I’m confident that for most social media managers, the path to gaining engagement isn’t always simple.

While research is pretty clear that visual content reigns supreme, this rule isn’t always absolute:

Every marketing professional knows what it’s like to pen a brilliant post, create a custom image, source the perfect quote, and…hear crickets. Your fans just don’t see the brilliance behind your post the way you do. While there’s no substitute for mapping out your brand’s unique buyer persona profiles, learning from the best in the business could be just the inspiration you need.

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The About Us page is one of the most visited pages of your website. But what happens after visitors land on it–do they stay on your site, look at your offerings, contact you for more information? Or do they disappear?

Part of the trick to keeping visitors and turning them into leads is to tell a powerful brand story, one that grabs and holds their attention like a great novel or movie. If you’re having trouble using stories in marketing, try these 15 storytelling techniques to help you write a better brand story.

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For many content marketers, curation is something of a silver bullet. Rand Fishkin of SEOMoz has joked that we’re in the midst of a content arms race; companies across all industries have realized the power of custom content, and are actively competing to produce better-quality materials. For many companies, it’s no longer enough to blog three times a week and release a white paper once a quarter. The average B2B marketer is using 12 different content marketing tactics, and a curation strategy can boost the volume of information shared without dramatically increasing the workload. We’ve compiled some of the most fascinating stats and facts on the state of content curation:

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Blog posts without a call to action are like Facebook posts without images. Or Tweets without links. They work, but they’re a lot less effective than they could be.

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Want to learn what 73% of inbound marketers say their #1 metric is?

Or do you want to find out if you fall into the same categories as a typical inbound marketer?

Well, you’re in the right place. We had some questions about the process of inbound marketing, as we wanted to know how often they create content, what challenges they encounter, what problems they wish they could magically solve, and how they measure success on both the blog level and blog post level.

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A stock photo is worth a thousand words, but a custom image is worth a thousand page views.

I’m pretty sure that almost every blogger knows on some level they should kick their addiction to stock photos and curated visual content. It’s enough to help you scrape by, but does it help you visually communicate your brand’s goals or voice? Do any of your audience members stop and say “wow, that’s a really cool picture!” Probably not, and this is why you should be investing in custom images.

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If you’re in charge of your company’s blog, SEO is just as important for you as creating quality content that inspires engagement and generates leads. After all, if you’re not getting traffic, you’re not getting engaged readers or leads, either.

After you slave and sweat over writing those high-quality articles your readers love, use this checklist of 14 blog writing tips to properly optimize your blog posts.

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Does it ever feel like you’re struggling to gain any traction on Twitter?

You’re definitely not alone. With over 6,000 Tweets published each second, Twitter has a well-earned reputation of being something of a noisy network. Your lack of engagement could result from boring Tweet structures. Here are 11 tried-and-true Tweet writing formulas that really change everything:

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Effective website copy can be broken down into two simple parts: it conveys information and convinces visitors to act. The ultimate goal of any website is to gain conversions, and website copywriting is the science of telling stories that urge readers to respond.

There is no one formula for website copywriting that works for every company. Short but sweet might be just the thing for one business, while another will require more in-depth information to convince visitors to take action. However, following are some steps all website copywriters can take to make the most of their limited time with readers.

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Does it feel like your business is stuck in a bit of a marketing rut? Are you frustrated with the same old direct mail or email campaigns, and struggling to prove the ROI of your outreach? The solution to your problem might be business blogging – or creating more content if you’re already on it. It’s the single most-effective way to

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