Tag Archives: search

5 Steps for Building a Content Marketing Strategy

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According to a 2011 study by the Content Marketing Institute, 90% of B2B marketers are participating in content marketing and plan to allocate 26% of their total 2012 marketing budgets on this practice.

One of the best ways to build a brand and deepen customer relationships is via content marketing.  It’s fundamentally the creation, publication, and distribution of relevant, high-value content, tailored to the needs of targeted groups.  The Content Marketing Institute’s definition also includes the desire by vendors to attract, acquire, and engage with audiences.

Marketers are communicators of value and have been transformed into educators. Buyers are seeking information from vendors on how to solve business issues. Companies that embrace good content marketing practices are destined for more leads, conversions, and sales.

With the explosion of easy online sharing and distribution of information, marketers now have a way to scale and reach many more people.  Good content is an integral part of search and social media networking, and can take many forms, including articles, case studies, blogs, whitepapers, and videos.  Many people are responding well to visual content over plain text.  It won’t be long before we see more of the social network Pinterest in the B2B marketing world.

Let’s look at 5 content marketing strategy steps aligned with a buyer’s journey:

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10 Reasons Why Email Marketing Still Delivers

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I’m a social media enthusiast, yet recognize, the number one communications tool today is email.  The Pew Research Center says that 9 out of 10 Internet users send or read email every day.  A number of sources report that social media usage ranks fairly well in the 60% range for the general online adult population, and even higher (of course) in the under 40 demographic. Only search, according to Pew Research, has around the same adoption rate as email in the 90% range. We love to “Google” don’t we?

Business marketers are also embracing email—from newsletters and  transactional emails to direct emails and sponsorship emails. In fact, the CMO Council recently reported that a majority of marketers worldwide (67%) rated email as the most successful digital marketing tactic.

Email is indeed one of the most important tools in the marketer’s toolkit, but it still needs to be complemented with search, social media, and content marketing.  An integrated multichannel campaign generates superior results and is a foundation for creating thought leadership status—essential for building brand and differentiation.

What are email marketers focused on this year?  According to a survey by services provider StrongMail, the top marketing initiative is subscriber engagement at 48% followed by improving segmentation and targeting (44%) and growing opt-in email lists (32%).

Read my list of 10 reasons why email marketing still delivers: Continue reading →

Why Marketing Matters?

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Welcome to my first post. I hope this blog inspires, engages, and creates a journey of personal discovery and Kaizen – a Japanese philosophy of “continuous improvement.”

I believe that marketing is part art and science, reflecting creativity and the need to deliver desired results.  This blog will focus on a wide variety of topics, indicative of the wide domain and skill sets of my fellow marketers.  Areas of interest include marketing automation, branding, inbound marketing, social media, search, blogs, sales alignment, content marketing, and digital marketing. I know it’s a long list!

So why another blog on B2B marketing?  Irving Frydman is a marketing communications professional with more than 20 years of experience in corporate marketing.   At times, called the “branding guy,” “the PR guy,” or simply “marketing.”  I’ve watched marketing evolve into a science, with more sophisticated analysis and the tools to drive accountability across the marketing organization.  As a former marketing operations manager, I can add the “Marketing ROI” perspective for my readers.

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