Category: Digital Marketing

Marketers have been sold a dream: Collect more data, and you’ll get better insights to make smarter decisions. We all…

Content Marketing Institute Team The Content Marketing Institute team byline indicates this article reflects the collective work of the CMI team.…

Want a good book to advance your content skills, inspire creativity, or grow your business acumen? Look no further. One…

How many times have you rolled your eyes or screamed (silently) about an unnecessary or misguided request crossing your content…

It’s been a rough few months for marketers. For all the announcements on LinkedIn celebrating the landing of a new…

If your brand treats video like an extra in the background of your marketing strategy, it’s time to make it…

If you work in content marketing, you’ve experienced the “battle of the brains.” Your creative brain gets excited to develop…

These days, brands championing a social cause or initiative must treat it as a serious commitment. Of course, it was…

I see one mistake derailing marketing strategy again and again: Setting up marketing teams as internal agencies that serve cross-functional…

Content Marketing Institute Team The Content Marketing Institute team byline indicates this article reflects the collective work of the CMI team.…

Marketing goals often use soft, fuzzy language like “brand awareness,” “credibility,” and “education.” They’re nice things for the business, but…

Sound familiar? You stop writing after the intro to ponder what details to include. You need facts to support the…

I meet regularly with a group of seasoned professionals to explore big ideas, emerging trends, and how we might anticipate…

Don’t launch a new agency or any brand before listening to advice from someone who’s done it and even written…

Fashion shows function well as a marketing tool. Models walk down runways showcasing what the brand is selling. It’s a…

When someone lives with a health condition such as asthma, psoriasis, or bacterial infections, they’re not the only ones who…

We’re living in an era obsessed with overachievement. Tech billionaires tout themselves as the sole architects of progress, preaching the…

Content Marketing Institute Team The Content Marketing Institute team byline indicates this article reflects the collective work of the CMI team.…

Is it time to expand the definition of content marketing? In 2020, I posed that question. My argument was simple:…

Did you hear the canary chirping in the marketing coal mine? It got a little louder in the past month…

Remember 2019? We were all riding the Old Town Road with Lil Nas X while watching the slow-burn soap opera…

SEO isn’t dead. It just needs a fresher approach. In this video presentation, experts from TopRank Marketing reveal why traditional…

“With great power comes great responsibility.” That’s what Uncle Ben told Peter Parker (aka Spiderman) in 1962. Let’s twist the…

What was your favorite ad from the Super Bowl LIX? I couldn’t pick just one. As is true every year,…

Content Marketing Institute Team The Content Marketing Institute team byline indicates this article reflects the collective work of the CMI team.…

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs are being cancelled by public institutions and private companies. But the end of formal…

Just when it seemed like the generative AI landscape was beginning to settle, DeepSeek stepped in and said, “Hold my…

Take the lead on innovation and creation with your brand’s content and marketing. Learn how to get the buy-in and…

Trendy content marketing formats and platforms can come and go. Today’s TikTok campaign is tomorrow’s “Remember when …?” But one…

Many brands line up with statements of “thoughts and prayers” after natural and human-made devastation, such as the recent California…

Many brands line up with statements of “thoughts and prayers” after natural and human-made devastation, such as the recent California…

One of the best motivational speeches I’ve heard came not from a business event or even a TED conference. It…

Content Marketing Institute Team The Content Marketing Institute team byline indicates this article reflects the collective work of the CMI team.…

You have too many marketing tasks and responsibilities to do them the hard way. Your work is too critical to…

Confession time. Just before sitting down to write this article, I was working on a social calendar project for a…

Visibility. Once upon a time, that word was the most common answer I heard when I asked marketing leaders what…

Open a marketer’s treasure chest and you’ll see an abundance of data. How do you select the valuable gold among…

As the founder and CEO of The Joy Brigade, Shabnam Mogharabi counsels people to rebel with joy. She’s embraced the…

I recently interviewed Marcus Collins, author of For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, and…

To get everybody on the same page with your brand’s content marketing, you need an actual page. Your team —…

