Content marketing is an estimated $44bn industry – so it’s probably worth getting to grips with some of the key terms.

We want to create a single page resource that content marketers can turn to in order to understand specific terms. We’ve completed and published an initial A-Z on the site, but this is in no way a comprehensive glossary – although with the help of others it could be.

We are looking for contributions from marketers and online companies looking to share with us their content marketing A-Z recommendations. It could be a cool content marketing tool, plugin or company that all content marketers should be using, or it just could be some common terms and references that we’ve missed off the list. Whatever it is – we want to know.

Industry speak can be a big hurdle, but rather than responding to alien terms with a baffled ‘Say whaaaat?’ a bemused ‘Come again?’ or a panicky ‘Omgihavenoideawhatthatmeans’ feast your eyes on our simple content marketing A-Z to get on track for content marketing success!

Sharing is caring, so leave your additions in the comments box below and help us to create the ultimate content marketing glossary!

Add your Content Marketing Recommendation below

Algorithm

This daunting word sounds like something nasty that might require a protractor. While the inner workings are admittedly fairly complex, all YOU need to know is this.

For the typical query, there are millions of web pages with potentially useful information all ready and waiting to receive your click. Algorithms are computer processes and formulae that take your search terms and whittle these web pages down, turning your query into an answer. They rely on more than 200 unique signals or ‘clues’ that allow them to guess what you might be seeking, including freshness of content, region and page ranking.

Still a bit puzzled? Not to worry, there’s a nice infographic explaining it right here.

Bloggers 

Building relationships with bloggers often plays a major role in a content marketing campaign. Unearthing gems that are well-written, have a good following and are suitable to promote your brand’s message can send your readership soaring and considerably broaden your customer base.

From the quantity of comments to the number of Twitter followers, finding appropriate blogs is like going back to high school: popularity matters. You don’t want your bloggers shrinking out of the limelight – you need someone with a strong voice that people respect and listen to.

CMS

You might hazard a wild guess that this stands for ‘Content Marketing…Stuff’ or something similar and while this is understandable, it’s not quite right – but don’t panic!

CMS actually stands for content management systems. These are less scary than you think: while they may have a tech geek name, all it means is a software system which allows you to publish, edit and modify website content from a central interface. These systems are actually designed with non-technical people in mind and are incredibly easy to navigate, so whether you opt for WordPress or an in-house tool, odds are you’ll be Content with your Management System!

Copyright

Thanks to @iCopyright for their suggestion that unique digital content needs to be protected. Publishers and writers wanting to safeguard their content should keep an eye out for free plugins that help with copyright protection. See ‘W’ for more on plugins!

Domain strength

Essentially the domain strength of a site is one of the early ‘cascade’ algorithm markers that search engines use to give a site. The search engines will rank your site against signals such as authority, transparency and trust in your domain. If you get this fundamental building block wrong then it can hinder all of your content marketing initiatives. Domain strength is also really important for any blogger outreach activity you are undertaking; you want the best domains to link to your site. This is an important ranking criteria anyone looking to post on well known, well loved blogs.

E-mail

It may not be as cutting-edge as the likes of Twitter and Pinterest, but email sure is reliable and holds considerable importance in the world of content marketing as it stands today. In fact, email marketing remains the channel with the best ROI (return on investment) and is the preferred interaction channel for business communication.

Email can help with all aspects of content marketing. Sign up for Google alerts to notify you when content in your field of interest pops up, helping you to stay in the know and providing a wealth of content ideas; use to contact potential bloggers and clients; and rest assured that when you share a post directly with someone on Google+ (see ‘G’) they will receive a Gmail notification, which is a great way to stand out and boost readership.

Read more about the importance of email in content marketing here.

Facebook

Social media platforms are a sure-fire way to boost your online presence and interact with your readers and potential customer base. With over a billion monthly active users, Facebook is a great place to share your content and rake in likes and shares. If it piques the interest of enough people, the content often distributes itself.

Remember though, that Facebook is a communication platform, so embrace this to ensure you are maximising its potential. Video content is a great way to mix things up. Just be sure to reply when people comment on your posts – not only is it good manners, a busy looking profile will attract more Facebookers than a page which neglects its readers.

