It’s only been a week since Content Marketing World 2013, the world’s largest gathering of content marketing professionals. Over 2,000 attendees gathered in Cleveland, the unofficial “content capital of the world” September 9-12 to listen to the expertise of prominent professionals such as LinkedIn’s Jonathan Lister and Jonathan Mildenhall of Coca Cola.

While it’s hard to pin point a single event that was most valuable, there’s no question that Content Marketing Institute (CMI) founder Joe Pulizzi stole the show in his opening keynote address. Dressed in his trademark orange suit (you read that right), Pulizzi’s talk focused on sharing some of the coolest insights from CMI’s annual report which is developed in conjunction with MarketingProfs, scheduled for release in the near future.

Continue reading

Content marketing isn’t just about blogging. In fact, there’s a lot of compelling evidence that your inbound marketing strategy should include plenty of visual content. One of the hottest types of content at the moment is cool infographics: easy-to-consume, visual representations of data and concepts. Copywriting expert Barry Feldman reports that demand for infographics on the web increases 1% each day! And why not, really – infographics are perfectly viral-ready. They’re easily-packaged, bite-sized bits of information in a gorgeous visual format. If you’re considering joining the ranks of cool infographic creators, consider the following evidence.

Continue reading

Marketers worldwide are still buzzing about Inbound 13, the world’s largest inbound marketing conference. HubSpot’s annual gathering, held in Boston, drew an astounding 5,300 marketing professionals from 34 countries worldwide. Between over 100 amazing speakers like Seth Godin and Arianna Huffington, an on-site concert and tons of networking opportunities, it’s no surprise the designated hashtag of #Inbound13 was trending on Twitter for much of the conference.

Whether you were lucky enough to score a spot at the show, or you’re curious about some of the incredible inbound marketing lessons learned during the four-day event, we’ve compiled a list of brilliant takeaways from the conference.

Continue reading

Has your organic search traffic gone flat? Are you losing keyword ranking for critical search terms? If the answer to either of the previous questions is yes – or more importantly, you’re just not sure where you stand, it’s probably due time to do a content audit.

A content audit is the process of examining all of your company’s web content assets for quality, relevance, SEO value, and messaging. User experience specialist Vincent Sevilla writes that it “begins with identifying all of [your] website’s existing content and aggregating it into a master list.” Much like any audit, a content examination requires an all-in approach. While you could see benefit from auditing your website’s ten most-popular pages, you’ll see significantly more results if you take a totally comprehensive approach.

Continue reading

Every content marketing strategy should involve a plan for blog commenting. It’s entirely too easy to get stuck in a comfort zone of creating content, while keeping up on other blogs in your niche via RSS feeds or email subscription. However, taking the time to leave comments really matters, and it’s an integral part of your content promotion strategy whether you realize it or not. Content marketing expert Ken Mueller cites his regular commitment to leaving comments as a critical success measure, stating “[i]t has been incredibly important to my growth as a blogger, and to the growth of my business.”

Continue reading

Inspiration and motivation can come from some rather unlikely places. From independent rap superstars who gain a following without the backing of a record-label, to a content curation website which focuses primarily on positivity, the incredible power of content shines through this week’s top stories on content marketing strategy.

Anything is possible with the right level of dedication to excellence, regardless of whether your objective is to sell singles or dominate a saturated niche. To rejuvenate your content marketing strategy and commitment in the weeks to come, we’ve curated this week’s most inspirational news items:

Continue reading

One of the most critical objectives for content marketers is increasing engagement with website visitors. While the term has been around for decades, the concept of engagement has taken center stage in the digital age. In an era where multi-screen usage is nearly at saturation point among connected consumers, the problem of distraction is only going to get worse.

Continue reading

If there were a single trend in the content marketing realm this week, it would be higher quality. A recent study by content marketing firm INM this week revealed a shocking truth: not only is creating content more common than you think, having a distinct strategy for content marketing has become the norm.

While the news is entirely positive for content specialists, it means one thing for companies: the time is now to improve your content. In the future where virtually every company is creating blogs, eBooks, and white papers, it’s critical to ensure your efforts have the potential to stand out. If you needed any more motivation to focus on quality, Google announced this week that websites which offer an in-depth approach to answering search queries will be rewarded. We’ve curated the top news stories of the week, which will help you win in the weeks and years to come.

Continue reading

Image courtesy of stockimages / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

It may be a rare occasion when content marketers, social media marketers, sales professionals, and CEOs all see eye-to-eye on a topic, but it happened in businesses worldwide this week. The occasion? July turned into August, and the realization set in that there were only a few more weeks left of summer. While your opportunities to soak up some sun in 2013 are quickly drawing to a close, take your tablet outdoors to improve your marketing game while enjoying the beautiful weather. It’s been an incredible week in the content marketing realm, and we’ve had a blast curating a list of our favorite stories from around the web.

Continue reading

Image source: boo_licious / Flickr.com

Big data stole the spotlight this week in the marketing realm, as a recent study revealed that companies plan to dramatically increase their spending on analytics in the years to come.

However, regardless of how many resources your business puts towards analyzing metrics, the intelligence can’t repair a broken strategy. As Wes Nichols pointed out this week in Forbes, it’s every content marketers challenge to take a more agile stance, so they’re prepared for the upcoming flood of insights.

To inspire you to action, we’ve curated 5 of the brightest content marketing stories of the week:

Continue reading