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http://www.curata.com/blog Content marketing intelligence Mon, 18 Sep 2017 15:00:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.1 http://www.curata.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Curata_favico.png http://www.curata.com/blog 32 32 http://www.curata.com/blog/content-writing-services-ultimate-list/ http://www.curata.com/blog/content-writing-services-ultimate-list/#comments Mon, 18 Sep 2017 15:00:24 +0000

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Writing services address one of content marketing’s top challenges: creating enough content to keep readers engaged and to provide real value for your audience. For most marketers it’s not possible—or desirable—to create all the content you need in-house. Curata recommends a content mix of 65 percent created, 25 percent curated and 10 percent syndicated content. (source) This blend allows you build your credibility by collating expert outside perspectives for your audience, while lightening your production load and still offering significant, unique content.

Content curation is a great way to publish high quality, relevant content on a consistent basis. However, content curation can’t stand alone. Original created content is the linchpin of any content marketing strategy.

In organizations with limited staff and budget, content creation can fall by the wayside, or into the lap of marketers with their plates already full. To enlightened marketers, content marketing is no part-time job, and shouldn’t be treated as such. A successful content strategy that keeps potential buyers and customers engaged requires dedicated writers publishing content consistently.

What if an in-House Content Team Is out of Your Budget?

Outsourcing content creation to freelancers or agencies is a popular option for organizations with limited resources. Curata research found 17 percent of marketers are turning to freelance writers for high quality and relevant content. For companies unable to feed the content beast on their own, a content writing service may be a great option for the marketing team.

Below is a list of content creation services that can help get a content strategy off the ground, drive SEO, and improve engagement. It is divided into two broad categories: in-house writing services, and writer marketplaces. In-house writing services employ writers on staff; marketplaces connect you to a writer appropriate for a specific project. Keep in mind the lines can be blurred between the two types of writing services, and that this list is not comprehensive. It has been updated as of September 2017

Have a writing service you use that isn’t mentioned below? Let us know in the comments section.

Articlez
Content at a price competitive with what others outsourcing to non-native English speaking writers charge.
Services: Articles, blog posts, personal stories, anecdotes, newsletters

Brafton
An agency that provides custom content in various formats from full-time content writers and designers.
Services: Landing pages, case studies, analytical news articles, blogs, eBooks, whitepapers, interviews, custom projects, editing services

Brivin Corp 
Original content creation services that are researched by professionals to ensure quality and boost engagement.
Services: Press releases, blog articles, journalistic texts, and web content

Content Cavalry
One solution for coming up with compelling topics, creating and ensuring top-notch quality.
Services: Articles, social media, blog posts

Content Customs
Owned and operated by Internet designers, developers, marketers, and writers. Offers everything needed to create and maintain an Internet presence.
Services: Content writing services, SEO and marketing, design and development

Content Development Pros
Custom content writing services from content development pros within 72 hours.
Services: Web copy, articles, eBooks, blog posts, press releases

Content Writers
High-quality content for all major industries: travel and lifestyle, legal, food and beverage, medical and healthcare, fashion, music and entertainment, tech and internet, government and non-profit, sports, gaming and fitness, finance, business and real estate, education and daycare.
Services: Blog posts, website pages, press releases, social media posts, product descriptions, email newsletters, whitepapers

Creative CopyWriter
Services for writing projects large or small to entice readers and generate leads.
Services: Web copy, blog posts, articles, corporate brochures, direct mail, email campaigns, newsletters, press releases, presentations, sales brochures and letters, slogans, tweets, video scripts

CrowdFlower
Enterprise crowdsourcing. CrowdFlower offers original, high quality content in multiple languages from skilled wordsmiths.
Services: Sentiment analysis, search relevance tuning, data collection and enhancement, data categorization, content moderation

eBook Writing Service
Create an eBook that penetrates the deepest corners of the market, getting interested readers enthralled enough to return to your work again and again.
Services: eBooks

Editor Group
Delivers writing and editing services, proofreading, strategy and training for sales and marketing, thought leadership, content marketing, investor relations, and community campaigns.
Services: ads, annual reports, articles, blogs, brochures, case studies, magazines, media releases, newsletters, proposals, prospectuses, reports, style guides, tenders, audio and video scripts, white papers

Express Writers
Provides a range of professional writing services.
Services: Web pages, blog writing, resumes, product descriptions, article writing, sales pages, landing pages, topics, content planning, meta tags, content auditing, PR distribution, infographics, press release writing

Graphtek
Writing services for original, engaging website copy reflecting brand messaging and providing customer value.
Services: Web copy, PPC content generation or reviews, blog posts, editing, banner ads, newspapers, magazines

Internet Marketing Ninjas 
An online marketing service that provides search engine optimized web content.
Services: Optimized web content services, digital assets, blog management, press release services

iStrategy Labs
Custom content in various formats.
Services: Animation, illustration, photography, videography, live-streaming, video editing, copy writing, blogging, crowdsourcing

iWebContent
Writes, optimizes and designs content for users and businesses looking to boost their content marketing strategy and stand out in search rankings.
Services: Web content, blog posts, press releases, custom eBooks, blog creation, graphic design, web development

Mad Wire Media 
Writing services that help businesses develop their messaging on websites and increase search rank with content created by skilled writers.
Services: Digital marketing

More Than Words Only
A group of creative writers and expert editors who strive to come up with new ideas for your technical writing services needs.
Services: Web content, blogs, articles, copywriting, social media writing, translation, resumes and cover letters, proofreading, press releases, brochures

No. 2 Pen
Helps brands tell their story and establish an online presence through optimized website content and strategy development.
Services: Web copy, social media posts, newsletters, blogging, PR/blogger outreach, eBooks

Outspoken Media
Provides custom content creation in the form of blog posts, authority articles, link bait, press releases and optimized content.
Services: Blogs, authority articles, link bait, optimized press releases, optimized content

Phenomenal Content LLC
Writing services offering high quality, original content in the form of copywriting, article writing, blogging and editing.
Services: Articles, blogs, editing

SEO Advantage
Articles written by SEO professionals to help organizations rank in search for relevant topics.
Services: Web copy, press releases, blogs, social media, articles

SEO Article Writing Pros
A team of professional content writers and copywriters that can complete custom writing projects based on your specific needs.
Services: Articles, blog posts, press releases, website content, eBooks, eReports, social media posts

Simply Done Tech Solutions
Helps grow inbound marketing strategies and improves SEO via blogs, case studies, eBooks, etc.
Services: Veterinary blog posts, Q&As, Veterinary eBooks, infographics, case studies, how to guides, veterinary videos

SM Content Creation
Will tackle any project, as long as it’s creative.
Services: Website content, copywriting, revisions, blogs, social media

SocialSite Media
SocialSite Media repurposes and optimizes existing content, creates new site content, helps with landing page development, and editorial calendaring.
Services: Blog writing, editing, social media posts, landing pages, content optimization,

Socius Marketing
Provides researched, custom articles for businesses looking to extend their digital reach.
Services: Articles, thought pieces, blogs, whitepapers, corporate histories, executive biographies, email blasts, newsletters, B2B communications

SureWriteSEO
A professional content writing services company specializing in high quality, relevant content optimized for search.
Services: Articles, blog posts, SEO content

TextRoyal
Features professional US-born writers with experience in over 40 genres, providing SEO-favored, original content.
Services: articles, blog posts, product descriptions, SEO and web content, social media posts, press releases, and more

Textun
Textun offers high quality and cost-efficient writing services.
Services: Report, article, blog post, review, web content

Textworkers
Produces web pages, articles, blogs, and product descriptions for hundreds of companies around the world including Avon, Maybelline, DISH Promotions, oDesk Enterprise Solutions, and more.
Services: Blog writing, article writing, copywriting, product descriptions

The Write Content
Offers help creating content strategy plans, custom-branded content, editing assistance and more from content specialists available for short term and long term projects.
Services: Content strategy, content creation, content editing

Vertical Measures 
A content marketing agency specializing in the development of long form and visual content. This includes free guides, case studies, white papers, infographics, resource pages and video.
Services: Articles, blogs, infographics, videos, guides, social media, SEO content

Write Collective
Topic brainstorming and creation as well as keyword optimization.
Services: Blog posts, articles

Blog Mutt
A hassle-free writing service that uses experienced writers to produce unique blogs for companies who need consistent content.
Services: Blog posts, articles, eBooks, white papers, social media, web copy

ClearVoice
Offers both a software platform, freelance writer marketplace, and in-house services such as content strategy, management, distribution and measurement.
Services: Articles, blogs, eBooks, infographics, videos, freelancer matching and recruiting

Constant Content
Users can commission freelance writers to create custom articles, and buy pre-written articles.
Services: Articles, blogs posts, copy editing, copywriting, eBooks, press releases, product descriptions, review writing, SEO content, social media updates, technical writing, white papers

