I was writing at one of my favourite coffee shops on Vancouver Island when I came across this book.

Brown Gold: The Amazing Story Of Coffee

What caught my eye was the selling feature.

“ILLUSTRATED WITH 32 PHOTOGRAPHS, 8 IN FULL COLOR.”

Wow. Full color?!

Then I realized…

It was published in 1952.

In 1952, having 8 full colour images in a book was remarkable and highly relevant, as it would be a key decision criteria in deciding whether to buy the book. 

But, if you put that same message on the front cover of your book today as the main selling feature, you’d be laughed off the shelves.

When people say the secret to content marketing is relevance, this is what they mean.

So, here is a 2 step plan to help you write relevant content that will convert causal browsers into customers.

There’s only one problem with content marketing.

Content.

Specifically, creating it.

It’s a daunting task to create remarkable and relevant content that converts customers on a regular basis.

This is why I love Vine.

And I’m not alone.

Since it came onto the scene in January 2013, over 40 million people have used Twitter’s social network to create and share videos. It’s one of the easiest, fastest and most creative ways to create video content. Anyone can do it. 

So, here are 12 ways that small businesses can use Vine to create fast and relevant content.

p.s. Not sure if Vine is right for your business? This post will help you decide. 

Take us behind the scenes

You can take us behind the scenes to showcase how some of your most popular things are made.

This is what Virginia Beach’s Cafe Moka coffee house did to show customers how they make drinks using their cool siphon coffee maker.

One of the biggest things that business owners waste time on is their inbox.

McKinsey Global Institute and International Data Corp released a study that showed we spend up to 28% of our workday writing and responding to emails.

So, if you work 8 hours a day, that’s 2 hours and 15 minutes spent in your inbox.

However, it’s also one of the most effective ways to communicate with potential and current clients. So you can’t do without it.

But you can make it more manageable through automation, without losing your personal touch.

You probably write a lot of similar emails and responses without realizing it. The goal of this post is to help you pre-write those emails, so you can speed up your response time while maintaining the quality of communication you want to uphold.

As with all automation tricks, the key is to shave minutes off processes that you do on a regular basis, which will save you more time in the long run.

And we’re going to star with the #1 customer email that every small business owner should have prewritten in their inbox.

Are you frustrated with your blog?

Do you ever wonder if you’re wasting time doing the wrong things?

A lot of work goes into creating a high converting blog. And part of being successful is knowing what rules you should follow, and which ones you can break.

So, here are 3 blogging taboos that you should break instantly.

1. Using Exact Images

People love pictures.

In fact, we process visuals 60,000 faster than text and we remember pictures 6 times more easily.

But in some industries exact images are hard to find. Sure, if you’re a real estate agent, a nutritionist or a fashion expert you can probably find perfect images of what you’re talking about.

However, if you’re a book keeper, a massage therapist or you’re in online marketing (like us), it’s harder.

That’s okay.

I’m a huge fan of online marketing.

That’s obvious.

But I also know that it’s one of the most frustrating things small businesses deal with.

Because it’s confusing. 

The rules change too quickly. There’s a lot of conflicting information. There’s an endless amount of work to do. And it takes time to see results – especially with inbound marketing – so it’s hard to know what’s working, and what isn’t.

But the most frustrating part is that online marketing does work. And most of us know that, which is why we struggle along.

Even if our strategies aren’t working, even if we’re not driving traffic or sales, even if we’re not increasing our online reach, we keep going. Because sometimes the task of analyzing our online marketing campaigns can be too daunting.

So, here are 3 things you can do to get control of your online marketing.

Have you ever wondered what the perfect tweet looks like?

I know.

There are a lot of answers here.

So I’ll be more specific.

When you’re sharing articles, blogs and other content on Twitter that you think your followers will love, have you ever wondered what you should say to get the best response?

And have you ever wondered how do to that quickly on an ongoing basis?

The key is having an effective curation strategy that you can follow. Because while what you say will change, the formula won’t.

So, here are 4 things you need to do to curate the perfect tweet on Twitter.

It’s true.

Most of your Twitter fans never go to your Twitter page.

Except the first time they follow you.

This is one of the biggest missed opportunities to convert people on the social web, because frankly, most backgrounds (including ours) are just this side of embarrassing.

How are you going to stay on top?

More has happened in the last 12 months than anyone we could have predicted, and the next year sounds like it’s going to move just as fast.

There are a lot of challenges to a executing a successful content marketing strategy. So, I put together a collection of the best resources for you to reference on each aspect of creating a world class content campaign.

Here are the top 7 content marketing blogs to read in 2014 to get more customers and boost your sales online.

On Blogging

Boost Blog Traffic 

This blog is written by Jon Morrow, former chief editor of Copy Blogger.

If you haven’t read Jon’s posts, you’re missing out.

He’s one of my favourite bloggers – funny, accurate and always keeps you wanting more. While Jon covers a range of topics, his golden egg is blogging. He also has a good roster of guest bloggers, who constantly add fresh content to an already rockin’ blog.

My 3 Favourites…

• 11 Lame Excuses That Successful Bloggers Never Make 
  

• From Zero to Hero: Make These 3 Small Tweaks and Dominate Your Niche 
  

• How to Be Smart in a World of Dumb Bloggers 
  

We want to wish the entire Spokal community a very Happy Holidays!

In the spirit of sharing, we thought we’d share 5 of our favourite marketing blog posts about the holiday season.

Enjoy!

Why You Shouldn’t Publish New Content during the Holidays (and What to Do Instead)

By Jon Morrow via Boost Blog Traffic

I had a frustrating moment yesterday.

It was one of those times when I realized how far most businesses are from delivering amazing marketing on a continual basis.

It started with a conversation about content marketing.

I was chatting with a business owner about their company, and part of their service is delivering content to their customers as a retention program to keep them happy. But that’s a small part of their business. And they mentioned it as if it were simple.

Like adding 1 + 2.

When I hear someone saying, “We’ll deliver relevant content,” I can’t help thinking that’s like saying, “We’ll deliver great customer service.”

It’s easy to say.

Just “create high quality content that your customers will love, and be relevant.” 

It’s extremely difficult to do.