The Essential Guide to Business Blogging

Blogs are great things. They give businesses the opportunity to add fresh content to their websites and share their expertise while building thought leadership. But the downside of blogs as anyone who’s ever had to manage one knows all too well, is they can be hard to maintain consistently week in and week out. Yet, a blog’s success relies on doing exactly that. 

Unfortunately, many things get in the way of creating a powerful, successful blog including writer’s block, lack of time and lack of buy-in from colleagues. These challenges all limit productivity and value of the blog suffers.

The good news is that you don’t have to flounder. Here’s your guide through the best ways to overcome these challenges. By doing these things you’ll keep your blog current and full of relevant content that is valuable to your readers which in turn drive more traffic to your site, converts leads and positively impacts your bottom line!

So let’s go get it!

Continue reading “The Essential Guide to Business Blogging” →

5 Digital Marketing Strategies To Stop Using Right Now

Remember film strips? (If you don’t, you’re probably under 21 and can learn more about them here.) But if you were a kid in the 60s-90s, that film strip projector rolling out was exciting. And they did the job well until something better—first VCRs, then DVDs and computers—came along and made them obsolete. Similarly, digital marketing has changed over the past few years and today some strategies that were popular maybe just five years ago aren’t generating results (and in fact, may be doing the exact opposite) now. Continue reading “5 Digital Marketing Strategies To Stop Using Right Now” →

If You Write It, Will They Come? 7 Content Formats That Get Noticed.

We all want to create content that gets attention for many reasons. For one thing, who wants to spend time writing, editing, revising, proofing, designing for no one to see it? But beyond ego, creating attention-grabbing content is important because it can increase your reach as people share it with their friends and colleagues.

With the constant onslaught of content we’re all exposed to every day, achieving that goal is getting harder and harder, even when you know you’ve created something really good. Experts note that the type of content that “goes viral” is emotional, is easy to digest, has great visuals and is mobile friendly, among other things. I’d add the type of content you create is important. Some formats simply appeal to people more quickly than others. 

Here are seven types of content that grab people’s attention:

Continue reading “If You Write It, Will They Come? 7 Content Formats That Get Noticed.” →

The Evolution of Testimonials in Marketing and Their Power Today

Last week, a business colleague told me about a new social media management tool I have to try. It was casual conversation, but for brands, there’s power in that recommendation. Humans crowdsource by habit. We regularly seek others’ opinions, advice and ideas when making purchases both in our personal and professional lives. Many, many decades ago, when marketers recognized the power of word of mouth and figured out how to create that one-on-one feeling within mass marketing, the testimonial was born. Continue reading “The Evolution of Testimonials in Marketing and Their Power Today” →

The 7-Step Plan for Creating a Content Marketing Strategy

When you’re trying to sell more product, memberships, event tickets, or something else, it’s tempting to jump right into tactics. But, throwing money into an unproven strategy isn’t ideal. That’s why, whenever you start a new campaign either annually or to launch a new product or effort, it’s critical to go through a process that builds a strategy based on data.

This is the 7-step method I use to build strategies. It can be time and labor-intensive, but each step provides an important piece of the puzzle. Continue reading “The 7-Step Plan for Creating a Content Marketing Strategy” →

5 Essential Updates to Your Event Marketing [Infographic]

Email campaigns good. Digital and paid social campaigns are great. Content marketing campaigns are essential. But there are five things that event marketers should do to keep their strategies at the top of their game. This infographic identifies the additional marketing activities your team should be working on to make the biggest impact with your target audiences.

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