Contently 
Allows brands to connect with freelancers in new ways to boost content creation and power the next generation of media companies.
Services: Articles, blog posts, social media, web copy

Content Writers
Connects you with freelance writers who produce professional blog posts, website copy, press releases and social media posts for businesses.
Services: Blog posts, press releases, website page, white papers, social media posts, email newspaper, video script

Copify
Assists businesses from around the world to source fast, high quality content from approved copywriters.
Services: Website pages, article writing, blog posts, press releases, ecommerce content

CopyPress
Software, products, and services that help creatives and advertisers.
Services: Expert content, product copy, eBooks, white papers, press releases, infographics, SEO content

Crowd Content
Quality, unique content to elevate your site to page one on Google and get people talking about your brand on social networks.
Services: Blog posts, product descriptions, website content, eBooks, SEO content, press releases, whitepapers, newsletters

CrowdSource 
Manages a crowd of qualified writers, editors, and moderators to perform large-scale content creation quickly and efficiently.
Services: Articles, buying guides, product descriptions, blogs, recipes

Ebyline
Helps brands and publishers find and hire high quality content creators. Simplifies the freelancer management process.
Services: Photos, videos, infographics, text

fiverr
A worldwide online marketplace offering content creation services beginning at five dollars per job performed.
Services: Business copywriting, creative writing, translation, transcription, resumes, cover letters, proofreading, editing, press releases, articles, blog posts, research, summaries, legal writing

Godot 
Provides reliable, quality content writing services to give your content marketing strategy a boost, no matter your audience.
Services: Articles, blogs, copywriting, eBooks, social media, SEO, whitepapers

inklyo
Find professional journalists, copywriters, and bloggers that create quality content which attracts attention and provides value for readers.
Services: Articles, blogs, copywriting, newsletter, press releases, resume, SEO

iWriter
A service created solely to facilitate the process of hiring someone to write articles for you.
Services: Articles, web copy, blog posts

Mediashower
Content written by professional journalists and edited by SEO experts to ensure it ranks higher and receives more attention.
Services: Articles, blog posts, SEO content

RightlyWritten
Allows you to place an order with a network of highly qualified copywriters. Does not require a contract.
Services: Articles, blogs, web copy, press releases, newsletters, social media, creative writing, technical writing, product descriptions, eBooks, whitepapers, resumes, cover letters, taglines, slogans, script writing, academic writing

Skyword
Helps businesses engage audiences with unique content designed to perform in social media and search.
Services: Content strategy, original content creation, content performance management, content amplification

Scripted 
A digital forum connecting organizations with highly qualified freelancers who can write blogs, articles, and bulk social media posts.
Services: Standard blog post, long blog post, white papers, Tweets, Facebook posts, website pages, product descriptions, local content, articles

Textbroker 
An online forum for custom-made, original written content with over 100,000 U.S.-based freelance writers who can write on various topics.
Services: Articles, blog posts

TextMaster
TextMaster offers professional translation, proofreading, and web content writing services from native speakers across the globe.
Services: SEO content, articles, branded content, eCommerce, proofreading, editing, translation

TextWriters
An online marketplace connecting more than 50,000 professional freelance writers with clients needing different types of content. Also features a catalogue of thousands of pre-written articles.
Services: Hire freelance writers, buy articles online, use ready-made content

Upwork
A large online marketplace where businesses can hire from over two million freelance writers, designers, web developers, mobile programmers, and more from around the world.
Services: Blogs, articles, web content, technical, creative, copywriting, editing, eBooks, translation, biographies, creative

WriterAccess
Connects businesses with one of thousands of freelance writers in minutes, with a quick turnaround.
Services: Blog posts, Twitter and Facebook posts, white papers, web copy

Writology
A platform combining a freelance marketplace and a professional writing service.
Services: Copywriting, web content, academic writing, rewriting, business writing, technical writing, media writing, SEO/content writing

Zerys
A marketplace for thousands of freelancers to connect with businesses, and also doubles as a project management tool for content.
Services: Content strategy planner, content production platform, professional writer marketplace

If you’re looking for writers, you’re advancing in your content marketing career. To find out how to take the next step, download Curata and LinkedIn’s eBook: The Ultimate Guide to a Content Marketing Career.

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http://www.curata.com/blog/content-writing-services-ultimate-list/feed/ 373 http://www.curata.com/blog/case-study-abm-strategy/ http://www.curata.com/blog/case-study-abm-strategy/#respond Thu, 14 Sep 2017 15:00:24 +0000

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Pure happenstance made us consider a vertical Account Based Marketing (ABM) program. It was the inadvertent outcome of an ABM pilot Curata ran over six months for our Content Marketing Platform (CMP). During this time, sales and marketing identified and targeted select B2B tech companies. Each had a specific marketing tech stack and content marketing strategy that we felt could be enhanced by smoother planning and content performance analytics. During this outreach, we unexpectedly landed a handful of happy customers for our other product: Curata Content Curation Software (CCS). This made us question whether or not an intentional ABM plan could work for both our products. The key challenge? The ideal customer profile and average deal size between our two products can vary substantially. So, would an ABM strategy be possible, or make economic sense?

Researching Whether and How to Implement an ABM Strategy

The sales and marketing teams coordinated our goals to justify the effort and resources required to build an account based vertical approach. We had to determine if a unique, referenceable, and identifiable audience existed for our product. And we had to feel confident we could create a repeatable sales approach that would yield sales wins at or above our inbound conversion rates.

The aforementioned elements are important because:

• Unique: If the story is the same for everyone, mass marketing tactics may work more economically.
• Referenceable: Are the customers happy and wanting to share their win? This validates the product/market fit and is a good indicator we’ll be successful.
• Identifiable: To build an outbound/ABM strategy, we need identifiable attributes that allow us to find the right accounts and contacts online. If the profile is too general, again, we’d be better off using other marketing strategies.

We broke the research phase into two main parts:

Should We Do It?

1. Do the acquisition economics make sense?
2. Is the use case/story unique or does it apply broadly?
3. Do we have advocates? Which success stories can we tell?
4. Is the industry a driver of success and/or are there other success attributes at play?

How Do We Do It?

1. Do we deeply understand the customer—their needs/pains/successes?
2. What support does sales need?
3. How will we measure success?

The Economics of an Audience

Curata’s first year average sale price (ASP) for our curation software is half that of our content marketing platform. So we questioned the additional investment in human and dollar resources required to run an ABM campaign. However, we had an ace up our sleeve—nearly a decade’s worth of customer lifetime data. We set out to understand our high lifetime value customer segments, where a higher initial acquisition cost could be offset. We cleansed our industry data using out of the box reporting in Salesforce.com, then compared days of lifetime/contract length by industry.

From here, we determined the minimum number of customers per vertical required to confidently consider them in our outbound plans. For example, we had one vertical with CRAZY long renewal rates, but only a few customers. We ruled this vertical out. We wanted to narrow in on our best bets to start, knowing we could always expand later. This process helped us filter 28 industries down to seven, where customers renewed for multiple years. These high lifetime value (LTV) customers offset the higher cost of our ABM strategy.

Is There a Unique Story?

Next we analyzed whether the use case was unique across these industries. We assumed that the act of renewing multiple years meant a customer was having success curating. But we wanted to understand if a particular industry was an attribute of success, and/or if there were other factors making these customers stick around longer. For example, if the attributes were the same across high lifetime value segments, then we may not need to tell an industry specific story. Rather, we could target a broader group with the same value based messaging.

To figure this out, we went back to our customer list in Salesforce and identified two to three customers for each of the seven high LTV industries. We then interviewed the Customer Success Manager for each account. In 30 minutes with each manager we captured:

• Business overview
• Their curation use case
• Main users and job titles/role focus
• Referencability. Were they happy and willing to share their story?
• Whether we already had a documented case study for this vertical

Interviewing our in-house team closest to these customers was incredibly helpful. It allowed us to better understand the various segments and the variety of users and needs. It helped us identify gaps in our collective knowledge that we needed to fill in to deeply understand how to craft an experience that would resonate.

At the end of this process—which took roughly a week—we were able to eliminate two more industries where we felt the use cases weren’t different enough from our broader marketing messages. Now it was time for deeper profiling and to validate the critical success factors at play.

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Hot Takes: Four Practitioners on ABM

‘Don’t hesitate to collaborate’ should be the ABM mantra. The biggest mistake ABM teams make is not setting specific, quantifiable goals by account that are aligned with sales goals. This makes everything else so much harder. A close second mistake is not tapping into all the internal resources that can help Account Based Marketers get their work done faster from content teams to customer advocacy to influencer/analyst relations, data and analytics and more.

Megan Heuer, SiriusDecisions VP of Research

The biggest mistake they make is to forget to include sales in the planning process. Sales doesn’t want marketing to swoop in at the end with a to-do list. If sales truly is your partner, treat them that way from the start.

