Content Marketing Blog - News, Tips, and Strategies for Serious Content Marketers

There's no denying that content marketing has become a top priority for many businesses these days. Yet despite the value quality content can bring to areas like demand and lead generation, a recent study by Content Marketing Institute reports that web traffic is still the most common criteria used to measure content marketing success.

Blogging is a critical component of any successful content strategy. With a blog, your business can attract new prospects and reach existing consumers with educational and entertaining content that will improve brand value and awareness. Blogs enable brands and consumers to interact and foster trust, which is important to generating sales.

Has your content strategy fallen short in getting the results that you expect?  Content marketing can be an exciting venture in the beginning, but it can rapidly fall into a lackluster performance if not managed continually.

Looking for answers is one of the main reasons people turn to the Internet. What food should I feed my new kitten? How do I fix my garbage disposal? Why is my furnace making that funny noise? How do I make Pittsburgh-style pierogis? Questions like these appear in search engine boxes every minute of every day. Help your readers answer questions relevant to your product and you're on your way to creating a relationship that will not only sell your product today, but for years to come. You could call this process knowledge marketing.

There always seemed to be this line between creative writing and business writing. Technical writers and people charged with web site copywriting were doomed to write dry, uninteresting books and papers, whereas creative writers were free to write what they want, inspiring people in the process.

It's the beginning of a new year, and with the new year come new opportunities to grow your business and spread your influence. One of the best ways to meet these goals is to create a content development plan that will send new traffic to your website while consistently bringing old visitors back for more. 

It seems like anyone who has a business or a blog is also a content marketer. In fact, up to 91 percent of B2B marketers now use content marketing. When a business does it right, content marketing drives traffic, generates quality leads, builds brand awareness and can be the enterprise’s social marketing lifeblood. When it sucks, you’re only adding to the online clutter that your target customer already sees in abundance. Creating sucky content wastes your time and, as you’ve learned, doesn’t bring you the ROI you want.

If the Internet had a physical presence, you wouldn't be able to throw a rock without hitting a blog, video, or infographic. Once you come across this content, you become aware of the website providing it - which is the whole purpose of creating the content in the first place.

One of the biggest content marketing challenges faced by small businesses is producing enough material to fill that editorial calendar. Sure, you know it’s necessary to post regularly; you also know the content needs to be quality information, well-compiled and checked for duplication. We took a look at what thought leaders are saying to bring you these content marketing tips to use in the year ahead.

Visual content is hot.  From photos to videos to infographics, studies show that almost half of people seeking information will respond better to visual information than plain text.