Marketing through online storytelling and advice will only grow in importance to businesses. Here's how to make sense of the biggest trends in content marketing.
Content marketing is still in its infancy, but some practices already have gained favor and others have faded away. Below are some of the expected trends this year.
Crowdsourcing for Content Creation
Crowdsourcing will be hot in 2012. AOL's purchase last year of the Huffington Post, which has relied heavily on crowdsourcing for content creation, marked a turning point. Suddenly, it became a valid business model to tap into people's willingness to create content for free or for low pay in return for online exposure. Now, companies of all sizes are eager to try such crowdsourcing to generate content.
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Content Marketing Now
Dragon Dictate and Dragon Naturally Speaking Deliver Awesome Results for Users. Their eNewsletter. Not So Much. In perhaps the ultimate irony, I am using Dragon Dictate from Nuance to write this blog post which criticizes their eNewsletters. I use Dragon Dictate to compose 80 to 90% of everything that I write from blog posts to book content. So, it does pain me a bit to brand their eNewsletter as mediocre. Oddly, even though their eNewsletter is a major missed content marketing opportunity, Nuance has a tremendous amount of content available. As an example, they have a wonderful series of YouTube videos that teach you how to get the most out of Dragon Naturally Speaking, the PC version of their software. That’s compelling because, although dictation is the most critical component of their software, you can also use Dragon to search the web, give application commands, find documents, etc. In addition to the YouTube content, their website actually provides very useful and well organized training tools to get you started and to turn you into an advanced user. In other words, they have a ton of raw material that could make for an incredibly useful and compelling E-news letter that would be must reading whenever it arrived in your inbox. Alas, hardly any of that content found its way into their May 2012 eNewsletter. 
The latest Twitter statistics show that Twitters growth last year was over 1,300% with the latest numbers revealed by Twitter at their Chirp conference for developers in April showing Total number of users at 105 million (12 months ago that number... Via Jose H. Flores 
Written by Chris Horton. This post was born out of a fascinating and revealing conversation our CEO recently had with a business executive of a prominent Minneapolis-area car dealership who absolutely refused to entertain the idea of social media marketing in general, and Twitter in particular. A marketing director, she was convinced that her fairly expensive ad spend on a local radio station was all their brand needed to reach its target demographic, 18 to 45 year-old men. Incredulous, our fearless leader tried to explain that such a group was one of the sweet-spots for social media/Twitter marketing (in fact, 70% of Twitter users are between the ages of 18-45; of these, just under half are men). The marketing exec seemed agitated. She would have none of it, and quickly changed the subject. This experience is not an isolated one. I’ve had numerous conversations with business leaders in the over-30 crowd whose opinion of social media ranges from that of novelty item to utter abomination casting a blight over their well-ordered business universe. Why does the mere mention of social marketing upset so many executives and business owners, anyway? 
Pay Careful Attention to the Upper Right hand Corner of Google Search Results. If you have recently checked your category’s Google search results, you may well have been as surprised as was when I recently checked our first page placement in the ‘content marketing’ topic. In weeks and months past, text ads would have appeared in the upper right-hand corner. Those ads still appear, but they have been bumped down by a gigantic Google+ area that features 2 content marketing gurus, Joe Pulizzi and Brian Clark. Interestingly, the Google+ content has exactly the same prominence as the major sponsored search results that appear above the organic search results. I cannot imagine that advertisers are overly pleased by that. Happily, Content Marketing Today still appears on the 1st page of search results. Of course, that’s a direct result of picking the right website name early on, having been around since 2007, and posting lots and lots of content about content marketing. But, our organic search results and those of many other organizations may soon seem less important than any company or individual who is featured in that upper right-hand corner Google+ sweet spot. 
Great blog articles require great titeles. This post will show you how to create a blog title worksheet to curb writer's block. 
With inbound marketing, the customer comes to you, but you still have to move the opportunity forward. Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard of "inbound marketing"–the concept that you should attract prospective customers by offering useful (on a website, for instance). Inbound marketing is contrasted with outbound (or traditional) marketing, in which you "buy, beg, or bug your way in" via paid advertisements, press releases, and cold calling. While inbound marketing can be more effective than outbound marketing, most companies implement it in a way that it doesn't work well. The biggest issue: bad timing. 