Joe Chernov, VP of Marketing at InsightSquared

The biggest mistake [in ABM] is in assuming that all audiences within the account need the same content at the same part of their buyer’s journey.  Some personas need to be inspired at the same stage as others need to be informed and educated.  Truly knowing the nuances of the different audiences can make all the difference.

Robert Rose, Advising Content’s Chief Strategy Officer

The biggest mistake marketers can make when developing an ABM strategy is to not allow enough time to ensure the strategy is working. As marketers in today’s digital world, we’ve come to expect almost instant results. In traditional demand generation, we can quickly A/B test, optimize, and change. While it is imperative to apply these same tactics in an ABM strategy, you need to give the campaigns extra time to win over large accounts—it’s very tempting to change tactics when you’re not seeing immediate action from your audience. In these large accounts, there are most likely multiple people involved in making business decisions. If you don’t allow yourself enough time to reach all of these people, you’re not giving your campaign a fair chance.

Rebecah Wiegardt, Account-Based Marketing Manager at GoAnimate

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The Profile of Success: Which Factors Are at Play?

At this point, I rallied the marketing troops to help with the research. We divided the five verticals amongst the team and created a list of questions we wanted answered about the customers in each vertical. We went after information that was accessible online from their website or other public profile listings.

The relevant factors in our profile set included:

Attribute	Primary Information Source
Two year employee growth	LinkedIn
Main user job titles and responsibilities	LinkedIn, Salesforce or Google
Source of revenue/go-to-market strategy	Observed/assumed from website
Curation use case and curation style	Observed on website and marketing channels
Marketing Strategy:
Channels and frequency of social, blog, newsletter, etc.	Observed on website and marketing channels
Variety and usage of content marketing mix (gated vs. ungated)
Existing resource library/center
Competitors	CrunchBase or similar and the ol’ Google machine

We set three research deadlines one week apart, followed by a group review of the profiles. At each review, a team member presented the profiles they had completed using Google Slides, and we discussed and documented trends and inconsistencies within our customer/vertical set.

We challenged ourselves to extrapolate the use cases and attributes we were uncovering, and to decide whether they applied consistently within the vertical. Or whether there was an even narrower sub-vertical or segmentation opportunity.

One instance of this was in Financial Services, where we felt the use cases and attributes we observed may not hold true in the majority of the industry. However, we found narrowing down to local branch banks, for example, could produce a more repeatable success model based on the other factors we observed. “Gut instinct and reasoning” may not be so popular in research these days, but in this case, blending brains, guts, and data—made sense.

At the end of the three week research process we had identified four industries with unique use cases and success attributes. We felt they represented solid candidates for our outbound/ABM strategy. Now we needed to determine:

• The appropriate scale of the initial pilot
• Which marketing and sales content already existed and/or was required
• Which tools and sales training was needed

How Will We Do It? Launching the Pilot

Taking a note from Curata advisor Mark Roberge, we knew to approach this test on a small enough scale that it wouldn’t interrupt other business functions. However, it also needed to be large and varied enough that we could collect the required data and rule out single-participant bias. I.e., if we only had one salesperson test it, whether they nailed it or failed it our results would be off.

The Initial (limited) Scope of the Pilot:

• One industry, reduced from four. We chose Trade Associations
• One marketing owner
• Three business development reps (BDRs)

We designated the marketing owner as the single source of feedback. And we created a rapid learn and optimize partnership with our BDR team. Then we had to coordinate sales training, identify target accounts, support contact discovery, provid email templates, listen to pitch calls, monitor performance data, and tweak and identify new content/messaging requirements for future phases of the pilot. Phew! Yes, even in limited scope, it was a lot of work!

Key Performance Indicators

To monitor progress, we planned to measure three KPIs:

1. Discovery calls: an in-depth conversation for both sides to learn more
2. Discovery call to opportunity creation
3. Opportunity win rate

The next step? Assess these KPIs against the historical performance of the same metrics within our inbound lead cohort and outbound/ABM cohort. We would deem this pilot a success if we could achieve higher conversion rates than our inbound channel, and similar results to our other ABM program (or better!). We calculated the funnel conversion rates using data from Salesforce, isolating for a set timeframe or cohort of leads.

Content, Tools, and Sales Enablement

Balancing a “pilot” approach with setting ourselves up for success was possibly the hardest part of the process. You don’t want to sink a disproportionate amount of resources into an ABM strategy without some indication it will be worthwhile. But if you under-resource—you could doom it from the start.

We did our best to balance this in real-time as we worked with the BDR team. We decided along the way what felt necessary versus nice-to-have, or to be developed later. From a content marketing perspective, we wanted to have at least one industry-specific item, and the ability to communicate with prospects in their “native tongue.” We did this with targeted emails and a targeted case study.

If things went well, we would create top of funnel blog posts aimed at trade associations and consider modifying top performing eBooks to include an excerpt for associations. (Here are some more account based content ideas.)

Here’s what we delivered as part of the pilot launch:

Sales Training	Internal Materials	Prospect Facing Content
High level industry overview (jargon and other unique characteristics)	Recommended reads: relevant industry specific articles/news	Seven touch email templates
Reviewed customer reference stories	Quick reference cheat sheet of customer stories	Industry specific case study: CS2 Compliance
Refreshed relevant products/features	Sample customer profiles (the rough version marketing produced in research phase)	Curation Use Cases Guide Curata CCS Benefits Sheet
Identified key attributes of accounts and contacts

We leveraged our in-house tools for this exercise. These included Salesforce for account and contact management, SalesLoft to manage email and call activities, Engagio to observe target account activity, and ZoomInfo and LinkedIn Sales Navigator for prospecting.

Given their focus on B2B and tech, ZoomInfo and LinkedIn didn’t have enough contacts within our trade association target accounts. So we supplemented contact discovery with a specialized tool (free trial baby!) called Associationexecs.com. Using Google to identify our first set of accounts, we generated 300 targets and aimed to locate a minimum of two contacts each.

What We’ve Learned So Far

We’re a month into outreach and have already learned plenty about this industry:

• They actually answer the phone! We’re experiencing a higher than average call connect rate.
• Timing is key. Budgeting and purchase approval cycles happen annually and are quite rigid.
• Education is required. Content marketing and content curation tactics are relatively new concepts, so educational materials are helpful.
• Purchasing marketing software is new. Unlike B2B buyers, trade industry buyers don’t make many software purchases, especially for marketing. Making these buyers comfortable with the process is important.
• Locating contacts is difficult. Even with three different tools, it was hard to find appropriate contacts. The effort required was definitely higher than normal.

It’s still too early to call the final score, but if businessman, author and motivational speaker Nibo Qubein is right, we should be on the right track with our ABM strategy. As he eloquently puts it, “Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets.” To measure how well you’re hitting those targets, download the Content marketing Metrics: Account Based Marketing Edition eBook.

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http://www.curata.com/blog/case-study-abm-strategy/feed/ 0 http://www.curata.com/blog/content-marketing-ai/ http://www.curata.com/blog/content-marketing-ai/#respond Mon, 11 Sep 2017 15:00:04 +0000

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In 2015 my marketing agency, PR 20/20, was struggling to create enough content at scale while maintaining quality, a challenge faced by many marketing organizations. At the same time, advancements in marketing AI (artificial intelligence) convinced me that machine-assisted content could be a possibility in the near future.

The big question I couldn’t get out of my mind was: Could my company automate and scale our content marketing activities using marketing AI to create greater value for our clients and efficiency for our business?

I heard the managing editor of the Associated Press and the CEO of Automated Insights talk about how the AP had automated the creation of its earnings reports using AI, and I knew we had to explore the technology further.

As we did, we learned not only how to better automate and scale content creation, but that marketing AI was about to transform content marketing forever.

Artificial Intelligence and Content Marketing

Consider how much time you and your team spend on mundane content marketing activities. Things like discovering keywords; planning blog post topics; writing, optimizing, personalizing and automating content; testing landing pages; scheduling social shares; reviewing analytics, and shaping content strategies.

Now imagine if a machine performed the majority of those activities and your primary role was to enhance rather than create. In fact, many solutions (including Curata) already exist to perform these tasks. And they free up marketers to perform higher-value activities and drive business performance.

This shift is possible thanks to artificial intelligence.

Artificial intelligence is the “science of making machines smart,” according to Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind, an AI startup acquired by Google for north of $500 million in 2014. This, in turn, augments human knowledge and capabilities.

AI is an umbrella term to describe a suite of unique, but related, technologies at varying degrees of maturity. These include, among others, machine learning, deep learning, neural networks, natural language processing (NLP), and natural language generation (NLG).

