In 2007, the mention of content marketing brought as many blank stares from small business owners as the mention of a website did 10 years before. In fact, in 1997 when we started our small business magazine in Southwest Florida, few owners had websites, let alone an online marketing strategy. In 2009, most small businesses do have websites and the term, ‘content marketing,’ has gone from obscure to fashionable. How to go from clueless to compelling to transform prospects into buyers When I say fashionable, I mean that the usage of the phrase has

It’s been a very good year for content marketing. In fact, visitors searching our site for the phrase “content marketing” increased by 85% in 2009 over 2008. Social media certainly loomed larger in the past 12 months but interest in content marketing strategy accounted for the majority of the most popular posts. How To Create the All-Important Here is the Cliff’s Notes bullet point version with more detail and links to the full articles following: 5 Reasons an eBook Should be a Core Component of Your Content Marketing Strategy

When your customers come to your website, they are similarly looking to you to solve their problems. If you can succeed at providing plenty of substantive information that addresses their biggest problems, you are beginning to play the role of content concierge in their lives. Your content is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Think of yourself as the ultimate knowledge resource like those concierges serving fine hotels such as the Ritz-Carlton or the Four Seasons—But Available 24/7. When you find yourself in a new town but are blessed to be staying in a hotel

I've had the pleasure of working with Russell on a number of projects, most recently their amazingly successful New Media 2012 conference. As you will learn from Russell's post, he's advocating a content marketing schedule that is quite ambitious, challenging for most companies. If you’ve been following this blog, among others on similar topics, you’ve heard many times that content marketers need to think and act like publishers. The following is a guest post courtesy of Russell Sparkman from Fusionspark Media , a new media communications company based in Washington state.

We get asked how much a website should cost at least once a week. When they learn what we do for a living , they invariably ask us "what should my website cost?" If only it were easy to give a good answer. Web design projects can also vary, beginning at a few simple pages in a "brochure" website to complex websites that have a content management system, e-commerce, and interactive features. It can be by friends, friends of friends, business connections, anyone really. The fields of web design and web development are filled with a wide spectrum of professionals,

But, if you use it well, you can make a measurable difference in your content marketing strategy. Here are six easy ways for Twitter to strengthen your content marketing efforts: Because effective content marketing is as much about conversation as it is an outbound messages, you need to maintain a dialogue with customers, prospects, and industry thought leaders. You may be wondering why something as seemingly simple as Twitter causes so much confusion and consternation among business people. Perhaps, it best likened to a tool like a hammer which is simultaneously

0160; Content strategy is not easy.  Content Strategy Comes Before Social Media 20 Questions to Ask Before Launching a Content Marketing Project Method to Content Strategy Since releasing the Content Marketing Playbook Let's face it.  0160; Actually, it's pretty difficult.

Last week I attended Search Engine Strategies in San Jose and joined in on a session about Duplicate Content.  0160; Duplicate content occurs when two or more web pages have the same content.   0160;  This happens frequently for B2C companies, as many companies may be selling the same product with similar product descriptions on different websites.  0160; This session was very interesting, but since it was not part of their B2B track, was not focused specifically on how it affects B2B marketers.  0160; While B2B companies may

Some things amaze me, like this year's social media and content marketing predictions list.  0160; Over 100 predictions from 60+ of the best and the brightest in marketing, content marketing, custom publishing and social media.  More companies will need to outsource content to expert publishers 0160; What does one sent email and two tweets equal?  0160; No kidding! 

Whenever I can get two numbers into the title of a content marketing post, good things are always bound to happen. ;) As we move into 2010, I thought I'd share these 30 content marketing truths that are taped above my desk. Whenever I lose my way (to a more traditional mindset), I read through this content-marketing heavy list.  It's 0160;It's guaranteed to help. That the content is more important than the offer.