Nick Nelson

Influencer & Content Marketing: Solving the Confluence Equation with Lee Odden

Nick Nelson on Sep 10th, 2018     Content Marketing, Content Marketing World, Influencer Marketing

Due to my lifelong contempt for math, I’ve been known to struggle with equations – especially complicated ones.

Luckily, understanding the “Confluence Equation,” as broken down by TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden at Content Marketing World, is quite straightforward. For modern marketers, it’s also absolutely critical.

Content + Influence = Confluence

Given the setting where Lee’s session was delivered – a massive conference with thousands in attendance – it goes without saying that there’s plenty of interest in content marketing right now.

But you might be surprised to learn that, at least through the lens of Google search trends, interest in influencer marketing has actually surpassed it, and continues to rise rapidly:


Influencer & Content Marketing: Solving the Confluence Equation with Lee Odden
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Nick Nelson

How Twitch is Breaking New Ground In Audience Engagement #CMWorld

Nick Nelson on Sep 7th, 2018     Content Marketing, Content Marketing World

Last month, rapper Danny Brown made waves by unveiling his latest project on the live-streaming platform Twitch, dubbing it “the first-ever Twitch album.”

It was yet another step toward widespread cultural takeover for this burgeoning content hub, which is rapidly expanding beyond its distinction as strictly a host for video game communities. Twitch’s usage numbers, and creative new applications, demand the attention of marketers everywhere seeking to up the ante for audience engagement.

In her Thursday morning Content Marketing World keynote, Twitch’s Director of Business Development Jane Weedon shared some eye-opening stats and laid out an ambitious go-forward vision for the platform’s active audience participation model.


How Twitch is Breaking New Ground In Audience Engagement #CMWorld
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Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: Twitter’s Unfollow Suggestions & Threading Test, Instagram Showing Join Dates, & Google’s Algorithm Update

Lane Ellis on Sep 7th, 2018     Online Marketing News

2018 September 8 News Pew Research Center Chart

Many Facebook users don’t understand how the site’s news feed works
Results from a new Pew Research Center survey examine how well people know Facebook’s news feed, with U.S. users under 18 having a better grasp than all older demographic groups. Pew Research Center

 

Twitter’s Testing a New Layout for Replies, Focused on Improving Engagement
Twitter has begun testing an improved layout design with better threading and activity indicators, among several other new features that could see eventual public release. Social Media Today

Digital Marketing Spend Roars Despite Weak Privacy Concerns And Capability Performance
A new Forbes CMO study takes a look at a strong digital spending trend, in spite of recent industry concerns. Forbes


Digital Marketing News: Twitter’s Unfollow Suggestions & Threading Test, Instagram Showing Join Dates, & Google’s Algorithm Update
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Nick Nelson

Allen Gannett Shares His Secrets to Racking Up Millions of LinkedIn Video Views #CMWorld

Nick Nelson on Sep 6th, 2018     Content Marketing, Content Marketing World

This statistic, via HubSpot, conveys all you need to know about the opportunity that LinkedIn video presents: Only 38% of marketers are sharing video content on the platform, even though three-quarters rate it as a successful tactic.

TrackMaven CEO Allen Gannett is a prime example of what success looks like with this relatively nascent feature. The name of his session at Content Marketing World, “How To: 0 To 1 Million LinkedIn Video Views in 6 Months,” understates achievement, as his videos have now amassed around 3.5 million views – all organic.

Fortunately, Allen delivered on the “How To” part, serving up a bounty of practical tips that marketers can apply right now.


Allen Gannett Shares His Secrets to Racking Up Millions of LinkedIn Video Views #CMWorld
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Ashley Zeckman

Andrew Davis Helps Content Marketers Grasp & Keep Audience Attention with the Curiosity Factor #CMWorld

Ashley Zeckman on Sep 5th, 2018     Content Marketing, Content Marketing World

Image via @cspenn

If we are going to create better content we need to learn to consume content better. @DrewDavisHere #CMWorld Click To Tweet

Humans by nature are curious, but that curiosity is facing a very real threat: crappy content.

In his opening keynote at Content Marketing World, the amazing Andrew Davis dove headfirst into one of the top challenges all content marketers face today: getting and keeping the attention of their audiences.

Conventional wisdom from today’s content marketers is that content should be snackable, scannable and – in a nutshell – short. However, is our content really too long? Or is it that we aren’t building enough curiosity with our audience to keep them engaged? Below we’ll take a look at some of the top excuses we’re using to justify bad content, and the perfect formula for capturing audience attention.


Andrew Davis Helps Content Marketers Grasp & Keep Audience Attention with the Curiosity Factor #CMWorld
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Lane Ellis

10 Inspiring Expert Quotes That Honor Timeless Content Marketing Best Practices

Lane Ellis on Sep 5th, 2018     Content Marketing

10 Inspiring Expert Quotes That Honor Timeless Content Marketing Best Practices

When I started working in digital marketing in 1984, the first online ad I created was in 40-column ASCII text format on my Commodore 64 computer. It was a simple promotion for the 300-baud bulletin board system (BBS) I owned and operated.

Commodore 64

I created the text-only ad to post on other BBS systems, meant to drive traffic to my pre-website by listing the features my BBS offered and the basic information on how people could connect to it. Here’s an actual screen-shot from a few years later when I’d moved on to using a Commodore Amiga:


10 Inspiring Expert Quotes That Honor Timeless Content Marketing Best Practices
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Anne Leuman

The Foundation of Effective PPC: Quality, Relevant, Best-Answer Content

Anne Leuman on Sep 4th, 2018     Content Marketing, Digital Advertising

Why Content is the Foundation of PPC

While digital advertising has been a valuable and important content marketing tactic for some time, in the age of “content shock,” near-constant algorithm tweaks, and voice search—it’s taking on a more pivotal role in many content marketing strategies. In fact, Nielsen’s inaugural CMO Report 2018 found that 82% of marketers expect to increase their digital media spend as a percentage of their total advertising budget in the next 12 months.