Most machines function thanks to algorithms, a set of mathematical instructions that tells the machine what to do. Except with AI a machine can create its own algorithms, determine new paths, and unlock unlimited potential to advance marketing, business, and mankind.

Implications for Content Marketers

Today, marketers manually assemble workflows for later automation. If a visitor to a website downloads an ebook, then send them a three-part email nurturing campaign.

But what happens when the reality becomes more complex? What if there are 10,000 eBook downloads across five personas, originating from multiple channels (social, organic, paid, direct) that require personalized emails and website experiences based on user history?

The marketing automation that content marketers use today is, ironically, largely manual. These platforms do save time, increase efficiency and productivity, and drive performance. But they do not provide deep insights into data, recommend actions, predict outcomes, or create content.

Once you add artificial intelligence, however, the game changes completely.

Disruption, Transformation, and Opportunity

Nearly 90 percent of all the data in the world has been created in the last two years thanks to the proliferation of the internet (and video). As a result, marketers (and everyone else) are drowning in information. Marketers have access to data from dozens of sources, such as social monitoring, web analytics, email, call tracking, sales, advertising, remarketing, and ecommerce.

Human beings, however, have a finite ability to process information, build strategies based on that information, and create content at scale. Artificial intelligence systems, in contrast, have an almost infinite ability to process data, and deliver predictions, recommendations, and content—better, faster, and cheaper.

And yet, content marketing remains largely human powered, with a bit of automation mixed in.

As other industries show however, the future may be closer than we think.

On Wall Street today, more than 60 percent of all trades are executed by AI with little or no real-time oversight from humans, according to Christopher Steiner in Automate This.

UPS leverages algorithms of staggering complexity to calculate all the possibilities for each of the 120 stops each of its drivers make per day (the number of possibilities has 180+ zeros).

Netflix suggests content and manufactures shows based on analysis of viewer data from its machine learning systems. In fact, 75 percent of what people watch on Netflix is from an algorithm-generated recommendation. Artificially intelligent algorithms also power Tesla self-driving cars, Apple voice assistants, and Amazon product recommendations.

Marketing is Next

Marc Benioff, CEO and founder of Salesforce, told Fortune that marketing is in an “AI spring,” and that “data science will fundamentally change how we run our business because we’re going to have computers aiding us in how we’re interacting with our customers.” In fact, the company is all-in on marketing AI, rolling out artificial intelligence capabilities across its entire product suite.

Facebook uses deep learning, an AI subfield, to filter your Newsfeed and recognize faces in the photos you upload. In the long term, Facebook seeks to “understand intelligence and make intelligent machines.”

Google’s head of artificial intelligence now leads the company’s search operations, indicating that the very organizational structure of the internet will depend on AI.

IBM possesses an estimated 825 AI-related patents. It built IBM Watson, a technology platform which leverages natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data. (Watson attracted renown for beating a human champion in the TV game show Jeopardy.)

Internet giants aren’t the only ones getting into the game. Twenty-four marketing AI startups we track and write about have more than $218 million in funding. Six AI companies in CB Insights’ AI 100 list have direct applications to marketing and more than $500 million in funding. Across all industries, deals to AI startups have risen by 4.6 times in the five years to 2016.

Artificial intelligence is about to take the marketing industry by storm. It will transform jobs, enhance roles, and create huge opportunities for businesses that leverage marketing AI effectively.

So, how can content marketers evolve and adapt to what’s coming?

How to Survive and Thrive in the Age of AI

While disruption will happen faster than most anticipate, it’s important to realize we’re still in very early days. Many of the rising AI tech companies have significant venture capital funding. However, they have limited market success to prove their products work and that the models are scalable.

AI also requires massive amounts of data and customized solutions, so large enterprises are more likely to see short-term benefits from AI investments.

However, there is a push to make AI technology more affordable and accessible, which should accelerate AI development and adoption. The challenge, however, will be finding technical talent capable of building and executing AI solutions.

This means that now is the perfect time for content marketers to get ahead of the curve.

Here’s how:

1. Evaluate repetitive, manual marketing tasks that could be intelligently automated. There are dozens of AI-powered marketing tools that you can use to plan, optimize, create, personalize, promote, measure, and analyze content. Tools like Acrolinx help you plan and optimize, while solutions like Automated Insights help you create content at scale. Tools like OneSpot offer personalization and promotion. And AI tech like Curata and Scoop.it are great for promoting, measuring, and analyzing that content’s performance. (See an expanded list of useful content marketing AI tools here.)
2. Assess opportunities to get more out of your data. There are plenty of ways to discover insights, predict outcomes, devise strategies, personalize content, and tell stories at scale with the right type and amount of data. However, the right type and amount of data are highly specific to your organization and your needs. Marketers should involve the internal owners of datasets in this process as soon as possible.
3. Consider the AI capabilities of your existing marketing technology. Platforms like Salesforce and HubSpot are actively integrating AI into their existing products. Existing platforms give content marketers a great place to start familiarizing themselves with AI capabilities. From there, explore the potential of emerging AI solutions. (The Marketing AI Institute is a great place to start.)

Content Marketing Careers are About to Change. Rapidly

This is only the beginning of marketing AI. While developments are moving fast, most content marketers have not undertaken much study of how AI can—and will—affect their jobs, performance, and businesses.

Artificial intelligence won’t just automate or augment certain content marketing activities. It will also alter how marketing channels work—and which skillsets are required to thrive in the near future.

When marketing AI systems are able to automatically optimize search and paid campaigns, the skills valued in marketers will change. As marketing AI is increasingly able to generate insightful reports, the type of analysis required of and valued by marketers will be different than in the past. If marketing AI is able to write basic content, content marketers will need to adapt.

This is obvious: marketing skills change with the times. But with marketing AI, these skills will change faster than in the past. As intelligent systems learn and improve, they will become more and more capable of performing cognitive tasks formerly reserved for humans.

Marketing AI is Already Here

We expect this shift to happen far faster than the transition from traditional to digital or mobile channels. Content marketers should prepare now.

Marketing AI is most prominently manifesting in a new technology known as content intelligence. To learn more, download the white paper Content Intelligence: The New Frontier of Content Marketing.

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http://www.curata.com/blog/content-marketing-ai/feed/ 0 http://www.curata.com/blog/best-curated-websites-some-of-our-picks/ http://www.curata.com/blog/best-curated-websites-some-of-our-picks/#comments Thu, 07 Sep 2017 15:00:13 +0000

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Most content marketers are familiar with the concept of content curation, even if they’re not practicing it themselves. Content curation is now a necessity for marketers looking to keep up with the demand for content, and to build their thought leadership. But sometimes people don’t know where to start because they don’t have any good content curation examples to go off.

As they say in storytelling, it’s better to show rather than tell. To this end, rather than telling you how to curate, Curata decided to showcase content curation examples from several businesses successfully curating content for their brands. The following organizations are a selection of business and consumer-facing, curating both on their own platforms and through social channels.

Read on for ten great content curation examples.

Content Curation Leaders:

Non Obvious Insights Newsletter

Rohit Bhargava of the Influential Marketing Group assembles an expertly curated selection of articles from more than 100 sources that fully live up to the tagline of “This week’s most underappreciated marketing stories.”

Slashdot

Slashdot is run by a handful of editors and coders focused on technology-related news. The “news for nerds” website provides snippets of news articles, with a little commentary on why it’s relevant. It also has an active reader-commenting community providing continued conversation on each article.

Kottke.org

Kottke claims to be one of the longest-running active blogs on the Internet. Primarily curated by Jason Kottke, this site focuses on providing interesting tidbits on a wide variety of topics. Jason Kottke has mastered the art of publishing just the right amount of content, and it’s always something interesting.

Digg

Digg is a famous news aggregator with a curated front page, selecting stories for a specifically Internet audience around topics such as science, trending political issues, entertainment, sports, and viral Internet stories and memes. It uses data and social signals to power a user-influenced, editorially-controlled content portal.

ABM Guru

Pitching themselves as the voice of account based marketing, ABM Guru offers stories about every aspect of ABM. There’s a selection of original stories, curated articles, and posts that riff off other original stories about everything from strategy to audience insight, sales enablement, and measurement and reporting. Expert contributors include Engagio CEO Jon Miller, Demandbase CMO Peter Isaacson, Pulse Marketing and Buyer Persona Institute CEO Adele Revella.

Huffington Post

One of the best known curated sites out there, the HuffPo has also invested significantly in original reporting in recent years. It features a unique mix of created, curated, and sponsored posts alongside user-generated content. The site has undergone a significant aesthetic overhaul for a design that, while still busy, is cleaner with more images.

Deadspin

A site chock-full of sports news featuring colorful commentary with a humorous twist. There’s commentaries, recaps, previews of the major sports stories of the day, and sports-related anecdotes, rumors and videos.

