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Content is king! Content marketing is the only marketing left! Content isn’t just the king, it’s the kingdom!

Blah, blah, blah.

You’ve heard it before. And you’re probably still dutifully cranking out content as fast as you can create it. I commend you for your dedication. <fist bump>

But it’s not like you have a choice. Content marketing is the de facto godfather of the digital realm. It presides over cyberspace with an iron fist. Disrespect it (by not doing it), and you’re swiftly left beaten and bruised by the side of the New Jersey turnpike after being thrown from a moving car.

Don't disrespect the godfather…. Photo courtesy of tim-johnson(CC Attribution)

A little melodramatic? Perhaps (I did grow up watching Scorsese films). But you do take a risk if you’re not on Team Content (t-shirts available in the gift shop). It generates leads and traffic, spreads brand awareness, and helps to increase conversions and revenue.   

Your competition is doing it. The big guys, little guys, and startups are onboard. 89% of B2B and 86% of B2C marketers are using it. And so should you.

But you’re doing it wrong if you’re killing yourself creating original content all the time to share with your networks.

You, my friend, need content curation as much – if not more – than content creation. 

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Marketing and promoting your business should be an ongoing process. A good marketing strategy is the scaffold that allows your business to grow because marketing should be an ongoing process. It can be easy to become confused or lost. Gain control with this guide to what a fantastic marketing strategy should be.

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Imagine several helium filled balloons, all bobbing about in the breeze. Each balloon is attached to a string, a strand that holds them all together. One balloon is not enough to lift the weight of your business but when all the balloons are tied together, just like a well-planned, executed and reviewed marketing strategy, your business will lift up, up and away.

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Eighty-eight percent of companies have a content marketing strategy. Do you?

Are you ignoring the power of content because you don’t think it will generate ROI for your business or improve the customer experience?

Do you worry that you don’t have the budget for content marketing and can’t waste an investment?

If you’re holding back when it comes to content creation, you could be limiting your top marketing tactics and your business as a whole. We hear plenty of reasons for why companies don’t think content marketing is right for them. While their reasons are often built on logical businesses sense, they overlook key benefits and factors.

Here are seven excuses we hear when it comes to content marketing, and why you should throw them out the window.

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Under this huge umbrella of content planning, keyword research and creating value adding content are the first two important stages but the next in process and equivalently significant stage in your content marketing strategy is Content Distribution and in this part 3 of our infographical series, we’ll try to address that.

The next evolution of Content Marketing is not more content; it is better distribution. -Chris Penn

Content distribution is the ‘ugly’ stepsister to one of the most effective online marketing strategies used today. The audience won’t come to your content, you’ll have to take the content to them. You need it to put it out at every possible place your target audience happens to hang out.  

Simply writing a killer eBook or producing a humorous video isn’t the path to content marketing success. Although it’s definitely the start. You need to take the next step and optimize your content so it can be found and have a plan in place to distribute it. High user engagement is what any content marketer long for and content distribution will act as the base for that.

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AMERICA RUNS ON DUNKIN’ – this slogan totally reflects the level of popularity of the worldwide brand of coffee and baked goods. Since its appearance in the market in 1950, the company has grown to be one of the largest coffee and donuts chains. Rosenberg made the controversial decision to franchise as the company grew. He even founded the International Franchise Assn. which still exists today and turned the idea of franchising into a respectable, money-making profession. A great amount of new popular business and communication tools which appeared in the 21st century was also successfully implemented by continuators of the Rosenberg’s coffee and donuts chain.

By the way, have you ever known the facts which stood at the origins of Dunkin’ Donuts? Let us get started with the main points of marketing strategy you may not know about the favorite coffee franchise. 

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Ah, marketing. Love it or hate it, a well crafted and executed marketing campaign still has the power to move us…to tears, or laughter, or awe, and ultimately, to purchase.

At least that’s the goal. Sometimes though, it falls just a little short.

For every puppy-monkey-baby (although annoying, it did capture a lot of attention for Mountain Dew Kickstart), there’s something so cringeworthy that you can’t help but, well, cringe.

A “good” ad campaign can live forever. David Ogilvy’s 1959 marketing for the Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud is widely considered the best automobile ad of all-time.

Unfortunately, a “bad” campaign can live just as long (and likely feels even longer). Some brands and products never get over it.

Every year around this time we celebrate the best of the best. The marketing ads and – in our modern digital world – social media posts that did everything right. The instant classics.  

The best campaigns are good for inspiration…but it’s the worst of the bunch that makes us guffaw and shake our heads in a that-would-never-happen-to-me kind of way.

These ten take the prize for 2016. Read. Watch. Enjoy. But under no circumstances should you repeat.

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2017 means a fresh start and new budget. While many businesses are excited at the prospect of new resources, they might not know where to employ them to their maximum effect. However, it’s easy to stretch your budget when you work with freelance creatives, especially when the alternative is working with an agency or hiring additional staff.

Freelance creatives remain a mystery to many marketers. They want to tap into this talent pool of mystical elves that magically get work done with minimal supervision, but they’re not sure how to hire them.

Photo courtesy of Michel Curi(CC Attribution)

Some can’t find the talent they need for their specific industry, while others have found freelance gremlins that produce subpar work and then demand higher pay.

As the gig economy continues to grow, more freelance creatives are offering their services, further clouding the market and confusing companies who are looking to hire them.

To make it easier for brands who need a few extra hands to hit their marketing goals, check out this guide on attracting top freelance talent, extending a job offer, and making sure they’re onboarded to produce amazing work for years to come.

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Facebook advertising has taken targeting to a whole new level. It is no longer just keywords’ game like in AdWords where keywords are used as the primary factor of targeting in both search and display network.

In Facebook, the entire social graph of likes and behaviors are used for better targeting ads to end users. As an advertiser, you can drill down your campaigns by demographics such as age, sex, geographical location, etc.

In fact, on average, Facebook ads are a third of the cost of Google AdWords. So if you have never considered advertising on Facebook, you might want to take a look into it.

In this post, I’ll show you a few different ways to leverage Facebook advertising to grow your business with relevant examples. 

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Let’s play a game.

Stand up. For every question I ask, stay standing if the answer is yes (you can sit if the answer is no. Take a break. Go get a coffee).

Are you using social media as part of your blog and/or content marketing strategy?

Do you share your content (your original blog posts, videos, infographics, and more) on your social media accounts?

Do you share curated content (from other sources) on those same social media accounts?

Do you recognize the potential of automation?

Have you implemented automation of some sort into your social media strategy?

Do you at least sometimes schedule your social media posts in one monster session (each morning, or every week)?  

Ever heard of Buffer or Hootsuite?

Still standing? Then this post is for you (yes, you…but those of you who were sitting by the end can still read it, too).  

And thanks for playing (editor’s note – I didn’t say it would be a fun game). But I do promise you’ll come away from this blog post with a better understanding of why and how to harness the power of social media automation the right way.

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The world of marketing is ever evolving on a massive scale and at a faster rate than most of us can keep up with. The world’s biggest corporations spend billions on global marketing campaigns, social media ads and award-winning television commercials. Shrink down the scale a bit, and you’ll get an interesting glimpse at a local microcosm of this world.

Local marketing comes with its own unique challenges. With a limited audience (i.e. the consumers in your neighborhood, city or state) and many local agencies all competing for their business, it can be tricky for entrepreneurs and small business owners to stand out.