People prefer the easiest route. When they search for information, that now means they turn to generative AI tools, like…

Have you seen that video of Mark Zuckerberg talking about the difference between Meta’s and Apple’s development approaches? For some…

Meta just learned the hard way that no one likes fake friends. Users quickly sniffed out the company’s AI-generated profiles…

Brands generate original research to grow their recognition as thought leaders in their industries. But the buzz won’t materialize if…

Content marketers have long had an identity crisis. In recent years, the crisis has grown with the ubiquity of content…

Happy New Year! Here we are again. It’s the beginning of a new year — that magical time when your…

I hope you are getting ready for a wonderful season of giving, and taking a pause from all things marketing…

When your content fires on all cylinders, the signs are obvious. Your audience searches for your content by name, eagerly…

Hashtag stuffing isn’t as tasty a dish as it once was. This month, Instagram ended its following hashtags feature. Users…

Earlier this year, everybody was all aflutter about the U.S. ban on TikTok. But when the ban moved into the…

Exciting destinations. Luxurious accommodations. Friction-free coordination. Memory-making experiences. For consumers, these are the things travel dreams are made of. For…

. As a marketer, you might ponder generative AI’s role in the industry and the outlook for marketing jobs. As…

“The future is already here — it’s just not evenly distributed yet.” That fantastic quote, usually attributed to author William…

This past couple of weeks, it wasn’t politics or U.S. Thanksgiving gatherings that dominated social media arguments. Instead, it was…

You’re underpaid for the marketing work you perform. That’s the sentiment of marketers surveyed for CMI’s 2025 Career Outlook: Content…

Sometimes, trends in content marketing last so long that they stop counting as trends and turn into truths. Here’s one:…

It hasn’t been an easy year, and I won’t be sad to say goodbye to 2024. I’m looking at 2025…

You can access a wealth of marketing-related data — from web analytics and customer journey behavior to competitor analysis and…

It’s Thanksgiving Day in the United States, when you try to leave work behind, put aside petty squabbles, and be…

At a conference last week, the CEO of a professional services firm asked me about some advice they’d received from…

On Nov. 6, the day after the U.S. elections, more than 115,000 users deactivated their accounts on X. That’s the…

Every year, the Content Marketing Institute asks the community to share their opinions on the best books in marketing (and…

New research suggests that manufacturing marketers — like a lot of other B2B marketers — only feel “average” about their…

Predicting the death of anything is the easiest way to land in hot water. The second easiest is clinging to…

What happens when search-related data shows your organization’s content isn’t delivering? You dig deeper into data. That’s what Brian Piper…

Predictions for 2025 started fast and furious before the calendar flipped to November. But, as you’ve learned, marketing predictors are…

Caspian Studios likes to shake things up. Take its Murder in HR podcast. Many agencies listen to client needs and…

You’ll never know what content works — and why — unless you regularly track and evaluate its metrics against your…

How do you approach content optimization? It’s easy to get stuck working on one piece at a time — trying…

For the last 25 years, people have used internet search in a straightforward way. Input a keyword or phrase, and…

This post was co-written by Monica Norton. We’ve all been there. Someone suggests a content marketing tactic or topic, and…

You likely associate influencer marketing with well-known B2C tactics. Engaging social media personalities to co-create content and promote products to…

What’s your data strategy? Your first thought might be about first-party data collection, performance metrics, or metadata for targeted content.…

What are your brand’s “left ventricles” waiting for discovery? Seth Stephens-Davidowitz posed a variation of that question in his keynote…

It looks like Semrush took notes on CMI’s advice that the best way to launch a content marketing platform is…

A spark can ignite a creative fire. A spark can illuminate a moment. Last week, I witnessed glimmers of light…

Did Salesforce really need another content project? The company’s mega-successful Trailblazer program, launched way back in 2007 as IdeaExchange, had…

In introducing our latest content marketing research, CMI’s Stephanie Stahl wrote: “While many [companies] find themselves simply treading water, a…