Buzzfeed

With a team of editors constantly creating and curating, Buzzfeed provides its audience with interesting and unique combinations of facts. From “5 Important Walking Dead Predictions For This Season”, to “18 Babies Experiencing Things For the First Time,” Buzzfeed is an endless stream of interesting content.

22 Words

Similar to Buzzfeed, 22 Words provides a constant stream of interesting and humorous content from around the web. The curated articles are broken down into handy categories, which include funny, bizarre, amazing, cute and intriguing.

The Week

Provides multiple perspectives of the week’s news and editorial commentary, along with science, business, health, media and the arts. With a wide focus, The Week condenses stories down an easily digestible format, as well as featuring original commentary from writers including David Frum, Robert Shrum, Will Wilkinson, Daniel Larison, and Brad DeLong.

Learning With Content Curation Examples

Thoughtful curation is an indispensable tool in a content marketer’s playbook. It allows you to economically increase your content production capacity, while leveraging your industry expertise to showcase other industry experts’ wisdom. This process boosts your credibility as an unbiased and credible thought leader, and offers your audience a variety of stimulating perspectives.

For a hands on guide to curation, download the Curate Content Like a Boss eBook. It’s packed with practical advice for how to get started with content curation, as well as best practices for pros.

What’s your favorite curated site? Post a comment below, we’d love to hear. 

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http://www.curata.com/blog/best-curated-websites-some-of-our-picks/feed/ 18 http://www.curata.com/blog/content-marketing-funnel/ http://www.curata.com/blog/content-marketing-funnel/#respond Thu, 31 Aug 2017 15:00:46 +0000

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Any content marketing strategy will be seriously hindered if the rest of your marketing team doesn’t see its value. But only eight percent of marketers consider themselves “very successful” or “extremely successful” at tracking content marketing ROI, according to the LinkedIn Marketing Technology Community.

You can ensure your content marketing is helping your company succeed by mapping your content strategy to a content marketing methodology like the content marketing funnel.

Using a methodology like a funnel as the foundation for your content strategy can clarify your direction and simplify your team’s goals. Content marketing methodologies include the buyer journey, content marketing funnel, content marketing framework, and content marketing pyramid.

While there are other common methodologies in the content marketing space, the content marketing funnel is one of the most popular. This post provides more information on what the content marketing funnel is, how to create content that maps back to its stages, and how to optimize your content for it to help you achieve your goals.

What Is the Content Marketing Funnel?

According to Single Grain, the content marketing funnel is a system that takes as many leads as possible through a step-by-step content flow. It then converts them into actual customers who pay for your products or services. The four stages of the content marketing funnel are:

• Awareness
• Evaluation
• Purchase
• Delight

While most people don’t move through these phases in a linear path, having a content marketing funnel model can help your content marketing strategy. A content marketing strategy helps answer the following questions:

• What type of content should I create?
• How do I measure success for this piece of content?
• Should I repurpose this content?
• Are their holes in my content strategy?

This post walks you through all stages of the content marketing funnel and teaches you how to map your content to drive traffic, leads, and ultimately—revenue.

Awareness Stage Content

The first stage of the content marketing funnel is awareness. In this phase you want to attract and educate your audience on your topic.

To determine if the content created for this phase is succeeding, answer the following questions:

• Is it generating a high number of shares and views?
• Are the people sharing and viewing the content part of your target audience?
• Are they interested in the content and converting on it?

Marketing resources across the web suggest that creating for this stage of the content marketing funnel is best in the following formats: ads, social media posts, infographics, and videos.

While these content types work well for awareness stage content, not all audiences are the same. Look at your metrics to analyze which content performs the best at this stage. Metrics you can use to determine if your content for the awareness stage is performing are total shares, views, time on page, scroll depth, and bounce rate.

A Bird in Hand…

Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media studios explains the importance of creating value at this stage:

The most valuable audience, at least for B2B marketers, is your current prospects. So your most valuable content is something you make specifically for these people and send to them directly. 

Create a piece of content that answers top questions for your current prospects and you’ll get value from it even if no one else ever reads it. Plus, you can share it with the next prospect who asks that question.

You may have thought that visual content might be best for this category. Curata CMP analytics told us a slightly different story. Our long-form blog content performed the best for shares, views, and time on page.

From there, we determined which posts to heavily promote and optimize, which new keywords needed targeting, and how to develop content for this stage of the funnel moving forward.

You can use the following platforms to determine if your content marketing works at the awareness stage:

Evaluation Stage Content

The evaluation stage is when potential buyers determine the legitimacy of your company, develop trust, and decide if they need your product. Andrew Raso of Online Marketing Gurus describes the evaluation stage as when:

People are doing heavy research on whether or not your product or service is a good fit for them

A famous example of evaluation stage content is Nestle’s Toll House chocolate chip recipes. Nestle Toll House released recipes to the public, including their own chocolate chips as a primary ingredient. This validated Nestle Toll House as the go-to-source for all things chocolate chip-related, and also pointed consumers to their product.

Determine the success of your evaluation-stage content by answering the following questions:

• Are my contacts converting on this content?
• Is this content generating leads?
• Is this content influencing leads?

Generally, this means creating white papers, case studies, webinars, or blog posts. Curata’s content team looks at leads generated and leads influenced to determine which content performs the best.

Need More Leads

However, there’s a common mistake to be wary of when looking at metrics like these, as Anna Hrach of Convince and Convert explains:

One of the biggest mistakes marketers make when measuring content is automatically assuming that correlation implies causation. We see two trend lines headed in the same direction, so we automatically assume they have a direct relationship. That unfortunately tends to lead to misguided conclusions and forced connections that aren’t always there to begin with.

Not surprisingly, white papers, templates, and guides are great for racking up leads influenced and leads generated.

To learn more about lead generation, Curata tested content type, topic, and distribution method to get a clearer idea of what was working and how to promote our content.

Other platforms you can use to determine if your content marketing work at the evaluation stage:

Purchase Stage Content

The next stage of the content marketing funnel involves convincing your audience that a purchase is the smartest step. The goal is to create content that results in closing business. Questions you should be answering about your content in this stage include:

• Is this content influencing revenue?
• What sort of pipeline is this content generating?
• Is this content influencing pipeline?

Typically, the best formats for this stage are reviews, questionnaires, self-assessments, product sheets, and calculators.

At Curata we use our Curata CMP software analytics to determine the efficacy of content at this stage of the content marketing funnel. (Only 30 percent of leading marketers feel they are effective at measuring content marketing’s impact on the bottom of the funnel.) We’ve also taken steps such as building out our G2 Crowd page and updating our product sheets as a result.

Another example of popular purchase-stage content is Progressive’s side-by-side insurance comparison tool. Users are able to look at quotes and compare Progressive against competitors.

If you’re looking to drive results in the purchase stage of the funnel, use these tools:

• Curata CMP
• Kapost
• Contently
• Bizible

Delight Stage Content

The last, frequently overlooked stage in the content marketing funnel is delight. This is especially important for B2B companies with a subscription-based model. This stage of the funnel has several goals.

Content Marketing Institute founder Joe Pulizzi explains why this stage is important:

Marketers don’t realize that the most important part of this process is not the content.  The asset we are trying to build is the audience… so everything should revolve around building a loyal audience that will ultimately behave in a way that will help your business.

Curata recommends talking to your customer success team to help determine exactly what your KPIs are for this stage of content. Consider goals for your delight stage content such as increased product usage, renewal rates, online interactions, referrals, case studies, and user generated content.

There are a variety of content types that work well for this stage. These include product guides and educational materials, member-exclusive content, forums and chat rooms, special offers, and giveaways.

The Curata marketing team often partners with our customer success team when creating this type of content and tags it accordingly in Curata CMP. One example of a successful content piece is our CCS use-case guide.

Other examples of content that delights can include anything from a personalized email to offering “priceless surprises” to your customers, like MasterCard did.

Tools to help ensure your content will succeed at the delight stage of the funnel include:

Go Beyond the Marketing Funnel

Actionable Marketing Guide Chief Content Officer Heidi Cohen advises not just creating content for the funnel. Maximize its usage by making it available at all relevant touch points.

When creating content for the purchase process, think beyond the funnel. To get the maximize value for your content investment make your content available at every touchpoint where it’s relevant. This includes post purchase, something many marketers forget.

Aligning your content strategy and editorial calendar with the content marketing funnel helps ensure your content is used to its maximum potential. You will gain a clearer idea of your strategy, increase your content’s efficacy, improve ROI, and align your content with the overall team’s marketing strategy.

For more on improving your content marketing strategy, read Curata’s Content Marketing Pyramid eBook, a framework for developing and executing your content marketing strategy.

