Oh, sweet salvation, it’s Friday! Aside from being Friday Fix Day, it’s also the Friday after Tax Day, and what better way to unwind from the stress and anxiety of “taxing” matters than with a little content marketing ideology, rhetoric, and forecasting? Among the highlights this week, we look at video’s role in content marketing (is it really ruining text?), content marketing and love connections, and the future of content marketing (does it even have one or will it end up losing its luster?).
Did Video Kill Text Content Marketing?
We know from what we’ve been told that video is a force in content marketing. Liraz Margalit analyzes the video phenomenon and ponders whether or not video has killed text content marketing. For me, I’m still a text girl; this is partially because I’m a writer and partially because I have a toddler who if she hears video and has the slightest inkling I’m using my phone, she tries to take it away like I’m some kind of high school delinquent sending texts in math class (but Mom!). Thankfully, Liraz supports that text isn’t dead yet and psychoanalyzes the different cognitive functions associated with video and text content consumption and validates when and why content marketers should defer to each.
How Match + OKCupid are Romancing Singles with Data + Content Marketing
Kylie Jane Wakefield explores on of the country’s most prevalent social media outlets: the dating site. She reveals that as many as half of Americans are single, which means that dating sites have a pretty huge demographic to appeal to. While there’s some date-site specific information in this fascinating read, Kylie concludes with a broader take-home for content marketers everywhere. So, stop looking for marketing advice in all the wrong places and start reading this article today!
3 Ways to Growth Hack Your Content Marketing with Video
Agu de Marco starts this piece by explaining the concept of growth-hacking (even if you’ve never heard of it, chances are, you have or are trying to do it). Essentially, growth-hacking is trying to grow quickly with a series of tried and true efforts (like content marketing for a start-up). As discussed, video plays a prominent role in content marketing. Agu not only explains how videos can be used to “growth-hack” content marketing, he also provides links to tools that will help make it happen.
How to Develop a Content Marketing Rhythm: A Guide for Creating Consistently Great Content
The thing about content marketing is that it’s kind of like constantly being on a first date. The goal is to say and do the right things to create the right impression that will ensure the person you’re having dinner with wants to call tomorrow. It can be exhausting; however, Brian Honigman has taken it upon himself to provide an outline of what you can do to ensure that you’re that consistently engaging and witty date everyone one wants to be on. From consistently posting to having a buffer zone to knowing when to get intense, Brian explain how to get serious with content.
A Case for Cost-Effective Content Marketing
So, as much as we all would like to ignore money matters and their relevance to content marketing, the reality is, money matters. Bigger budgets generally translate to better, more effective, and more consistent content marketing. While this reality indeed exists, there are ways, according to Rezwana Manjur, to leap over the hurdles a lack of resources causes and to still have a robust content marketing strategy.
The ROI of Content Marketing
Continuing the discussion of content marketing’s value, Sujan Patel explores current modes and reasons for tracking content marketing return on investment (ROI). The rationale is obvious as you get a realistic idea of what your efforts are doing for you. To further help assess the value of ROI and how to track it, Sujan incorporates key quotes from industry leaders. The piece concludes with an explanation on how to do an organic Google Analytics evaluation.
Why Do You Suck at Content Marketing?
John Miller’s article gets at the heart of any content marketer’s insecurities. Any success feels like luck; you constantly wait for the day that you’ll be called out as a fraud. If you’ve ever felt this way, you’re not alone. Keep in mind that content marketing is comparatively new, and even the best of the best are still trying to paint a realistic picture of this animal. That said, even though you shouldn’t feel bad about off days, you want to make sure that you’re not missing something. That’s where John’s piece comes in; are you doing everything you can to get right what you can control (i.e., documented strategy, proper focus, etc.)? Check out John’s article to make sure that you don’t actually (cringe) suck.
When It’s Time to Purge Your Content
Whether or not you have enough content to worry about purging, this is very likely to become an issue at some point in the future, which is why Lane Severson’s article is an important read for anyone in content marketing. In this savvy piece, he explores the challenges that face those looking to purge their content (monetary issues, location, control, and nature of data storage, and politics). How these things play a role are explored in detail in this interesting article.
Why SEO is Sabotaging Your Content Marketing
John Rampton starts this article by noting that SEO and content marketing make beautiful music together and truthfully, can’t really be without one another; however, despite their ability to be a total power couple, when they aren’t balanced, SEO has the ability to color your content marketing 50 shades of unimpressive. John provides five important ways that being superficial or focusing too heavily one way or another can be extremely damaging.
The S-Curve of Content Marketing: A Futurist’s Take on Story Growth
Ted Karczewski’s article starts by referencing a two-part piece he read on Wait but Why (if you haven’t heard of it, check it out) regarding how human progress occurs in S-curves, which are alternating series of slow and rapid growths and leveling out. In Ted’s exploration, he looks at the slow, fast, and the leveling of storytelling in content marketing. It’s a very interesting take that leads you to wonder when we’ll plunge into the next S-curve.
Amy Delcambre is a freelance content and travel writer from Mobile, Alabama with a Master's in Creative Writing. When she's not painting the page with nouns, verbs, and adverbs, she's slaying grammar beasts as a freelance editor and saving the world one sentence fragment at a time teaching university writing classes. In her free time, Amy enjoys cooking, traveling, and testing which plant species best survive prolonged neglect.
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