This week, thousands of content marketers from all over the world invaded San Diego to celebrate the beloved practice, do…

Universally acknowledged truth: Good content serves as one of the most effective ways to attract and retain your target audience’s…

The pandemic didn’t just change the B2B buying game; it flipped the whole table. That’s how Susan Gonzalez, director of…

As Content Marketing World 2024 kicks off today, I’m sharing my opening remarks on our beloved practice’s current state and…

Does your marketing measurement and data have standards? What does that even mean? Well, it means you have a standard…

“Let me tell you a story …” Those six simple words command attention. They create an expectation that an engagement-worthy…

When Mo Sherifdeen joined Travel Oregon 19 years ago, he was the first person hired to work on the website.…

Pretend it’s late 2024. Oh, wait, it is. How time flies. As you plan your marketing strategy for 2025, think…

Fragmentation. It’s the best word to describe today’s landscape of entertainment and information consumption. Two years ago, user-generated content accounted…

Building the ideal tech stack for content marketing remains a pie-in-the-sky dream for most marketers. So, we asked the experts…

Tell me something, marketers. Are you satisfied with the state of B2B content marketing? According to 980 of you, the…

Like most people, I hate spending money on some things but love spending on others. For example, I’ve been known…

My neighbor was a math professor at a college in San Francisco. He once told me: “The longest distance between…

“By 2025, data stories will be the most widespread way of consuming analytics.” That prediction from Gartner a few years…

For any successful journey, you need to know where you are, where you want to be, and what paths you…

“Isn’t it obvious?” How many times have you asked this question? How many times have you heard it asked? In…

This story may sound familiar. A small team writes and publishes content for a corporate blog. The company doesn’t know…

In the 20th century, marketers relied on coupons, customers’ anecdotal feedback, and mainstream media subscriber numbers to understand their reach…

Do you remember CliffsNotes? The iconic yellow-and-black books summarized all manner of literary works. They digested the plot and detailed…

Reasons abound when you don’t want to do something: “I haven’t the time.” “The team is just me.” “Our audience…

An update to terms of service isn’t usually a headline-making event, even at the biggest brands. Yet, this past year…

Almost three years ago, Micky Onvural made a surprising move. She left her role as CEO of a B2C fashion…

Is a career path in marketing even a thing anymore? As we approach Content Marketing World 2024, I’m struck by…

You have 173 days left to reach your marketing goals this year. Well, let’s be honest. Nobody really works or…

Ali Orlando Wert has led multiple content teams at high-growth companies fueled by acquisition. Although these teams are often pieced…

Consumers really like short-form content. Billions watch TikTok videos, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels every month. But it isn’t just…

Let’s talk about SEO. More than a month after a source gave thousands of pages of internal Google documentation to…

Marketers should stop using attribution models and return to a 1985–like measurement model if they want their brands to succeed…

Ask a question; get an answer. Ask the next question; get the next answer. Repeat until done. That’s the basic…

I had two interesting discussions with marketing leaders recently. Both revolved around the same question: “Where do we start?” One…

How are things for marketing agencies? Not as great as last year, according to Ad Age’s Agency Report 2024 (subscription…

Social media offers a volatile space for marketing. The rules of engagement vary across platforms, as do the audiences and…

Stuart Butler is a trained rocket scientist turned content marketing rock star. Though the career as a rocket scientist didn’t…

A long time ago (so long ago that Nickelback still had hits), my marketing leader would ask me what value…

We didn’t get to the south of France this week, but we’ve been talking about Cannes Lions. At the International…

Brands’ words and actions — including yours — matter. As politics, health care, and other cultural topics become more polarized,…

A mentor of mine used to drill the following into my head: “You are not your target market.” He meant…

When is your content, our content? In the movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Jeff Spicoli (Sean Penn) has a…

Two brains are better than one. Embracing the machine brain of technology as a partner with the human brains of…

Time for a quiz. Do people trust: Non-governmental organizations (NGO)? Government? Media? If you answered no, no, and no, you…