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http://www.curata.com/blog/content-marketing-funnel/feed/ 0 http://www.curata.com/blog/content-intelligence-infographic/ http://www.curata.com/blog/content-intelligence-infographic/#comments Mon, 28 Aug 2017 15:00:33 +0000

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Content intelligence is arguably the hottest buzzword in content marketing technology right now. That said, much of the excitement is based on its potential rather than its current capabilities. Because of this, few marketers know what content intelligence is or how it might be directly relevant to them. Let Curata help you with this brief overview and at-a-glance infographic.

Content intelligence is a nascent form of revolutionary content marketing technology. It allows you to understand everything there is to know about a piece of content—including its context, so you can use that knowledge to guide decision making for that piece of content. It can even automate and execute some of those decisions.

Content intelligence integrates several existing technologies and applies them to content marketing. These include machine learning, natural language processing, big data, and artificial intelligence (AI). Let’s expand on what a couple of these terms mean:

• Big data involves computationally analyzing extremely large data sets to reveal patterns, trends, and associations; especially those relating to human behavior and interactions. People use big data for everything from predicting stock performance to seasonal buying behavior. And it helps the NSA know whether your post about “blowing up the joint” refers to your bomb-making or DJing skills.
• AI has a more nebulous definition, because what is considered AI is constantly changing. One way of thinking of AI is as intelligence exhibited by any device that perceives its environment and takes actions to maximize its chances of achieving a goal.

Content intelligence may draw on artificial intelligence and big data, but it is neither of those two things. It’s the systems and software that transforms data into actionable insights for content strategy and tactics. Content intelligence means having the full context of an individual piece of content. Not only that, but the whole corpus of content. It allows you to make better decisions about anything pertaining to the content in question.

Check out the infographic below. It offers a quick overview on what content intelligence is, what it can do for you, and where it currently exists in the content marketing space.

Content Intelligence is the Future of Content Marketing

Want to know more about content intelligence, such as which vendors exist, and what you can do to prepare your organization for adopting this technology? Immerse yourself in Curata’s Content Intelligence: The Next Frontier of Content Marketing Technology.

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http://www.curata.com/blog/content-intelligence-infographic/feed/ 1 http://www.curata.com/blog/guide-content-marketing-world-2017/ http://www.curata.com/blog/guide-content-marketing-world-2017/#comments Thu, 24 Aug 2017 15:00:11 +0000

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Has summer nearly finished already? It seems like just yesterday we were excited about longer days, summer Fridays, and weekend getaways. But there is a silver lining—Content Marketing World 2017 is just around the corner! So enjoy your Labor Day Weekend BBQ, and get ready to head to Cleveland for the end-all be-all conference for content marketers.

Curata has sponsored Content Marketing World for years. We wanted to share some of our accumulated expertise with you, so we assembled this guide to help you navigate your week in Cleveland.

If you haven’t registered yet, there‘s still time. Visit the Content Marketing World official website to get started. You can get $100 off with the code SPKR100. If you are registered, make sure to sign up for a time to visit Curata’s Demo Zone.

Some Good Advice to Get Started With

Talk to People, and Continue the Conversation When You Get Home

It seems obvious, but don’t neglect to add like-minded content marketing minds to your network. Introduce yourself, share your marketing successes and aggravations, and bond over a few cocktails at the events. You’ll learn plenty at the sessions, but having a group of smart marketers to reach out to throughout the year when you need ideas, inspiration, or even your next career move is the most valuable thing you can take away from Content Marketing World. Set up a monthly chat with your new squad when you get back to the office.

Remember, Sponsors Are There to Help You

No one wants to be sold to; it’s human nature. But every single booth in the expo hall is full of people trying to make you a better marketer. Review the list of sponsors before the show and make sure to take some time to visit vendors during the week. Not only will you walk away with some great swag, you could come home with a solution or service that takes your content to the next level—and make you look really smart too.

Want to get even more from the sponsors? Join the scavenger hunt on the show floor. Visit these six vendors, answer a question, and you could win a $1,500 Amex gift card, a MacBook Pro, an iPad, and other great prizes!

Don’t Be Hard on Yourself

You’re going to hear from a lot of really smart people doing really sophisticated content marketing. But they all have a secret… they started out just where you are. Soak up their successes (and failures!), and get fired up to implement their ideas at your organization.

Oh, and Don’t Forget to Wear Orange

What? You don’t have a closet full of orange business clothes? How about this?

Did Someone Say Free Drinks?

Opening Night Reception at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame
Tuesday, September 5th | 7:30-10:00pm
Get ready to party like a rock star at this Cleveland landmark! Reunite with old friends and make some new ones!

Cocktails and Networking in the G2 Crowd Expo Hall
Wednesday, September 6th | 5:45-7:00pm
Grab a beverage and talk to some sponsors! This is a great time to visit Curata’s Demo Zone or chat with any other vendors on your list.

Content Marketing World 80’s Dance Party at the House of Blues
Tuesday, September 6th | 9:00-10:30pm
Get ready to get down: the band Mega 80’s are returning to Content Marketing World! Forget your shoulder pads at home? Stop by the Curata booth for an LED snap bracelet (or find us on the dance floor).

Content Marketing World Afterparty at the Hilton
Wednesday, September 6th | 10:30pm-12:30am
If you’re having too much of a blast to call it quits, join us at the Hilton Cleveland Downtown straight after the House of Blues. Hosted by ScribbleLive on the 5th floor in the Superior Ballroom, it’s sure to be a fun-filled party. A DJ will be rockin’ the tunes, so join us for one more beverage before you throw in the towel!

An Insider’s Guide to Cleveland

Looking for fun, food, and fitness outside of Content Marketing World 2017? We asked one of our favorite locals, Frannie Danzinger of Integrate, about the best spots to hit in Cleveland.

Let’s start with some of her superlative choices.

Best Restaurant In Cleveland: Town Hall
Casual, always packed, caters to every diet and just a 7 minute Uber from the convention center. (Monday-Friday: 11am-2:30am. Saturday and Sunday: 9am-2:30am)

Best Brunch In Cleveland: Grumpy’s Cafe
Boasting a staff that “cuts each and every potato and cracks every single egg,” this is a favorite Cleveland brunch spot for “feel good food.” (Monday-Thursday: 7am-3pm, Friday: 7am-10pm, Saturday: 8am-10pm, Sunday: 8am-3pm)

Special Mention From the Curata Staff: Mabel’s BBQ
My co-workers cannot stop raving about Mabel’s—I think they’ve tried (and loved) every item on the menu. It’s located on East 4th Street (more about East 4th below). (Sunday-Thursday: 11:30am-10pm, Friday-Saturday: 11:30am-12am)

Hot Neighborhoods

East 4th Street

It’s a cobblestone street, with no cars, tons of bars and restaurants, and just a 13 minute walk (or seven minute Uber) from the convention center. Count us in! Here are few spots not to miss:

The Corner Alley
Bourbon, beer, and bowling! Grab a few buddies and place some friendly bets. (Monday-Thursday: 11:30am-12am, Friday-Saturday: 11:30am-2:00am, Sunday: 11:30am-12:00am)

Lola
Enjoy Chef Michael Symon’s inventive and creative American menu. (Monday-Thursday 5pm-10pm, Friday and Saturday: 5pm-11pm)

Chinato
In the mood for a little Italian? (Monday-Wednesday: 11am-10pm, Thursday-Friday: 11am-12am, Saturday: 4pm-12am)

The Chocolate Bar
After a long conference, don’t you deserve dessert and a martini? (Monday-Thursday: 11am-12am, Friday-Saturday: 11am-2am, Sunday: 3pm-10pm)

East Bank of the Flats

Located at the union of the Cuyahoga River and Lake Erie, this new waterfront development has some great restaurants, bars, and patios. It’s about a 15-20 minute walk from the convention center, or a five minute Uber ride.

Bold
Enjoy a 100 percent sustainably sourced, delicious meal on the patio. (Monday-Thursday: 11am-10:30pm, Friday-Saturday: 11am-11pm, Sunday: 11am-10pm)

Coastal Taco
Boasting the “Best View in the CLE,” expect a lively experience! (Come for the view and the drinks, not the food.) Keep an eye on their Happenings calendar for free live music and other events. (Sunday-Wednesday: 11:30am-11pm, Thursday: 11:30am-12am, Friday-Saturday: 11:30am-2:30am)

Punch Bowl Social
Karaoke, bowling, pinball, pool—there’s something for everyone here, plus a patio. (Monday-Thursday: 11am-12am, Friday: 11am-1am, Saturday: 9am-2am, Sunday: 9am-12am)

Best Workouts

Once you’ve sampled all the finest food and drink Cleveland has to offer, it’s time to work it off. Need more inspiration than the hotel gym? We’ve got you covered.

Title Boxing Club Ohio City
Just a five minute Uber from the convention center, Title Boxing Club offers 30, 45, and 60 minute boxing classes for every fitness level. (And your first class is free!)

Harness Cycle
Located just a few doors down, Harness Cycle offers morning and evening spin classes for $18 per 45 minute class.

