Blog - Page 10 of 22 - Michael Dillon

February 27, 2017

How to Give Meaning to Your Content

When Michael Jr., a Content Marketing World keynote presenter, took the stage, he admitted, “This is not my audience at all.” While this may sound like an inauspicious beginning, within a few minutes, there was a palpable shift in the room as the audience truly focused its attention – and turned off devices – to hear what he had to say next. One of the key messages from Michael Jr.’s act is a simple statement: “When you understand your ‘ why ,’ your ‘what’ has more purpose.” By that he means, when you understand why you’re telling a particular story or – even more elemental – why your business exists, then your story or message can be on note. We all need to hear – really hear – this message, but there was something even deeper about Michael Jr.’s connection with the audience – and something I couldn’t put […]

Content Technologies: How to Realize the Promises and Avoid the Pitfalls

Content technologies. Can’t live with ’em; can’t live without ’em. How can marketers take advantage of the promises while avoiding the pitfalls – or at least tip the scales in favor of the promises? We recently put that question to the folks speaking at the Intelligent Content Conference March 28–30 in Las Vegas. One warning came up over and over: Don’t expect technology itself to solve your problems. As Marketoonist Tom Fishburne recently said , “Trying to make an organization ‘customer-centric’ through technology alone is relying on pixie dust.” You’ll find our speakers’ advice grouped under these headings: Don’t fall for the trap of technology as solution Use artificial intelligence to deepen your insights but not to replace them Safeguard the security and privacy of customer data Choose technology that you can use fully Hire people who can make the most of your systems – and the content put […]

3 ‘Spammy’ Website Tricks that Can Double Your Conversions

The marketing industry leads the way. Sure, other industries (eventually) catch on to sophisticated marketing techniques. But more often than not, it’s the digital marketing echo chamber that paves the way for strategies and tactics before they hit mainstream. For instance. Consumers today ignore ads. They’re banner blind and doubling-down on ad blocking . As a result, we (ingenious) marketers have devised a plethora of new ways to interrupt, call attention, and generally annoy the S- out of people in order to get them to pay attention to what we’re pitching. Here’s the thing though. Some people might complain. They might not love it. But at the end of the day, they get results. And that’s what we get paid to deliver. So whether we like it or not, here are three ‘spammy’ website tricks that can skyrocket your conversions. Spammy Tactic #1. Countdown Timers There were two groups […]

What Consumers Really Want From Your Video Content [Infographic]

Video content is no longer an option: It’s a necessary component of any successful marketing strategy. The good news? Your audience wants to see more videos from you, and they engage with them at higher rates than other types of content. Email open and clickthrough rates improve when the word "video" is used in subject lines , and 4X as many people would prefer to watch a video about a product than read about it.

Two Vital Elements that Might Be Missing from Your Content (and Precisely Where to Add Them)

It’s taken you more than 10 hours to write a blog post. You’ve researched the topic to the nth degree. You’ve edited it to within an inch of its life. Now it’s time to get it out into the world! You excitedly press Publish, and … even days later … crickets. Heartbreaking, right? We all like to think that the amount of effort we invest in creating a piece of content directly correlates to how deeply it resonates with readers . But, experience has repeatedly shown this is not the case. So, what’s the deciding factor if it’s not effort? Luck? Timing? Skill? Yes, the factors above do play a part. But, more often than not, it comes down to these two elements: If your content doesn’t hook readers in the first few sentences, it doesn’t matter how good the rest of it is, you’ve lost them. If you […]

How to Use Psychology to Create High-Performing Content

When email marketing first started becoming popular in the late 1990s, it was possible to get open rates over 80 percent . When AdWords started getting traction, you could buy clicks for high-volume keywords at very low cost. In the early days of content marketing, it was easy to rank in search. As time goes on, you have to deal with more and more competition, which makes it harder to stand out. It’s not as easy to rank or drive leads as it used to be. But, there’s a deeper, more pernicious aspect of aging marketing channels that people rarely talk about: As more and more content gets created, it gets harder to make your company sound different from its competitors. Related: The 3 Types of Marketing Emails That Nobody Has Opened in Years One of the reasons for this is that we tend to look to our competition, […]

33 Tips to Build a Memorable Online Brand

“If you’re not on the internet. You don’t exist.” Seth Godin said that – or maybe it was Winston Churchill? Whoever it was, they had a point. Dramatic? Definitely, but not any less true. If someone Google’s (it’s a verb now, right?) your business and it doesn’t show up, then you’re as good as dead. But you already know this. You’ve been doing the online branding thing for a while now and it’s not working! Your brand doesn’t have that many followers on social media or maybe it does, but they’re not converting. Or maybe you don’t know this stuff, and are just preparing to hop onto this whole online marketing train everyone keeps talking about. Either way, you’ll be able to find some helpful tips in this post. These tips are probably not going to be a magic cure for your branding problems (it’s not a 12 step […]

5 Ways to Level Up Your Content Marketing Maturity

Large or small. Growing or dwindling resources. New or experienced in the content marketing realm. Every organization is at a different stage in their content marketing maturity, looking for innovative and even practical ways to bring their efforts to the next level. But as the old adage goes, you have to walk before you run—and that couldn’t be more true when it comes to growing your content marketing maturity. Simply put. In order to grow your content marketing maturity, you have to understand where you’re at and create a strategy to get to the next step. Using TopRank Marketing’s own content marketing maturity model —developed by CEO Lee Odden —below we offer insights to help you determine your current level of maturity, as well as tips to help you move on to the next. #1 – Stasis Stasis is the ground-level of our content marketing maturity model, with marketers […]

Your Essential Guide to Internal Content Linking

22Today, it’s easy to get caught up in the glitzy, glamorous SEO tricks and tactics that are flooding the web. SEOs and marketers everywhere are focused deeply on things like site audits and the latest and greatest in Google algorithm updates, and that’s all well and good, but sometimes it means that the simpler and, often, more critical fundamentals get overlooked. One of these overlooked SEO components is internal linking. If you think of SEO as a house, internal linking is the framework of that house. Internal linking provides the flow of traffic, allows you to navigate the space from room to room, and makes the space comfortable and intuitive. When you think of it this way, why would you build a blog without internal linking? Unfortunately, many people do. (And yes – if you look closely, you’ll notice I internal linked above!) In addition to making your web […]