I’ve heard about more organizations kick-starting their content marketing strategy lately. That’s a welcome change from the past year when…

Does Pride Month seem quieter this year? No big controversies stand out like last year, but no creative campaigns —…

A perplexing irony exists in content marketing. Though most content is static, interactive content usually delivers better results. Interactive content…

Audience building is one of the hottest topics in marketing today. That’s why you hear so many software vendors claim…

Depending on your age, you’ve heard of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate. Younger people may recall the Edward Snowden revelation…

Headlines are the workhorses of content. When they work well, they pull readers into your articles, e-books, podcasts, etc. When…

A cacophony of brand voices hums in discord across your content spectrum. Getting them to sing together presents a challenge…

You’d think that a new company with the resources of OpenAI would have a straightforward path to building trust. They…

When is your audience NOT your end customer? If you’re a B2B marketer, you know the answer. Your job requires…

More content marketers should act like museum curators. Museum curators pick an exhibit theme, carefully select the artifacts, and organize…

You’ve heard the expression, “Work smarter, not harder.” Content marketing teams would do well to adopt that philosophy. Hard work…

Did you follow the Apple iPad Pro content debacle? Here’s a quick recap. A recent online ad for the new…

OpenAI and Google made waves in the world of artificial intelligence this week. In a studio set seemingly from the…

Wouldn’t it be great if the content your brand invests so much time and resources in could earn attention from…

  Quality content can get your web pages ranking higher in Google search results. But contextual links can help, too.…

What the heck should you do with social media in marketing these days? Content and marketing teams have been so…

An old saying goes that marketers only worry about two things — the logo and the Pantone color. Well, the…

Content marketing teams rarely talk about efficiency. You frequently discuss quality, conversions, and brand alignment. Your primary concerns center around…

Your lack of social media guidelines could discourage employees from becoming brand advocates and even applicants from joining your company.…

We should rename generative AI. I suggest calling it “expressional AI.” The dictionary defines “generative” as “having the ability to…

In the immortal words of Britney Spears, “Oops, they did it again.” No, we’re not talking about the US government…

If only you could write faster … The deadline pressure would lessen. The work volume wouldn’t overwhelm. The headache assignment…

Every editor knows what it feels like to sit exasperated in front of the computer, screaming internally, “It would have…

There’s something in the air. In the past week, I’ve been asked more questions about how to measure content marketing…

Tell us you don’t know anything about marketing without telling us you don’t know anything about marketing. Last week, multibillionaire…

With so many nuances to content, from distribution to format to the buyer’s journey, you must take a drill-down approach…

Content creation acts as the heart of effective content marketing. And, as a skilled creative practitioner, you pour your heart…

Change fatigue. It’s a thing. My good friend and amazing consultant Jenny Magic wrote a whole book on the topic.…

To use AI or not to use AI, that is the question. Let’s hope things work out better for you…

I have a tough time putting aside my editor’s brain. Editors and good writers know what I’m talking about. It’s…

Are you motivating your audience to take action? How do you know which creative assets compel your audience to act?…

Do you play golf? I don’t, but I’m intrigued by one thing: The goal of golf is to play the…

Google + HubSpot. Is it a thing? This week, a flurry of news came down about Google’s consideration of purchasing…

Creating content gets a lot of attention. But it can’t get an audience without a well-executed content publishing process. Content…

A massive change is coming to search. As Google experiments with AI in its standard search results and its Search…

Feeling stuck with generative AI? Here’s a way to get unstuck. I’d like to ask you to think about two…

What’s really going on with generative AI and marketing? We wanted to know, so we went straight to the source…

As a kid, you probably learned the phrase, knowledge is power. As a marketer, you prove its validity every day…

Just as LeBron James has dominated NBA courts and conversation, Google has dominated search and content conversations since the turn…

One of the more exciting trends in marketing is the rise in interest in engaging employees as influencers and content…

Everybody knows the apocalypse of ad tech data approaches. Yet, most aren’t rushing to do anything about it. That’s the…