Content Marketing is about the most effective way to harness content's ubiquity and power. Individual pieces of content work to attract and engage web users, but when the pieces are combined, the effect can be dramatic. Just as gold must be sourced, mined, processed, shaped and hallmarked to become desirable pieces, so too must high-quality content. Search-optimised articles, blogs and social media posts can combine to produce a dazzling effect on brand awareness, customer engagement and SEO. But time, care and expertise are needed to ensure your content is solid gold, and not simply gold plated. Our infographic explores the processes involved in creating quality content and supports our latest White Paper - The True Value of Content Marketing - which will be released in the coming days. Read the NewsReach blog to learn more about their infographic. 
OK, so you've heard by now that 'Content is King' in the eyes of Google right? So why are you still struggling to perfect your ideal content strategy? Just like SEO, there is no 'one size fits all' content strategy. Every site is different (even sites in the same industry) and has different goals – this means every site needs its own specialist content strategy to help it achieve its aims. When creating your content strategy you need to go way back to the very beginning. You may think that your existing strategy is pretty great but it’s always worth taking it back to the start because there’s a good chance you may have missed something. Think about what you want the site to achieve, what visitors you want to attract and what kind of content you want to offer. 
Written by Geoffry James. Facebook's latest $1 billion acquisition smacks of a desperation that LinkedIn consistently manages to avoid. With all due respect to Facebook, paying $1 billion for Instagram smacks of desperation. It's as if CEO Mark Zuckerberg is terrified of becoming irrelevant and is willing to spend insane amounts of money in order for Facebook remain on the forefront of cool. Read more: Full coverage of the Facebook-Instagram deal Where Is the Love? More importantly, nobody seems to love Facebook any more. People seem mostly tolerate it, because it's convenient. And that's why Facebook remains vulnerable. Consumer-oriented social networking sites are like television networks: People will switch when there's something better on another channel. With its awkward design, 1990s-style layouts, weird privacy policies, and intrusive advertising, Facebook is vulnerable to the next best thing. Frankly, I think it's just one online conversion program away from losing its customer base and becoming the next MySpace. That's not true of LinkedIn, though. LinkedIn is all about business and people's resumes. Because its scope is limited to fundamentally dull information, LinkedIn is simply not vulnerable to something "cooler." In today's online world, mass can be reached in months, not years. For proof, all you have to do is look at Pinterest's explosion over the last six months, becoming the fastest standalone site to surpass the 10 million unique monthly visitors mark. So why haven't location-based social networks had this kind of explosive growth? After all, services like Foursquare and Gowalla have both been highly regarded and used by digital early adopters. Facebook even tried to launch its Places functionality as a standalone piece before folding it into the status update feature. Interestingly, Facebook places so much importance on this functionality that even after it shut down Places, it purchased Gowalla for its developer expertise. All social networks would love to have the size and engagement rates that Facebook receives, with a user base of 850 million and an average spent time in January 2012 of 405 minutes. However, location-based services are dependent on smartphone penetration. Yes, people can use tablets for these services, but I think we can all agree that the majority of activity will be on smartphones. If we look at smartphone penetration according to the International Telecommunication Union (November 2011), there were an estimated 1.186 billion global active broadband subscribers in 2011, and 796 million smartphones have been sold in just the last two years according to IDC (Feb 2012). Foursquare, which is the largest of the location-based services, hovers around 1 percent global penetration. So why do these services not have mass appeal? From what I've seen, these services face several uphill battles. 
