By Hailley Griffis
The great article roundup this week focuses on excellent content marketing posts, as well as a hint of what the future will bring. Forbes, ClickThrough and Search Engine Watch touch on content marketing, some intriguing case studies, the importance of storytelling, and the quantity vs. quality debate. Finally, a futuristic piece on SocialMediaExaminer looks at six of the biggest marketing trends to watch for in 2013 and why they are so important.
Content marketing: A playbook
Christa Carone offers takeaways from big brands that are really succeeding with content marketing. Some of the key elements she writes about are knowing the purpose of your content marketing, as well as making sure that the content is relevant. She stresses the importance of setting expectations and changing your angle if you aren’t reaching them.
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By Hailley Griffis
This week’s great article roundup is all about our bread and butter — marketing. From LinkedIn marketing and marketing strategy, to email marketing and content creation. Business Insider, Forbes, Entrepreneur.com and Social Media Today all give excellent tips and tricks. Enjoy.
How to use LinkedIn to boost marketing and increase sales
Business Insider explains just how powerful LinkedIn can be. With more than 225 million professionals worldwide using it, it is the hub for professionals to network and share online. Business Insider states that 24 per cent of salespeople increase their sales when they start using social media. Organizations can show off their expertise on LinkedIn and use company profiles and groups to build an influential presence.
Creating a successful marketing strategy
Andrew Klausner talks about the importance of a robust marketing strategy. Although many companies operate off of referrals, if ever the referrals slow down, they need to have a strategy in place to pick up sales. But you cannot simply decide to market one day, and stop the next. Klausner points out some key elements to a successful strategy, including being realistic and consistent over time.
10 questions to ask when choosing an email marketing service
Email marketing is still in full swing, having grown exponentially since 2009. It is now responsible for 7.5 per cent of new customers, according to recent stats. There are so many email marketing services out there, Kim Lachance Shandrow outlines some important things to first look over before deciding on one. She highlights setting goals, determining costs, picking a design and deciding on platforms, among others.
5 key elements of viral content
Mark Smiciklas knows that every marketer dreams of having their content shared like wildfire. He shares an infographic that reveals the secret sauce for making content viral. The infographic looks at elements like scarcity, share buttons, skim-ability, practical utility and consistency. One interesting fact is that the average user consumes only about 20 per cent of the content on a web page.
By Hailley Griffis
This Friday we have two distinct trends in our favourite articles of the past week.
The first is the importance of looking to the future of marketing. Articles by Marketo Blog and featured on LinkedIn discuss the changing landscape of marketing, the new roles that will be required in the future and suggestions for accomplishing your goals while you can.
The second trend is that of customer service, something this blog always makes a point to highlight. Articles by CopyBlogger and FastCompany look into why you may be losing your prospects’ trust and how to avoid it. Also, should you actually listen to your customer? What if they don’t really know what they want?
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By Hailley Griffis
As per our usual Friday schedule, we have rounded up some of the best articles we’ve come across in the past week to share with our readers. Front and centre this time around are Social Media Today, SocialMediaB2B, Marketing Sherpa Blog and Econsultancy.
How much content do you need? Here’s a formula
Jay Baer looks into a formula for content marketing. Is there a certain amount of content required? According to Jay, if you want to make your content useful, there absolutely is. You need to look at personas, budget stages and the number of questions you need to answer, before moving to the next stage. The formula involves all of these numbers and helps you figure out how many of your customer’s questions your content should be answering.
Daily social media usage includes B2B customers and prospects
Though some companies seem to think their customers aren’t on social media, Jeffrey Cohen writes about recent statistics that reveal that 40 per cent of the world uses a social media site every day. The study goes into which social networks are used and when specifically their traffic peaks throughout the day, with information such as “2.1 billion search queries are conducted on Twitter every day. That’s almost half as many as performed on Google.” The importance in these numbers for marketing lies in understanding where your customers are on social networks. With that information, you can create the presence, and the content, to find them.
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By Hailley Griffis
Last month’s content lineup featured great posts that shattered common myths about listening to feedback from investors, the future of the tech-world for entrepreneurs and how far a little cleverness can take you in your marketing strategy. We also looked at the International Startup Festival being held in Montreal this month for the third year in a row and the astounding importance that neurons play in our day-to-day lives.
In case you missed any of it, here is a handy recap of our posts, as ranked by the enthusiasm of our readers:
June 18 : The art of ignoring feedback, by Anil Dilawri
June 04: Where do the next opportunities lie for savvy tech entrepreneurs?, by Denzil Doyle
June 26: International Startup Festival hits Montreal for third edition, by Francis Moran
June 17: A little cleverness goes a long, long way, by Leo Valiquette
June 19: You are what you think, by Bob Bailly
June 12: Why my pony tail ain’t my brand, by Francis Moran
June 06: House renos and the art of customer service, by Francis Moran
June 05: Your local newspaper may be your hardest to crack, and least relevant, media outlet, by Leo Valiquette
June 24: Why confidentiality, by David French
June 27: Running faster is not the solution to Canada’s productivity challenge, by Denzil Doyle
June 10: 4 reasons why you need a mobile website, by Debra Kaye
June 11: With clients, you must sometimes be cruel to be kind, by Leo Valiquette
June 20: Are developers responsible for how their products are used?, by Francis Moran
June 25: Summer is no time to slack off, by Leo Valiquette
June 13: Customer surveys are great. Unless you ask the wrong questions, by Francis Moran
Image: June 2013 Calendar Printable
By Hailley Griffis
