideas, Creating Content, How-To | Tagged Audience, Content Creation | 3 Comments

Author: Louis Rix

Louis Rix is the marketing director at Netcars.com. He is an expert in the automotive sector and online marketing, specifically SEO. Louis has operated Carfinance247.co.uk, an online finance broker/dealer for over 10 years. To connect with Louis follow him on Twitter @netcars or connect with him on LinkedIn.

4 Steps for Using Content to Build Your Personal Brand

By Amanda Maksymiw | Published: January 20, 2012

Personal branding was definitely a big trend in 2011, and I believe it will continue to be a focus for B2B and B2C companies alike — largely due to the perceived ease of creating a personal brand online. In addition to the career benefits it can bring, many companies appreciate their employees’ branding activities because they recognize the value elevated personal brands can bring to their organization as a whole.

If developing your online persona is something you have yet to master, read on for four helpful steps to get you started.

Posted in Branding, Content Distribution, Creating Content, How-To, Social Media | Tagged Branding, Content Creation, Content Distribution, How-To, Social Media | 8 Comments

Author: Amanda Maksymiw

Amanda Maksymiw works for OpenView Venture Partners, an expansion stage venture capital fund based in Boston, with a focus on high-growth software, internet, and technology-enabled companies and a sponsor of the Content Marketing Institute. Amanda is a part of the OpenView Labs team in which she supports the portfolio on implementing content marketing strategies. She can be contacted through her blog, The Open Marketer and @amandamaks on Twitter.

Using Paid Media to Achieve Remarkable B2B Conversion Rates

By Nick Kinports | Published: January 19, 2012

What if I told you the last three digital paid media campaigns that my company, lonelybrand, executed earned an average 31.92 percent conversion rate? (To be clear — we’re talking about the number of successful conversions divided by the total number of paid clicks.)

In a world where marketers are faced with abysmal conversion rates and polluted client or stakeholder expectations, such figures might seem virtually impossible.

But our 30-percent plus conversion figures are real. I’m going to share why all advertising and public relations agencies — and B2B brands in general — have a clean shot at earning the same results.

Posted in Creating Content, How-To | Tagged Branding, Conversions, Engagement, Target Audience | 3 Comments

Author: Nick Kinports

Nicholas is the Digital Strategy Lead at lonelybrand, where he spends his days (and many long nights) inventing the future of digital communications by connecting consumers and decision makers to brands. His team is responsible for quickly implementing turnkey digital programs that earn results for agencies and brands around the world. His 15-year career in digital marketing has resulted in numerous television and media appearances, including notable articles in Bloomberg-Businessweek, Forrester’s Web Strategy, Brand New (an Amazon best-seller) and Advertising Age. Follow Nicholas on Twitter @ADMAVEN.

Want to Create Content That Pulls Prospects In? Follow These 7 Tips

By Heidi Cohen | Published: January 18, 2012

According to a recent Content Marketing Institute B2B study, marketers’ biggest content marketing challenge is creating a steady stream of must-read information at every step of the purchase process that stands out amidst the endless messages available on social media, tablets, smartphones, computers, and other devices.

How do you consistently develop content that pulls prospects and customers in, meets their needs, and does so right when they’re ready to consume it? To help you in this mission, here are seven easy-to-follow tips: Read More »

Posted in Creating Content, How-To, Understanding Your Audience | Tagged Audience, Buyer Persona, Content Marketing Process, Engaging Content | 11 Comments

Author: Heidi Cohen

Heidi Cohen is an actionable marketing expert. As president of Riverside Marketing Strategies, Heidi works with online media companies and e-tailers to increase profitability with innovative marketing programs based on solid analytics. During the course of 20 years, Heidi has obtained deep experience in direct and digital marketing across a broad array of products including soft goods, financials services, entertainment, media entities and crafts-oriented goods. Heidi shares her actionable marketing insights on her blog. Find Heidi Cohen online at Twitter @heidicohen, LinkedIn and Facebook.

3 Reasons Why Podcasts Should Be Part of Your Content Marketing Strategy

By Brendan Cournoyer | Published: January 17, 2012

I listen to a lot of podcasts. Whether I’m in the car, riding the train, or even just sitting on the couch in my living room, I enjoy hearing people share off-the-cuff opinions on interesting topics. Conversations are fun — that’s just me.

