Content Marketing Archives - Modern Marketing Partners

Top Account Based Marketing Tools and Tactics image

As a business-to-business (B2B) marketer, you’ve probably been hearing about ABM the past couple years. Maybe you’re finally tempted to give Account-Based Marketing (ABM) a try? You know it’s a very strategic form of marketing that concentrates sales and marketing resources on a clearly defined set of target accounts within market, or individuals within target companies, and utilizes highly personalized communications to reach each target. ABM is likely the exact opposite of approaches you’re currently taking; where you cast a wide net to drive multiple leads, hoping that a few truly workout and are a good fit for your products or services. Most of your marketing focus is being spent on top funnel activities to get noticed and generate some interest in your ...

30th of January, 2019
In: Digital Marketing, Marketing Best Practices, Marketing Tactics, Social Media
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To Pin or Not to Pin? image

The past year social media has seemed to be dominated by likes of Facebook (for both good and not-so-good reasons), Instagram, and Snapchat. While these platforms spurred the trend toward video content, marketers have since continued to leverage this format throughout their marketing mix. So how does Pinterest, which utilizes both images and videos, fit in the picture for businesses? Well, it stepped up its game in terms of video in 2018. In August of last year, Pinterest tested and launched Promoted Video at max width to all its advertisers. Promoted video or advertising video had been available since 2016. The new wider format allows for videos to be played at 4x bigger, increasing engagement rates from 12%-33% according to initial brand tests. Promoted Video at max. width stretches across ...

Maximizing Mobile with Targeting and Personalization image

Adults in the U.S. are expected to spend on average three and half hours on non-voice mobile media, and about 70 percent of their media time and 90 percent of their social media time on their smartphones. It’s settled then, right? You understand that mobile marketing offers increase customer engagement and selling opportunities, and it’s time to create an approach into the mobile environment. Mobile Marketing Benefits Experts agree that companies utilizing mobile strategies are seeing benefits such as improved cost efficiencies, closer connectivity with customers, and more accurate data points. That’s because for marketers, mobile advertising provides a more effective way to target and retarget their audiences, create higher-level personalization, and be freed of barriers like time and location. Another key ...

6 Common Content Marketing Missteps image

Most companies today would probably say they are involved in content marketing. The problem is many might also qualify this as an On Again/Off Again relationship or a Go Big/Fade Away relationship. I’m sure we can all relate… Writing a blog post once a month or so, setting up social media accounts, or posting to Facebook all technically constitute as content marketing tactics. But it’s doubtful you’re seeing any change in website traffic, email open rates or click throughs. And that’s because you’re not really harnessing the power that great content affords you. Let’s take a look at some common content marketing mistakes and steps you need to take to get on a productive path: Lack of Value Business strategies often use an 80/20 ...

Develop an Inbound Approach to Creating Relevant Content image

There’s a sports adage that many coaches tell their athletes, “let the game come to you.” It may seem like odd advice, because most sports-related activities and matches seem to be all about controlling the tempo and taking charge of the game. However, this different and disciplined approach can yield important benefits for players and professionals alike. For marketing professionals in today’s business climate, it means being patient, not passive, just alert and resolute. And it means letting the customer come to you. You still have to entice them of course, but it may be over a longer period of time. How do you establish visibility and credibility with this approach? By creating relevant content that has more in common ...

16th of October, 2018
In: Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media
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Google+ Cancellation – Implications for Social Media and SEO image

Millions of businesses are signed up to Google+: it has become an important part of both social media and SEO initiatives. Did you know that Google+ engagement is comparatively better than most social networks? According to SEP, “Google+ active users spend quality time on the site -- an average of 3:46 per visit.” And Google+ bounce rate is excellent at 53.6%. See chart below. So what happens when Google decides to shut down the platform? You didn't see that coming but it's actually going to happen over the next 10 months. To the uninitiated, this may not seem like a problem. But to you that every once in a while uses Google+, why wouldn't Google just consider you! The fact is that ...

