Content Rework Again? How to Avoid Recipes for Disaster

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Jumpstart Your Mise en Place To Avoid #Content Rework

Mise en place is a French culinary term for “putting in place” or “everything in its place.” It refers to how you organize ingredients, equipment or a kitchen station before you begin cooking. It’s also a philosophy, a way to think about how to cook. A thoughtful mise en place leads to a more organized, efficient cooking process and a higher quality product. It can also minimize having to remake the broken mayonnaise, the burnt garam masala or the dried tarte crust. But this isn’t about cooking; this is about how to avoid content rework.

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Inject Some Fun with Comics in Your Marketing

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We are in the midst of a golden age for #comics and #cartoons. Long overlooked as childish and simplistic, comics are finally getting the respect they deserve. From Hollywood Marvel blockbusters, to the haunting ferocity of Netflix’s Jessica Jones, to renowned literary graphic novels like The Watchmen, comics are taking center stage.

And with good reason. Yes, cartoons and comics are fun. But they also do a masterful job of combining dialogue and visuals to create a lasting impression.

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Three UX Blunders You’re Probably Making

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As content marketers, we’re responsible for creating content that resonates with our core audience, motivating them to action during various stages of the buyer cycle. We often pour countless hours into audience research, and yet it’s easy to lose sight of the most fundamental characteristic of all audiences: they are human beings.

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Is Your Content Vendor Giving You a Heart Attack?

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How many times have you been disappointed in vendor-produced content? Do you contemptuously look at an analyst firm’s report thinking you know more about the subject than the author? Have you been embarrassed because your six-page study is clearly produced by marketing and not actual experts? These long-term problems are becoming even more common in the technology B2B world as content marketing becomes prevalent. Read more →

5 Ways to Cook Up a Juicy and Delicious Content Marketing BBQ

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The days are getting shorter, there’s a hint of autumn in the air, and it’s our last chance to throw one great, big, end of summer barbecue. But what goes into a truly epic barbecue? Sure, nice weather, good company, and a generous spread can’t hurt, but the kind of barbecue you’ll remember for years to come is more than the sum of it’s parts—it has to be a transformative experience.

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An Irresistible Recipe for Tabloid Style B2B Marketing

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Knowing your audience intimately is essential to any successful marketing campaign. In fact, it’s the first and most essential ingredient when you’re leveraging the power and allure of tabloid #journalism to reach as many customers as possible. As I covered in an earlier blog, tabloid journalism works because it gives us what we want and taps into our impulsive desires for scandal, fun, and entertainment. When done well, we find it irresistible. But to enrapture and tempt your audience, you have to first know what they want. There’s a reason movie trailers show us explosions and hinted-at nudity—they’re making us anticipate what happens next. Read more →

Why Content Is A Part of Your B2B Tech Product

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Increasingly, technology allows people to have customized experiences, finely tuned to their personal preferences. ESPN.com lets me filter sports news so that scores and updates from my favorite teams appear first. Apps like Feedly show me only the news that I’m interested in. Hulu asks me whether I find its ads relevant, and changes the ads I see based on my responses.

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How To Be Brilliant and Beautiful: Visual Design for B2B Tech

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With a slew of statics and recent articles championing the business value of visual content, it’s hard to deny the importance of visual design to any content marketing program. But all visual content is not equal, and inadequate design can hurt more than it helps. Before you begin fueling your B2B 2015 content marketing engine with design-driven marketing collateral, take a moment to go back to the basics of good design.

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