I want to show you two rocking articles about hot trends rocking content marketing this year. They’ll be around for awhile shaping the scene, so you’ll want to know a bit about them.

The first one’s titled “7 Smoking Hot Changes Coming to Content Marketing.” It comes from the blog of content marketing maniac Jeff Bullas, whose work often smokes, but is written by up-and-comer Andy Preisler. He looks pretty stern in his profile pic, but his writing is fun. And this post of his packs a ton of power. Andy digs into:

1. Making mobile a priority
2. Visual content [Here’s my how-to on eye-popping, reader-stopping, social media rocking visual marketing]
3. Content personalization
4. Collaborative marketing (great topic)
5. The increasing investments companies are making in content
6. Condensing content to make it more clickable
7. The ascent of analytics

Read the full article at: www.jeffbullas.com

How brands big and small are rocking content marketing today

This is the first in a series from Content Marketing Institute that will run on 8 consecutive Fridays (it launched July 17). You’re likely to hear more from me about it because (1) I know it’s going to be awesome, and (2) I’ve contributed to it.

See, CMI’s doing a very cool thing (they always do). Obviously, they invite only experts to speak at their explosively popular annual event, Content Marketing World, which takes place each year in Ohio every September.

The build-up to—and follow-up—includes barrows of crowd-sourced content. They roundup insights from the conference speakers. Smart speakers. Smart idea. To create the series, a few weeks ago CMI sent a questionnaire: 8 great and timely questions about the state of content marketing today. I loved answering them.

I doubt my answers will be included in all eight posts, but I know the series will rock.

In this first edition CMI asked, “Which brands are pushing in the envelope in content marketing?” 

I went with Dollar Shave Club because I’m such a fan of brands with a sense of humor. I wrote:

Dollar Shave Club leaps to mind because every touchpoint is fun. Do I look forward to grooming? Hell no. But I definitely look forward to Dollar Shave Club’s next video, post, social media update, email, and especially their packaging.

When you make the mundane insanely exciting, you make people smile. Joy may be hard to measure by way of marketing metrics, but it’s the universal spark of the spender.

Sadly, though some B2B marketers push (or at least deliver) the envelope, it’s awfully rare they bring a sense of humor to bear. I’d sure like to see it though.

The post includes at least 10 more great answers and insights about killer content marketers, so be sure to check it out here. 

Hey, do I have your email address? If not, let’s get that fixed right now…