The Bullets:

• According to the Content Marketing Institute, B2B peers overall cite producing enough content as their biggest challenge.
• Turn to your customer service and sales teams.  Have them jot down top questions they get.
• Check out what the competition is saying.  Which posts do best?
• Do a little keyword research.  Check the Google Keyword Research Tool to see if there are variations you’ve missed.
• Pretend you know nothing about your industry.  What kind of info would you be looking for?

Read the full deal by @NickStamoulis right here.
Get a handle on @brandcontentst

Stiles Says: Yay Joe for being bluntly honest!  I would add brand content sucks because they’ve failed to hire entertainers and journalists to execute it.

• 9 in 10 organizations produce content.
• Most is flat out awful.
• Only 1 in 3 marketers themselves think the content they develop is effective.
• No Strategy – there should be one based on objectives, the info needs of the audience, and an idea of how you’re going to measure it.
• No Focus – quit trying to boil the ocean.  Create many small, targeted content strategies.
• No Accountability – you need someone accountable for the brand story.

Get the full deal from @JoePulizzi right here on LinkedIn
Sniff us out like a rabbit at @brandcontentst

Stiles Says: Content should be part of a multi-pronged lead-gen strategy, not held solely accountable for conversion.

The Bullets:

• Long-form works, but people do scan before reading a full page.
• Content marketing focused on frequency is the equivalent of email SPAM.
• If you have a site heavy on how-to videos, engagement may be more important than pageviews.
• There’s written, visual, video, audio…don’t box yourself in to just a blog.
• The best hitters in baseball don’t park the ball in the outfield seats every time they swing.
• Conversion is a process, not an event.

Get the full deal from Tommy Landry at Search Engine Journal
Watch our every move @brandcontentst

Stiles Says: Amen Diane! Any brand that hires a content creator with entertainment/news instinct will crush it.

The Bullets:

• “Compelling content” is content that’s newsworthy.
• For many journalists, the ability to know what will matter most to readers is an ingrained skill.
• Executives in particular confuse what’s important to them with what’s interesting to readers.
• What makes something newsworthy: it’s current, close to home, affects many, about someone or something prominent, interesting or quirky, bad news, emotional, unique, and/or useful.

Read the full deal by Diane Thieke at Business2Community
Peer over our shoulder constantly at @brandcontentst

Stiles Says: Yes, let’s shove what content does best to lower goal priorities and make lead gen, one step short of closing the freaking sale, the expectation.  That’s reasonable, right?

The Bullets:

• The “2013 Content Marketing Survey Report” found 49% of US companies now have formal content marketing strategies, up from 28% in 2012.
• Another 27% say they don’t currently have content creation efforts in place but will by 2014.
• In 2012, lead gen was the #4 goal for online content.  Now, 44% say it’s their #1 priority.
• Customer engagement and awareness tied at #2 with 19%, while thought leadership was #3 with 11%.
• Asked what tactics help drive content marketing success, over half say social.  Company websites was #2 at 44%.

The read the full deal at Brafton.
Let us into your stream at @brandcontentst

Stiles Says: The public has absolutely no obligation to consume your content.  Zero.  Zip.  They owe you nothing.  Start caring what kind of content they want from you.

The Bullets:

• Marketers are confused about tactics and how to execute them to generate great content.
• Just because content is out there it doesn’t mean it’s going to get read.
• Consumers don’t need your attention…you need theirs.
• If your only purpose for creating content is to sell, your audience will recognize it straight away.
• Without listening to what consumers want, there’s little hope for your content strategy.
• The digital landscape has been bombarded with “invitation avalanche” – hundreds vying for Likes, tweets, follows and clicks.
• It’s more important than ever to stand out.
• Create your own voice by humanizing your brand.

Read the full deal by Haylie Pretorius at Business2Community.
Stalk @brandcontentst, we don’t mind.

The Bullets:

• The newsroom is a model for creating timely brand content quickly.
• Set the consistent mission, which serves as a filter and reflects what you stand for and who you’re trying to reach.
• The editorial calendar says what a newsroom should pluck from the millions of things happening.
• For brands and media companies, insight into what the audience cares about forms a skeleton calendar.
• Set the format.  The templates for how content is presented are what keeps you responsive and fast.
• Timely content must be in the supply chain because tomorrow, the cycle starts all over again.

Read the whole deal by @kunur at KommunikationsForum.
Stalk @brandcontentst

The Bullets:

• 71% of B2B tech marketers say lead gen is the most common content marketing goal. Thought leadership, marketing education and customer acquisition were also cited.
• Customer testimonials and case studies are considered the most effective content marketing.
• 24.5% don’t outsource any of their content marketing.
• The top metrics used to measure success are Web traffic and views & downloads.
• Marketing automation is used by 37% to generate leads and by 36% to nurture leads.
• 39% said they don’t use marketing automation at all.

Read the full deal at B2B Online

Stiles Says: You better buy in to content marketing’s value, because your content creators and strategists are becoming hot properties…and will leave you.

The Bullets:

• The Content Marketing Institute says 22% of B2B marketers have a hard time getting the C-Suite to buy into content marketing.
• Content marketing isn’t an expense, it’s building an asset that lives and assist forever.
• Both soft metrics and hard metrics can now be tracked thanks to tech
• Content marketing is a long-term investment that builds via valuable info.
• You’ll be much more valued at companies that believe in content marketing.
• LinkedIn currently lists 3,398 “content manager” vacancies.

Read the full deal at Business2Community
Follow @brandcontentst

Stiles Says: Content for content’s sake is a surefire loser.  You’ve got to be at least as interesting as the average Joe’s uploading videos from their basements.

The Bullets:

• People love content that helps explain what they see but can’t articulate.
• They’ll think you’re genius if you can take seemingly random events and make sense of them.
• If you identify the pain people have, you look like an expert who can help.
• Provide solutions not tied to your product.  Help first, sell later.
• If your content has the same info as everyone else, why would anyone follow you?
• Give your readers the unexpected.
• Stick with a single message.
• Give them an actionable takeaway.

Read the full deal at Inc.
Follow @brandcontentst