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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 4, 2016 1:02 AM
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Google Analytics (GA) provides very powerful analytics tools right out of the box. However, most marketers are not familiar enough with what those tools can do, and are therefore not using them to their full advantage. But to achieve true content marketing success, customizing GA to your hub architecture and business goals are essential first steps. Failure to do this results in not just bad data, which will impact your ability to strategize correctly, but will also make you miss out on one of the easiest and more impactful methods of tracking ROI metrics that your CMO will really respond to. In this blog post, I’m going to break down your essential GA setup into two distinct sections:...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 4, 2016 12:42 AM
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Book covers can teach us a lot about condensing complex ideas into simple designs that attract consumers and sell products. The best covers manage to give book browsers an idea of the book's plot, tone, themes, and genre, all without revealing too much. To inspire your next design project, we've compiled a list of 20 beautifully designed books that beg to be judged by their covers....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 3, 2016 10:40 AM
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Marketers have no shortage of metrics on their dashboards, but they are still often flying blind. Marketing visibility can be simultaneously clear and opaque. To paraphrase Coleridge, the state of marketing is “metrics, metrics everywhere, and not sure what to think.” OverstateGate brought a colorful rise out of Branding Professor Mark Ritson: “This little debacle once again confirms that nobody actually knows what the fuck is going on with digital media. Not media agencies, not big-spending clients and not armchair digital strategists. From the shadowy box of turds and spiders that is programmatic to the increasingly complex and deluded world of digital views, the idea that digital marketing is more analytical and attributable than other media is clearly horse shit. Sure, it has more numbers and many more metrics but that does not make it more accountable, it makes it less so.” In general, marketers can’t always take metrics at face value. We have to get savvier and more sophisticated at questioning the numbers we use. We have to beware of faux metrics and fuzzy math....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 3, 2016 2:12 AM
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More engagement with every image you create. Perfect for creating social media posts, ad graphics, content marketing visuals, email images & more! 89% More Favorites (Source: Buffer) 150% More Retweets (Source: Buffer) 84% More Clicks (Source: Kiss Metrics) Create images faster & easier than ever before. Pick a background. Add some text. No biggie....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 3, 2016 1:34 AM
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The world of content marketing is bursting with energy. Tech giants are recruiting screenwriters. Content agencies are flourishing. Companies can’t seem to get enough creative writing and design work. As marketing teams become more strategic with their content marketing plans, the ROI of blog posts and white papers is rising. The digital marketing community has seemed to find something that is “sticking,” and the reason why is clear: content is, at the end of the day, a technique for keeping audiences engaged on a human level. Content helps us discover new ideas. It helps us master new skills. It inspires us to feel happier and more empowered in our work. Content marketing, as a discipline, is going to become more powerful. Here are some predictions as to where the world of content marketing will be in 2020:...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 3, 2016 1:17 AM
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It has been quite some time since Microsoft acquired LinkedIn, and the hubbub surrounding the acquisition seems to be finally slowing down. Nevertheless, the general consensus is that the network will stay a social giant, leaving behind its “professional” competitors. If nothing else, the buyout served as vindication for B2B businesses that rely on LinkedIn for prospecting, marketing and sales. If you aren’t already using LinkedIn to find prospects and connect with them, you need to get started right away. Here are a few great LinkedIn tools to help you in the process....
By combining great visuals, great data, and great copy, they stimulate powerful learning centers in the brain, helping connect ideas much quicker than images or text alone. So, how do you put them to work for you? Whether you’re a newb who’s never worked on one before or an OG who’s done it a million times, remember that all good infographics start with good infographic ideas. I’ve sat through a couple thousand infographic brainstorms, and I know firsthand that coming up with a killer idea doesn’t always happen at will. So, to make things easier—and share some hard-earned knowledge—I’ve compiled a list of some of the more tried-and-true ways to come up with great infographic ideas, as well as a few examples to inspire you. I hope it helps your next brainstorm....
Via Ana Cristina Pratas
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 2, 2016 10:21 AM
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Minimalism is one of the most dominating styles of today- right from architecture, to design, to literature. It is a style used in almost every other form of art. People often confuse minimalism with absence of detail. Minimalism is certainly not a grand style, but it is also not an absence of detail or design either. Minimalists just focus on how much of useless content can be stripped away from an item without losing its key purpose and identity. Minimalism is simple in form and function, devoid of pointless decorations, yet lavish. What exactly do we understand from Minimalist design? The simplicity of minimalist web design may seem too simple, but it is under the surface that the real content lies. Don’t think minimalism is easier just because it is simple. It gets even more difficult because with fewer elements you still need to provide the same usage with less interface. The less-is-more attitude was first applied in architecture and then slowly moved on to other industries like- interior design, industrial design, and now web design. The basic idea was to eradicate any element that didn’t really contribute to the main purpose or function. 6 Elements to Consider in Minimalist Web Design...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 1, 2016 11:46 PM
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You can use schema to tell search engines that another group of words is a review from a happy fan and that those words in the footer make up your address and phone number.