26th of September, 2018
In: Content Marketing, Marketing Tactics, Technology Marketing
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4 Digital Tools that Make Content Creation a Little Easier image

Marketers’ jobs include a little bit of everything today. Companies are investing in social media, public relations, website and landing pages, advertising, email campaigns, blogging, vlogging, and the list goes on and on. And content creation for all these tactics is a critical component of their success. While technology has driven marketing in new directions, it has also provided marketers and content writers with new digital tools to help simplify their jobs. Today there are boundless apps and tools that didn’t even exist five or 10 years ago. Many of the tools you’re probably currently using may be MailChimp for email list and automation marketing, Hubspot for content creation or Buffer for social media scheduling and replying. However, there are several ...

19th of July, 2018
In: Blogging, Content Marketing, Marketing Best Practices
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4 Types of Business Blogging Content image

Business blogging requires genuinely engaging prospects and customers. The thing is people are all different. This means you need to have some different types of content on your blog to attract and retain readers. You must also have diverse content to help you accomplish the various goals of your blogging program. You need the right blend of content to grab the attention of visitors, gain rapport with readers, educate them on your approach, and establish your expertise in the industry. A tall order, really, but doable. Many posts about blogging list anywhere from 10-80 different types of content you can utilize. It may almost be overwhelming to think about blogging if you start with this approach. However, there are probably about ...

12th of July, 2018
In: Blogging, Content Marketing, Marketing Best Practices
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Blogging Challenges and Tips for Success image

Your company started a blog maybe a year or so ago for all the right reasons. As a marketer you know the value of having new, relevant content on your website. You created a posting schedule, worked hard at writing many of blogs, maybe even found some company guest bloggers, and now the whole process seems, well, a bit melancholy. Many companies experience some bumps in the road regarding their blogging efforts. Here are five common challenges and tips for getting your blog back on track: Challenge: Missed deadlines. Tip: Everyone at your company is busy, including you. Your posting schedule may get off track. Energy suddenly becomes low around writing more blogs. Initially, the interest was there, but now other priorities ...

How to Create Viral Content image

Since the early days of the internet, everyone, from YouTubers to ordinary people to businesses and beyond, have wanted to create content that resonates with a wide audience and is shared worldwide. As the days of the internet have gone on, there’s more opportunity than ever to go viral - you have a variety of platforms to choose from, minimal barriers to entry; virtually anyone, anywhere can do it. However, that means there’s also an increasing number of content to compete against. So how do you create content that gets a plentitude of shares and traffic to your site? We’ll break down the trends of viral content and how you can achieve it yourself. Viral Content Trends Viral content comes in ...

Benjamin Franklin—The Father of Content Marketing? image

Per Wikipedia (or your history books), Benjamin Franklin was an author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, humorist, civic activist, statesman, diplomat. But among these titles, one may be missing—The Father of Content Marketing. Content Marketing is Older Than You Think “But Steve,” you may think to yourself, “Content marketing is a new concept. We just adopted it within the last decade and we’re on the cutting edge.” First off, I’m happy that you know my name. Second, like you, I thought I was one of the early adopters. Third, both of us are only partially right. Oxford Dictionaries Got it Wrong Even if both of us were early adopters of the Oxford Dictionary definition of content marketing (a type ...

How to Write Compelling Customer Success Stories image

Looking for a way to nudge a prospect into purchasing and becoming a valued customer? A compelling customer success story can do the trick. Clearly communicating how your product or service has helped solve a real world problem for a customer makes your company’s offerings relatable and tangible to others in a positive and effective way different from all other types of marketing and advertising. No matter whether you use the term case study, testimonial or customer success story, it is one of the most powerful content marketing approaches companies can use today. A customer success story demonstrates the benefits of your products, your services, your company -- rather than just tell about them. Delivering this type of differentiation during ...

5 Great Services for Content Promotion image

Has your engagement on your online content ever been much lower than expected? While this can be a very saddening moment in any content creator’s life, there is something that can be done to save you from that disappointment in the future. While you can promote your content yourself via social media or email, sometimes you just need to get beyond your own audience to have the most success. Content promotion could be just what you need. Content promotion services put your content on websites that have a wide audience and reach, which results in much more traffic for your site. The ultimate goal would be to make those random visitors regulars in order to build a bigger audience, but one-click ...