Google+

From circles to communities and from chat to the all-important +1 button, there are so many ways to communicate on Google+, which is what makes this platform so valuable in terms of content amplification.

A far cry from Twitter, where comments are limited to a sparing 140 characters, detailed and in-depth comments are encouraged on Google+. Comprehensive comments are a great way to boost engagement and readership and show that you are capable of listening and taking other people’s comments on board as well as broadcasting your own opinions. Social is more and more about listening, so joining platforms that actively promote this outlook isn’t a bad idea.

Guest Posting

Thanks to @neomammalian for this suggestion. Guest posting is an important element of any content strategy and is an invaluable way to amplify your content and get it out to the right audience! Guest blogging  involves posting an article on a blog that is not your own and can enhance your online presence, boost your brand’s credibility and take your networking to new levels.

Headlines

It is impossible to put too much emphasis on the importance of a stand-out headline. With so much content at the tips of their fingers, you have quite literally got just seconds to seize someone’s attention and prompt the transformation from browser to reader.

No matter how juicy the content, an article with a boring headline is the biggest possible turn-off. Rather than swathing your content in reader repellent, magnetise your words by putting in the time and effort to come up with a show-stopping headline that is guaranteed to turn heads.

Add your Content Marketing Recommendation below

Infographics

Infographics may sound complex, but they are actually the complete opposite and often easier to read than text. Infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge – simples!

The reason for using an infographic rather than text is because people are more easily drawn to images and video. The thought of wading through a huge chunk of text can be quite daunting, whereas casting an eye over a well composed infographic is a much more attractive prospect. Whether you want to detail the anatomy of content marketing or lay out the content marketing landscape, why not branch out and do it infographic-style?

Integrity

Thanks to Claire Crew for this suggestion. It is important not to get the wrong end of the stick and see content marketing as a race to the top of the search engine rankings. Creating content for the sake of it, creating a very tenuous link between the content and your keywords and overdoing it on keywords is not going to get you anywhere; in fact, ever discerning readers will more than likely be put off by blatant sales tactics.

Algorithms have actually been adjusted so there is a greater focus on quality content, so brands that slot keywords naturally into engaging and relevant content that readers want to see will successfully build credibility and enjoy the well-deserved rewards of a top notch content marketing strategy.

Jenny MacLean – Authorship

One of the ways Google aims to increase the way it can verify a link is via Google+ Authorship. Google+ Authorship is a way for Google to confirm that the content was created by a real person with an interest in a topic, by pointing that back to a Google+ profile page. Crucially, this Google+ profile also links back to the website that you write for.

When Google trusts an author they add more weight to their content, ranking it higher; it verifies good content and ranks it ahead of unverified content. Not only does creating more content add value to your website, with Google+ Authorship in place it can generate lots of traffic to your website and increase your overall search rankings. Read more on Authorship – http://www.contentamp.com/what-google-authorship-means-for-your-content/

Keywords

The use of keywords is an important content marketing tool that helps to optimise your content and website for search engines. A list of keywords you wish to target is a crucial part of any content strategy, and the more research undertaken before incorporating them into your content, the more effective they will be.

Once you’ve got your keywords, great – but be wary of overusing them. Content stuffed to the gunnels with keywords not only looks unprofessional but is also a red flag to search engines, which aren’t afraid to penalise websites if they suspect they’re in content marketing purely for the SEO value.

LinkedIn

Branching out into other social networking platforms is a great way to boost your amplification and get your brand message out there. In fact, research by analysis firm SocialBakers found that Facebook has lost nearly 9 million monthly visitors in the US and 2 million in the UK in the past six months, so casting the net a little wider certainly won’t do any harm.

LinkedIn is particularly good because you are broadcasting your content to a specific audience that is more likely to share the same interests. Find influencers in your industry, fill your network with relevant contacts and then get sharing! You can also join groups specific to your industry where you can post content or find invaluable tips.

