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How to build a blogging routine that doesn’t overwhelm your business
“Business blogging” isn’t dead yet. Even though a lot of businesses no longer want to admit they’re still “blogging,” consistently posting new, substantive articles to your brand’s owned media channels is still one of the best ways to ensure you stay relevant in organic search results and on social media. The only big thing that…
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The world’s best content marketing campaign gave us Impressionist painting
Imagine you’re struggling to figure out how to move your family business forward in a crowded market. Your competitors are huge, entrenched in your industry, and content to squeeze your little company out of business. It’s a challenge we often hear about from new clients, especially at companies that want to explore content marketing as…
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Capturing attention and building media relationships in “The New PR” environment
A client’s investor called me to check in on the status of a communications campaign. Having made it through both “Web 1.0” and “Web 2.0,” he shared a perspective I hear often from media and technology leaders these days. Despite a seeming explosion of places where companies can get coverage—blogs and podcasts, along with newspapers…
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Cadence counts. Cadence converts.
Stop pretending your audience has burned out on your message. That’s the message I delivered at a recent seminar on content marketing programs. And it’s a big part of the strategy I use with clients here at 2820 Press. During the first ten years of my career in radio, I learned some important lessons about…
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Match your website to your in-person customer experience.
64 percent of American consumers in an Oracle survey said they’d stop doing business with a company after a bad customer experience. Of those respondents, nearly all of them said they’d go ahead and purchase the same product or service from a competitor. That’s the pressure every business owner faces. Get it right, or never…
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Focus on your business instead of on your business blog.
At two of my early journalism gigs, I encountered assignment desk editors who would crumble press releases and three-point them into the nearest trash bin if they didn’t follow accepted submission protocol. Leave out the “–30–” or the triple-hash at the end of the page? Binned. Miss the “FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE” at the head? Chucked.…
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Cheap web content could cost you your search engine ranking.
A prospect recently asked me why she should spend so much money for original articles on her site, when she can just copy whatever she needs from the rest of the web. It’s easy to write off a business owner who thinks that way as being cheap or as someone who doesn’t understand how the…
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Authorship and brand voice.
Ryan Smith has ignited a debate in newsrooms and marketing agencies across America, in the wake of exposing his (now former) employer, Journatic. Stressed-out newspapers have hired Journatic (and companies like it) to “mechanical turk” many of the articles that once formed the backbone of print dailies: real estate transaction summaries, obituaries, even local sports…
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On paying by the word for web copy.
For all the posturing we make about being casual and transparent online, web copywriters don’t always make their pricing clear. We’ve had good reasons to keep our rates a trade secret. Post how much you charge per word, and you’re suddenly playing a commodity game. That’s bad for both writers and their clients. Focus too…