It’s time to put down your hot chocolate and step away from the warm fireplace! I know it feels like the year is over and the time has come to embrace in the cold (but still warm) joys of winter. Just because it feels like the year has come to an end, that doesn’t mean it has.
If you’ve been following my blog religiously this past year, you’ve read countless monthly round ups of some of the best insights the marketing world has to offer. But there are those of you who may have never read any of my suggested articles,and you’re missing out.
Every month more and more content is published around the web and I need to select only the best articles to give you the must-reads of the month. This month I had the daunting yet enjoyable task of putting together the best articles of the year.
There’s a little bit of SEO, virtual marketing, content marketing, out-of-the box advertising campaigns, and many more topics covered. Without further introduction, I bring to you the 20 Best Marketing Articles of 2016!
5 Ways Pinterest Can Boost Your Marketing Engagement
Pinterest, the site that was thought to belong to merely middle age women and young girls, is more than just your chocolate chip cookie and hairstyle how to stop. Yes, Pinterest is one of the 10 largest social networks, but still, marketers tend to skip it when creating strategies. In this article, Josh Kasombo gives 5 reasons to why we should open our minds to Pinterest.
5 Unconventional (But Fantastic) Examples of Content Marketing
This is content marketing dish of genius all rolled up into one article, I highly recommend reading until the end. The article shares 5 huge success stories of original thought-provoking content marketing campaigns. These stories can really show how content marketing is still relevant as ever in marketing and even in rebranding.Are You on Top of These Product Marketing Trends?
Dennis Williams talks about the importance of staying up to date with all the popular trends in the media. In order to produce a relevant marketing campaigns this is a must. From social media, to mobile marketing, your target audience stays up to date with the newest trends out there, and in order to remain popular you should too. Give this article a read to find out which areas to focus on in order to stay on top of the popular marketing trends.Interactive Content: The Good, Bad, and Wicked Cool
Jodi Harris dives into the concept of interactive content with her engaging article. She stresses that marketers should begin adding interactive content to their marketing tactics in order to rope in their customers’ interest, and keep it. These days, consumers’ attention span is less than what it used to be, and by adding interactive content to a marketing campaign it’s more likely the customer won’t lose interest as fast. Harris provides us with a detailed description of what interactive content includes, and how to implement it today.Your CEO Needs These 4 Content Marketing Metrics
Many people think that more “likes” and shares on Twitter and Facebook are metrics to show off to their boss, Elizabeth Clor does not agree at all. Clor states that using vanity metrics can have the opposite effect, and be detrimental to your position. She says that the only metrics worth bringing to your CEO are metrics that show how your work is specifically impacting the company. An employee’s goal should be to show their own marketing progress and the improvements they’ve made personally to their tactics.6 Reasons to Boost SEO & Content Investments with Influencer Marketing
By adding influencer marketing to your marketing budget that already includes SEO and content marketing, you will see a higher success rate. This article talks about why marketers should include influencers in their existing campaigns. Including the right influencers will enhance brand discover-ability and audience development, which leads to higher ROI among other benefits. After taking a look at these six reasons to add influencers to your marketing campaign, you might reconsider adding them if you haven’t already.Got a Social Media Following? You Can Turn It Into a Business. Really.
This article delves into a fascinating concept that not many give enough credit to. Generating a personal social media following isn’t that different than generating a commercial following. Jayson Demers tells us all about how to successfully turn your personal followers toward your business based on intention, scale and direction in order to add to your marketing campaign.
The Real Product Market Fit
This fascinating article provides a useful guideline to help marketers know when their product is market fit. According to Michael Seibel, the point when you’ve exhausted the possibility of making any changes to your product is when your product is considered market fit. Find out how to ensure your product is ready for the market, and when to know to keep working on it.Staying one step ahead of Changing Marketing World- An Interview With Sam Hurley
Marketing influencer Sam Hurley shares his insights on what separates a good marketer from a great one. Sam also shares his techniques for standing out against competing brands when launching a marketing campaign.6 Reasons your content- marketing efforts are failing
Although Terri Brown is writing her article for restaurant owners, her lessons speak true to all of us who are constantly creating content. In the beginning of her article, she stresses the importance of quality over quantity speaks true for products the same way it should speak true for content. She then goes on to list six common pitfalls when creating content that should be avoided.
How to find the right analytics for the right marketing job
In this article Alan K’necht takes analytics and breaks them down into three major categories, and how to use these analytics to create and effective marketing campaign. Alan points out that marketers need to show that their marketing budget has resulted on a good ROI, so marketers need to discern which analytics are relevant and how to use them.3 Essential Content Marketing Skills
In a very back-to-school-esque article, Heidi Cohen posits that the three most important skills to hone in on are as follows; reading, writing and arithmetic. Beyond using the technology and tools available to us, marketers must constantly renew their fundamental skills in order to constantly produce great content.Want social media success? Just EAT it.
Although this article is calling out to restaurant owners, all of the author’s lessons apply equally to marketers in other fields of work as well. Megan Redzia says that in order to maximize your social media impact you have to employ the EAT strategy. Engage, Align (with brand identity, and Turn social actions into traffic.Top 5 Websites Every Marketer Should Read Daily
Marketers need to stay informed to new trends and important marketing-related news. With endless amounts of content and websites out there, I managed to create the top 5 you should have on your daily checklist.Content Marketing: 10 Common Mistakes
In this article Yael Warman begins by stressing the importance of content marketing in a businesses marketing strategy. She goes on to list 10 common mistakes that content marketers will make, and how to avoid them. Ranging from not setting goals to not posting enough, and sometimes simply focusing your attention to the wrong places.
Trick or treat? Frighteningly creative Halloween marketing campaigns
Businesses are no strangers to the amount of spending that transpires during the Halloween season, for this reason Zen Terrelonge brings the most creative Halloween marketing campaigns from 2016. On the list of brands you’ll find Coca-Cola and Airbnb are getting creative this Halloween.10 Mistakes You Should Avoid When Writing An Email Subject Line
Kristina Petrick introduces her post with this great quote “Think of your email subject lines as your business’ digital handshake. You don’t want it to be too frail or too strong; it has to be just right.” You spent time on the content of your email and it deserves to be read, but this won’t happen if you make any of the mistakes Kristina lays out in her article.6 Ways to Come up With Better Blog Post Ideas
As someone that runs a blog, I’m no stranger to the frustrations that come along with the job. The struggle to constantly come up with blog post ideas can be an exhausting process. Nadya Kohja goes through 6 ways that you can come up with better blog post ideas. Nadya suggests that you try and answer your readers “burning pains”, to give article roundups a try, and using idea generation tools.3 Crazy-Effective Ideas to Unlock the Full Power of RLSA
Larry Kim goes through some of his less traditional methods on how to “unlock the full power” of re-marketing lists for search ads (RLSA). Kim suggests for those on a small budget to focus their search ad campaigns solely on re-marketing and to forget the rest. He also suggests leveraging demographics bids in combination with RLSA, and convincing your partners and competitors to do RLSA as well. Hope you can get some inspirational advice from these topics and get your 2017 off to a great start!