Without a structured approach, strategic planning fails to touch the ground. Here are the three ways a well-structured brand strategy workshop — and importantly, the deliverables — give you everything you need to turn your vision into an organized, almost-tangible set of tasks. Intro Strategic planning is great, but what happens when everyone leaves the Read More
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How Newspapers Build Content for Skimmers
The abundance of interesting articles makes it tough to cut through the clutter and get your message into the hearts and minds of your audience. But newspapers have it figured out — and they have for a long time. They’re famous for delivering information quickly, speaking to the lowest common denominator of people: the skimmers. Read More
Trust or Conversion? How Content Marketing Builds Both Brand and Sales
Content strategy for B2B brands has two primary functions: to build trust and then develop that trust into working business relationships that benefit everyone involved. So how do you think about content strategy in order to set yourself up for building trust, and then converting? Let’s talk about that. Before we get going, I want Read More
Measure Conversions in Content Strategy with Email
How do you measure content strategy? Mike talked about how to think about content strategy, setting the stage for this conversation. So do you want to build trust, or are transactions more important now? Let’s talk about the different ways to measure those two ways of thinking about content strategy. Can They Trust You? Let Read More
4 Practical Steps for Delegating Content Strategy
Every company needs a media plan to coordinate your efforts and reduce wasted motion. And if you have a budget and no time, it might be time to delegate your media planning. But how? We’re gonna talk about exactly how to delegate your content planning, grow one of your staff and get success while you Read More
Kill Budget Vagueness in 5 Steps
It’s always the stupid stuff that stalls progress, especially when you’re managing the creation of a new media plan from scratch. And one of the quickest ways to cross wires with your team is to leave the budget area ambiguous. Without your decision in this area, your team will struggle. You’re not the only one Read More
The 4 Essential Truths of Content Strategy
Some plans are just wishes. Other plans define the task and the purpose, pointing the team’s individual work into a coordinated effort. This post will tell you about the process of content strategy, a process that will bring your internal knowledge and genius out to the world, in an effective and coordinated effort. Everyone loves Read More
Protip: Pretest Your Brief
The creative brief tells anyone touching or reviewing the piece—whether it’s a blog post or set of social media posts—exactly what the piece is supposed to do. So how do you pretest its effectiveness? Find out if it inspires your creatives. “What is it we’re selling, who’s it for, and why does it matter to Read More
The One-Page That Will Focus Your Content
Much of the unfocused marketing crap we see in the world comes from a lack of focus and discipline. This post is about a document that will change all that, creating a sharp focus for all of your messaging. It’s called the creative brief, and it’s been used to devastating effect in the famous “Got Read More
Protip: Close Your Laptop and Think
How to discipline your research: avoid bottom-up thinking. Bottom-up thinking, in research, puts you at the mercy of the information you’re seeking. It might mean looking on the internet for insights related to your goal, but with no clear question. Without that question, you end up down rabbit trails that waste your time. A top-down Read More