A New Trend Worth Watching via Kunocreative. What if you only had to build one website design and it could fit all devices, big or small? You can, with a Responsive Web Design. Responsive Web Design (RWD) essentially indicates that a website is crafted to use W3C CSS3 media queries with fluid proportion-based grids to adapt the layout to the users viewing environment. While it is still in the early stages of acceptance, this new standard in web development could be the future. Here we get you up-to-speed 
Unless you have had your head buried in the sand in recent months you’ll know that content marketing and outreach is THE critical off page technique to ensure the long-term success of your business. A lot has been written about how to use various cool techniques to do it, whether you’re a fan of ego baiting, co-relevance content creation (explained in this deck by Mike King, interactive infographics like this one, persona outreach or some other ‘cutting edge’ technique to maximize your chances of link and content placement there is still something missing. Undoubtedly the above approaches work and if you’re good your conversion rate from blogger contact to content placement can be extremely high. For me, however, there is one critical aspect of all of this work that most are missing and that is that we are overlooking Google’s future intentions for search. |
Written by Achinta Mitra... Yes, social media generates all the buzz but discarding email marketing, a tried and true workhorse would be a mistake and here is why. Right off the bat let me say that this post is not about email marketing versus social media. However, I’ve had conversations with manufacturers and industrial companies where I am asked if email marketing is still relevant and effective since all the talk these days is about social media. Yes, social media generates all the buzz but discarding email marketing, a tried and true workhorse would be a mistake and here is why. In a March 2012 online survey of US marketing professionals, trade publication Chief Marketer found that the most popular tool in digital campaigns, according to 78% of the respondents was email marketing followed by Email newsletters (59%) and a close third was social media at 58%. Here is a chart from emarketer.com showing the growing number of tools used by marketers to improve Website engagement. 
Google made more than 100 changes to its algorithms in the past couple of months, which are meant to boost the quality of search results for users. There have been a lot of changes to Google search in the past few weeks, and businesses can use these insights to think about how to improve SEO. Of course, content marketing for search optimization should be focused on the user above all. Brafton has a separate blog post exploring how content for users is key to succeeding in the post-Panda and post-Penguin Google search zoo. But it’s worthwhile to take a look at other updates as a reminder of how Google is working to provide quality results to users. The changes should inspire reflection on your content marketing to make sure you’re working toward the same goal – a positive experience for prospects! Here are some of the biggest updates Google announced in March and April, plus insights on what they can tell us about quality content marketing. 
When it comes to great writing, less is more. But even if you're familiar with the mantra to "omit needless words," tightening your writing is harder that it looks. Which words should you omit? How can you write more clearly? Danny Rubin, a national news consultant and former television news reporter, demonstrates—with examples—the power of brevity. There is a common misconception when it comes to writing that is professional in nature that a person must write in a verbose manner to come across as intelligent. I am sorry. Let me do that again. People often make a mistake in thinking that writing long-winded sentences with big words makes them appear smart. Actually, let me try this one more time. You don't need to write a lot or use big words to sound smart. Now, that's better. Too often, people write sentences like the one at the top when they should choose version #3. The main culprit, in my view, is the loathsome college essay. Only in college are we forced to write a paper a certain length. We develop strategies that balloon our paragraphs so we can fill out eight, 10 or 12 pages and pick up our gold stars on the way out. In the real world, most people don't enjoy reading cover letters, resumes and presentations. It's extra work and burdensome. Worst of all, trying to write beyond our skill level screams ‘I'm in over my head.' When you write with brevity, you make your points quickly and shrewdly. You don't waste words and, in doing so, you don't waste a person's time. An employer or hiring manager, for instance, then sees you as sharp and courteous. The secret to brevity (and, in turn, clarity) is something we are rarely taught growing up and may appear anathema to a professor of English lit: Write like you are talking to a friend. Written by Robert Bruce. Google’s been pissing people off lately. Panda, Penguin, Parakeet (okay, I made that last one up), who knows what’s next … Then there are the social networking evangelists whose entire fortunes are deep in Zuckerberg’s asset. 
Lynda McNutt Foster Delivers with Her Weekly Launch List. Lynda overflows with brains, enthusiasm, creativity, and fun. So, I wasn't surprised to find her new weekly newsletter unique in its approach to its recipients. The 'Launch List' is a quick read that delivers much-needed Monday morning inspiration. Although it reflects Linda's positive personality, it's not all about her. It's all about her customers, colleagues, and friends 
In every generation, there are game-changing advancements that redefine business. From the automobile and television, to the VCR and Internet, the evolution of technology drives our consumptive habits. Today, there are arguably fewer more engrossing, time-consuming habits than that of the world’s current phenomenon, Facebook. While more than 900 million people worldwide have active accounts, few businesses take full advantage of this enormous marketplace. For most, this is not due to a lack of desire—it stems from a lack of knowledge. When industry stalwarts such as Anthony Robbins and Frank Kern sought to leverage Facebook’s tremendous reach and recognized their limited ability for effectively making this happen, they turned to Jennifer Sheahan. Jennifer has cracked the Facebook code and created powerful strategies that are neither complex nor expensive. To affect a veritable Facebook frenzy and drive this powerful, captive audience towards your products and services, of her many strategies, Jennifer recommends beginning with these two. 
