March, 2018

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Writing for others about the unfamiliar

Tina Dubinsky

As a ghostwriter for business blogs, “write what you know” has limitations when writing for others. It seems like good advice and for most blog writers it’s the obvious choice. But when you’re writing for others on unfamiliar topics, you write instead towards what you want to know. Freelance writers like myself often take on writing projects.

Writing 130
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7 Fixes for Common Writing Mistakes [Examples]

Content Marketing Institute

Ann Handley says writing isn’t hard, middle school is hard. While I agree middle school is hard, I think writing is challenging. As it’s been said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at the typewriter and bleed.”. Do we need to bleed when we write? When you reframe writing as a practice, you can sit in the discomfort of knowing it’s never going to be completely easy.

Writing 111
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Sponsored Links on Your Blog: The Pros and Cons

ThemeIsle

So your blog has found some measure of success, with a steady stream of visitors from all over the web. Another company has noticed this success, and sent you a request: will you include a couple of sponsored links pointing to their products or services on your website? ? If you’re not making money from. The post Sponsored Links on Your Blog: The Pros and Cons appeared first on Themeisle Blog.

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A clever way for writers to design menu structures and landing pages, much like Gov.uk

Contented

This blog discusses the important role of copywriters in menu design. It explores a common usability problem with menu design and landing pages, that copywriters can easily fix. It uses the Gov.uk menu as an example you can replicate on your government website or corporate website. Keep content away from pages designed for navigation. You wouldn’t leave toys on the stairs for fear that someone will trip up.

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Marketing Operations in 2025: A New Framework for Success

Speaker: Mike Rizzo, Founder & CEO, MarketingOps.com and Darrell Alfonso, Director of Marketing Strategy and Operations, Indeed.com

Though rarely in the spotlight, marketing operations are the backbone of the efficiency, scalability, and alignment that define top-performing marketing teams. In this exclusive webinar led by industry visionaries Mike Rizzo and Darrell Alfonso, we’re giving marketing operations the recognition they deserve! We will dive into the 7 P Model —a powerful framework designed to assess and optimize your marketing operations function.

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238: How to Get More Traffic by Updating Your Archives

ProBlogger

How Updating Your Archives Can Drive More Traffic to Your Blog. In today’s episode I want to talk about a trend I’ve noticed among many experienced bloggers – tending to their archives. Many experienced bloggers are slowing down on new content, while increasing traffic to to their blog by revising posts they’ve already written. Individual blog posts tend to get the most traffic on your site, which means there’s gold in them thar archives.

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Road Map to Success: Creating the Content of Your Audience’s Dreams

Content Marketing Institute

In 1995, Steve Jobs was interviewed by Robert Cringely for a PBS documentary, Triumph of the Nerds. During the on-camera discussion, the future Apple CEO reflected on the notion that generating big ideas isn’t the same thing as being able to bring them to life in a valuable way. As he said, “There’s just a tremendous amount of craftsmanship in between a great idea and a great product.”.

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Content Definition: What Are We Even Talking About?

Content Marketing Institute

How do you define content? Does everyone on your team agree with your definition? Do the people on other teams define content the same way? Sure, there’s a dictionary definition for content (in fact, multiple definitions for multiple usages). A Wikipedia entry offers two slightly different definitions in its first two sentences. This question of how to define content came up in the Content Marketing Institute LinkedIn group a few weeks ago.

Content 111
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Conversational Content: How to Market Through Text Messaging and Chatbots

Content Marketing Institute

Conversational interactions between content consumers and brands – via SMS text-style messaging and chatbots – are redefining how marketing teams can engage their audiences. When communication technology provides greater immediacy and convenience to content consumers like this, changes in expectations are likely to follow — many of us who manage brands learned this lesson through the growth and evolution of social media.

Text 111
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Words That Convert: Test, Learn, Repeat

Content Marketing Institute

If you had a magic lamp for your content marketing, what would you wish for? More e-book downloads? More subscribers? More customers? Whatever you wish for, chances are, it amounts to boosting the conversion rate at some stage of the marketing funnel, ultimately resulting in more profitable customer action. If only it were easy to boost conversion rates.

Text 111
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How to Use Non-Obvious Thinking to Create Better Content

Content Marketing Institute

“We’re in the middle of a believability crisis.”. On the surface, author Rohit Bhargava’s observation in the keynote talk of CMI’s virtual ContentTECH this year doesn’t bode well for content marketing. After all, to attract and retain an audience, we need people to believe the content we’re creating. But don’t be discouraged by Rohit’s pronouncement.

Content 110
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Mastering Remote Onboarding: Proven Strategies for Seamless New Hire Integration

Speaker: Tim Buteyn, President of ThinkingKap Learning Solutions

Join this brand new webinar with Tim Buteyn to learn how you can master the art of remote onboarding! By the end of this session, you'll understand how to: Craft a Tailored Onboarding Checklist 📝 Develop a comprehensive, customized checklist that ensures every new hire has a smooth transition into your company, no matter where they are in the world.