A transformative shift is happening, and it’s not AI. The aisle between public relations and content marketing is rapidly narrowing.…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a topic of huge debate among content creators. It’s been hailed for its efficiency yet critiqued…

“I have too much time and too much money, so let’s make a podcast,” said no marketing person ever. Podcasting…

The alarmist headlines grow louder these days — TikTok Ban: It’s Here! Americans Sound Off on TikTok Ban in Viral…

When women make up so much of your target audience, why does your content marketing focus on quotes from Steve…

Have you ever had to edit bad content? You know the kind. It doesn’t contain enough dots for you to…

When marketing budgets get tighter, an easy trap to fall into is failing to create long-term content plans. I’ve seen…

Today is the Ides of March. It is not a day to celebrate; it is a day to beware, as…

Are you in job hunt mode? Maybe you recently lost a job or expect cuts to your team. Perhaps you’re…

  For enterprise content marketers, 2024 is all about efficiency and results. That’s what 333 enterprise marketers (in companies with…

  Let’s dispel a myth going around right now. You are NOT behind if you haven’t fully integrated generative AI…

How is your thought leadership program going? Is it more thought than leadership?  Or are the thoughts more like what…

It’s hard out here for content marketers to attract the right traffic organically. With search engine optimization practices evolving and…

You’re busy enough doing the work. You don’t have the time to search for content that can help your content…

Last week, I had a lively discussion with a colleague about “evergreen” content. I argued evergreen does not automatically mean…

Air Canada tried to throw its chatbot under the AI bus. It didn’t work. A Canadian court recently ruled Air…

You receive or finalize your organization’s latest content marketing strategy. That means you’re ready to jump right into creating great…

Business podcasting differs from entertainment podcasting in almost every dimension. (The hint is in the adjective.) So don’t look to…

Digital experience platforms (DXPs) are a relatively new arrival in the alphabet soup of martech offerings. But the genesis of…

If you had to pick the impact your content on a potential customer, would you choose: Deeper trust but quickly…

How long has it been since your marketing team got restructured?  Wearing our magic mind-reading hat, we’d guess it was…

Intuit knows people ask a lot of questions about taxes. For over 10 years, its TurboTax brand provided an online…

In a 20-minute demo, the sales engineer deftly clicked through the interface, configured a new image set, assigned the metadata,…

My wife and I have a running bit of funny banter. Well, we think it’s funny. On occasion, as we…

In my career, I’ve seen it all. I’ve been through economic downturns. I’ve been through booms. I’ve worked with startups.…

Imagine a world where you make candy and cakes. Almost all your competitors make similar candy and cakes, but you…

Have you welcomed AI onto your content marketing team? AI-powered tools and techniques can add invaluable assistance to your content…

AI doesn’t solve anything but is an opportunity to solve many things. A weird tension builds as marketing teams across…

Who will win the Super Bowl? The Kansas City Chiefs? The San Francisco 49ers? Will one of the 40-plus brands…

Mentorships took the No. 1 spot in LinkedIn’s 2023 Workplace Learning Report. The subject beat diversity, equity, and inclusion (No.…

You hit the live button, and the viewer count doesn’t budge. You assume it’s a tech problem and open another…

Ironically, a difficult thing for creative marketing and content teams to do is the one thing they want (and must)…

Are you skilled for the hottest jobs in the market? LinkedIn recently released the 25 fastest-growing roles in the United…

B2B marketers love LinkedIn for a reason. Your desired audiences are right there. So, LinkedIn Ads seem like a great…

Here’s a burning question many marketers look to answer when figuring out how to optimize their content operations: What does…

  What if you created content so great your audience doesn’t even realize it’s an experience? That scenario can happen…

Your brand is flawed. It doesn’t matter who you are or what your company does. The character of your brand…

Google followed through on its resolution to give up cookies. Well, maybe “give up” is too strong to describe Google’s…

Seven years ago, Hackensack Meridian Health operated on content autopilot. It’s a story familiar to many marketers. Some with the…