content

I'm reading the fantastic book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. I know what you're thinking: A working mom with a small business who finds time to read? I'm proud of me too. (Still on page 20.)

"Topic clusters aren't just a nice, clean way of organizing content that brings glee to the most Type A of marketers (me, for instance). It also keeps Google happy. As it turns out, the search engine giant has changed its algorithm to favor topic-based content, making pillar pages a requirement[...]

We reward boldness in marketing. We laud the best marketers for taking risks. But too often, this boldness turns into arrogance. Arrogance convinces us that we know best. We convince ourselves that everything would be ok if people would just listen to our brilliance.

Headlines make or break your content. People won't read your post if the headline doesn't draw them in. I'm not exaggerating. Pay attention next time you're reading the news. You'll see what I mean.

It's important (and often difficult) to know what competition you're up against. A great way to give yourself a lay of the land and key in on your best points of differentiation is to do a competitive analysis. Now there are very complex competitive analysis studies that take months. You might[...]

I recently took some courses with Content Marketing University to update my skills and see what's new in the world of content marketing. Here are 5 things I learned (or re-learned):

There's a lot of pressure for your brand to be a content creator these days. In fact, the way most people talk, I get the impression that by throwing any content up on your website, it's bound to drive results. This isn't true.

The Content Marketing Institute recently completed their annual content marketing survey. Their findings about nonprofits were hardly surprising. Lots of nonprofits are apathetic about content marketing, or worse, unsure how they can connect it to fundraising outcomes.

If you have a business you're aware of three simple facts:

Most of us have big dreams for our company communications. We spend time and money creating a shiny design for the blog, eBook template, or brochure. We think we'll create content all the time. We have stories to share, projects to showcase, opinions to spout. We have great intentions.