April, 2018

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How to write a pithy blog post and engage readers

Tina Dubinsky

To write a pithy blog post takes practice. If you dare to learn, your writing will engage more readers. While pithy describes a writing style and voice, it also characterizes language choices. But are you aware of its relation to the orange? Citrus fruit and other plants contain pith. It’s the white springy tissue under. Read more. The post How to write a pithy blog post and engage readers appeared first on Tina Dubinsky Freelance Writer.

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5 Steps to Find Your Brand Voice

Content Marketing Institute

Editor’s note: You may have missed this article when CMI published it a couple years ago. Interestingly, brand voice remains a critical need and this guide can help you create a helpful one. If your logo didn’t appear with your content, could your audience identify the content as coming from your brand? Would someone viewing your content on different channels know it all came from the same brand?

Brand 112
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How to Republish Old Blog Posts – and Why You’ll Want to

ProBlogger

If you’ve been blogging for a year or more, you might feel like you’re running out of ideas. There are plenty of great posts in your archive, but you’ve covered so many good topics already. Where can you go from here? Well, one place to go is… backwards. Instead of struggling to come up with brand new ideas, look at the ones you’ve already had. Are there posts buried in your archives that new readers would find helpful?

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James Comey's Book Pre-Sold Almost 200,000 Copies, Source Says

Huffpost

That number includes both digital and hardcover pre-sales.

Copy 40
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How to Leverage Behavioral Science Insights for Direct Mail Success

Speaker: Neal Boornazian, President and Nancy Harhut, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer - HBT Marketing

Direct mail has consistently remained a powerful tool in the marketer's arsenal, but in an age of digital dominance, its effectiveness hinges on the strategic integration of behavioral science. 💡 When you incorporate powerful behavioral science principles into your direct mail marketing strategies, you can prompt the hardwired decision-making shortcuts your audience relies on — and that automatically unlocks new avenues for engagement, conversion, and brand loyalty.

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7 Powerful Tools to Automate Tedious Content Marketing Tasks

Content Marketing Institute

You know what every content marketer loves? A good tool that saves you hours of time (and money). OK, maybe that’s just me. I absolutely love online tools that help automate tedious tasks. A good tool gives an amazing ROI while simultaneously improving the output of your work. In this article, I share seven of my favorite content marketing and SEO tools.

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How to Create Pillar Content Google Will Love

Content Marketing Institute

You’re at the bottom of the mountain you’ve been told to climb to the top. You look up at the summit and it seems so far away. You’re not sure how you’re going to get there. A clearly defined path isn’t visible to guide you in the right direction. The whole situation is a bit scary and overwhelming. But others before you have climbed this mountain. They’ve made it to the summit.

Content 111

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The 1-2-3-4 Strategy to Drive Leads From Instagram

Content Marketing Institute

When I first signed up for Instagram, I had no clue how to use it. I just created an account and let it sit there for more than a year. I never thought I could use it to build an audience. Then I came across a blog post describing how an online publication drove leads and built a multimillion-dollar business from Instagram. Within a few months, I learned how they did it – and how I could replicate the strategy for my clients.

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Are Personas Just a Nicer Word for Stereotypes?

Content Marketing Institute

We have soccer moms – married women who live in the suburbs and are best known for transporting their children to and from sports practices and other activities. We have NASCAR dads – blue-collar, middle-aged Caucasian men who graduated from high school and like watching stock car racing. And don’t forget the millennials – young adults who are entitled and lazy, live on their phones, and were raised by helicopter parents.

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Road Map to Success: Monitoring and Measuring Your Content’s Performance

Content Marketing Institute

No matter how creative, memorable, or popular your content pieces may become, every asset you create and share will ultimately be judged by the impact it makes on your business’ bottom line. While it can be tempting to think about measurement only after all other tasks are complete, you should recognize by now how critical it is to have the right data on hand to inform every phase of your content marketing approach.

Editorial 109
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How to Create Unified Content That Works in Diverse Global Markets [Examples]

Content Marketing Institute

If you work as a marketer in a global company, this conundrum is all too familiar. On the one hand, your content must be unified: Everywhere in the world, the messaging must be consistent, and people must recognize the brand. On the other hand, rigid consistency across cultures can backfire or undercut your business goals. When it comes to global content, one size does not fit all.

Marketing 108
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SME Relationships: Proven Solutions for Seamless Collaboration and Success

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

💢 Do you find yourself stuck in never-ending review cycles? Are you wondering if your Subject Matter Expert actually got that last review request? Are you having trouble trying to decipher impractical or conflicting feedback? 💢 If any of these scenarios sounds familiar, you may benefit from a crash course on managing SME relationships!

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How Content Can Create a Self-Sustaining Customer Referral Engine

Content Marketing Institute

Robert Rose, CMI chief strategy advisor, loves to reset his audience’s brains with a truth bomb: The purpose of a business is to create a customer. This 60-year-old quote from management great Peter Drucker reminds marketers that their work – creating demand, generating traffic, prompting social shares, or even gathering leads — is in service of this one clear goal.

