Stories on the tech industry, content marketing and online sales enablement
Any discussion of content marketing will talk about the importance of great content. That is the foundation on which a content marketing campaign is built. If you and your client aren’t putting out great stuff, the campaign won’t be successful. High quality, consistent content development isn’t easy. Usually you’re busy, the client is busy and…
The first full work week in 2014 opened with a spirited debate about the future of content marketing. It began with a post from Mark Schaefer that posits content marketing will soon hit a saturation point he calls content shock, beyond which it won’t be a sustainable activity for many businesses. Christopher Penn at SHIFT…
Last month Joe Pilizzi at Content Marketing Institute put out a list of 50 content marketing predictions for 2014 from industry professionals. It’s an excellent list that reflects many of the points stressed over the past few years here at chrisparente.com. Of course if you’re a content marketer, you may not have time to read…
2103 was a busy year for my Chrisparente.com site. According to WordPress JetPack statistics, as of this morning it has received 63,469 views. The site has also achieved a global Alexa ranking of 265,477, and a U.S. ranking of 65,990. Each year since 2008 my traffic has grown, and I send a big thank you…
When you’re trying to explain something, it’s always good when possible to show rather than tell your audience. This is especially true when you’re trying to explain relatively complicated technology. Recently I worked with a client partner company sharing a very effective video. Developed in collaboration with my client, this video does an excellent job…
Yesterday I received a briefing on LinkedIn advertising opportunities. Placing ad buys isn’t one of my main roles, but I always stay current on issues my clients might need, and all of them use LinkedIn in some way. There have been some changes lately in the LinkedIn experience. Last month LinkedIn replaced its LinkedIn Today…
Gini Dietrich’s Spin Sucks site has been in my industry news RSS feed for a long time. This week she wrote a good piece looking at how VISA has brought all their marketing and communications work in-house. The company is ending relationships with current agencies FleishmanHillard, Edelman and Brunswick. In her story Dietrich connects this…
Integrating content into the sales process is always a vital part of the client engagements I run. For that reason, my agency is always on the look out for companies offering services that could potentially support improved sales integration. Yesterday we got an interesting presentation from beep Directed Voicemail. Founder Patrick Cahill explained their value…
Earlier this week I read an excellent article from iMediaConnection. Author Antoine Boulin identified three sure ways to fail at so-called native advertising, messages that look more like editorial content than traditional advertising. Many hope this can become a much needed revenue stream for publishers. I’ve written about native advertising, also called sponsored content. It’s…
Earlier this month my partner Marc Hausman spoke at the Inbound Marketing Summit in Boston, organized by Pulse Networks. As part of his address, the conference produced a video with Marc on five tips for aligning your content marketing efforts to support sales. Marc does a great job in the video distilling principles I’ve talked…
Recently there has been good coverage of how critical distribution is for a content marketing strategy. This is something I talk to clients about often. There is no “build it and they will come” with content marketing, no matter how good your content may be. Forrester came out with a new report early this month…
The role of marketing has changed dramatically over the past five years. That was the message loud and clear when my agency organized a roundtable discussion on the challenges faced by our clients. We spoke with senior level marketers from 3Pillar Global, Mandient, Blue Coat Systems and the Immix Group. The term hybrid marketer was…
