Persuasion is the goal of all marketing. As marketers, our job is to sell something — to persuade someone to take action. Maybe you’re trying to sell yourself. Maybe you’re selling an idea, a service or a product. Content is part of that, and these days it’s the most important part. We’re living in the relationship marketing era. Continue Reading...

Has your audience stopped paying attention to you? Content marketing is designed to prevent this, but there are a number of reasons why people might still stop listening. Audience preferences change — maybe they started doing something else. Your segmentation might be wrong. Your content might not be good enough. Or maybe you’re not giving them Continue Reading...

Does dominating the SERP really have the same impact it once did? SEO, simply put, is a “​​set of practices designed to improve the appearance and positioning of web pages in organic search results.” It’s the method you use to reach the top of the SERP, or “search engine results page.” Problem is, it’s only getting harder. There’s more Continue Reading...

If your LinkedIn feed is anything like mine, it’s full of polls. People love to share their opinions, and polls are an easy, low-friction way for them to engage. LinkedIn knows this — and so do the people that use it on a daily basis. Polls have power. But as Spiderman says (and the ancient adage goes), “with great power comes great Continue Reading...

Is your business prepared for a Black Swan? Professor of Risk Engineering Nassim Nicholas Taleb introduced the idea of the Black Swan in 2001, and it stuck in the popular imagination. According to Taleb, a Black Swan is an event that fits three criteria: It’s a surprise to observers. It has a major effect. It is rationalized as Continue Reading...

Text (SMS) marketing only had a brief moment in the marketing spotlight. As cell phones became more common, people realized they could get updates from their favorite stores, sports teams and more — and they took advantage of the new technology to stay connected. Then the smartphone came into prominence over older “dumb” phones. Companies Continue Reading...

There’s an old saying that “Marketers ruin everything.” It’s an oversimplification — but there’s a grain of truth to it, and one of the most obvious examples is your email inbox. When email became widespread, marketers obtained lists of email addresses and flooded inboxes with unsolicited offers. Spam was born, and email providers have been Continue Reading...

Ever see a Coke bottle with your name on it instead of “Coca-Cola?” That’s the “Share a Coke” campaign. It began in Australia in 2011. The South Pacific division of Coca-Cola printed the 150 most popular first names in the country onto bottles and cans, and a phenomenon was born. People took pictures of their cans and posted them to social Continue Reading...

SEO has been a staple of content marketing for over 20 years. Firms sprang up overnight as Google grew to dominate the market. They promised top results for their clients. Some even succeeded. There was low-hanging fruit to be had. SEO expert Rand Fishkin noted on one podcast, “Back in the day, I would just point three anchor text phrases at Continue Reading...

A few years ago I worked with a company that focused on traditional marketing. Fliers and catalogs were how we reached the audience. While I was there, they began to modernize their processes. There was one problem: no one cared what they had to say anymore. Their rudimentary social media strategy had focused on pushing products for so long Continue Reading...