INBOUND ACCELERATOR

Some things about content marketing change from year to year, and others simply become more obvious. When it comes to the advantages of working from a documented content marketing strategy, the answer is obvious: Having a strategy pays off.

That can be seen in the results of the Content Marketing Institute’s annual survey of B2B marketers, in which one of their continuing questions is: Do you have a documented content marketing strategy?

Several times a week, I write a blog post to share advice and insights about integrated public relations and marketing and the various tools and tactics involved in everything from brand development to campaign implementation.

Blog posts are written by me several times each week to share advice and insights.

Which of those sentences sounded better to your ear?

Creating a comprehensive content marketing strategy requires more than brainstorming a few blog post titles and writing social media updates. It should include taking a close look at 10 different questions about your audience, your goals, your competition and the market environment.

In marketing, as with almost any endeavor, there is theory and there is reality. Just ask any veteran of a given profession who has recently had a conversation with a freshly-graduated newcomer full of ideas about “how it works” that come from classes and books.

Those classes and books are great, and should be very close to what happens on the ground and in the trenches, but real-world results can also be much different. Which is why it pays to take time to review your actual results and see how they compare to what you would have expected based on best practices and industry averages.

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.

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.

Successful content or inbound marketing requires working from an established strategy to create comprehensive campaigns that touch on all content distribution channels to reach the most potential sales prospects and engage them in ways that generate qualified leads and closed deals.

There was a time when every conversation around search engine optimization focused on one specific topic: keywords. How to choose keywords (such as selecting keywords that have a high search rating, but are ones that allow you to be competitive). Where to place keywords in the structure of your website (also called on-page SEO). How to work keywords into your content.