Manufacturers’ 4 Step Guide to Producing Content for Effective Channels

There have been many reports published over the years claiming to know the answer to manufacturers’ most burning marketing question: What content channel is most effective for my business? The challenge with deciphering these reports is that the data is inconsistent. Some reports claim direct email is the most effective channel for manufacturers, others say LinkedIn and even more recommend sticking to in-person events like trade shows. The inconsistencies can make a B2B marketer’s head spin. In actuality, just like B2C businesses, manufacturing customers and prospects are very different from company to company. Here are a few important steps to take to identify your most effective channels and produce the best content for each.

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Author: Steve James

6 Skills the Content Team of 2017 Will Need

Despite reports of oversaturation of content and overwhelmed search engines, content creation remains a key strategy component for any inbound marketer looking for increased lead generation, overall brand awareness and growth.

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Author: Janice Dombrowski

Weekly Flashback: Write Clickable Search Ad Copy & 103 Marketing Thought Leaders to Follow

Are you looking to freshen up your marketing podcast list to find more thought leaders who can help grow your business? If so, you’ll definitely want to check out “103 Genuine Marketing Thought Leaders To Follow” on this week’s Weekly Flashback list. Additionally, this week’s posts include tips on discovering new Facebook groups, how to write attention-grabbing search ad copy, everything you need to know about beacons, and social media SEO strategy. Take a look at my favorite posts from this past week:

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Author: Steve James

Weekly Flashback: 3 Ways to Use Live Video & 19 Podcasts Worth More Than an MBA

Are you producing content but struggling to improve your search rankings, readership and web visits? If so, you are not alone and there are a few tips and tools that you can begin incorporating right away to boost your content marketing strategy. This week’s flashback posts include tips on optimizing content for great SEO, producing live videos to connect with prospects and customers, podcasts that can help you grow professionally and grow your business and important considerations to help you generate more blog readers. Take a look at my favorite posts from this past week:

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Author: Steve James

The Impact of Storytelling on Inbound Marketing: Q&A with Sam Slaughter, Journalist & Content Marketing Expert

The past two decades have brought a definite transition in the way businesses and individuals share their story and position themselves as industry experts. The emergence of content production as an inbound marketing tactic has kept marketers incredibly busy over the last few years – so much that a lot of the content produced was done just for the sake of sticking to a consistent distribution schedule. Readers are now becoming more adept at cutting through the clutter and identifying a post that is just regurgitated information about the latest trending topic. What readers are looking for now are the pieces of content that set a brand apart – something that shakes up the industry or marries the brand with consumers needs through inspiring and in-depth storytelling.

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Author: Andrea Meyers

Is Your Company Making These 8 Content Marketing Mistakes?

Companies and organizations are often held back by their fear that they are going to do content marketing wrong. Rather than taking the necessary steps to identify their buyer-persona’s needs and formulate a content marketing plan, marketers may find themselves like a deer in headlights when contemplating the best strategy for their business. But can you really do content marketing wrong? Some content is better than no content, right? The answer to this depends on your approach. The key is to tell a good story first, and sell a great product or service second. To help overcome your fear and get your content marketing efforts on the best track, avoid these most common misperceptions.

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Author: Andrea Meyers

Weekly Flashback: We All Love to Hate Google+ and Re-thinking Calls-to-Action

This week’s list of posts is all about social with a little bit of content and lead generation thrown in. From LinkedIn best practices for individuals and businesses, social advertising to re-thinking how we position calls-to-action and Google+, the social platform we love to hate - the best articles I read from the past week touch on the ever-changing world of social promotion for business and the importance of testing and analyzing how readers are engaging with your content.

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Author: Steve James

Secured Buy-in for an Inbound Program? 7 Tactics to Train Your Team

Congratulations! You’ve successfully secured the green light to pursue your inbound marketing campaign dreams. But the biggest challenge you’ll face as an inbound marketer is yet to come and it’s not at all what you might expect.

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Author: Janice Dombrowski

5 Ways Churning Out Content Is An Inbound Marketing Balancing Act

Successful inbound marketers understand the link between campaign development, content marketing and branding, and the power it holds to staying competitive while boosting ROI. In fact, according to HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2015 Report, companies are three times more likely to see a higher ROI on inbound marketing campaigns than outbound. With the right mix of content contributors and promotion of content, businesses will experience more traffic, engagement, lead generation and sales.

According to HubSpot’s report, organizations that saw the largest increase in ROI from 2014 to 2015, expanded their content creation strategies by employing and including contributions from not only staff writers, but also guest contributors and freelancer / third party writers. Companies that called on fewer guest and staff contributors experienced a definitively lower ROI for the year. What this tells us is that successful inbound content creation, takes as much balance as walking a tight rope.

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Author: Andrea Meyers

The Secret Formula To Make Your Content Highly Sharable

Inbound marketing success starts and ends with the creation, amplification and distribution of unique and valuable content. Great content can inspire, solve a problem, answer a question and build the foundation for consumer trust every brand seeks. So it is no surprise that business both big and small are writing, posting, tweeting and sharing more content than ever before. In a single 24-hour period there are 2 million new blog posts published, 294 billion emails sent, 864 thousand hours of video added to YouTube and 400 million posted tweets.

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Author: Janice Dombrowski