content marketing

March 7, 2022 Content Chat Recap: How Content Marketers Can RE:Think Innovation

March 8, 2022 by Alek Irvin Leave a Comment

“Innovation” has become a buzzword for companies vying to attract and retain top talent and position their brand as leaders in their field. But, are most companies truly innovative? What separates an innovative company from the rest? And how can teams implement systems that foster innovation?

In this #ContentChat recap, we’re joined by Carla Johnson (@CarlaJohnson), world-renowned keynote speaker and best-selling author, to explore how content marketing teams can build a culture that supports innovation at every level. Read the full recap below to learn about the common practices or frameworks that limit our ability to innovate as marketers, the common qualities of leaders that enable an environment of innovation, and examples of innovation at work.

Order your copy of RE:Think Innovation today to learn Carla’s five-step framework to connect the dots and uncover new opportunities, no matter what type of business you’re in.

Q1: How do you define innovation?

There is no common definition of innovation, which is why many teams struggle to foster innovation.

A1 People have a hard time innovating because we don’t have a common definition of #innovation. We make it complicated, complex and expensive. It’s exhausting! #contentchat
— Carla Johnson – Keynote Speaker (@CarlaJohnson) March 7, 2022

A1d People struggle to #innovate because they don’t understand the #definition of #innovation. We can’t perform something when we don’t know what it is. Could you run down the street if you didn’t know what ‘run’ meant? #contentchat
— Carla Johnson – Keynote Speaker (@CarlaJohnson) March 7, 2022

That’s an issue I really see all over marketing in general — we get mixed up on out definitions and end up confusing ourselves and clients 😅 #ContentChat
— Liz | Wildflower Social Media LLC (@wildflowrsocial) March 7, 2022

Too often, teams create unnecessary structure around innovation initiatives.

This is so true!
I’ve worked places in the past where innovation required committees and official executive project sponsorship…which kind of sucks the life + potential out of the innovation.#ContentChat https://t.co/Jls1rhbqor
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) March 7, 2022

Or the “why fix it if it ain’t broken” mentality stops us from innovating.

Not to mention some may be less receptive to innovation. Going with the old thinking, ‘why fix it if ain’t broken?’ #contentchat #MARK1051
— Sheilla Diamse | Social Media Coordinator (@sheilla_diamse) March 7, 2022

It’s like if you’re talking about plumbing in your house and it’s 70 years old. About the same age as many #management approaches. It’s important to fix it BEFORE it breaks! #contentchat
— Carla Johnson – Keynote Speaker (@CarlaJohnson) March 7, 2022

Let’s get on a better path with a shared definition of innovation. Per Carla and the community, innovation involves the ability to consistently come up with new, great, and reliable ideas.

A1b I #define #innovation as the ability to consistently come up with new, great and reliable #ideas. #contentchat
— Carla Johnson – Keynote Speaker (@CarlaJohnson) March 7, 2022

A1c A #new #idea surprises and delights people because it’s unexpected. A #great idea inspires and excites you. And a #reliable idea makes you money. Consistently coming up with ideas that have all 3 makes you #innovative. #contentchat
— Carla Johnson – Keynote Speaker (@CarlaJohnson) March 7, 2022

A1: Innovation, for me, is setting out to consistently create new + better ideas that deliver value to you and your community. #ContentChat
— Erika Heald | Content Marketing Consultant (@SFerika) March 7, 2022

A1. #Innovation to me is doing something different that creates better results — often through reframing the problem you’re trying to solve. #ContentChat
— Liz | Wildflower Social Media LLC (@wildflowrsocial) March 7, 2022

A1. Out of the box mindset that increases efficiency of your process, your brand’s relevance and ROI.
— Sheilla Diamse | Social Media Coordinator (@sheilla_diamse) March 7, 2022

A1. A practical implementation of ideas i guess, that gives birth to new product and/or services. #ContentChat
— Shruti Deshpande (@shruti12d) March 7, 2022

A1: a new idea that creates a multi-beneficial solution ~Julie #contentchat
— Nimble (@Nimble) March 7, 2022

That sounds like the Nimble platform! And a big reason why I love it. #contentchat
— Carla Johnson – Keynote Speaker (@CarlaJohnson) March 7, 2022

Q2: What common practices or frameworks limit our ability to innovate as marketers?

How to Use Content Marketing to Ignite Your Business Potential

November 18, 2021 by Erika Heald Leave a Comment

We’re now two years into the pandemic, and it’s more apparent than ever that content marketing is still an important way—if not the best way—to meet the ever-growing needs and expectations of brand customers. But don’t just take my word for it.

The 12th Annual B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends report from MarketingProfs and Content Marketing Institute found that content marketing will take center stage for many marketing teams in 2022:

66% of B2B marketing teams will increase their content marketing budgets in 2022
21% of teams will invest at least half of their entire marketing budget on content marketing alone

I’ve seen first-hand how content marketing can build brand awareness, strengthen customer loyalty, build an engaged community of raving brand fans, enhance executives’ thought leadership profiles, and drive a consistent lead pipeline.

To explore how brands can best engage in content marketing, I joined Anthony Gaenzle and the #AGMarketingChats community to discuss what content marketing is and how brands can create the right content marketing strategy for them.

Check out the chat highlights below for an overview of content marketing, and read the entire conversation here to learn how to find the right content marketing distribution channels for your brand, create and utilize visual content, and more.

P.S. Don’t miss #AGMarketingChats Thursdays on Twitter at 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern.

What is Content Marketing?

At the highest level, content marketing involves helping a brand’s prospective and current customers throughout their buyer and customer journey.

The goal of content marketing is to empower your audience with content in their preferred format. These formats can include blog posts, video, social media content, email newsletters, and more to help them overcome their challenges.

Content marketing usually sits within a brand’s overarching marketing team and overlaps with many business units, including public relations, customer success, and sales teams. The best content marketing teams directly engage with each of those business units to partner on content creation.

How Can Brands Get Started with Content Marketing?

Finding Sources of Content Marketing Inspiration

September 20, 2013 by Erika Heald Leave a Comment

The Future of Marketing – B2B Marketing Expert Interviews eBook from Michael Brenner

In this week’s #CMworld chat, one of the questions was “What are your favorite sources (people, websites, brands) for content marketing inspiration and advice?” This was an easy one for me to answer, since I’ve made a habit of keeping an ever-expanding list of content marketing pros in my feedly RSS reader and via my twitter content marketing list. I also setup a weekly content marketing paper.li to make sure I didn’t miss some of the more widely shared and read articles from my twitter feed. (@marketingprofs @moz @hubspot @marketo @socialfresh were the names I dropped, if you were wondering).

It was via paper.li that I came across the above slideshare from Michael Brenner, which is a great introduction to a number of key marketing influencers you should be following if you aren’t already. What makes this influencer list worth checking out? Unlike many other influencer lists, which read more like a #FollowFriday bucket list of influential friends, this Slideshare gives the context of their unique POV on the trends you should be keeping an eye on that will influence the future of marketing.

Check it out to see what some of my favorite marketers and social biz pros– like Ann Handley, Todd Wheatland, and Nick Kellet– have to say, and you should find some new sources of content marketing inspiration to follow. I know I did!

Did Michael miss one of your favorite marketing experts? Or do you have a favorite marketing resource to share? Let me know in the comments.