Archive for the ‘Publishing’ Category

Blogs: A Natural Starting Point for Content Marketing

Tuesday, March 8th, 2016

At Strategic Communications, blogging is a big part of what we do, both for ourselves and for our clients. A robust, well-managed blog is a key element of any content creation strategy. As we’ve discussed in the past, quality content is a must when driving traffic to your site. Blogs are a great vehicle for this.

Obviously, part of implementing an effective blogging strategy require developing quality content for the blog.  Assuming you’ve got quality content, your blog posts can serve as a great starting point for repurposing content across a variety of channels. Here are some of the things that we do to leverage the value of our, and our clients’ blog content: (more…)

Building Better Blogs Through Quality, Targeted Content

Thursday, January 14th, 2016

In the digital age, so much of your marketing success depends on your online presence. Just as you wouldn’t run a shoddy, run-down brick and mortar store, you simply can’t have a tacky-looking website. By the same token, you need to give potential customers a reason to come to your site. Gas stations operate on razor-thin margins on gasoline to get customers into their convenience stores — the real moneymakers. Similarly, many business websites use a content-rich, regularly-updated blog with appeal to their target audience to drive traffic to their site. And just because you aren’t a digital marketing expert, doesn’t mean you can’t put together a great blog your audience will be drawn to. (more…)

“Newsjacking”: New Term, Big Opportunities

Tuesday, December 15th, 2015

David Meerman Scott, a well-known marketing strategist, coined the term “newsjacking,” which he describes as “the process by which you inject your ideas or angles into breaking news, in real-time, in order to generate media coverage for yourself or your business.” He’s even written an ebook on the topic: Newsjacking: How to Inject Your Ideas Into a Breaking News Story and Generate Tons of Media Coverage.

The concept makes sense, and we all know that a great way to gain relevance online is by leveraging hot topics and news items that are beginning to trend-but it’s a competitive, and fast-moving, field. How do content marketers stay on top of the relevant trends and news in their industries to ensure they’re curating and communicating fresh, engaging content? (more…)

Podcasts Offer Potential for Advertisers

Tuesday, November 24th, 2015

About 10 years ago, in June 2005, Apple began supporting podcasts through iTunes and the rest, as they say, is history. The popularity of podcasts has ebbed and flowed since then-most recently flowing as popular programs like Serial, NPRs Fresh Air and the TED Radio Hour attracting masses of listeners on a regular basis. Marketers haven’t been immune to the trend. (more…)

To Engage Your Audience, Provide Real Value

Tuesday, September 8th, 2015

Savvy business owners and marketing professionals are always looking for ways to deepen their connection with existing customers and attract new clientele. In the age of content, newsletters and e-letters are great ways to connect with an audience and good tools for small-to-medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to use for customer engagement.

The key—as with any kind of online communication—is to (more…)

Thanks Google! Content Really is King Once Again.

Wednesday, August 12th, 2015

 

The world suddenly seems to have a voracious appetite for content as online marketers compete with each other in an attempt to capture the eyeballs and eardrums of current and potential customers. Not just any content, but high-quality, unique and relevant content.

It wasn’t always this way. The bottom kind of fell out of the writing industry back in 2008 as the recession hit full force. Media outlets were laying people off in droves, or closing entirely, and the demand for freelancers was rapidly diminishing. I know because I had been a freelancer for a number of years. Even while employed full-time, I made a very nice “extra income” from writing for a variety of trade and professional publications.

It was this extra income that I felt would help provide me with a cushion when I launched Strategic Communications in 2008. But I was wrong.

(more…)

An “Inside Out” Approach to Engaging Your Audience

Thursday, July 2nd, 2015
We work with companies and individuals in the business-to-business (B2B) space on content marketing planning and implementation, including the use of social media. The greatest challenge—and opportunity—for companies of any kind is generating content that is going to be valued by their audience. That often means thinking, as we like to say, “from the outside in.”

(more…)

Why Your Homepage Isn’t Really Your Homepage

Tuesday, June 16th, 2015

by Linda Pophal

 

For me, the summer months represent a relatively quiet time to catch up on some professional development activities that tend to be at the bottom of my list during busier times of the year. This summer, I’ve signed up for a few Coursera courses, including one called “Digital Analytics for Marketing Professionals.” One of the reading assignments led me, as is often the case, down a rabbit hole to more and more intriguing topics until I found myself looking at (more…)

Best Blogging Practices

Tuesday, May 19th, 2015
Blogging can seem like a big commitment and, to a certain degree, it is. After all, you don’t want to start a blog without committing to posting to it regularly. But the time and effort don’t have to be overwhelming. I started this blog in February 2009 and have been posting to it regularly ever since. Over the past few years, I’ve been posting a couple of times a week.

I have five tips for those wanting to start a blog, or do a better job of managing an existing blog: (more…)

The Biggest Mistake You May Be Making With Your Blog

Thursday, May 14th, 2015

A client contact asked me recently what I consider to be the “biggest mistake” bloggers make as they attempt to connect with their audiences. I’m sure there are many! I have been publishing this blog for several years now, and we also work with various clients to create and manage their blogs. There are a variety of mistakes that I have made (and, hopefully, learned from!) and many missteps that I see others make as well. (more…)