Species that adapt survive, according to Charles Darwin -- and not even necessarily those that rely on strength. Strategies and platforms are evolving in the digital age, and consumers are engaging brands on channels that didn't exist a few years ago.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2017/09/06/key-digital-marketing-trends-to-prepare-for-in-2017-2018/#210a08095d1b/
It’s now become pretty common knowledge that one of the best ways to increase brand exposure is through content marketing. However, the best content in the world won’t help you generate leads unless the public is able to discover it in the first place. This is where search engine optimization (SEO) comes in. By optimizing your content for search, you can ensure that more people will find – and potentially engage with – your organization.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2017/08/30/how-to-optimize-your-seo-results-through-content-creation/#49bd73ee2aa3/
About 12 months ago, I covered some content marketing trends to watch for 2017. I recently reread that post and most of the trends are very much in play for 2018 and beyond. Most enterprises are still working through creation of a true, living content marketing strategy for their organizations. Native advertising is still the gateway drug for many content marketing programs, and mobile is, well, it continues to be the flavor of every month as consumer use grows. But some truly interesting events have occurred over the past few months that, I believe, begin to speak to the evolution of the content marketing practice itself.
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2017/09/content-marketing-trends-2018/
Let’s start with the 7 steps to content marketing success and a bit of context: in April 2014, HubSpot and Smart Insights conducted research regarding the state of content marketing in Europe. On top of data, both also wanted to provide content marketing success advice, based on the research and spiced with some comments/quotes. HubSpot asked us to share our views and those of many others. You can read an overview of the results and data here. We contributed and so did several content marketing practitioners and thought leaders, including Doug Kessler, James Carson, Stephen Bateman and Daniel Rowles, among others. The result: a collaborative eBook which we cover here for you in-depth and with many additional tips and advice to achieve content marketing success.
https://www.i-scoop.eu/content-marketing/content-marketing-success-7-steps/
“What’s in it for me? That’s what your potential reader is asking,” said Robinson. “Does your headline answer that question clearly – and quickly – enough?”
Here’s Robinson’s advice on how to ensure your headlines grab your audience, amassed over five years of branded content work at Forbes and a decade at AOL. “Programming the AOL homepage teaches you a lot about what people click on,” Robinson said. Follow her 9 principles when you rewrite headlines, and higher clickthrough rates might be in your future.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescontentmarketing/2017/09/20/your-headline-is-your-one-second-chance-to-make-your-reader-care-so-make-the-most-of-it/#5c03005b38c0/
A new year brings new metrics. Or maybe it’s just a good reminder that you need to evaluate your existing KPIs. Which B2B content marketing metrics should you add in 2017? It’s the perfect time of the year to evaluate your content marketing strategy and focus on the latest trends that will take your B2B marketing plan to the next level. How about starting with the metrics that you need to pay closer attention to from now on?
https://www.clickz.com/top-b2b-content-marketing-metrics-for-2017/108916/
When evaluating the effectiveness of our content marketing efforts, one of the most difficult metrics to pin down can be lifetime value. When you’re talking about a blog post in particular, which can lack the “stickiness” of infographics, charts or webinars, estimating life cycle gets even trickier.
For years, the industry rule of thumb has been that most blog posts have a life cycle of approximately 30 days. What methodology led to this 30-day theory? Was it just a random guess based on some marketer’s gut feeling or anecdotal observations? Who knows. Our Florida neighbors to the south, IZEA, recently commissioned a study to scientifically measure just what the lifetime value of a blog post really is. With the help of the Halverson Group, 62,863 blog posts were gathered, of which 500 were randomly sampled. When tracking the performance of these posts over time, the Halverson Group made three very interesting discoveries.
https://marketingexperiments.com/social-marketing/content-marketing-lifetime-value-blog-post/
Relevant, engaging content now plays a critical role in nurturing prospects into the purchase funnel to become customers. How can marketers produce, distribute and optimize well-defined content assets — including blogs, email, infographics, landing pages and videos — to create deeper prospect engagement and contribute to business goals and bottom-line results?
On Thursday, March 10, join Rachel Rosin, Act-On Software’s Web and Content Optimization Manager, and Travis Piepho, Founder and Partner at Prospectr Marketing, as they offer practical solutions to these content marketing challenges. You’ll learn...
https://searchengineland.com/content-marketing-that-drives-conversions-242172/
Consumers are gradually starting to ignore sales pitches and tune out the invasive marketing methods that many businesses still employ regularly. And subsequently, these changes have made way for a new method of bringing in new customers – inbound marketing. Inbound marketing has recently become a very popular method of marketing among digital-first businesses, especially in terms of content marketing – which is considered a subset of inbound marketing. As a result, many content and inbound marketing tools have since been developed to make these strategies more efficient.
https://mopinion.com/top-27-content-inbound-marketing-tools-software/
Of course, every small business is different and has it’s own unique challenges when it comes to reaching new customers and achieving growth. However, there are a variety of tactics for new customer acquisition in 2018 that can apply across regions, target markets and demographics if applied correctly. With that said, here are several approaches to consider when looking to grow your customer base in 2018 and beyond.
https://www.business2community.com/small-business/make-2018-year-net-new-customer-growth-02016830/