16th of May, 2017
In: B2B Marketing, Content Marketing, Inbound Marketing
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Why It Matters: Proving the Value of Your Content to Prospects image

In the great grocery store that is the internet, your content could be the greatest thing since sliced bread. It could be a well-written, topical, informative, and even slightly entertaining blog post, eBook, or infographic that is sure to turn a reader into a lead. Unfortunately, if you've ever bought bread at a grocery store, you know that you face a two-part challenge: Getting to the bread aisle/remembering to buy bread and choosing the right bread. The same goes for your content. Some people will think it's generic white bread content that you've written, and it's your job to convince them it's not. In part one of this two-part blog, we explored the many distractions that exist for your ...

Why Your Content Isn’t Reaching the Right People image

Maybe you just created a great piece of content—which in your mind is the greatest thing since sliced bread. To you, this isn’t just any sliced bread. This is top of the line, nutrient-dense content that is sure to turn heads and generate leads. Unfortunately, no one’s buying your bread—yet. There is a reason for this, and as a content marketer, you have to face many of the same challenges that a CPG brand does, except rather than competing for a customer’s money, you have to compete for attention. Unfortunately, there are a couple things that make your job a bit tougher: Your prospect is on a much stricter budget. There are only so many hours in a day, and ...

Email Marketing Best Practices 2017 image

Our last blog discussed forming email strategy goals and a target audience. Here, we’ll re-visit 5 of our best practices from 2014, because the same ideas ring true today: (1) strategic subject lines, (2) avoiding spam filters, (3) calls-to-action, (4) mobile-optimizing, and (5) personalization. We’ve ramped it up with some current stats and facts. Use Strategic Subject Line Keywords To start, subject lines are the first thing customers see, so if you want a customer to open your email, it’s important to carefully craft a good subject. Focusing on subject line keywords, we take a look at how 6 common keywords perform: “You” – opened 5% less than those without “Free” – opened 10% more than those without “Quick” – opened ...

EMI: The Top Ecommerce Trends of 2017 image

The focus of ecommerce lately has had one overarching trend: improving the customer experience. And it’s for good reason; by 2020, customer experience will overtake price as the main product differentiator. From better mobile capabilities, to unique unboxing experiences, there are countless ways to win over customers and great repeat business. Thanks to our friends at the Ecommerce Marketing Institute, here are the top ecommerce trends of 2017. Mobile is First Priority You may be tired of hearing about mobile, but its importance needs to be emphasized. It’s not always enough to have an adaptive website. Sometimes you need to create experiences specifically for mobile. This sometimes means creating pages mobile-first. Acceptance of mobile payments, like Apple Pay, is important too. All ...

Influencers on Notice: FTC Regulations Affecting Influencer Marketing image

The FTC’s Policy Statement on Native Ads doesn’t just apply to Buzzfeed articles. It affects social media as well. Two recent lawsuits brought by the FTC are putting influencers on notice. Back in December, the FTC released a Policy Statement on Deceptively Formatted Ads. They regulations target native advertising, a disguised form of ads matching the format of other content on a website or medium. For example, BuzzFeed’s Sponsored articles advertise certain companies but appear to be native content. Through the FTC regulations, companies are required to differentiate native content from advertisements. This same rule applies to influencers on social media: paid content must be disclosed as such. Warner Bros. and Lord & Taylor Both Warner Bros. and Lord & Taylor recently had to ...

How to Select a Content Marketing Agency image

No question, content marketing is likely the hottest topic in, well, marketing! Want proof? A 2016 study identified that 88% of business-to-business (B2B) marketers, and 76% of business-to-consumer (B2C) marketers are using content marketing (Source: Content Marketing Institute). This “How to Select a Content Marketing Agency ” blog considers some top thought leaders perspectives on the subject, along with a Top 5 Content Marketing Agency Selection Checklist, and some relevant content marketing resources. Before diving into the subject, consider the same study identified that B2B marketers use an average of 13 content marketing tactics out of a total of 25 possible, while B2C use an average of 12 out of a total of 24 tactics. That’s a lot of content! Our latest ...