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A Step-by-Step Guide to Audience Development

Content Marketing Institute

In 2016, when Intel iQ boasted 2 million monthly readers who averaged more than two minutes per visit, the iQ team wondered what is the additional value of a returning reader versus a first timer? A lot, it turns out. In early 2017, the iQ team borrowed a page from the traditional media playbook – focusing on sustaining loyal readers rather than a “more eyeballs” approach.

Audience 110
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Ready to Go Live? All You Need to Know Now

Content Marketing Institute

Live video is a great way to grow your community and show up on a more human level. Unlike regular video, the live format feels less rehearsed and edited, plus it shows up in your followers’ streams in a different way than regular video. Livestreaming is a great option for delivering breaking news, sharing the excitement and energy of a live event , and doing big reveals after a period of suspense.

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2 Simple-to-Implement Checklists to Use in Your Influencer Marketing Planning

Content Marketing Institute

Influencer marketing is a well-known, and perhaps, mature channel for many content marketers. Unfortunately, though, a significant swath of marketers is not leveraging influencers in the marketing mix. This is ill-advised because studies show that every dollar invested in influencer marketing returns $6.50 in value. Studies show that every dollar invested in #influencermarketing returns $6.50 via @TomosonReviews.

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Chatbots, AI, and Context: Top Takeaways From Intelligent Content Conference

Content Marketing Institute

“Technology is outpacing our ability to comprehend what we can do with it.”. These words from this year’s Intelligent Content Conference emcee Robert Rose, CMI’s chief strategy advisor, no doubt resonate if you’ve been in marketing for more than a week. With so much happening so fast in the realm of tools and strategy, what’s a marketer to do?

Content 109
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Do's and Don'ts: How to Pitch Your Press Release to Journalists

Speaker: Michelle Garrett, PR Consultant, Author, Speaker

Yes - press releases are still relevant in the world of public relations! 🎯 Ever wondered how to write a compelling press release, or what are current best practices for pitching your news to earn media coverage? In this exclusive webinar with Michelle Garrett, PR Consultant, we’ll cover tips and advice to help you get the most out of each piece of news you pitch!

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Tech Marketers Think Outside the Buyer’s Journey [New Research]

Content Marketing Institute

Are technology marketers moving away from creating content for the buyer’s journey? The CMI research team found ourselves asking this question as we analyzed the data from our eighth annual content marketing survey. Here’s the finding that got us talking: Compared with the previous year, more technology marketers say they’re focused on creating the right content for the right person at the right time – but fewer report they’re crafting content for specific points on the buyer’s journey.

Marketing 107
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Do Agile Marketers Wear the Quality Content Crown?

Content Marketing Institute

Now that we’ve officially declared quality victorious over its long-time nemesis quantity, I’d like to propose that we also retire the well-worn phrase, “Content is king.” Instead, I’d like to propose a new alliterative truth: “Quality is queen.”. But how do we make it happen? In an interesting (and somewhat counterintuitive) twist, it turns out Agile marketing teams may have a good answer because they are more likely to prioritize quality than their traditional or ad-hoc process counterparts, a

Marketing 106
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A 30-Minute Hack for Nonprofits to Improve Their Content Marketing [New Research]

Content Marketing Institute

Nearly all nonprofit marketers would benefit greatly by taking one month to power up their content marketing programs. That’s a logical conclusion based on the responses from 207 nonprofit marketers to the eighth annual Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs content marketing survey. Thirty percent of nonprofit marketers neither agree nor disagree that they can demonstrate that content marketing has increased the number of people helped or served by their organization.

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Road Map to Success: Turn Your Strategy Into a Stellar Editorial Content Plan

Content Marketing Institute

Unless today is your first day as a content marketer, you’re aware of how essential a documented strategy is to achieving content marketing success. It’s one of those mantras you’ve heard being chanted again and again throughout every corner of the industry until you simply can’t help but accept it as truth. It really is that important. But let’s face it: Not all of us have a direct part to play in crafting or controlling our company’s strategic, high-level view of content.

Editorial 105
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Data Modeling for Direct Mail: Boosting Multi-Channel Reach and Response

Speaker: Jesse Simms, VP at Giant Partners

This new, thought-provoking webinar will explore how even incremental efforts and investments in your data can have a tremendous impact on your direct mail and multi-channel marketing campaign results! Industry expert Jesse Simms, VP at Giant Partners, will share real-life case studies and best practices from client direct mail and digital campaigns where data modeling strategies pinpointed audience members, increasing their propensity to respond – and buy.

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6 Content Marketing Plays Inspired by Basketball Madness

Content Marketing Institute

Every March, basketball madness infiltrates offices, bars, restaurants, and even a cable-channel wedding dress show. That doesn’t mean people are interested in every slam dunk, 3-point shot, or flagrant foul in the 61 games being played over a few weeks. Some of the millions who pay attention to the annual tournament are more interested in being part of the watercooler conversations, betting pools, viewing parties, and other general excitement around the games.

