INBOUND ACCELERATOR

When asked which SEO tactic is most effective at improving search rankings and driving website traffic, 75 percent of marketers agree it is this:

RELEVANT CONTENT CREATION.

Sounds easy, right? Unfortunately, it isn’t. In fact, 1 in 3 marketers say content creation is their greatest challenge. Do you agree?

Any good integrated marketing and PR program is built on a foundation of planning, strategy and interdepartmental collaboration. But the bricks, steel, windows and doors that make up the structure the world sees are composed of content.

Content is essential, whether you are talking about basic website text on the homepage and in FAQs, downloadable whitepapers, reports, and other resources, or blog posts, bylined articles contributed to industry media, social media updates, or even videos and infographics and other images. Content matters.

When Pan Communications asked CMO and top marketing experts from around the country and globe what they see as the most important skillsets, challenges, and budget priorities for this year, some pointed to new advancements such as AI and martech, and how to manage all of the data that goes along with those developments, but many others circled back to the very basics: great writing skills, storytelling, and great content that connects with others.

The infographic below includes a ton of great information to think about, but I want to touch on a few of the key skillsets and challenges these top marketing experts are watching for 2020.

Details matter. And sometimes, those details can be as simple as making sure you use the right images, in the right places, on all of your social media channels. Don’t fall into the trap of finding one photo and thinking it will work across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter without at least a little tweaking.

There is a lot of content out there. So much, that there simply is no place amongst it for content that is “just OK.” Content that is “just OK” won’t be seen, won’t be shared, won’t drive awareness, and definitely won’t generate leads and sales.

We believe that wholeheartedly, both for the content we create for our clients and the content we create for our own use — that’s why we have been known to take a completed infographic back to the drawing board and start all over from scratch because it was “ok” but not great.

Is 2020 the year your company refreshes its online look with an updated website? Or launches a new brand or branding that means building a new site from scratch?

Here are the design trends you’ll want to keep in mind to build an effective website that not only looks great, but performs from the first click.

One of the most common questions I’m asked is this:

How much website traffic, and how many sales leads, do we need to generate to enable our company to achieve its revenue goals?

That’s a very good question, and it’s one you should be asking, because everything you do as a marketer should be focused toward the end goal of achieving your company’s objectives. And we know that marketers who set goals are 4x as likely report success as those who don’t.

Allow me to date myself a bit. Obviously, if I’m offering insights into 15 years of owning my own marketing firm (plus my years with other agencies and in-house before that), I’ve been around a little while, though 20 years, or even a bit more, truly doesn’t feel like all that long.

Until, that is, I think about the changes in how we do, well, almost everything, as it relates to telecommunications.

No marketing or public relations campaign is completed when the last of the content is published and promoted. There is still one important step to undertake in order to maximize the results of your next campaign: analysis.

It is important to know as much as you can about your content and campaign, and the results it yields, in order to improve the next time around. That means monitoring key metrics, digging through the data, and uncovering what Spiralytics calls content intelligence in this infographic.

Congratulations! Another year full of successes celebrated and lessons learned has passed, and the next round of opportunities lies ahead. It’s been busy, hasn’t it?

If you are like me, you missed a few things along the way — I get it. With more than 100 new posts on the Inbound Accelerator, I doubt you had time to read every one. But there are a few I think you really need to see, so I’ve rounded them up together. These are the posts our visitors and followers read the most, and for good reason. This top 10 list touches on social media, contributed articles, how to create great content, and how to use that content in a complete integrated public relations and inbound marketing program.