Content Marketing Guide: Best Practices, Tips & Trade Secrets image

A new content marketing guide is available that details 3 phases of the content marketing process: planning, implementation, and measurement. Both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) content marketing scenarios were considered. Numerous content marketing examples and resources are provided. The Guide starts with the premise that content marketing is the hottest topic in all of marketing. Why? Because according to a 2016 study by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, 88% of B2B marketers and 76% of B2C marketers are using content marketing. The content planning phase includes defining objectives, determining content topics, and identifying content types or tactics. Regarding tactics, the aforementioned studies identified both B2B and B2C content tactics in the charts below. No question, there are major differences in content types ...

18th of August, 2016
In: Blogging, Content Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Marketing Best Practices
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Blogging Best Practices: Top 10 Tips image

According to a recent study, blogging is used by 81% of business marketers, and 77% of consumer marketers (Source: Content Marketing Institute). No question, Blogging is now a proven marketing tactic for most marketing scenarios. Why? Because effective blogging can drive significant and measurable website traffic, build search engine authority, improve social media engagement, reinforce a thought leadership image, and even generate sales leads. So how can a marketer blog more effectively? Following are Top 10 Tips for Blogging Excellence with explanations of each, along with some additional resources. Top 10 Tips for Blogging Excellence: 1. How to Plan a Blog 2. Key Content Considerations 3. Properly Integrate Blog and Website 4. Employ all possible SEO 5. Blog Titles are Critical 6. Lead Generation Techniques 7. Use relevant ...

27th of July, 2016
In: Inbound Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized
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Find an Influencer that Fits Your Influencer Marketing Strategy image

If you read our previous article, you know to take influencer marketing seriously. But how do you need to approach this strategy? It’s difficult to track down an influencer that’s the perfect fit – both a balance of a large social following, and followers that would be interested in your niche. Selecting an influencer with too few followers is not going to be seen, but an influencer with many followers is useless if their interests don’t align with your product. If you find your perfect influencer, you need to think about your approach. How are you going to compensate the influnecers? It may not be enough just to give them a product sample. Give them a reason to talk ...

21st of July, 2016
In: Inbound Marketing, Influencer Marketing, Social Media
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Why Influencer Marketing Needs to be Taken Seriously image

As the popularity of social media marketing continues to grow, so does the use of influencers. Influencer marketing is a strategy companies use similar to word-of-mouth (WOM). Businesses find influential members within online communities and incentivize them to promote their product in a more organic or native way. Typically, these influencers are experts within a product category or have a large social following. Companies may offer free products, cash, or other compensation; in exchange, the influencer chats up or reviews the company’s product on their platform(s). Influencers may spread the word on a multitude of social platforms, blogs, or websites. Why Influencer Marketing? Advertisement exhaustion. We’re each exposed to 4,000-10,000 ads per day. Consequently, the population is sick of ads. This is ...

17th of June, 2016
In: Content Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Thought Leadership Marketing
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Thought Leadership Marketing Guide image

Thought leadership as a marketing discipline has been around for several decades. Some credit large consulting firms that published research (e.g. The McKinsey Quarterly, Deloitte Review). Defined as positioning a company or individual as an expert through current, relevant and valuable content, thought leadership marketing (TLM) is intuitively appealing because customers seek information, education, and expertise when evaluating options, or making important decisions. Another TLM definition references the need for expertise when a high degree of financial or emotional risk is involved. That said, TLM is likely important for a broad range of categories including information technology (IT), software, consulting, big ticket purchases, new technologies, and complex products or services. As you might expect, there are many challenges to effective thought ...

Thought Leadership Marketing Best Practices – Webinar image

During June, Modern Marketing Partners will be hosting two webcasts. The first will be on Thursday, June 9th at 1 PM CST, titled Software Marketing Best Practices: Executive Briefing. The second, Thought Leadership Best Practices: Executive Briefing, will take place on Tuesday, June 14th at 1 PM CST. Thought Leadership Marketing Best Practices: Executive Briefing For complex or expensive products, customers won’t buy from just anybody. These purchase decisions take time and research; buyers want experts. Thought leadership is one of the most effective ways to prove your company to prospective customers. Although this is a great marketing tactic, it’s becoming more widely used than ever. How do you stand out for less? What’s Covered: Understand the challenges of thought leadership. Learn ...

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