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243: Tools and Techniques to Blog Effectively on the Road

ProBlogger

Tools and Techniques for Blogging While Travelling. Today I tackle a question from a listener about blogging on the road. Carmen Fellows asked about technicalities such as how to get content online and ways to access your blog. How can you balance blogging while traveling for work or vacation? It depends on the situation, and sometimes it’s a juggling act. .

Blog 52
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How to Write a Series for Your Blog (and Why You’ll Want To)

ProBlogger

Have you ever written a series of posts for your blog – a set of posts that are deliberately linked together? If you haven’t, I hope I can convince you to give it a try. Some bloggers feel writing a series of posts is more daunting than writing individual posts. But it’s often easier to come up with ideas for a ten-post series than for ten standalone posts.

Writing 50
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244: How to Find More Traffic for Your Blog Offline

ProBlogger

How to Promote Your Blog Offline. Today I’m tackling questions from listener, Julianna Barnaby about whether it’s important to spend time offline building your blog’s personal brand and reputation. The answer is simple. “Yes.” Offline promotion is worth it. Get creative, and get out and meet people. You may need to step out of your comfort zone, but that can be rewarding.

Blog 50
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The Resurgence of Direct Mail as a Growth Marketing Strategy

Speaker: Jeff Tarran, COO, Gunderson Direct & Margaret Pepe, Executive Director of Product Management, U.S. Postal Service

Learn the secrets to direct mail success for growth marketers! Industry veterans Jeff Tarran and Margaret Pepe are here to delve into how direct mail has completely evolved in recent years, and has rightfully earned a seat at the table alongside the email and digital marketing plans of SMBs, enterprise companies, and agencies as they look into strategy for 2024 and beyond.

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11 Ways to Create More Compelling Content for Your Blog

ProBlogger

Today I wanted to share some tips on how you can make your content more compelling, whether it’s written, video or audio content. I’m mixing things up and testing out my new camera to create some video content for the blog. For those of you interested in the production aspects of this video. I’m happy with the visual aspects of the video considering it was shot with only the light of a window beside me (and the light changed over the 10 minutes of the video).

Content 49
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241: Trends in Social Media – Where Should You Focus Your Energy?

ProBlogger

Social Media Trends – Where Should You Focus Your Energy. In our last episode I covered seven trends in social media and blogging. In today’s episode I want to discuss where you should focus your energy as a blogger. There’s so much we could do.but what should we do? Don’t become overwhelmed and perplexed. Instead, be inspired about where to put your effort.

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245: Why Shiny Object Syndrome Is Sometimes a Good Thing

ProBlogger

Why Shiny Object Syndrome Can Be Good for Your Blog and Business. Do you suffer from Shiny Object Syndrome? Are you easily distracted by something new – a tool, medium, tactic, or income stream? Whatever it is, it captivates and distracts you in the moment. And it can easily take over your day, week, or even month. Shiny Object Syndrome has the power to take you away from your core business, which can be destructive.

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Oops! 17 SEO Misfires to Avoid With Website Content Marketing

Content Marketing Institute

I doubt any marketing team can perfect its SEO and content marketing efforts. Time, degrees of expertise, and changing algorithms always get in the way. But SEO misfires abound for B2B and B2C websites and they can be avoided or at least minimized. Let’s dive in. HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: SEO Marketing Strategy: Tips for Success in 2018. 1. Keyword selection.

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Lets Get Physical: How to Blend Direct Mail Marketing with Your Digital Strategy

Speaker: Akeel Jabber, B2B SaaS Investor and Growth Marketer at Horizen Capital

⭐ Are you ready to boost campaign success? Consider the untapped potential of integrating direct mail marketing seamlessly with digital marketing strategies. Combining the physical, tangible impact of direct mail with the dynamic reach of digital marketing can be a game-changer, significantly increasing your ROI when done right. Direct mail grabs attention, making it great for reaching your target audience 📩 Digital marketing keeps the momentum going, driving action 📲 So.

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How 3 Content Brands Tackle Their Toughest Internal Challenges

Content Marketing Institute

What keeps you up at night about your content marketing program? I’ll bet one of your top concerns is how to prove its value to the company. There’s also a good chance other stress-inducing concerns include your tech stack and/or your team. Well, guess what? Your peers – even at brands lauded for their content approach – struggle with the same issues.

Brand 101
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An Alternative Approach to Developing Content Marketing Personas

Content Marketing Institute

Audiences are not just buyers. Let me explain. As we’ve outlined, one of the key elements of the approach of content marketing is that it cannot simply be a replacement for our direct marketing efforts. If we are ever to truly succeed with a content marketing strategy, we must provide for the capability to drive multiple lines of value for the business.

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3 Keyword Research Trends to Reshape Your Content Optimization

Content Marketing Institute

No matter what your content marketing strategy is, keyword research is the fuel. Keywords inform marketers as to what their audience strives to know, let them monitor their competition, and offer a constant source of content ideas. Now, the approach to keyword research is different from what it was even a couple of years ago. Search engines are becoming smarter and keyword research tools are getting more advanced.