The Studio Cleveland
Donation-based yoga and meditation classes, just a 15 minute walk from the convention center. The suggested donation is $9-$20 per class.

How to Make Friends and Influence Influencers

So, you want to rub elbows with the influencers at Content Marketing World 2017? With an estimated 4,000 attendees, you’ll need to stand out. Should you bump into any of these industry leaders, here’s a few suggestions for what to talk about.

Joe Pulizzi, Content Marketing Institute founder

What to talk about: Joe has a new book coming out! He teamed up with CMI’s Chief Strategy Officer Robert Rose to pen Killing Marketing, calling for the dismantling of the marketing structure as we know it. Pre-order now, and read it when it comes out on September 19th.

Fun Fact? “Most people don’t know that I grew up watching my father cook at the restaurant my parents owned, and then worked with my grandfather and uncle at their funeral home before college. It’s probably one of the main reasons why I ended up being an entrepreneur… watching my family run companies.”

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For content marketers wanting to economically increase content production, content curation is the optimal solution. It benefits both publishers and audiences—who appreciate expertly selected, third party, independent content. In fact, according to Curata’s study, best-in-class marketers use a content marketing mix of 65 percent created content and 25 percent curated content.

But many people interested in content curation—and some who are already curating—may still have lingering questions about best practices.

What should a curated post look like? How much of the original article should I include? How do I align this content with my own content?

To help answer some of these questions and outline the anatomy of curated piece of content, we created “The Art of a Curated Post.” Just like a painting, a good curated post is not complete without all the necessary elements. Follow along as this curator—let’s call her Claire—paints the perfect post.

Five Elements of Content Curation

1. New Title

It’s vital to always craft a new headline to avoid competing with the original article in search engine results. And a good headline can be the difference between someone clicking on your article or ignoring it. Some handy sites to use for creating titles include:

• Upworthy.com – Although many of these titles can be outrageous, simply browsing this site will help in brainstorming catchier titles.

• UpworthyGenerator.com – This website provides a new “Upworthy Style” title every time you click “Generate.” Again, while these titles are outrageous—and in this case, fake—it’s a good jumping off point to start pushing the boundaries with headlines.

• TitleCapitilization.com – This tool comes in handy any time you are wondering which words are capitalized in a title. Simply paste your title into the field on the home page and it automatically corrects capitalization errors.

• UberSuggest.org – This website helps find popular keywords surrounding various topics to help your article rank higher in search engine results.

• Thesaurus.com – Never underestimate the power of a synonym. Often, simply inserting one word in place of another can take your title to the next level.

Remember, even if a title worked well on the original post you’re curating (it got you to click, didn’t it?), it may not work well for your specific audience.

For example, at Curata we often curate posts about social media best practices. However, we try to put it in the context of content marketing, since this is what our audience wants to read about. A recent post showing this is titled “How to Optimize Content For Social Media Success.”

2. New Image

To avoid copyright issues and add originality to your post, use an entirely new image. Useful image sites include:

• Stock photo libraries such as Shutterstock, iStock, RGBStock
• The Creative Commons for free ‘Copyleft‘ images in a range of licenses
• Image Creation tools such as Canva
• Basic design tools such as PowerPoint, and more sophisticated tools such as Adobe Creative Suite and the free, open source GiMP

3. Body Text

Your own, original body text should take up the majority of the post. Include the following elements:

• Attribution of the original article and author (with a link to the article)

• Commentary and/or annotation. Frame the original article in a useful way to your readers by citing the content’s relevance to them, and provide your own analysis on the topic or issue at hand

• Links to created content. You’ve no doubt spent time creating unique and interesting blog posts, eBooks, and other resources. Now is the time to link back to these assets—when they relate to the topic—and give your audience additional value/further reading

4. Quote

Draw in a quote from the original article, or even several quotes. The exact format can vary depending on the length of the original article and its topic. Be sure to pick a quote or stat that will surprise, educate, and/or entertain your readers. This is your opportunity to bring in intelligent outside voices—one of the main advantages of content curation.

5. Call to Action

A call to action (CTA) is necessary for every blog post, but it’s especially important for curated content. Don’t leave readers hanging. Link to a piece of your content that helps expand their knowledge on the subject at hand.

Offer readers a piece of gated content such as an eBook or a webinar to help generate new leads and nurture existing leads. Keeping leads engaged reinforces how you are catering to their needs and bringing them value on a consistent basis.

Make sure your CTA is both eye-catching and appealing. Here are some great articles about creating CTAs that convert:

This is a useful template for composing a curated post, but note there is much more to the curation process not touched upon here. E.g., finding articles to curate and promoting content once it is produced.

Fortunately, there are many tools and technologies to help with each step of this process. We rounded up a handy selection of curation tools in this ultimate list to help you weigh your options.

Want to know more about curating content? Curata’s eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Content Curation will have you curating like a champ. Alternatively, reach out to us for a demo of Curata’s content curation software.

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Most of us don’t leverage social media enough, or in the right way for content marketing, leaving money on the table. It’s time to fix that. Ineffective strategies, such as using social merely as a way to “spray and pray” your content on to new channels for communication, are a waste of time and yield little or nothing. With your competitors creating more and more content, it is imperative to leverage social media marketing for ultimate competitive advantage. The potent duo of an optimized content marketing strategy and a well-planned and implemented tactical social media approach will maximize your content marketing ROI.

Using this knowledge in your content marketing strategy enables you to be successful in your implementation, and to identify the tremendous opportunities social media marketing can provide your brand and business as a whole.

The big question is: How can you best leverage social media as part of your content marketing platform? The answer revolves around one simple rule: Social media represents the convergence of information and communication. Social media users are therefore consuming more content and are hungry for your information. If you don’t provide it to them, they will consume your competitor’s content.

Based on my own experience with clients as well as for my personal brand, I have defined the following ten commandments. If you internalize and follow these you’ll get the best results from your social media marketing efforts.

You don’t have to be a religious person. But try to remember to internalize these ten commandments as best as possible. Once you do, all of this will come naturally to you over time.

One: I Will Only Post to Relevant Social Networks

There are many benefits to every social media platform. It is in social media where you can find your target audience, and this is where your connections begin. Having said that, I do not advise spreading your resources on each of the available social media channels, especially when some are more relevant to your business than others.

Only post appropriate content to appropriate social networks. This sounds easy enough. But too many companies simply try to amplify all of their content on all of their social media platforms. It’s a waste of time. Get into the mindset of only posting relevant content on relevant social networks.

I do A/B testing to find the right social channels to invest time in with my clients. I advise you to do the same.

Two: I Will Optimize My Content for Each Social Network

When posting content, always optimize it for that social network. Consider it an exercise in repurposing your content for social.

When optimizing your content for each social network, remember that each site is like its own country. It has its own community, its own way of doing things, and its own way of communicating. Follow the famous directive “When in Rome, do as the Romans do,” and your social media marketing efforts will be all the more successful.

Three: I Will Always Use an Image When I Post to Social Media

Content posted on social media should always include an image. People are easily distracted whenever they’re on social media, so visual stimuli are crucial to catch your audience’s attention. Social media platforms are cluttered. Your content will go down the drain absent a high-quality image on your post to catch their eye in the newsfeed.

Numerous studies have confirmed that visuals get the most engagement in social media. Make sure to use eye-popping images in all of your posts—even if your brand is not visual.

Four: I Will Always Tag the Author When Posting

Always tag authors and contributors to your content in your social media marketing postings. This practice gives your post authority, especially if the author or contributor are well-known entities in the industry. It also notifies the author about your post, increasing the chances that they will share the content with their own network.

This is especially important when you curate others’ content, as I mention in the sixth commandment below.

Five: I Will Repeatedly Post Content

You should repeatedly post content in social media to maximize exposure, especially content that gets a lot of engagement. Identify which of your content gets a lot of traction with your audience. This is a strong indicator that you have valuable content. Then follow through—repurpose it for your other social media channels, and even for new and upcoming campaigns.

With a ‘post once and you’re done’ attitude, you miss out on the 99 percent of social media users who probably never see a given social media posting on a given day. However, it should go without saying: only repeatedly post content that is evergreen and still relevant.

Six: I Will Become Better at Content Curation

If you curate and share content representing similar topics, you expand the community around your own topic. This also increases the chances that social media users engage with your content. It works especially well if you curate influencers’ content. If they then share your content it can spark the beginning of a relationship that you can leverage in the tenth commandment below.

Sending out 100 percent self-promotional content as social media marketing today simply doesn’t work. Even consumer brands aren’t creating content for some social channels like Instagram. Instead they’re leveraging user-generated content. Content is a commodity. Once you learn to leverage others’ content for your own social media program, it will positively impact your own content marketing in social.
If you want to better understand content curation, check out Curata’s awesome Definitive Guide to Content Curation.