Metrics

Everything is tracked online and content marketing is no exception. Nothing works online unless it is measured. The metrics you use to determine success will differ depending on your brand and business requirements – but you do need them. There’s no point creating a great piece of content if you have no way of knowing how effective it was. Look at your Google Analytics, your social followers, social interactions, your search rankings; and ultimately your sales. Content marketing takes time and effort, but set your metrics for success, experiment and see what works.

Native Advertising

Native content is set to become a multi-billion dollar a year industry. It takes content marketing to new levels of amplification, allowing all brands and businesses the opportunity to share their content and brand messages with relevant consumers who will then engage with and share that content.

The phenomenal rise of social media as a distribution platform and meeting house for consumers means that the right content, created for the right people, distributed to the right audience, can now offer rewards to brands that far outweigh anything that can be achieved with more traditional forms of captive advertising.

Consumers are turned off by intrusive advertising formats and are looking to have a conversation with brands online. Native content in its myriad different guises allows brands to market to their customer bases in a way that fits in with online behaviour, while still allowing them to achieve their marketing goals. It is multi-platform too, which is why brands love it.

Read the Guardian’s article ‘Native Advertising: What’s the Fuss?’ here.

Outreach

Switch round the syllables and this term is pretty much self-explanatory! Reaching out to bloggers and nurturing long-term relationships with them is key to any successful content marketing campaign. This means asking for regular feedback and insights and listening to what they have to say in order to establish an ongoing positive relationship – which will prove invaluable when you approach them for multiple campaigns.

It is a good idea to regularly refresh your database of bloggers and keep an eye out for any potential candidates to join your network. This means you won’t exhaust your blogger outreach resources and that you’ve got back-up if bloggers drop off.

Penguin/Panda

These two Google algorithm updates have made content marketing hot. Since the first launch of Panda back in 2011 and the subsequent updates to both Panda and most recently Penguin 2.0, the days of poor content and poor links have been numbered. Google updates mean that search engine optimisation is heavily reliant on content – and great quality content at that. Now the priority should be to turn your site into an authority by publishing and sharing great content.

Quick

Aesop may have taught us that slow and steady wins the race, but he clearly didn’t have content marketing on his mind when he dreamt up the famous tortoise/hare anecdote. The fact is, today’s hot stories can soon become yesterday’s news if the gap between a topic breaking and the time it is published is too wide.

This is particularly important in the world of online news, as readers will expect to see the freshest content. If you consistently publish stories late, your audience is hardly going to see you as the go-to source for the latest industry news.

Brushing up on your news-finding skills is essential to achieve top speeds. Google news is a good bet and social media can help you out too. Hashtags on Twitter are particularly useful in this respect, for example #ukemplaw throws up stories concerning the latest in UK employment law news.

RSS Feeds

RSS stands for Rich Site Summary, but is often known as Really Simple Syndication – and that’s what RSS means for your content marketing. If you don’t use it yourself, others will. So ensure that your RSS feed is implemented on your site and that it is easy for those that like your site to implement. If done properly it can ensure the content on your blog is read often and, crucially, shared. Read more about why shares are more valuable than likes here.

SEO

SEO…SEO…more randomly assembled letters… Don’t hide from unfamiliar abbreviations, embrace them! This one stands for Search Engine Optimisation, which pretty much does what it says on the tin.

In basic terms, SEO is the discipline which helps search engines find and rank your site higher than the millions of other web pages in response to a search query, ultimately driving more traffic to your site. There’s plenty of advice floating around in cyberspace, but not all of it will put you on the road to content marketing success – watch out for SEO myths!

Twitter

If you haven’t already, now is the time to acquaint yourself with tweets, retweets and the infamous hashtag. Hashtags are a great way to source industry news and deliver relevant and contextual content to readers. In fact, it’s so good Google+ has adopted the hashtag too, so you’re not limited to Twitter with this useful technique.

Twitter activity is at its peak between 10am and 4pm, so your stuff is more likely to get read and commented on if you tweet during these hours. If you are following the right people i.e. people who will take an interest in your content because it is relevant and interesting to them, you will reap the rewards.

Keep up to date with the latest Twitter news on the Twitter blog.

Unique

Content can only be truly wonderful if it is unique. Not only is passing someone else’s work off as your own a breach of copyright, it’s also bypassing one of the most important aspects of content creation: that content must be fresh if it is going to stand out and grab the attention of both browsers and search engines.