Schema uses a growing number of itemtypes to help identify things like articles, local business, reviews, events, and products.
Now, before your eyes glaze over, you won’t have to learn a bunch of code to take advantage of Schema. You can use any number of Schema code generators to create the HTML code you might need for something like your address.
You can also test your structured data using Google’s testing tool...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 1, 2016 11:29 PM
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Sixty-two percent of B2B marketers in North America say that compared to one year ago, their organization’s overall approach to content marketing has been much more or somewhat more successful.
This was just one of the findings in Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs’ B2B Content Marketing 2017: Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America sponsored by Brightcove.
To what factors do marketers attribute this increased success? The top two factors are: doing a better job with content creation (85%) and developing or adjusting their content marketing strategy (72%)....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 1, 2016 11:07 PM
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The best designers in the world are not only known for their amazing designs, but also for their inspirational and motivational quotes about design.
Many of the lessons they teach can, unsurprisingly, be directly related to PowerPoint design!
If you need some inspiration and guidance for your next PowerPoint presentation, look no further:
We have compiled a list of 20 of the BEST inspirational quotes about design that relate directly to PowerPoint.
After each designer’s quote, we’ve given a short explanation of how it relates to your presentation, and what you can do to make it amazing....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 1, 2016 8:52 PM
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Seventy-seven percent of B2B buyers said they speak with a salesperson only after they’ve performed independent research online.
More than 50% of decision-makers have eliminated a vendor from consideration based on information they found online.
With this many eyes watching, it pays to build your personal brand in the most effective way.
I’ve had success with growing my personal brand because of careful planning. I had things ready to go before I started promoting myself.
Here are the things you’ll need to have in place as you work to develop your personal brand....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 30, 2016 11:22 PM
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I’m sure I won’t blow your mind by saying that visuals are essential to creating content that will help your business stand out and draw in an audience. Not only do images help make text-centric content more readable, digestible, and memorable, but they can also be used to craft compelling messages that speak volumes without using a single word — just ask anyone who has posted a photo on Instagram or created a “Snap” to share a memorable moment with friends.
Nearly a year ago, I compiled a collection of best-practice tips from some of the industry’s most creative and design-minded content experts, along with helpful imaging tools and examples. But, considering how rapidly visual trends come and go, we at CMI felt it was time to take another look at how to let your brand’s photos, videos, and graphics do the talking.
Of course, we wouldn’t want a retrospective on such an image-conscious topic to show visible signs of aging; we’ve freshened up the discussion with a few new tips, tricks, and takeaways....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 4, 2016 12:50 AM
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If you attempt to use these tips with the “Oh my GOD I need traffic quickly because I’m scared or worried or impatient or anxious!”, it’s like handing a blow torch to a 5 year old. Somebody’s getting burned, at best. Some 5 year old is gonna burn down the house, at worst. When your energy is off you will mis-use these tools. But if you hand the 5 year old a blow torch and a package of raw hot dogs, with the proper instructions, he can enjoy flame-roasted wieners instead of burning down the house. So get rid of that desperate, destructive urge to NEED THINGS QUICKLY and follow these tips....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 3, 2016 11:28 AM
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For some it is a prank, akin to a crank call for the digital age. For others, it’s a narcissistic effort to rack up likes and followers. Others see political opportunity and want to hijack people’s attention for their own political or commercial gain. I've written before about those who originate misinformation and spread fake images during crises and disasters. But once the misinformation is out there, why do people share it? And how can understanding this question help us combat rumors and foster more trustworthy coverage and reporting during breaking news? People want to helpPeople have never felt as close to breaking news as they do today. It shows up daily in our social media feeds, through graphic pictures and autoplay videos, unfiltered and raw. A series of tweets or a Facebook live video can bring us to the scene of a shooting, a bomb explosion, an earthquake. The result can be, as one author writes, a “burgeoning sense of helplessness. ”In the face of a tragedy unfolding in front of you a lot of people want to help. They want to tell their followers what is going on, to pass along important information, share dramatic photos that help add context to the chaos. Sometime these posts are even accompanied by warnings, safety advice, and specific calls out to friends and followers who might be affected. Matt Stempeck has studied how people mobilize online to support each other through “peer aid” in times of crisis....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 3, 2016 10:09 AM
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Legacy news organizations have been trying for more than a decade to crack the code of what to publish digitally, where and when. Now they are fielding a different kind of urgent request from readers — can you "unpublish" that? The cause is obvious — people routinely get Googled by potential employers, dating partners or the just plain curious. That 20-year-old drunk and disorderly arrest has a way of popping to the top of the list. A remedy is less clear. Most newspapers have had a longstanding practice of removing published stories only under extraordinary circumstances. But does that still make sense in the digital era as the potential rises for damaging people's reputations with long ago or out-of-context accounts of their misdeeds?...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 3, 2016 1:47 AM
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Princeton psychologists learned that first impressions form in less than a second. Sounds crazy but it’s not. Even though we consider ourselves logical and modern human beings, the majority of our decisions are made by the ancient, instinctive subconscious part of our brains, sometimes referred to as our “reptilian brain.” That doesn’t mean that the quality of our decisions is lowered; some, like Malcolm Gladwell in Blink, argue that quick, gut-level decisions are actually better and save us time and agony. Let’s explore how emotions play into modern-day marketing and why....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 3, 2016 1:25 AM
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What’s the first thing a company should do before getting into content marketing? While opinions may vary, I’d say that analyzing other successful content marketers and their approach is a good start. Before Twitter shut off the API that allowed people to easily display tweet counts, I went on a data gathering spree… During the month of October 2015, I downloaded social share counts from top blogs. Here are a few things I learned when analyzing their most shared posts....
