5 Ways Content is Experiencing Its Own Health Reform

During a recent project, I got a crash course in Healthcare Reform. Not ObamaCare but rather the undercurrent of initiatives causing a major paradigm shift in the industry. To survive the shift, healthcare entities will have to marry new-school technologies with old-school industry values.  And, the key initiatives, when stripped down, are strikingly familiar. That’s…

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What Makes Content Effective?

Like all marketing efforts, Content Marketing has one ultimate goal — to produce new customers or clients. That’s a given. However, HOW content achieves this goal is a different story. In fact, there is no one magic recipe for creating effective content that sells. That’s actually what makes Content Marketers’ jobs so much stinkin’ fun! Content has to be…

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Content Approval in Gridlock? How to Break the Cycle.

The creative process in Corporate America can be chock full of…oh…shall we say…”challenges.” Last week I heard a respected colleague mention that the challenges of gaining project approvals are even worse now because of the economy. Seriously? Don’t worry. I’m not about to jump on the “blame the economy” bus. But, I will say that the…

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Why Your New Website May Never See the Light of Day

Building a successful and impactful web presence is more important than ever—especially for B2Bs and businesses with a complex product to sell or story to tell. Today, the “creative process” is more about solving the visitor’s problem than about whether the masthead should “pop” more. So why do so many well-intentioned, brilliant web projects fall…

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Why Your Blog Is Your Social Media Hub

“Smart social media marketing is always paired with a well-planned and well-maintained blog.” At Well Planned Web, we utter that phrase at least 10 times a week and include it in every presentation we give. Why? It’s simple. The Social Networks are swimming with partiers and elbow-rubbers. As I like to say, “Any Monkey Can Tweet.” But,…

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Is Your B2B Content Getting the Mileage it Deserves?

Business-to-Business (B2B) marketers are forever chasing the challenge of publishing valuable, relevant content to their blogs and websites. And for good reason. Companies with blogs gather 68% more leads than those without blogs (HubSpot). Those who turn a standard blog into a well-produced, highly-relevant content machine may even see that number rise to a whopping…

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When Good Blogs Go Bad

Social Media has very few rules that are black and white. Which is why real-world examples tend to be the easiest way to demonstrate the power of these explosive marketing tools. That said, sometimes the best way to learn how to do something right is to see examples of what happens when it’s done wrong!…

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Writing a Blog Post That Generates Sales Leads

Generating sales leads from your blog while remaining authentic is not only possible, it’s mandatory! But, during the editorial planning and brainstorming process, it’s easy to overlook the most effective sales-generating blog post ideas. Am I saying you should rehire Your Inner Sales Guy? Heck no! I’m encouraging you to add genuine, straight-up value that…

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Content is King Offline, Too.

Emmy award-winner, Bill Stainton, captured the attention of NSA Central Florida this week as he presented, “What I learned from 29 Emmys that Speakers Need to Know.” Bill’s insight and expertise left me with pages of fantastic takeaways. He challenged us to focus on our presentation through three lenses: The Producer Lens, The Writer Lens…

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Why Uncertainty Makes For Killer Blog Content

Always let them see you sweat (a little). Whenever I speak to an audience about Blogging, Social Media or web strategy, there is that moment where I know I’m most vulnerable — The Q&A session! Although confident in my content and preparation, there’s sometimes a little crumb of fear that someone will ask questions I’m…

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