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What One Brand Did After It Created a Top 10 Blog

Content Marketing Institute

What would you do with a blog that averaged 150,000 monthly views? Do tons more to drive leads, our team decided unanimously back in 2016. Up until that point, we merely invited readers to consume our blog content, which focused on the latest social media trends. Readers were free to enter and leave the premises at any time. We didn’t ask for visitors’ email addresses in return for access.

Brand 102
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Thinking of Creating Original Research? 8 Things to Consider

Content Marketing Institute

If you’re thinking about conducting original research to use the data for your content marketing, there are important questions to ask before you get started. I’m talking about collecting data to produce various types of content (e.g., blog posts, e-books, webinars, videos) for content marketing purposes. It’s helpful (versus promotional ) content. It’s research-informed content that can help position your brand as a thought leader and draw attention to your solutions.

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4 Easy Ways to Increase Time on Site and Keep Your Visitors Around

ThemeIsle

One of the most worrying facts for website owners is that most people leave a new website in under a minute. Those visitors will see very little of your content, so they aren’t likely to remember you a day or a week later. This means you need to do everything you can to increase time. The post 4 Easy Ways to Increase Time on Site and Keep Your Visitors Around appeared first on Themeisle Blog.

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Scan to Success: How to Leverage QR Codes for Offline and Online Marketing Power

Speaker: Corey Daugherty, Head of Business Development at Flowcode & Georgette Malitsis, Senior Customer Success Manager, Enterprise at Flowcode

Let's explore the transformative power of QR codes in bridging offline and online marketing worlds. 📲 This new webinar featuring Corey Daugherty and Georgette Malitsis of Flowcode will dive into how innovative QR technology not only enhances traditional marketing strategies, but also drives meaningful customer engagement and analytics. Register today to gain practical knowledge on using QR codes to increase conversion rates, optimize customer journeys, and ultimately unlock a new realm o

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How to Edit a Blog Post: A Guide to Self Editing for Bloggers

ThemeIsle

Most online audiences don’t expect perfect spelling, but they do expect you to make an effort. Every error, no matter how small, increases the odds of your reader deciding you haven’t worked hard enough to earn their attention. This guide to self editing for bloggers will help you learn how to edit a blog post. The post How to Edit a Blog Post: A Guide to Self Editing for Bloggers appeared first on Themeisle Blog.

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Google Analytics Interface Explained for Beginners

ThemeIsle

If you want your website to be successful, then it’s crucial that you use a comprehensive analytics tool like Google Analytics. Analyzing your site’s traffic helps you understand how your audience is interacting with your content and lets you see how your site is performing over time. The Google Analytics interface is full of useful. The post Google Analytics Interface Explained for Beginners appeared first on Themeisle Blog.

Website 52
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240: 7 Social Media Trends I Noticed at Social Media Marketing World

ProBlogger

Key Themes and Trends from the Social Media Marketing World Conference. In today’s episode, I want to share seven trends people were talking about at the Social Media Marketing World mega-conference recently held in San Diego. Social Media Marketing World is probably one of the biggest social media conferences in the world. . Seven main themes came about from the conference: Facebook Armageddon: Changes have shaken up things.

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How to Use the WordPress WYSIWYG Toolbar to Format Your Blog Posts Like a Pro

ProBlogger

Are you using WordPress’ formatting features to their fullest? I expect you already know the basics of formatting your blog posts to make them more readable. (If you’re just getting started, you might want to check out 4 WordPress Formatting Tips to Make Your Posts More Readable for an overview of the basics.). But many bloggers – even experienced ones – don’t realise just how many formatting features are built into WordPress.

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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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239: 3 Principles of Building an Engaged Blog Audience

ProBlogger

How to Develop an Engaged Blog Audience. In today’s episode I want to talk about building engagement on your blog, and building a sense of community around it and your online business. Building engagement is so important for your blog. It helps word-of-mouth growth, gives you energy, builds social proof on your site, and leads to more effective monetization.

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Case Study: How To Use Your Blog To Crowdfund Your Next Project

ProBlogger

Today’s post is a case study with sustainable living educator, Laura Trotta. Laura used her blog to crowdfund more than AUD 37,000 for sustainability initiatives, including the construction of her Self Sufficiency in the Suburbs membership site and her trip to Antarctica to participate in a global sustainability program. Here’s how she did it. When I launched my eco-living blog lauratrotta.com in late 2015, I never imagined it would become the launchpad for crowdfunding substantial amounts of mo

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Which is the Best Blog Hosting Solution?

ProBlogger

Sometimes I feel like I’m asked this question more often than people Google it. If you have a self-hosted website (or are about to start one), you’ll probably want to know the answer too: Which is the best blog hosting solution? There are plenty of answers to this question. Check out the web hosting services topic on any forum or community discussion board, and you'll see both glowing endorsements and damning negativity for every hosting company out there - no matter how good they are.

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239: 3 Principles of Building an Engaged Blog Audience

ProBlogger

Several Key Ways to Develop an Engaged Blog Audience. In today’s episode, I want to talk about building engagement on your blog, building a sense of community around it and your online business. Building engagement is so important to your blog. There are many benefits in doing so. It helps word-of-mouth growth, gives you energy, builds social proof on your site and it leads to more effective monetization.

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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.