content marketing | Internet Marketing Blog

TL;DR: people don’t really read on the web and what you should do about it

Content marketing teams are on the hunt for great writers, but before we go on a hiring spree, we need to ask if anyone actually reads!

Publishing sites such as The Oatmeal and Buzzfeed have grown rapidly without a whole lot of text, while image curation platforms such as Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram have exploded in the last few years.

Let's remember: there's more to content marketing than good writers!

by James Carson 02 April 2013 10:56am 9 comments

Produce content for sales and branding

Two main things highlight a successful business online: attracting more visitors and engaging your audience.

Content is everywhere. It is not just limited to one industry, you need content to promote all kinds of products or services and to improvise a business online.

Content marketing is a clear pitch for branding as it directly deals with the audience, answer questions, clear their concepts or misconceptions and find an ideal way to show the brand presence.

by Kumail Hemani 28 March 2013 13:20pm 1 comment

How to replace Google Alerts for superior competitor analysis

If you work in search, PR or content marketing, you may have experienced an alarming drop off in Google Alerts recently.

Search pioneers and industry specific verticals that rely heavily on tracking competitors via Google Alerts have recently noticed the feed slow to a trickle of what it used to be, but the show must go on!

So, here are some ingenious alternatives from the experts to keep you plugged in.

by Ryan Sommer 21 March 2013 16:37pm 6 comments

What you’re doing isn’t content marketing (or, at least, it’s not good)

Thousands of marketers are now born-again content marketers (the palm print of well-known content marketing evangelists still visible on their foreheads). A study published this week said 95% of UK marketers “do content marketing”.

It’s a milepost.

From the dark art of bloggers to the secret sauce of edgy digital marketers, content marketing’s now evolved into 'putting copy garnish on your website'.

by Ryan Skinner 18 March 2013 09:51am 3 comments

Three content marketing tips from LinkedIn on reaching its audience

Since launching over ten years ago, LinkedIn has grown from a Silicon Valley phenomenon and niche social network for business to a content powerhouse that makes corporations drool for its demographic data and targeted advertising capabilities.

Fortunately for marketers, the growth of this social giant also means dedicated networks, segmented by industry, hosting expert blog posts, forums (in the form of LinkedIn Groups) and even a dedicated news stream that can drive millions of pageviews much like the early days of Digg and current Reddit army.

Here are three tips on how to engage with content and track effectively from my conversations with LinkedIn representatives.

by Ryan Sommer 14 March 2013 14:28pm 1 comment

Content marketing in healthcare. Understanding role and maintaining credibility

Online healthcare portals and communities are critical sources for patients and caregivers who are seeking trusted information related to their condition.

Health related internet use has become one of the top three online activities in the world. In the US alone more than 100m Americans will visit the health related sites such as Web MD, CNN Health, Familydoctor.org, Healthfinder.gov, eHow Health, and Yahoo! Health.

Let’s drill down a little and focus on one of the top disease communities: diabetes.

With over 370 million sufferers worldwide, diabetes is an incredibly active online community. There are two primary sources of information for diabetes, doctors and the Internet. This opens up a wealth of marketing opportunities for big pharmaceutical companies, who are looking to present their brands, drugs, products and services to type 1 and 2 sufferers, caregivers and healthcare providers.

So the internet plays a significant role in that it enables many stakeholders within the healthcare ecosystem to access, review, interact and contribute content to the community.

Those individuals and organizations wishing to contribute to the healthcare information value chain must consider their role and the categories of content that can credibly be delivered from their position in the 'ecosystem'. This post explores and presents ideas for your content strategy in the healthcare space.

by Andy McCartney 06 March 2013 18:37pm 4 comments

Q&A: Lean Analytics co-authors on data-driven marketing

Econsultancy and Geckoboard recently surveyed SMBs and entrepreneurs in the internet software industry for our Data-Driven Culture Survey and found that across different approaches to data and goals, the majority of respondents felt metrics were not understood or acted upon correctly.

Whether you are a marketer or a startup founder, we can all benefit from a structured, lean approach to data.

As the Lean Startup movement (spawned from the bestselling book of the same name by Eric Ries in 2011) will add another chapter in just a few weeks’ time when co-authors Ben Yoskovitz and Alistair Croll release Lean Analytics, we decided to get their take on prioritising data for marketers in this Q&A.

by Ryan Sommer 27 February 2013 14:53pm 1 comment

Why your brand should get creative now with visual content marketing

According to Toprank CEO Lee Odden’s recent SES London session, content marketing at its very minimum needs to include: brand leadership, customer empathy, storytelling and creativity.

Here are three reasons why some of that creativity should be visual, regardless of your brand or industry.

by Ryan Sommer 21 February 2013 16:17pm 0 comments

Facebook's Graph Search explained for a five-year-old

Here at Econsultancy, we are big fans of the Reddit AMA, where a notable business person, politician, or often a celebrity sit down to answer point blank questions from the community. Recently, Lars Rasmussen, Facebook’s Director of Engineering, did an AMA and explained Graph Search in as simple a way as possible.

The thread, which reveals that Graph Search has been in development since Summer 2011, includes many elements a marketer can skip (including Rasmussen's experience on one of Zuckerberg's famous walks, and the "best and worst things about working at Facebook") but also the most straightforward "tech in non tech speak" explanation of Graph Search since Rasmussen was asked to explain it like he was talking to a five-year-old.

by Ryan Sommer 19 February 2013 19:00pm 3 comments

Eight ways to adapt your content marketing strategy to mobile

Mobile is changing our behaviour. And the message from a recent mobile marketing event, hosted by ORM London was, adapt to this change or be left behind.

The headline figures: who owns a smartphone (currently 54% of the UK), tablet (21% of the UK) and what they do on these devices (28% surf the net) changes from week to week. The latest in this rapid stream of stats is that more smartphone devices are being activated everyday worldwide than babies being born.

Mobile usage is big and it’s set to be even bigger. Twitter's latest report highlights how smartphone and tablet users are the most engaged consumers. Mobile users are 96% more likely to follow 11 or more brands and 58% more likely to recall seeing an ad on Twitter.

Google even predicts in three years mobile will overtake desktop as the most common way to go online – making mobile marketing more important.

by Juliet Stott 14 February 2013 11:29am 3 comments