Marketing + IT = Love/Hate or Just Love?
By Ofir Nachmani, CEO, IOD Today, more than ever, we see a constant tension between tech and marketing departments–a love/hate relationship, so to speak. Tech people always think they know…
How Agile Is Your Content-Creation Machine?
By Tina Ornstein, IOD Senior Editor I have had a long career in content creation—the last several years of which have been primarily as part of the IOD team. I…
5 Key Considerations for Building an Authentic Content Plan
Back in 2017, John Collins, Director of Content at Intercom hit the nail on the head in terms of the need for dropping the “marketing” from content marketing and focusing instead on creating valuable content.
While I agree with this, I want to suggest there’s an additional important component: creating a proper long-term plan to deliver such content. Coming up with a single brilliant white paper or three engaging blog posts isn’t going to deliver the desired results (consistent and reliable growth along all your online marketing KPIs.) However, committing to a strict plan and a long-term editorial calendar with quarterly goals and an annual investment will.
Recently, PwC’s 2018 Global Consumer Insights Survey highlighted the need for brands to prioritize trust and authenticity.
“Brands have to think about what’s the way for them to engage so that they come off as being authentic and caring.” Rick Kauffield, Principal, PwC US
Of course, that speaks to the need for meaningful, high-quality content, as Collins assessed, but without consistency, how will your audience (aka your customers) be able to ongoingly rely on your brand? With the right plan in place and an internal commitment to maintaining it, your organization can project these values and connect to users who will become long-term customers.
But how do you go about creating a great long-term content plan? Here are some tips to consider. All are critical even though they are in numerical order.
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How to Cure the 5 Major Pain Points of Tech Content Creation
Every marketing professional in the tech industry, every tech evangelist, even every developer with a reddit addiction knows that in this business content is fundamental. Marketing begins and ends with…
The Subject Matter Expert (SME) Content Paradox and Pulling Teeth
When it comes to creating quality content assets for high-tech companies at scale, we have noticed the following paradox in the marketplace:
- Writers know how to write but they don’t have hands-on, intimate knowledge of the technology.
- The SME live and breathe the technology, but they don’t know how to effectively and engagingly write about it.
Of course there are exceptional individuals who are both knowledgeable and good writers but, let’s face it, they are few and far between—and, if you find one, worth his weight in gold.
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How to Write a Winning ICO White Paper
By Tina Ornstein, IOD Senior Editor Over the last five years or so, I have written dozens of business plans for early-stage companies and have personally raised money in the…
Why We Insist Upon a Customized Style Guide (The Three Ps)
By Liz Heflin, IOD Editor In the 1937 film Shall We Dance, there’s a famous scene with Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers sitting on a park bench quibbling over the…
How I Became a Tech Evangelist
Two questions I get asked quite often are: How did you get to be where you are with your blogging? You’re not a native English speaker, nor a trained writer....…
The Secret Sauce of Tech-related Blog Content
By Tina Ornstein, IOD Editor
Blogging on technical topics for a knowledgeable audience is a little bit like tightrope walking — it requires incredible balancing skills and one false step sends you plummeting into oblivion. In other words, if you don’t find the right balance between technical expertise and audience engagement, then your blog will be ignored (which is the equivalent of oblivion in the content world.)
At IOD, we have developed and perfected our own secret sauce for helping our customers reach their target audiences. Our methodology is based on one simple mantra: “writers are not experts and experts are not writers.” Thus a successful technical blog, (i.e., a blog that gets traction with its target audience) requires the collaboration of an expert and a content person — either a writer or a proactive editor.
Although chefs tend to guard their secret sauces carefully, we at IOD believe in transparency and are happy to share with you the key ingredients of ours.
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Why Marketers are Planning More Content for 2018 Than Ever Before
By Tina Ornstein, IOD Editor
You have to hand it to him—Bill Gates once again positioned himself as a visionary when he postulated in 1996, when the internet was still in its infancy, that content would be king. What kind of content? Here’s what he wrote:
If people are to be expected to put up with turning on a computer to read a screen, they must be rewarded with deep and extremely up-to-date information that they can explore at will. They need to have audio, and possibly video. They need an opportunity for personal involvement that goes far beyond that offered through the letters-to-the-editor pages of print magazines.
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