Below the erupting volcano of content – billions of new articles every month – a secret army is hard at work. Wherever marketers create e-books, run webinars, promote blogs, and craft events, artisans are hammering, hacking, and whittling the words. These writers make content marketing run. Alas, much of what they produce is junk. Lots […]
How to Find a Writer Who Won’t Kill Your Content Read More »
“We’re in the middle of a believability crisis.” On the surface, author Rohit Bhargava’s observation in the keynote talk of CMI’s virtual ContentTECH this year doesn’t bode well for content marketing. After all, to attract and retain an audience, we need people to believe the content we’re creating. But don’t be discouraged by Rohit’s pronouncement.
How to Use Non-Obvious Thinking to Create Better Content Read More »
In 1995, Steve Jobs was interviewed by Robert Cringely for a PBS documentary, Triumph of the Nerds. During the on-camera discussion, the future Apple CEO reflected on the notion that generating big ideas isn’t the same thing as being able to bring them to life in a valuable way. As he said, “There’s just a
Your team has created, socialized, and measured content in just about every possible way … except for one of the most important metrics: how your audience is engaging with the words. You want visitors to find information, stay engaged, or complete a task. But once readers’ eyes hit the words on the page, if it
Unless today is your first day as a content marketer, you’re aware of how essential a documented strategy is to achieving content marketing success. It’s one of those mantras you’ve heard being chanted again and again throughout every corner of the industry until you simply can’t help but accept it as truth. It really is
Build an Editorial Content Plan That Turns Strategy Into Success Read More »
It’s a hazard of the job for content marketers. When you read or see a piece of high-quality content, you wonder how it got created. You ask yourself, “What does this company do to create great content? Is it great for business too?” The simple answer is high-quality content serves both audience and business. “It’s
Creativity. We all want it. Unfortunately, we tend to give up on it over time. When we’re just starting our careers, we’re excited. We’re going to take the world by storm. We approach our boss every morning with a new, brilliant idea. Getting a “yes” on something truly different seems like just a matter of
The One Thing Killing Your Most Creative Content Ideas Read More »
You’ve almost certainly heard this quote: “Good artists copy. Great artists steal.” But do you know who said it? Turns out, a lot of people. Steve Jobs attributed it to Pablo Picasso. A quick Google search shows variations attributed to many thinkers of varying levels of fame, including: Igor Stravinsky – “A good composer does
6 Content Marketing Ideas to Steal From the Awards Finalists of 2017 Read More »
Back in the early days of CMI, we used to experiment all the time. (OK … sometimes “experiment” was code for “we don’t quite know what we’re doing, but let’s try this …”) As our business matured, we focused more of our attention on what works and putting processes around those things to make them