This means starting from scratch and coming up with your own ideas. A blank piece of A4 is a pretty scary thing but there are ways to get it filled with masses of groundbreaking content ideas in a jiffy. How? With a good old fashioned brainstorm of course! You may not have brainstormed since you were at school, but it’s a great way to get the creative juices flowing.

Vine

Vine incorporates another important ‘v’ in content marketing – video. Vine is a Twitter creation which allows users to almost instantly create and share a six-second looped clip, complete with sound and motion.

What can the leap from characters to pixels do for you? Well, visuals tend to be far more compelling than text and can tell a brand’s story in an exciting way that text alone probably couldn’t do. Plus, the potential for a good Vine going viral is pretty darn good. At the beginning of June, Android users were finally welcomed into the Vine community, which has amassed an impressive 13 million users on iOS alone since the app launched for iPhone back in January.

WordPress

The mother of all content management systems and blog publish platforms – what would we do without WordPress? As well as being very widely used it is incredibly easy to navigate, saving brands on a tight schedule valuable time.

Not only is WordPress completely free to download, but you can also add a raft of additional features, or plug-ins, to enhance your experience. For example, Publicize lets you connect your WordPress account to social network sites including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and Akismet automatically removes spammers, relieving you of the hassle – and there’s plenty more where that lot came from.

XML Feeds

An XML Feed is a glorified RSS feed. It’s not uncommon for those looking to publish more and more content on their sites to outsource content to a content agency such as ourselves. But do you want a bunch of writers and editors playing around with your content management system? Invariably the answer is no. This is fine, because companies such as ours can ‘plug’ in to your site via an XML feed. This means that we supply you with a dedicated XML feed that can be pulled directly into your CMS for your own team to manage and publish.

YouTube

YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google, so it’s worth uploading videos onto the site based on this fact alone. But why else should brands turn to the small screen? The statistics say it all; sites that include a video thumbnail in search rankings can as much as DOUBLE their organic traffic.

If you were given the choice of reading two blog posts, one just text and one in video form, which would you choose? We are hardwired to find the easiest way round something, so of course the majority of people will opt for the video post. Content marketing is about creating content your readers love – so take a hint and get the cameras rolling!

Zemanta

Zemanta is a great ‘link recommendation’ tool that many bloggers and brands can use to deliver direct, organic traffic to their sites. It takes a lot of the ‘heavy lifting’ away from link building by suggesting your content to relevant bloggers at the time of publishing content to their site. http://www.zemanta.com

Add your Content Marketing Recommendation below

The post The Ultimate Content Marketing A to Z appeared first on Content Amp.

If your brand has been embracing the benefits of content marketing for a while and habits have started to stick, it may be worth giving your strategy a deep clean to refresh your blog and make sure it is brimming with sparkling content.

Declutter

When it comes to content marketing, you should have a zero clutter policy. This means resisting the temptation to fill up your blog with content that isn’t as interesting or relevant as it could be just so you can tick it off the list.

Every post you write needs to be a valuable addition to your website or blog if you want readers to see you as a leader in your field.

Dust off your skills

You may have thought you left your brainstorming and storytelling skills behind when you bid a fond adieu to your school days, but now is the time to dust them off and proudly display them in every piece of content.

Sitting down for a good old fashioned brainstorm is the best way to come up with original, engaging ideas; and telling your brand’s story on a human level in a way that is relevant and interesting to your readers will reap the best results.

Sweep SEO under the carpet

There’s always one speck of dust or one crumb we miss when cleaning up, and rather than going to the effort of getting the vacuum cleaner out again or picking it up and putting it in the trash, it’s often easier to brush it under a rug out of sight.

This is what you want to be doing with SEO – don’t get rid of it completely as it remains a crucial technique for content marketing. Rather, ensure it is as invisible as you can manage (so embed keywords naturally in your content, only insert one hyperlink etc).

Content first, SEO second, that’s the golden rule. Remember the point of content marketing is to engage your audience, not force sales with evident advertising – something any reputable content marketing agency will tell you.