In the mobile-first 21st century, apps have become one of the most important elements of any product or brand. But as the users of millions of crappy apps can attest, designing a good one is tricky. So what separates a great app from shovelware?
After receiving hundreds of submissions for this year's 2016 Innovation by Design Awards, our jury selected the apps that landed on that magic formula. Check out this year's 33 finalists, and two winners, below."...
Via John Evans
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 2, 2016 10:29 AM
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As more and more people are accessing webpages via mobile phones, tablets and other smart devices, you need to make ensure that your website looks and function well on all the devices. Simply put, it is imperative that your website layout is flexible enough to adjust to any screen size and resolution. All your efforts in making your website device compatible may all be in vain if it does not load properly. It’s also important for you to ensure that your theme load quicly. Whether you want a theme that adapts to different devices or would like to select a theme that loads quickly, choosing a minimalist WordPress theme will help meet all such criteria in the best possible manner. Minimalist WordPress themes do not just help in creating websites that work great on all types of devices, but also they help get rid of the extra noise from your website and increase site performance. When it comes to finding minimalist WordPress themes, you can find several such themes available in the WordPress themes repository. However, choosing an ideal minimalist theme can be an overwhelming task....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 2, 2016 12:03 AM
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I come to you today with my best tips for how to create awesome, attention-grabbing event posters.
This article focuses specifically on how to create posters to advertise events. I’m going to write another article on how to create informational posters soon.
In this article, I’ll explain how to: - Create a hierarchy of information.
- Grab readers’ attention with a beautiful design.
- Design specifically for print.
- Design specifically for email....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 1, 2016 11:37 PM
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To review the next headline you write from the perspective of an editor who is focused on audience engagement, here are three simple questions you can ask yourself.
A guide to finding the right words
Once you’ve written a draft of your headline and article (or you’ve recorded a podcast episode or video), use the questions below to ensure your headline is the most effective it can be:
- Who will benefit from this content?
- How do I help them?
- What makes this content special?...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 1, 2016 11:18 PM
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Some trends last for ages while others are cyclical, but whether classic or fleeting, design trends are both inspiring and incredibly useful when it comes to your graphics work. So what’s been hot in 2016? The five styles that have dominated the year so far are outlined here to help you develop eye-catching and relevant concepts, while still staying true your unique creative vision.
We rounded up visual examples of each design trend using royalty-free stock graphics, which you can easily incorporate into your own projects. Here’s the breakdown....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
October 1, 2016 10:59 PM
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Copywriting is hard. (That’s why everyone says they want to write yet very few actually do.) Creative fear and distraction most often get in the way, which is why it takes inspiration, energy, and discipline to get something good on the page. Luckily, you’re not Thoreau, sequestered in the woods. There are blogs, books, plugins, apps, and a ton of other resources available to help you up your writing game—and we have them all here for you. From style guides to grammar hacks, here are 101 tools to help you be a better writer....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
September 30, 2016 11:34 PM
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Done the right way, written content can turn a company from one of many competitors into an industry thought leader and help businesses flourish.
Why any company should strive to become a thought leader
Thought leadership is more than simply a marketing buzzword. If a company establishes itself as a thought leader in their respective field, it turns from a business into an experienced and competent expert and a trustworthy source of information and guidance. This doesn’t only increase a brand’s visibility and traffic – it also increases the likelihood that customers will feel like they can rely on the company when it comes to making a purchasing decision. But to become thought leaders, brands have to do more than simply produce regular content that shows their interest in their specific field. Rather, they have to provide the audience with a compelling, informed, and original point of view. Any potential customer will have plenty of questions on their mind. A good thought leader anticipates those questions and answers them expertly, even before they are raised.
Thought leadership can never be a marketing strategy in itself, but is merely the intended outcome of any resourceful and creative content strategy....
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