Seven: I Will Leverage Paid Social for Strategic Content to Meet Objectives

Unfortunately, high quality content is not enough to turn your social media audience into customers. Like it or not, organic reach continues to diminish. Someday it will be all but declared dead. Marketers who want to be successful should now look at wholeheartedly investing in paid social.

One advantage of using paid social is the accompanying privilege of micro-targeting. This ensures you only pay for the most potentially lucrative audience seeing your content. Paid social ensures that your brand—and content—are seen by your target audience.

I don’t recommend boosting every social media post. But the most strategic posts, that have a direct ROI KPI attached to them—these are both the easiest to boost and worth the expense.

Eight: I Will Religiously Analyze and Optimize

Always look at your social analytics in addition to your content marketing metrics for hints of how to gain more traction for your social content. What to post more; what to post less, and where. This can save you a lot of resources and help increase clicks and reach.

Make sure you have the right social media tools in place to measure and provide insight into the suggested timing, frequency, and content for each social network.

Nine: I Will Create Content Based on Social Media Audience Needs

Use social media marketing as a way to create content. Always analyze which content is popular in your industry or subject category, and make sure you have content that speaks to that subject. Start by finding topics that are practically useful to your audience and to the industry as a whole. These topics are also typically most discussed in and around the industry on various social media channels.

Check how others approached such topics and the kind of content they produce. Using the information you obtained, create something unique that speaks to your audience’s specific needs.

Ten: I Will Create New Content FROM Social Media

Generate new content from your social media marketing by engaging with influencers, followers, and fans. Ask for their input on a subject you’re writing about. People in social media consume information that is relevant to them. So ask your audience about the topics for your next piece of strategic content. It’s a win-win!

Influencers are called influencers for a reason. They know what makes an audience tick. Identify the influencers in your industry, follow them, and start communicating with them. Influencers can provide you with secrets of the trade that can help you create your content.

Conclusion

The success of your content marketing will be in some way proportional to the effort you invest in social media marketing. It is true that every great social strategy starts with great content. But today, learning how to use social media is equally important. Especially if you are investing a lot of your time, money, and effort into creating content for marketing objectives.

The social media landscape is full of opportunities as long as you understand how to harness them. Use these Ten Commandments to help you make the most of your content’s potential in social media marketing. And given how integral curation is to your social media efforts, make sure to download the Curata eBook, Curate Content Like a Boss: The Hands on Guide to help smash your social goals out of the park.

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There’s an epidemic failure within marketing to understand what defines quality content. Without a sound definition for quality content, it’s impossible to develop an effective content marketing strategy. Unfortunately, there are many misconceptions on what defines quality content. For example:

• A piece of content’s quality is determined by the creator, or
• Quality content is content with a great headline, several images, easy-to-read, actionable, and other other specific attributes.

Once upon a time, we tried to define what makes content great at WordStream, my former company. We fell into the same trap as above, trying to define quality content based on attributes. We said great content is:

• Findable
• Shareable
• Usable
• Readable
• Memorable
• Quotable
• Actionable
• Reportable

All of these are important. But even if your content has all eight of those attributes, it still is most likely to go nowhere.

The definition of quality content should be based on outcomes, not biased views of your own work. Here’s one way to think about quality content that might put things in perspective.

What is “Quality Content”?

In the based-on-a-true-story movie Moneyball, baseball team manager Billy Beane, played by Brad Pitt, finds himself in a frustrating meeting where his scouts are talking about potential free agents to add to the team lineup. The scouts evaluate players based on their athleticism, size, and speed. They also speak glowingly about one player because he’s clean cut, has a good face, and a good jaw. Beane asks his scouts an important question: “Can he hit?“

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Many marketers look at content the same way the scouts were looking at the players. We’ve been trying to define content quality as a series of technical and aesthetic attributes: how our content is structured and formatted. How many times have you heard that long form is better than short form or vice versa?

Individuals, businesses, and brands are producing a ridiculously enormous amount of content every minute. But few are actually successful. If your content doesn’t succeed, does it matter if it included lots of pretty images, had perfect spelling and grammar, or used x number of words?

No.

Great baseball players come in all shapes and sizes. The same is true of quality content.
Quality content is successful content. Quality content achieves a goal. I.e., it drives traffic, Google search rankings, engagement, and/or conversions.

Performance is what matters for any content marketing strategy. Here’s how to create home run content for your marketing team.

Increase Your Chances of Picking the Right Topic

Anyone with a creative bone in their body will argue that content marketing strategy isn’t just about numbers. Creativity is art, after all.

The argument goes something along the lines of: “If content creation were just a science, then anybody could simply create quality content. Experience matters! Intuition matters! There are just certain intangibles that only creative content people can understand.”

Time to drop a truth bomb: No content marketer has a crystal ball. Nobody can look at a piece of content and predict its future any more accurately than I can.

You can’t say with 100 percent certainty, even if it is based on past experience, that a piece of content will succeed in the future. I’m always surprised when an article I worked really hard on goes nowhere and an article I didn’t spend much time on becomes a huge success.

You Can’t Find Unicorns Without Producing Lots of Donkeys

You can’t predict success. Another common misconception is that you can somehow convert increased effort or time on one piece of content into increased units of quality.

You have to produce and audition lots of ideas to find your next quality idea. Then you have to fully explore that topic once it has revealed itself. Here’s how to do that. Consider these factors when determining what content topics to invest your time in:

• Past unicorn content: What topics have performed well in the past?
• Topics your audience cares about: What’s your audience talking about on social?
• Topics you want to rank for: What keywords are you currently targeting?

Once you decide on a topic, create the content. Measure the results to determine if your content was a quality piece and react accordingly. Take the following steps to get closer to creating more unicorn content.

1. Produce and Audition Lots of Content: Content is a lot about throwing things at a wall and seeing what sticks. Consider past performance of similar topics in conjunction with the goals you have for this piece of content.
2. Measure User Engagement Rates: After publishing, measure engagement rates for your content. Use time and rate benchmarks to determine if it’s working.
3. Kill the Donkeys: If a piece of content isn’t performing, abandon ship. No use in continuing to promote something no one cares about.
4. Find the Unicorns and Sound the Unicorn Alert! If content is performing well, start promoting and maximizing your return—more on that later.

How do You Know if It’s Quality Content?

Everyone wants to create successful content. But what actually makes content successful?

User engagement rates.

Think about the systems that drive exposure and clicks to your content. Social media news feeds, search and social ads, and organic search listings. These systems all increasingly employ new machine learning based algorithms that reward higher engagement rates (such as click through rates and dwell time) with far greater exposure.

Perform an audit of your existing content based on engagement rates such as dwell time, conversion rates, click through rates, or traffic. (Read Curata’s comprehensive content audit guide for how to do this.) Look for the outliers—the content that does not just a little bit better, but three to five times better. Those are your unicorn content campaigns with unusually high user engagement. They are the types of content most likely to earn the approval of our algorithmic overlords.

Your Unicorn content (content with unusually high user engagement rates) tends to:

1. Rank well in Google Search
2. Convert significantly better than donkey content
3. Drives tons of organic social media engagement
4. Does fantastically well in paid search
5. Does fantastically well in paid social media ads

Again, the relationship here isn’t coincidental. It’s because the Facebook Newsfeed algorithm, Relevancy Score in Facebook Ads, Quality Score in Google AdWords, and RankBrain for Organic Search, all use machine learning algorithms. They dramatically reward content boasting high user engagement with tremendous visibility and clicks within their platform.

You Found Quality Content: Now What?

Promoting a donkey won’t turn it into a unicorn. You’ll only waste time and money. Instead, focus all your efforts on promoting your powerful and valuable unicorns. When you find your unicorns, promote them on every channel to amplify their impact by 100 times or even 1,000 times and drive even more traffic, engagement, and leads.

Once you’ve found content that fits into all these categories, it’s time to start implementing a promotion strategy. The following tactics will help you leverage maximum value from your unicorn content:

• Repurpose it into other types of content: webinar, infographic, etc.
• Schedule it for a refresh
• Pitch similar content with backlinks to other websites
• Put some paid social behind it
• Ask for influencer quotes to add in
• Make it into an eBook

Content Marketing is About Output, not Input!

Content marketing strategy is an unfair game. If you want to win you need to stop relying on your gut. Your gut is really just your opinion and, by nature, biased. To really succeed, you need to look at unbiased statistics.

Stop looking at content attributes. Start looking at data to find your truly high-quality content. Start optimizing for engagement and you’ll find huge content wins.

When you find that super rare unicorn content, capitalize on it! Leverage the heck out of it on every channel to maximize your marketing ROI. And to create your own documented content marketing strategy, download Curata’s Content Marketing Pyramid: A Framework to Develop & Execute Your Content Marketing Strategy eBook.

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