The post How to…Clean Up Your Content Marketing Act appeared first on Content Amp.

And it seems Twitter has decided to put more of a focus on the amplification side of things, with the official blog announcing late last week that the platform has launched a new partnership programme: Twitter Amplify.

So what exactly does this involve? In a nutshell, Twitter is enhancing the links between the social media platform and TV; or further amplifying the social TV conversation with real-time, dual-screen sponsorships and in-Tweet video clips from broadcasters.

This viewing experience is already prevalent among sports – for example ESPN and Ford Fusion embed instant replays in Tweets during every college football game for the benefit of both fans and advertisers.

However, Twitter is looking to branch out and extend this initiative from sports into other broadcast categories via partnerships with BBC America, FOX, Fuse and The Weather Channel.

Twitter Amplify not only delivers great, timely content to users but also helps broadcasters to reach out to new audiences.

This is an additional reminder of the importance of video marketing. Twitter has already introduced the world to Vine, an app which allows users to almost instantly create and share a six-second looped clip.

According to Crimson Hexagon, 95% of online public conversation around TV currently takes place on Twitter, and it’s difficult to get through 15 minutes of viewing without a hashtag making an appearance, further emphasising the leading role visuals are playing when it comes to marketing and social media.

Twitter is not the only social networking site to home in on video. LinkedIn has recently added video to professional profiles, which allows job seekers to tell potential employers their story using eye-catching and attention-grabbing visuals to complement an online CV.

Again, this all comes back to the importance of video – it really is everywhere at the moment. It’s even been dominating our blog!

Read more

Mariachi Doritos Project Crowned King of Content Marketing

Lights, camera…Oscar-worthy Content Marketing

The post Twitter Amplify highlights importance of effective content distribution appeared first on Content Amp.

A survey of more than 2,000 European MarCom students (those studying Marketing, PR, Communications, Design, Advertising and Events) by the MediaSchool Group found that 81% expected content writing and production to become one of the most important job duties within ten years.

And with 70% confident that content marketing and ‘PR thinking’ will lead the marketing landscape into the future, the gap between traditional and digital media is ever-closer to being bridged.

“Content marketing is changing the marketing ecosystem because content is channel neutral, is multi-platform and it needs to be ‘Always on’,” said Clare Hill, Managing Director of the Content Marketing Association (CMA). “It is now a far more conversational approach, interactive with a two way dialog [sic].”

Interactive with a two way dialogue – this is absolutely key for content marketing success.

Stop pitching your tent in the sales camp.

Content marketing is dramatically changing the advertising landscape, so you need to be focused on engaging and entertaining rather than focusing on the selling side of things.

Take a leaf out of Ben and Jerry’s book. ClickZ covered a new campaign by the ice cream moguls which is asking residents of five US cities to vote for ingredients which will be blended into local flavours.

Ben & Jerry’s Assistant Digital Manager, Mike Hayes, said that the company’s success had been fuelled by customer feedback from day one, and added that engagement across social channels had enabled the brand to interact with consumers on a one-to-one basis.

He said: “Our fans have helped us create some of our most iconic ice cream flavors [sic] like Cherry Garcia and Chubby Hubby. This social campaign is an expansion of that.”

This is an exemplary attitude to content marketing. The company sees each fan as valuable and respects their opinions rather than seeing them simply as numbers that drive up followers.

So what does this mean for brands? If you haven’t already, set up accounts with Twitter and Google+ and tell your story in an engaging manner. Ask questions to hook interest and spark discussions, listen and respond to what people have to say – show that you care and you’re well placed to start earning respect, readers and more brand loyalty.

The post Content creation will be “one of the most important job duties” within 10 years appeared first on Content Amp.

However, this initial burst of creativity is tough to uphold, especially if you’ve forgotten to create a content calendar and have exhausted your list of inspiration in the first couple of weeks.

Over time, you may find the formerly constant stream of ideas slows down, and then dries up altogether. You are in the throes of a creative drought, and you cannot find a way out.

When a creative block makes its presence known, the blank page before you swells to the size of a sheet. Each tick of the clock gets progressively louder, and the frantic typing of your colleagues gets more infuriating by the minute.

