How to make my content impressive and engaging- This is one question that haunts every brand now and then. With standard formatted blogpost becoming too common and dry to consume, the appetite for more creative and engaging content is increasing. Sylvia Jensen, marketing director at Oracle Marketing Cloud, shares 12 awesome ways to keep your brand message relevant and at the same time makes it stand out from the noise. Some of our picks are:

• Framing a quiz, it will be more engaging

• Examine a case study

• Explore different charts

• Put things in a comic strip

• Write a guide or glossary

For more, have a look at http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/12-awesome-content-marketing-ideas-arent-blog-posts-01258747

Gaining insight from marketing databases is proving to be a tedious task for today's marketers. A recent survey has revealed that applying the accurate solutions to analyze and interpret data is the biggest challenge being faced by businesses today. To mitigate these problems, marketers can consider using marketing data management services. With the help of these services data consistency and completeness can be achieved without putting in much manual effort. Extracting insights from marketing databases leads to improvement of clarity and insight on target buyers. Once marketers are able to identify prospective consumers, they can create content that are personalized in nature and hits the targeted consumers. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/big-data/you-love-data-but-your-teams-not-so-hot-for-it-three-tips-to-get-them-on-board-01259909

Marketing automation is software and tactics that enable companies to nurture prospects with highly personalized and useful content that helps convert prospects to customers and turn customers into delighted customers. It therefore makes for a highly profitable investment when it comes to adding value to the existing CRM solution. Eric Scott Johnston, analyst with Studio B, in an article on Inside-CRM blog talks about the takeaways from automated content marketing:

• Improve lead quality by reducing the number of unqualified leads.

• Develop great customer insights

• and finally when all things fall in place, companies retain their customers. 

For more on this piece follow the link  http://it.toolbox.com/blogs/insidecrm/3-ways-automated-content-marketing-can-benefit-your-crm-solution-67854 

Content marketing involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire and retain customers. This information can be presented in a variety of formats, including news, whitepapers, e-books, photos etc. It is hard, time consuming and expensive. Angela Hausman (marketing professor at Howard University) in her article in business2community.com, discussed about the steps to create a successful content marketing plan. They are:

• Start with goals.
• Audit existing content and determine where the holes are.
• Develop your business.
• Target customers.
• The Sales funnel.
• Understand your purpose.
• Develop an editorial calendar.
• Develop content.
• Promote your content.
• Measure.
• Optimize.
• Rinse, repeat.

To know more about the steps required for creating a successful content marketing plan, please follow the link: http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/12-steps-how-to-build-a-successful-content-marketing-plan-01 

Content marketers are delving more into analytics to give interesting insights about their past content. With some careful analysis of this content they are able to come up with new content to meet the needs of their customers. This exercise of tracking the past performance data is important for the content marketers in many ways. Even without analytics, most rigorous analysis and tracking of the data can give information about what to do next. The usage of analytics is giving better pay offs and is the new trend among Content marketers. With the new technologies emerging the usage of analytics tools is expected to make valuable recommendations to help identify the right strategies. 

Read more at: http://www.acrolinx.com/blog/predictive-analytics-content-marketers/

In this fast changing world, entrepreneurs need to keep up with the trends to make their companies stand out. To keep their business afloat and growing, they need to know about all fields related to their business, including marketing.

Digital marketing is the trend these days. So, to help entrepreneurs update their knowledge on this front, Neil Patel, Cofounder of Crazy Egg, Hello Bar and KISSmetrics, in his article at The Forbes, has shared six must know points on digital marketing. They are:

• It’s more than PPC ads.
• It costs money.
• Content is king.
• SEO is not dead.
• Mobile optimization is de rigueur.
• Conversion optimization will give you the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time.

To know more about these digital marketing key points, please visit the following link:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/neilpatel/2015/05/04/6-things-that-every-entrepreneur-must-know-about-digital-marketing/

In this information era, marketing is all about information and content marketing is an important part of marketing strategy because it provides a foundation for leveraging other marketing channels. For example: social media marketing is one of the best ways to reach leads, but what will happen if you don't have a content to post in a social media account? According to Sarah Goliger (Inbound Marketer at HubSpot), content marketing is a long-term strategy. Tips to manage content marketing:

• Plan ahead
• Write evergreen content
• Promote evergreen content
• Leverage older content for new conversions

To know more about content marketing and its importance, please follow this link: http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/how-campaign-based-content-will-kill-your-marketing-strategy-01238559

Millennials are the young adult between the age group of 18-34 years and according to reports total buying power will fetch $1.3trillion annually.  Millennials are diverse in terms of attitude, behavior and language, due to which marketers are facing problem in targeting them. According to Sujan Patel (Entrepreneur and Marketer, VP of Marketing at When I Work), there are some common characteristics shared by all of them. He discussed some tips on targeting millennials, they are:
• You should have an attractive mobile marketing
• Target social groups, instead of life stages
• Be relevant and engaging
To know more about these tips, please follow this link: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246199

In this competitive world, most of the organizations are struggling to attract customers. They are advertising on TV, newspaper, billboards. But, they are not getting success.  Here are some successful marketing strategies used to target the right customer at the right place and at the right time are:

·         Content marketing is one of the most powerful marketing strategies. This includes articles on website, e-newsletters, videos and articles on other website.

·         Make advertisement look visually good by adding pictures. According to a recent survey by Hubspot A/B, images used in tweets increase clicks by 36%, increase retweets by 41%, increase in leads by 55%, and increase visit by 31%.

·         Use responsive design, website technology for detecting the customer’s device and providing reformatted website according to the screen size.

·         For transparency, use social media marketing.

·         And at last, try to relate with target customers.