No doubt, paid search is on the digital spend list. It’s a tried and true method, helping brands secure visibility and compete in a crowded space. And in theory, upping your search investment can help you secure top ad placements across a variety of keywords and queries, exposing you to more searchers and, ultimately, generating traffic that will help you reach your marketing and sales goals, right?


The Foundation of Effective PPC: Quality, Relevant, Best-Answer Content
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Nick Nelson

Why Content Marketers Everywhere Need to Get Down with User-Generated Content

Nick Nelson on Sep 3rd, 2018     Content Marketing

Why UGC Needs to Be Part of Content Marketing Strategy

Authenticity: it’s treasured, but in short supply.

TopRank Marketing CEO Lee Odden had it right when he wrote recently that trust in marketing is at risk. The statistics speak for themselves: Edelman’s 2018 Trust Barometer reflects a general lack of credibility for businesses, and one poll from HubSpot found “marketer” to be among the least trustworthy professions.

The commonality among occupations ranking at the bottom of that HubSpot list (marketer, car salesman, politician, lobbyist) is that they all have perceived agendas and motives.

This is where the unique value in adding user-generated content (UGC) to your content marketing strategy lies.

Not convinced? Let’s explore.


Why Content Marketers Everywhere Need to Get Down with User-Generated Content
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Lane Ellis

Digital Marketing News: Facebook’s User Ratings & Groups Pixel, Google’s Ad Strength Tool, & Surprising Gen Z Survey Findings

Lane Ellis on Aug 31st, 2018     Online Marketing News

2018 August 31 News Google Image

Facebook moves to rate users on trustworthiness: report
Facebook has started assigning users a reputation score. Will the new user trustworthiness rating system, which has been refined over the past year, see eventual digital marketing uses? Reuters

Machine learning reveals crazy advertising ideas that actually work
Artificial intelligence aims to not only create but monitor in real-time which ads are creating the most impact, including some rather unorthodox ideas. VentureBeat

Facebook tests ‘things in common’ label to try to connect non-friends
Facebook has been testing new methods to help bring non-friends who share common interests together, with highlights to appear among user comments. CNET

YouTube ads are about to get a little less skippable
YouTube Partners has announced a potentially risky change that will allow costlier unskippable ads on all the video giant’s channels, expanding on earlier limited-audience tests. Mashable


Digital Marketing News: Facebook’s User Ratings & Groups Pixel, Google’s Ad Strength Tool, & Surprising Gen Z Survey Findings
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Lee Odden

New Research: 2018 Content Planning Report from DivvyHQ & TopRank Marketing

Lee Odden on Aug 30th, 2018     Content Marketing

2018 Content Planning Report

Whenever failure strikes in content marketing and the post mortem is reviewed, there is almost always the same missing component: adequate planning.

The expression “a failure to plan is a plan to fail” is as true for content marketing as it is for navigating any aspect of business life. Why do so many marketers fail at content planning? Do they not have the skills or information? Maybe they don’t have the right tools or a fleshed out, documented strategy.

I’m pretty sure just about every marketer from early stage to advanced could do with some content planning optimization.

Lucky for you, we’ve partnered with our client, content planning software platform, DivvyHQ to find out where content planning stands today. We’ve also collaborated with top content marketing leaders including Michael Brenner, Carla Johnson, Robert Rose and Tamsen Webster for their strategic guidance.


New Research: 2018 Content Planning Report from DivvyHQ & TopRank Marketing
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Lee Odden

The Original List: 50 Content Marketing Influencers and Experts to Follow into 2019

Lee Odden on Aug 29th, 2018     Content Marketing, Content Marketing World

Content Marketing Influencers 2018

Content Marketing World 2018 will be here before you know it. The largest content marketing conference in the world brings together an incredible cornucopia of talent, curiosity, knowledge and aspirations for success. Marketers from all over the world come to Cleveland, Ohio for this event of epic proportions.

Readers of our blog know we have a long history with the conference starting at the beginning with 8 years of speaking and attending plus 6 years of partnering with Content Marketing Institute to develop speaker/influencer content marketing campaigns, aka “conference ebooks”, to help promote the event.

Another tradition that has recently been imitated but hardly duplicated, is something we started several years ago: sort through the 200 or more speakers and publish a ranked list of content marketing experts according to their social influence.


The Original List: 50 Content Marketing Influencers and Experts to Follow into 2019
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Caitlin Burgess

Words of Wisdom: Lee Odden’s Top 9 Insights on How to Succeed at Influencer Marketing 2.0

Caitlin Burgess on Aug 28th, 2018     Influencer Marketing, Online Marketing

Lee Odden Influencer Marketing 2.0 Insights

Today’s content marketing space is a tumultuous one. Content shock, ever-changing search engine algorithms, social media’s midlife crisis, growing consumer distrust in brand messaging—marketers are constantly challenged to adapt and scale their strategies to simply bolster visibility, nevermind reach objectives and prove ROI.

Emerging from the noisy marketing mix is a promising strategic marketing star that can capture the attention of hard to reach buyers, improve audience engagement, bring insightful perspectives to the forefront, and build brand trust and credibility.

Of course, I’m talking about influencer marketing.

Spokespeople, brand advocates, experts—brands have been tapping “influential” people as marketing and advertising partners for a century. And, just as it’s always been, in the modern era of influencer marketing, some love it, some hate it, and plenty of people question whether it “actually works.”


Words of Wisdom: Lee Odden’s Top 9 Insights on How to Succeed at Influencer Marketing 2.0
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