You know you need to get back in the game. So how can you get ideas flowing so fast that they break the dam of fruitlessness and flood all over the page?

Just start writing

When you’re tasked with creating content, there is nothing scarier than a blank page, so eliminate the problem by getting some words on the page. Any words around the topic will do; let your stream of consciousness take over. The simple act of noting down a few relevant words or sentences can generate an idea which could be destined to become a great article!

Mine social media sites

Social media is a great way to find out what people are talking and asking questions about in your field of expertise. Creating content based on this is not a bad shout – you can rest assured that since people are searching specifically for content on that topic, it is highly relevant and has a better chance of being seen.

Turn to Google

Another good way to unearth what people want to know is to type, say, ‘content marketing’ into Google. Scroll right to the bottom and take a look at the related searches to spark a brainwave. You can also set up Google alerts to get relevant content sent straight through to your Gmail, which is a great source of inspiration if you’re suffering from a creative drought.

Refresh old posts

Rehashing old content isn’t something you should be doing on a regular basis, but if you have something valuable to add on the same topic it is likely to be of use to your readers. For example, if you published a post about the launch of Vine on iOS in January, you could add to this by doing something on Vine for Android.

Call in the troops

One man works while another relaxes – so it makes perfect sense that one man has ideas by the truckload while the creative block of another is sending him quietly mad. Ask people to pitch thoughts across the office and you may end up with a whole list of ideas you can work with.

The post Stuck for Ideas? Five Ways to Escape a Dry Spell appeared first on Content Amp.

While Google is hardly about to collapse into bankruptcy, it is worth noting that it tumbled six-tenths of a percentage point last month while Bing’s US search market share hit yet another all-time high, passing the 17% mark for the first time.

This is according to comScore’s April 2013 qSearch report, which revealed that the quantity of core searches conducted using Google slipped to 66.5%, down 0.6 from the 67.1% it stood at in March.

On the contrary, Bing’s share of the 20 billion core searches (not including mobile) over the month totalled 17.3%, marking a 0.4% rise. Google’s loss was also offset by gains at Yahoo, which rose from 11.8% in March to 12% in April.

Is Google slowly losing its grip on its impressive search market share? Or do we simply accept that statistics tend to oscillate and wait and see what next month’s figures have in store?

Either way, the same thing seems to be happening here in the UK. Google has long enjoyed a remarkable 90%+ market share, and is the go-to search engine whenever a query needs answering.

But as 2012 drew to a close, Google dramatically dropped to its lowest percentage of market share in the UK in five years.

During the final quarter of last year, ‘just’ 89% of web searches were made using Google. Admittedly, this isn’t a huge drop in numbers, but nevertheless it boosted market share where Microsoft Bing and Yahoo were concerned, giving the rival search engines the chance to bolster their online presence.

With Bing and Yahoo now having a relatively strong foothold in the market, with a 5% and 3% market share respectively, it is perhaps worth giving them the time of day rather than relying solely on Google.

Why? Here are just a few reasons.

• Google may still have a solid grasp on the majority of the market share, but what about the 11% of people that are directing their queries elsewhere? 11% may be a minority but it still accounts for a lot of browsers
• With competition far lower on Bing and Yahoo than it is on Google, chances of exposure go through the roof in comparison
• If you are looking to advertise using a certain keyword or phrase, it is likely to be more affordable on search engines with a smaller market share rather than Google, where costs are at a premium

The post Is Bing Gaining on Google? appeared first on Content Amp.

The six second looped video creation tool has exploded in popularity since it broke onto the apps market at the beginning of the year, and allows users to create looped clips with sound and explore popular posts using the familiar hashtag.

Twitter cruelly teased Android-ers when it hinted back in April that Vine would be coming to the mobile OS “soon” but such behaviour will no doubt be overlooked amid the flurry of excitement.

In fact, a feature has been added to Vine that is exclusively available on Android to make up for the five month delay, and that feature is zoom.

Vine on iOS is not perfectly in synch with the Android version, although the blogs insists this “won’t be the case for long”.

A raft of exciting new features has been announced, some of which have already been implemented, including front-facing camera, mentions and the ability to share to Facebook.