To know please follow this link:  http://www.business2community.com/online-marketing/competitors-arent-01222954

“Thought Leadership is innovative thinking within a specific area of knowledge which helps shape the evolution of that field.”

For content marketers, thought leadership is about setting an example in their industry through original content that informs and delights. According to Dorie Clark, “Thought leadership is necessary because it gives people a clear reason to choose you over the competition.”

Nate Birt, Deputy Managing Editor at Top Producer Magazine, in his article at entrepreneur.com, has described five fundamental ways in which content marketers can command thought leadership. They are:

1. Create deep content on mission-critical subjects.

2. Invite users to exclusive beta testing of a new service.

3. Engage with real-time video using Periscope.

4. Start a cross-platform hashtag campaign.

5. Write news releases.

Using these ideas can help a brand to be at the top in its customer’s mind. To know more, please visit the following link:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/246056

In today’s competitive world, most of the organizations have a social media marketing as the part of their marketing strategy. But most of the time they won’t get success. Here are some common mistakes are discussed:

·         Choosing an incorrect platform.

·         Doing too much or too little.

·         Ignoring content marketing.

·         Inappropriate content or self-promotion.

·         No personal branding.

·         Canned responses to negative comments.

·         Not aligning with the target audience in terms of tone and messaging.

Here are some tips for choosing a right platform:

·         Facebook can be used for leveraging the community efforts and building trust.

·         Twitter can be used for broadcasting your messages and connect with thought leaders and people.

·         LinkedIn can be used for targeting a professional audience.

·         Google+ can be used for SEO efforts.

To know more about these mistakes and solution, read an article “7 deadly sins of startup social media marketing” by Radha Giri, http://yourstory.com/2015/05/social-media-marketing-deadly-sins/

Many brands consider social media and content marketing as two different fields with no relation at all. But, what they chose to forget is the fact that social media marketing cannot function without content. Their synergy leads to better engagement on social media and thus, better social media marketing campaigns.

Brett Relander, Founder of Launch & Hustle, in his article on entrepreneur.com gives three tips for bringing social media and content marketing together. They are:

1. A/B test content for effectiveness with your audience
2. Optimize content for specific social media networks
3. Tap your audience for ideas

To understand them in detail, visit the following link:

http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/245306

Consumers become frustrated when they don’t see content which is not according to their taste. According to a study it was found that 61% of consumers feel better about a company that delivers custom content. A study conducted by Accenture found that while 86% of surveyed consumers said they were concerned that their data was being track, 85% said they realized that data tracking make it possible for retailers to present them with relevant and targeted content. 88% of marketers are also considering adding content marketing personalization to their plans according to another study. Read more at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/2015-04-04/content-personalization-its-what-consumers-want

In a recent report it was found that 86% of B2B marketers say marketing analytics is very important for the success of their digital marketing strategies. It was also found that most B2B marketers say that they are able to use their organization’s analytics data to measure digital marketing effectiveness, and 65% say analytics have helped increase their organization’s sales revenue by more than 10% and Email is the most tracked B2B digital marketing tactic followed by content marketing. To know more about which marketing tactic an organization use, follow: : http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2015/27224/the-state-of-b2b-digital-marketing-analytics

Content marketing is a cost-effective marketing tool for any business and hospitals are no exception. Hospitals should consider content marketing to be an important part of marketing strategy. According to a study it was found that content marketing costs 62% less than traditional advertising and yields three times as many leads on a per-dollar basis. Jonathan Catley (MD Connect, Inc), writes in his article about how hospitals can incorporate custom content: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/2015-02-16/content-marketing-new-frontier-hospital-marketing

Content marketing is the key if you want to grow your business. Sarah Quinn (Copywriter, Wyzowl), writes in her article link about some content marketing ideas that work: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/how-come-content-marketing-ideas-work

According to a recent report from Infusionsoft, it was found that 62% of small businesses surveyed cite word-of-mouth/customer referrals as a top 3 tactic in marketing strategy, 34% of people considered email as a top 3 tactic, 25% considered networking, 23% considered social media, 14% considered search engine and 13% considered content marketing. Read more at: : http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2015/26859/the-most-effective-marketing-strategies-for-small-businesses

Nowadays businesses are vying for customers’ attention and making strategy on how to attract customers to your site and convince them to buy. One important strategy is to offer value in the form of content. The content is a powerful tool that business house can use to boost brand and elevate sales. It was found that 40% of marketers report that inbound marketing, including content such as blogs and social media, demonstrate positive return on investment for a company. According to research by Ipsos OTX, photos are the most popular form of content shared on social media. To know more, follow: http://digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/social-media-marketing/how-engaged-are-your-social-customers/1225

According to a study by MarketingProfs and the Content Marketing Institute, it was found that Business-to-consumer (B2C) content marketers struggle tracking their content marketing return on investment (ROI). According to another study by B2C Content Marketing: 2015 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends—North America, Only 23% of B2C marketers say they are successful at tracking the ROI of their content marketing program, and nearly as many (21%) do not track ROI at all. Read more at: http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2014/26252/2015-b2c-content-marketing-benchmarks-budgets-and-trends

According to Laura Cole (marketer and researcher based in the UK) content marketing has emerged as effective method for promoting products, sharing information and motivating brand recognition. It differentiates between Public Relation and social media. Social media offers an advantage in case of online brands as it is entirely free to access and enables you to share and promote your content easily. One can reach a larger audience through social media platform. It also allows messages to be tailored and therefore real-time interactions can be generated with customers. This is a huge boon for business owners, traders and entrepreneurs. Read more at: http://www.business2community.com/public-relations/social-media-marketing-represents-new-face-pr-01003698