B2B Marketing, Digital Media and Marketing Strategy
Forrester recently released a report pointing out the failure of most content marketers to plan for adequate content distribution. And they’re right.
Marketers are slaving over content today, but almost no one sees that content.
Optimizing your content for search and distributing it through your own social and email channels is just the starting place. For most B2B marketers, it isn’t nearly enough. [Read more…]
Native advertising, and more specifically native content publishing, is hot.
Nearly every major publisher already has a program or is working on one. It shouldn’t be a surprise, as marketers increasingly turn to content, publishers need to offer solutions to promote and distribute that content.
For B2B marketers, the Forbes BrandVoice program is one of the original and most established programs. BrandVoice marketers are able to publish directly on Forbes, presumably gaining access to an audience far larger and more valuable than what they could reach on their own.
But do native advertising programs that let marketers publish directly on a media property distribute content effectively? Do they really get the benefit of the media company’s audience? To find out, I gathered data on more than 340 articles, 15 marketers in the Forbes BrandVoice program and 3 Forbes staff writers. [Read more…]
A colleague forwards you link with a short note: “this is awesome, we should be doing this.” Your interest is perked. Your expectations are high. You click and… your heart sinks.
Its last decade’s news and isn’t relevant for your business today. What was gold to your colleague was a waste of time for you.
Content quality is in the eye of the beholder. At the end of the day, no other perspective matters. Here is the litmus test we need to apply: [Read more…]
You don’t need more content. You need old content. I know, that’s not what you usually hear, so stick with me.
Old content is the real king of content marketing. It’s why established publishers still have a huge advantage. It is why new successful publications like Huffington Post or Copyblogger really aren’t all that new.
Better content isn’t enough when your competitors have good old content. [Read more…]
Have you ever clicked on a promising headline and then been horribly disappointed by the results? Have you then been amazed at the number of social media shares you continue to see of that same thing post?
I know I have. Those writers have discovered the foolproof formula for creating killer content with minimal effort or original thought. Content that consistently delivers results (shares and visits, not people that actually care, that’s not worth the trouble to measure anyways) for your efforts. Warning, sarcasm may be found dripping at additional points throughout this article.
Do you want guaranteed success too? Just follow this simple formula, and ignore the people quietly laughing at your expense. [Read more…]
Despite the capabilities of modern marketing automation platforms, many B2B marketers still approach nurture with a short term mindset.
Your primary goal is to increase engagement, raise lead scores and pass a more active “lead” to sales as quickly as possible.
The result is often a series of short term “nurture” programs combined with campaign blasts sent sporadically to a huge list of inactive contacts.
Yes, it may be an improvement from when all you had were batch email blasts, but you can and should do so much more today. [Read more…]
![The B2B Content Solution: [Easy Button]. Warning: Will effect quality and results](https://b2bdigital.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Easy-Content-Warning-Button-300x251.jpg)
There are easy ways to create good content, right?
No. Sorry.
Creating good content is hard. And it’s getting harder.
If you take the content shortcuts that are recommended by so many self-labeled content marketing experts, you will be sorely disappointed in the long run. [Read more…]
![Your Leads Are Crap!! [Man yelling at cowering marketer]](https://b2bdigital.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Your-Leads-Are-Crap-300x240.jpg)
Congratulations, you are a B2B content marketer.
You have created a great industry blog and library of premium content. You promote your content through search, social, emails, newsletters, even banners.
You are seeing strong traffic, engagement with your blog content and a steady increase in registrations for your premium content.
There’s just one little problem: the leads are crap. [Read more…]
Inbound marketing may be the hot topic for B2B marketers today, but today’s big B2B inbound marketers are all active outbound marketers as well.
So how do you pair your outbound marketing activity with your inbound marketing?
Here are six ways outbound marketing can support and scale your inbound marketing efforts and some of the channels that are appropriate for each one. [Read more…]
It’s true. When people share too much, we tune them out. We only half-listen, or we just walk away.
In social media, we do the same thing. We skim over the update from the chatterboxes, not giving them the same attention as updates from others we see less frequently in our stream.
Here is the problem: As an individual building your own personal brand or as a marketer, you have taken the advice to share other people’s content to heart. In a bad way. [Read more…]