Vine is available as a free download for anyone running Android 4.0 or higher.

The post Vine extends its reach to Android appeared first on Content Amp.

An understanding of social media, research skills, and a helpful, friendly personality are essential.  No experience necessary but an ability to learn and effectively manage your work with a can-do attitude is a distinct advantage.

Performance related bonuses and an immediate start. There is also the distinct possibility of vacancies become full-time, permanent roles for the right candidates.

Content Amp is based in the heart of Windsor, 45 minutes by train from London and connected to both Paddington and Waterloo. We offer a great work environment in a lively, friendly office with fantastic experience in a growing industry for the right candidates.

Those interested in applying should email: info@contentamp.com with a CV and Covering letter.

The post Content Marketing Internships appeared first on Content Amp.

With content marketing making a palpable mark on the industry as a whole, it comes as no surprise that 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing.

As Dale Lovell, Content Amp’s Publishing Director and Co-Founder recently wrote in Marketing Week; 

“B2B marketers need content if they want to engage with communities on LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+. The size of the digital landscape has blurred the boundaries between search, social, email and display.

“B2B content marketing is not about creating content for search engines or for social media, it is about looking for customer engagement and placing content at the heart of any B2B digital marketing strategy.”

Digital publishing software providers Uberflip have created a handy infographic brimming with interesting stats giving marketers an insight into the busy world of B2B content marketing, which we’ve summed up below.

What is more interesting, though, is how content marketing objectives are being prioritised. According to the infographic, the top priority is to engage customers, with 82% of B2B marketers claiming to do this.

55% of B2B marketers are still prioritising sales, giving this the number two spot. Content marketing represents a move AWAY from traditional advertising and towards engaging with your readers on a human level with relevant content that ultimately influences sales.

44% are attempting to educate the market while 43% are aiming to drive web traffic. Building thought leadership was a concern of 43% – although with 94% creating content from scratch rather than repurposing third party posts, B2B marketers are probably demonstrating more thought leadership than they realise.

Just 19% of B2B marketers are focusing their efforts on SEO – which hopefully means there is more of a sway towards quality content.

Social media wise, 80% of B2B marketers are using Facebook and the same percentage have turned to Twitter, while 83% use LinkedIn. Surprisingly, just 39% take advantage of the benefits of Google+ despite the fact that communities make it easy to reach a specific niche.

You can view the infographic in all its glory right here, or below.

Facts and figures from: IDG knowledge hub, Sprout Content, Emarketer, Content Marketing Institute.

The post B2B Content Marketing Set for Growth appeared first on Content Amp.

Jargon can impede understanding, disguise a lack of knowledge and ultimately wreck what could otherwise be a good blog post. The job of a content marketer is to communicate – so it falls to us to push jargon to the edge of extinction, and gleefully boot it into the distance.

Are you using jargon to disguise your lack of expertise?

If you’ve decided to write on a tricky topic, you may find that once you get stuck into some research you’re left more baffled than before. It can be tempting to fall back on jargon to make it appear as though you know what you’re talking about, but be warned that readers will see straight through this.

Perhaps you do understand the ins and out of every jargon-esque word and phrase you inject into your content. Great – but it may come across as the complete opposite to readers. Overuse of jargon can point to a lack of knowledge in a certain subject, where it is often used as a crutch to cover up the fact that you don’t have the foggiest.

Too much jargon makes Jack a dull boy

If you confine yourself to using certain words and phrases, you are giving yourself less of a chance to be creative. Readers are looking for fresh, unique content or an eye-catching angle that puts a new spin on a familiar idea. Resorting to jargon might mean you consistently end up ‘playing it safe’ and creating content that just doesn’t capture the reader’s imagination, let alone stimulate their desire to share their ‘discovery’ on social media platforms.

If you want to demonstrate thought leadership in your field and be seen as the go-to resource for relevant and engaging information and fresh thinking in the industry, you need to make sure your content has a high readability level. Readers will be put off by posts that are difficult to understand – your job is to demystify the unknown and encourage people to bookmark your site or come back for a visit at a later date.

The post Come Again? Why Good Content and Jargon Do Not Mix appeared first on Content Amp.