"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while." ~ Steve Jobs. It's compelling to believe there's a route to true creative thinking, and there are certainly ways to help yourself engage, but many times a great idea will just feel like it came from a simple realization and you won't know exactly why. 
Rethink Your Content Marketing by Aiming at Billions of Buyers on the Move For those of us who been around computing since the early days of PCs, the consumer move to mobile devices and away from desktop and even laptop computers is astonishing–and maybe a little terrifying. Smartphones Soar First, smartphones such as the Blackberry, Nokia, and iPhone entered the picture. But, as recently as 2007 total smartphone sales were only 122 million. Alex Cocotas of BI Intelligence predicts that annual smartphone sales will hit 1.5 billion units by 2016. That’s 10X growth in less than 10 years. Tablets Triumph In the first year of its existence, 1981, the IBM PC sold 100,000 units. Most of those buyers were geeks or leading-edge business users. Apple’s new iPad sold 3 million units in its first weekend and more than 50 million units since the introduction of the first iPad just 2 years ago. 
Written by Nick Bilton on the NYT Bits Blog. Google and Facebook are being left behind in the shift toward mobile, and the amenities available to their employees might offer some explanation for a slow transition. Google and Facebook, young and successful companies that they are, risk being left behind as technology shifts from PCs and Web browsers to mobile devices. This month, when Google showcased a new design for Google Plus, the company’s social network, it was as if mobile phones and tablets were still a glimmer in some future inventor’s eye. The made-over Web site was beautifully designed, but the smartphone app and mobile site were completely ignored. During the site’s redesign, a Google spokeswoman told me, “Today, the mobile experience will not change.” Facebook is also struggling with mobile, as evidenced by its recent $1 billion acquisition of Instagram. Its mobile app, which is sometimes painfully slow, was updated only after the Web site was redesigned for Timeline. I have a theory on why they both have been slow to capitalize on the shift to mobile. It’s that working at these companies is like going to work on an all-inclusive cruise ship. The analogy is apt in terms of the luxury — and the isolation. 
Every business dreams of those “easy” sales. The sales where customers virtually fall into your lap. Don’t we all want to find that customer who nods at everything we say, knowing that we are the experts and the best solution to their needs? The reality is you likely work hard for every customer you get to that point of the sale. But what if that hard work really involved laying the ground work so that over time, those customers really do fall into your lap? With inbound marketing, you can lay that groundwork to establish your business as a resource, as a wealth of information and the right solution to your target market’s needs. And while it takes some work, it does not require the outlay of cash that many other marketing strategies take, such as massive ad campaigns. 
Written by Lee Odden. How important is influence with online marketing? Most professionals would say influence is pretty important, especially when it comes to social media. How important is influence with online marketing? Most professionals would say influence is pretty important, especially when it comes to social media. The notion is that a few key people can spread an idea to their audiences and networks, causing a brand’s content to “go viral” or at least gain more substantial distribution than if the content were promoted to the every day social media Joe and Jane. Pursuing the “big influencers” alone, is probably one of the biggest fallacies on the web. 
Doctors and Dentists: It's Time to Get Social! -- One-third of consumers are using Facebook , Twitter and other social media sites to seek medical information, discuss symptoms and express their opinions about doctors, drugs and health insurers, according to a new report. These latest results from PwC’s Health Research Institute underscore the need for healthcare providers and insurance companies to engage more with consumers online since they are increasingly making medical decisions based on the information they find there. The stakes are likely to grow as millions of younger consumers comfortable with social media enter the insurance market for the first time under the federal healthcare law. “Those medical providers and payers who are able to use social media are likely to do better in the marketplace as consumers make these decisions,” said John Edwards, a director in PwC’s healthcare strategy and business intelligence practice. “But our research shows that consumers’ expectations continue to outpace the ability of providers and payers to deliver.” In the survey of 1,060 people in February, 45% of consumers said information found through social media would affect their decision to get a second medical opinion and 34% said it would affect their decision about taking a specific medication. 
Large book publishers’ most recent earnings reports reflect a new normal: Revenues are roughly flat, but profits are up—in large part due to e-books.
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