2018, February 24th
12 things you need to craft a content strategy that really works
by Katy French
How can you create a successful content marketing strategy? Katy French from creative agency @columnfive shares her insights.
A documented content strategy is crucial for successful content marketing. Yet only 37% of marketers have one, according to the Content Marketing Institute’s 2018 B2B Benchmarks report.
We know crafting a content strategy can feel overwhelming, especially if you don’t know what to include. But doing it is worthwhile, because it makes everything afterwards a whole lot easier: coming up with great ideas, measuring success, planning for your budget and team, and more. It just takes a little bit of elbow grease up front.
So, what should your content strategy look like?
We’ve helped many brands devise their strategy, and while each is unique, brands’ strategies tend to include some common core elements. No matter what your goals are, a comprehensive content strategy should cover every part of the marketing process.
This 1 Simple Shift in Thinking Can Transform Your Company’s Social Media Marketing
by Marty Weintraub
Brands are scrambling to figure out why Facebook fans have stopped seeing their social media posts. Earlier this year, Facebook made changes that some marketers consider 2018’s Facebook Brand Marketing Apocalypse.
Freebie content and video distribution dried up, but smart social marketers have quickly started to think like classic TV stations — only smarter. Social channels make it possible for brands to broadcast captivating video content to very precise audiences. While no longer free, securing views can still be crazy cheap — costing as little as a penny each. Views can drive website visits, in-store foot traffic and put products in shopping carts.
First, some quick history: In January, Facebook essentially shut off the free publicity spigot for brands and publishers, affecting everyone from news giants like the New York Times to brand publishers like Skittles, the Mall of America, SkiDoo and others. Companies endured an overnight branding nightmare that actually took about seven years to occur (free distribution began declining before Facebook’s 2012 IPO).
How to Become a True Marketing Master
by Acadia Otlowski
There has been a lot of content written on becoming the best marketer, or a master marketer.
I have an issue with that. What does it really mean to be a marketing master? What does mastery entail?
There’s a popular idea that mastery on any topic can be achieved in 10,000 hours. This idea came from Malcolm Gladwell and his popular book “Outliers.”
According to this theory, if you work deliberately for 40 hours a week at your marketing job, you will obtain mastery in about 4 years and 292 days.
But there are a couple of issues with Gladwell’s theory.
In professions, the amount practiced accounted for just a 1% difference in performance. That’s a minuscule improvement in the overall scheme of things.
Our 6 Must Reads for Managers to Give Feedback That Helps People Grow
by Pia Silva
Some of the most popular advice we’ve ever given on First Round Review concerns feedback. There’s a reason why Kim Scott’s piece on how to give ‘Radical Candor’ has been shared 150K+ times — and has since been turned into a bestselling business book. It’s because people want to do exactly what its subtite describes: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity. For managers both new and experienced, this can feel like threading a needle — giving people the constructive feedback they need to grow in their careers without making them feel badly about where they’ve failed or come up short.
We’ve heard from a number of people — founders, executives, managers, and ICs alike — that giving constructive feedback is painful, uncomfortable, and even frightening. No wonder many go far too long without doing it, or sugar coat their words past the point of clarity. They worry that what they say will cause more damage, or make people disengage. They worry that what they need to communicate won’t come out quite right or be well received. So they sit in silence — which ends up feeling far worse when people around them continue to make the same mistakes, underperform, and gradually get managed out. All of which might have been prevented had someone just intervened.
10 Horrible Habits You’re Doing Right Now That Are Draining Your Energy
by John Rampton
One of the greatest ways that you can improve your daily productivity is to cut out habits that drain your motivation. They give you less energy to tackle the day and decrease happiness levels. The challenge is that life is full of distractions.
That being said, letting the distractions consume you will make going through each day much more difficult. You should, instead, look for places in your life that you can change in order to have more energy and motivation. Doing so will increase your output and your well-being.
Topics: Social Media, Headway Daily Digest, Content Creation, Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Coaching Business