Keywords 111
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Falling Behind Your Competitors? Build a Content Brand

Content Marketing Institute

“It’s 2018. We can’t hoard knowledge any longer.” Andy Crestodina, speaker, blogger, etc., shared that nugget of wisdom at the recent Intelligent Content Conference in Las Vegas. If you need proof of how true his observation is, look no further than the Capital Group, a conservative, trusted financial services company that – until recently ­– lagged far behind its competitors in thought leadership and digital marketing.

Brand 107
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Is Training the Right Solution?

Speaker: Tim Buteyn

Let's set the scene: you’ve identified a critical performance gap in your organization and need to close that gap. A colleague suggests training, but you suspect there’s something going on that training can’t address. How can you determine if training is the right solution before you commit your budget and resources to a new training program? In this webinar, you will learn how to determine if training is the right solution using the Behavior Engineering Model.

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How to Brainstorm and Prioritize Your Best Content Ideas

Content Marketing Institute

How does your team prioritize marketing projects? Are you focused relentlessly on nothing but potentially high growth ideas? Or are your priorities unclear or unproductive, leaving you stuck in a constant scramble? When crystallized and properly communicated, prioritization can, in some estimates, reduce costs by roughly 15 percent and improve your team’s capability to meet your marketing goals.

Content 109
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Road Map to Success: Content Distribution Essentials That Win Eyeballs

Content Marketing Institute

No matter how much time and care you put into building your strategy, outlining your editorial plans and processes, or crafting persuasive, engaging, high-quality copy, your brand’s potential for success often lives or dies by your distribution and promotion choices. Though a lot of work must happen before you reach this point, the distribution phase is ground zero for your content marketing program – the point where your goals, audience insights, tactical choices, and creative executions get pu

Editorial 105
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242: How to Create a Library of Products to Sell On Your Blog

ProBlogger

Creating a Product Library for Your Blog. In today’s episode I’m tackling a question from a Facebook group member about creating products to sell on your blog. Kathy Farrokhzad of Horselistening.com is wondering how often she should create, sell, schedule, and roadmap new products on her blog. Is she doing too much in too little time? Try to publish 3-4 new products on your blog each year, whether they’re courses, software, ebooks, templates or updates.

Blog 50
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4 Tips for Engaging Instagram Content [Examples]

Content Marketing Institute

As a marketer, you might have noticed how traditional advertising is less effective. Even mobile ads are disliked by 70% of users. What can you do to effectively connect your products to your audience? Instagram is a good answer. Its audience has grown rapidly, totaling over 800 million (increasing 200 million between July and September 2017 alone).

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Revitalizing Dry Content: A Lesson in Engagement

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

We’ve all been there. You’ve been given a pile of dry content and asked to create a compelling eLearning course. You’re determined to create something more engaging than the same old course that learners quickly click through, but how do you take this “boring” content and create something relevant and engaging? Many instructional designers will say, “Boring in means boring out.

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A Simple and Non-Scary Guide to HTML for Bloggers

ProBlogger

Even if you haven’t launched your blog yet, you’ve probably come across the term ‘HTML’. You might know what it looks like. Or you might just have a hazy idea it has something to do with web pages – like I did when I started. My first experience with HTML was back in 2002, when I wanted to change the design of my my first blog. But one look at all the seemingly random ‘code’ on the page and I immediately put designing my own blog in the ‘too hard’ basket.

Blogger 48
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10 (Mostly) Quick Wins to Steal for Your Original Research Project

Content Marketing Institute

Did you know Andy Crestodina spends 150 hours on his annual blogger study? (This truly blew my mind – and it’s just one of the many insights I gleaned from a recent podcast with Andy on the Inbound Success podcast on original research. Absolutely worth a listen!). While I can’t quantify how much time I have invested on any given research project, it’s somewhere in the ballpark of heaps to a truckload.

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How to Find and Reuse Your Best Content [Tools]

Content Marketing Institute

Like all content marketers, you want readers to get the most out of your content. But creating and distributing high-quality content across the increasing number of channels you’re expected to manage takes a lot of time and resources. Reusing content assets that have yielded good results is a powerful way to expand your content library and to promote the same content across different media channels and in different content formats.

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27 Ideas to Break Your Creative Slump

Content Marketing Institute

“When are you going to start?” Blink. “Are your fingers frozen?” Blink. Blink. “Why aren’t you typing?” Blink. Blink. Blink. “Don’t you know what to create?” Blink. Blink. Blink. Blink. The cursor is a silent but pesky critic. Do you ever want to curse the cursor when you’re in a slump? Do you ever want to curse the cursor when you’re in a #writing slump, asks @AnnGynn.

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Brain Fog HQ: Memory Enhancement Techniques for Professional Development

Speaker: Chester Santos – Author, International Keynote Speaker, Executive Coach, Corporate Trainer, Memory Expert, U.S. Memory Champion

In October, scientists discovered that 75% of patients who experienced brain fog had a lower quality of life at work than those who did not. At best, brain fog makes you slower and less efficient. At worst, your performance and cognitive functions are impaired, resulting in memory, management, and task completion problems. In this entertaining and interactive presentation, Chester Santos, "The International Man of Memory," will assist you in developing life-changing skills that will greatly enha