But I also create a lot of podcasts: Every week on OpenView Labs, we post a new podcast episode on varying areas of company development, often with the help of influential guests from around the industry. There are a lot of reasons why podcasting works. As CMI has pointed out many times, different people consume content in different ways, and it’s important to get your message and brand out across multiple channels. Podcasts can also help add variety to a mostly text-based content strategy.

So obviously, I like podcasts. That’s great. But why should you like them too? If you’re not already creating at least occasional podcasts or audiocasts as part of your content marketing efforts, here are three things to consider. Read More »

Posted in Content Marketing Strategy, Creating Content, Podcasts | Tagged Content Creation, Content Marketing Strategy, podcasts | 16 Comments

Author: Brendan Cournoyer

Brendan Cournoyer is an editor and marketing associate with OpenView Venture Partners. For more musings on the world of content marketing, SEO and more, you can check out his blog and follow him on Twitter @brencournoyer. For more tips and ideas from the OpenView team, visit the OpenView Labs website.

How to Create Compelling Content Using Fear and Desire

By Carl Friesen | Published: January 16, 2012

One of the core principles of content marketing is that it must offer useful information, rather than being a sales pitch. But even though it cannot sell directly, your content must persuade. It must persuade the user to take specific action.

That action does not just have to be transactional, such as clicking on “Add to shopping cart.” It could be anything that continues the user’s relationship with your organization — such as signing up for a blog or newsletter, downloading a white paper, or following you on Twitter.

Posted in Creating Content, How-To | Tagged Content Creation, content marketing, Content Strategy | 6 Comments

Author: Carl Friesen

Carl Friesen uses his background in journalism to dig for “the story” to develop content that will show his clients in their best possible light. Many of his clients are business professionals who need to show their expertise to people in their market. Carl is Principal of Global Reach Communications, based in the Toronto, Canada area. You can follow him on Twitter @CarlFriesen.

Why SMS Marketing is a Must for a Younger Audience

By Pavel Webb | Published: January 13, 2012

Image credit: Fotolia.com

The other day, I was in a popular national chain pizza restaurant enjoying a meal with friends.

While we dined, I noticed a number of younger people (under 34) showing their mobiles to the server before getting their bill. One family even had a teenage mobile user hold up her phone on behalf of the family.

Now, this particular chain of pizza restaurants does a lot of online marketing, especially email. In fact, many of my friends that evening had printed off 2-for-1 vouchers from the chain’s website.

Posted in How-To, Localization, Mobile | Tagged Audience, Social Media | 2 Comments

Author: Pavel Webb

Pavel Webb is the affiliate manager at TextMagic, a SMS company based in the United Kingdom that enables users to send SMS from PC (or Mac).

How Content Marketers Can Reinvent the Webinar for 2012

By Michael Kolowich | Published: January 12, 2012

I recently spent time with one of the most prolific producers of webinars and online events for big companies (over 300 online events per year) and was startled to hear his confession: Traditional webinars just aren’t working as well as they once did. The erosion in sign-up rates and attendance, he said, was slow but unmistakable.

It’s certainly not time to pull the plug, since webinars are still a reasonably effective way to generate and nurture prospective customers, as well as to educate and engage those you already have. As noted in the recent B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends report, 46 percent of marketers are using webinars, and of those users, 70 percent consider them to be effective. But it’s time to take a good hard look at the tried-and-true 60-minute live webinar formula and ask, “Can we do better?”

Posted in Content Ideas, How-To, Webinars | Tagged Audience, Engagement, Video, Webinar | 37 Comments

Author: Michael Kolowich

A 20-year pioneer in online content, Michael Kolowich is CEO and founder of KnowledgeVision, a platform for creating interactive video marketing assets from PowerPoint presentations. A former Emmy-winning TV news reporter, he went on to be Chief Marketing Officer at Lotus, founded ZDNet and NewsEdge, led AT&T's new media initiatives, and was CEO of Individual Incorporated, the first internet content IPO. You can follow him on Twitter @MichaelKolowich.