Your 2015 projects and day-to-day tasks may be dying down as we head into the holidays, but that doesn’t mean the content marketing fun has to stop!
Here are some standout articles and reports from the week that are fun but can also give you some ideas as you put a bow on your 2016 plans:
- Get a backstage pass to meet B2B marketing rock stars: The folks at Kapost are giving you a VIP pass into some of the most innovative content marketing campaigns of the year. Since 2012, the company has released the Kapost 50, which celebrates a variety of best-in-class brands. This year, Adobe, Cisco, IBM, LinkedIn, Marketo and Salesforce are among the brands spotlighted. Although the list itself can offer you some great inspiration and lessons, Kapost is also setting a great content marketing example. In addition to the final top 50 list, Kapost developed a web-optimized report that provided more details on the campaigns and initiatives, and is running a webinar series that spotlights some of the winners. Taking this multichannel approach allows Kapost to not only fully spotlight these content rock stars, but also offer valuable tips and thought leadership in different ways.
- Who says content marketing can’t be all fun and games?: As content marketers and strategists, we at Content4Demand take our jobs seriously. But that doesn’t mean we can’t have a little fun! In fact, this article from Business2Community shows that including gamification elements can motivate your prospects and customers to engage with your content. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are the two pillars to create gamified content. (Think badges, recognition, value, etc.) This article provides a great overview of what each pillar entails and how you can make your content more valuable and memorable.
- 3 classic journalism techniques to help improve your content marketing: Think journalism isn’t relevant in the digital media age? Wrong! This article offers a few foundational best practices pulled from journalism that can help you create high-impact content. You will learn how thinking like a journalist can help you improve content structure, development and storytelling!
- Want to measure content success? Think beyond the clicks: My subhead/teaser for this article kind of speaks for itself. Although click-through rates (CTR) provide insight into the impact of ad creative, copy and calls-to-action, there are flaws in focusing on CTR alone. As the article’s author Dennis Syracuse points out, marketers need to take a more holistic approach to content promotion and measurement.
I hope these articles provide you with some inspiration and fodder for follow-up conversations with your marketing cohorts. Have a great weekend, everyone!
