By Leo Valiquette
As Francis wrote yesterday, content marketing is nothing new. It’s the way in which that content can be presented, distributed and promoted that has changed dramatically since the days when we had to use these dusty things called books to do research.
I define content marketing as a process to engage, inform, educate and otherwise woo a target audience with some kind of narrative. This narrative can be anything from a post on your corporate blog to a paid advertising spot that features a client case study (often referred to as an advertorial), or a thought leadership piece that has earned, rather than bought, its way into an influential industry publication.
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By Francis Moran
I gave a presentation yesterday to a new networking meeting, the Montreal Startup Breakfast Club. I talked about developing a content marketing strategy, and reviewed the rigorous methodology we have developed to govern our own internal content-marketing activities as well as those of clients. The novelty of using the term “content marketing” was evident to the people in the room and my presentation was well received, notwithstanding my explanation that I use this relatively new term to describe things I have been doing all my working life.
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By Leo Valiquette
This is a story about a dining room set and organically grown frozen meat products, but it could just as easily be a story about a B2B technology product or service.
A couple of months ago, Francis wrote that customer service must be a deliberate strategy. How you approach customer service ought to be a strategic decision that is carefully and deliberately made. Retaining good customers, after all, is far less costly than acquiring new ones.
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By David French
In our previous posting, we addressed the issue of getting to the point in drafting a patent application. I suggested that inventors would be well-served if they did make the attempt to draft their own patent disclosure document. I strongly recommended against proceeding without the support of a patent professional. But at the same time, I emphasized the advantages of understanding the patenting process by trying to do part of the work yourself.
The challenge in patenting is to identify a feature that is different from what has been done before and to focus a patent disclosure document on that feature. This requires understanding what is patentable and exercising the discipline to stay focused. Too many inventors trying to write their own patent applications think that the more words they use, the better. They respond to the impulse to show off how much they know. They think that longer makes a patent disclosure document better. This could not be further from the truth.
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By Daylin Mantyka
As a regular feature, we provide our readers with a roundup of some of the best articles we have read in the past week. On the podium this week are Techvibes, MarketingProfs, Co.Create and GigaOM.
Which accelerator, if any, should you join?
Ian MacKinnon talks about the pros and cons of joining an accelerator and whether or not it’s right for your company.
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