If you’re like a lot of organizations, you’re already practicing content marketing – kind of. You may have a blog that you post to regularly, or perhaps you’re active on social media. But despite this activity, do you have a strategy? Are you making progress? And toward what? If you’re not sure, here’s how to refine your content marketing program when you’ve already been producing content. This blog post is right for you if you’re already producing content (e.g. blog posts), but your posting schedule…
Read MoreYou’ve decided to launch a company podcast: you’ve decided on a topic and format, you know what audience you want to reach, and you’ve established your goals and even picked out the music. You’ve also figured out the technical specifics of recording and editing. But how do you get your audio files into your listeners’ podcast players? You have two main options: host the feed yourself or pay someone to host it for you. But first: What makes a podcast a podcast? Not every audio…
Read MoreThere are some base logical assumptions in the field of marketing, and perhaps chief among them is the axiom that creating greater awareness about your product and services will ultimately lead to greater demand for it. After all, people don’t very often purchase what they have not heard of. Have you had those moments perusing the drug store or supermarket shelves when you come across a product you think might be worth buying, only to choose something else because you had never heard of it? …
Read MoreOver the last few years, the consumption of video has skyrocketed, and audiences continue to want more. In 2019, about a third of internet activity around the world was spent watching video, and YouTube is currently the second largest search engine behind Google. That’s because every day videos are used to solve problems, answer questions and provide information on just about every topic imaginable. They also have become a prime form of communication for marketers. From how to’s, best practices and thought leadership to…
Read MoreOne of my favorite questions to ask in intern interviews is, “Where do you get your news?” First, it’s always nice to hear the variety of responses, from local outlets to major national organizations, but one answer we hear a lot is just broadly, “Twitter.” Currently, Twitter is still relatively chronological. Like our intern candidates, I also get a lot of my news from Twitter because I follow many outlets and brands, and I’m seeing a feed of news in real time (verses seeing something…
Read MoreNot to toot my own horn or anything, but I love reports. I love falling into a big pile of information and pulling it together into something digestible to help my clients, and our team, evaluate our work and make strategic decisions for the next cycle. I’ve worked up reports of all shapes and sizes – for both media relations and content marketing clients, that range from multi-page narratives with lots of charts and graphs, to boiled-down infographic reports – with everything in between. We’re…
Read MoreThis will likely expose my nerdiness – to the extent that it already hasn’t been widely exposed – but I’m not one of those people who uses social media to stay abreast of my favorite celebrities. Although I will confess to following Michael Palin – wait, that’s now Sir Michael Palin – on Facebook, there’s not much else. I don’t see what famous people are opining about on Twitter. I have scant interest in seeing the latest red carpet fashions on Instagram. And I subscribe…
Read MoreThose who know me best know I love to cook. If you were a fly on the wall in my kitchen, you’d likely hear me narrating my dinner preparation like I was a Food Network Star. In fact, when I was little, I drafted up a pitch for Food Network because I was disappointed in its lack of children’s programming. Never followed through though. You’re welcome, Hodges. My YouTube homepage is filled with cooking videos. My Pinterest with recipes. At 26, I own a KitchenAid…
Read MoreYou may know that you have a certain number of dollars in your content marketing budget, but do you know the best way to split that spend? When you clicked on this blog post, you were probably thinking, “Woah, thanks Hodges, this is going to be the answer to all my internal struggles!” Well, not exactly. This is more of a, “WHAT’S IN THE BOX?” or a Pulp Fiction gold-illuminated briefcase kind of deal. We’ve laid out three content marketing budget break downs based on…
Read MoreAn effective content marketing strategy is largely built on creating original content that projects your organization’s expertise and experience in ways that resonate with your target audiences. The foundation for such a program is typically laid brick by brick through regular blog posts. And as the contractor, you can build your blogging strategy as you see fit, showcasing the various parts of your business that highlight your knowledge and skill in your line of business. As long as you refrain from being too salesy, you…
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