Content Marketing Quickie

Hey, it’s Stiles from Brand Content Studios and here’s your Content Marketing Quickie for the week of June 4, 2019.   -Wanna learn some stuff about social media? Gee that’s swell, because Social Media Examiner just put out their 2019 Industry Report and these are always nuggets of information that are either reaffirming, or downright hard to believe. Despite warning signs and storm clouds, social marketers don’t care. They’re very bullish on it, even moreso than last year. They think it’s doing everything they want it to do: exposure, sales, thought leadership, you name it. The big 5 will likely stay the big 5, in order they’re using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube. Twitter? Really? Yes Twitter! It’s the 6th most-popular social platform for American users but #3 in the hearts of marketers. In fact, over a third plan to increase activity on Twitter even though usage has fallen 4 percentage points in 2 years. Anecdotally, I was following the Twitter hashtag during Digital Summit Atlanta and w

Hey, it’s Stiles from Brand Content Studios and here’s your Content Marketing Quickie for the week of May 28, 2019.   -Some people are mad at Mailchimp. People get mad sometimes when change happens. Then some people get mad when they need change at a toll booth and can’t find any. It’s a real no win situation. But Mailchimp wants to be more than just an email marketing platform now. They want to serve small businesses in just about every way small businesses need to be served. They teamed up with Square to offer shoppable web pages. They broke up with Shopify amidst rumors they’re going to develop and roll out their own ecommerce platform. They’ve introduced a CRM, a tool to build websites including buying your domain, and, here’s the part that has some people angry, a new price structure in which you’ll get charged for all your contacts, not just your subscribed ones. I mean there’s some grandfathering for people already on plans but nothing last forever grandpa. Darcy Kurtz at the chimp says, “We have the p

Hey, it’s Stiles from Brand Content Studios and here’s your Content Marketing Quickie for the week of May 21, 2019.   -If you’re using a creative ad agency or you are a creative ad agency, you might have some kind of emotional reaction to the thoughts of ad veteran Paul Arnold. Be careful when you invite someone to speak at a conference because they just might speak their mind. Paul says advertising, as it is right now, is on a “suicide” mission to wipe itself out. Hey I bet that’s not what you wanted to hear. You wanted to hear you’re all doing a great job. But the way he sees it, some things are happening that are creating an existential threat. No, it won’t happen as fast as Thanos snapping his fingers or the dinosaurs looking up and saying, “Hey, what’s that falling out of the sky,” but more of a slow decay kinda thing. First of all, he’s seeing clients not trusting their agencies as much as they used to, and creativity getting progressively devalued. A lot of clients are out there feeling “let-down,” and

In this week's episode of the Content Marketing Quickie: the most trusted source of information by consumers, trends to watch out for in B2B email marketing, how to get more social media shares, and how Facebook is commoditizing video production.

Hey, it’s Stiles from Brand Content Studios and here’s your Content Marketing Quickie for the week of May 7, 2019. Let’s see what you guys did to the industry this week.   -Want a job in content marketing? Well you should be in good shape. There were 23,846 job openings in it last year. But what content marketing skills are in the most demand? You need to know this so you can go on Coursera and at least learn enough terminology to bluff your way through the interview. Fractl studied ads on Indeed to figure out what hirers are looking for. And while that’s a fun parlor game, what makes this less than informative is that the people writing job ads for content marketing positions mostly have no clue what they want, need, or should ask for. They also don’t know the proper terms. And they usually print out a glossary of responsibilities they expect one person to handle alone. But anyway, here’s what the Indeed ads are showing. They’re mostly looking for junior level positions. Then comes senior level positions, th

Hey, it’s Stiles from Brand Content Studios and here’s your Content Marketing Quickie for the week of April 30, 2019. I took a vacation last week, sue me. Let’s see what’s going on.   -Step right up my friends and behold a marketing technology elixir that’s so powerful it’s guaranteed to put a song in your heart and a spring in your step. Yes this amazing marvel of modern technology has what’s good for what ails you, no matter what that might be. Sure it’s a little expensive but can you really put a price on dreams coming true and complete peace of mind? In the old days what you just heard was called a snake oil sales pitch. Today, some think a lot of the marketing technology that’s rolling through town is also, a lot of snake oil. It’s a $100B-plus business. And if you’ve ever seen one of those infographics that shows every platform and player in it, your eyes are now probably glazed over like a Krispy Kreme. Mike Doyle at retailer City Beach is calling it out. He says these tools are complex, you get bit wi

Hey, it’s Stiles from Brand Content Studios and here’s your Content Marketing Quickie for the week of April 16, 2019. Let’s see what changed while you weren’t looking.   -Podcasts are hunky dory and everything, but one of the lingering issues with them is discoverability. Or to be more precise, searchability. We learned in last week’s Content Marketing Quickie – see, I told you you’d learn something in a short period of time if you just subscribe and listen – that YouTube is actually the largest platform for podcast consumption by far. Which makes me feel stupid cause I have yet to put this one back on YouTube. And, you’ve heard that behind Google, YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world. But to make all that work to the maximum degree, all those spoken words in podcasts need to be written words. That’s where transcription comes in. And here’s the news. Google’s Podcasts app is automatically transcribing shows. That means not just searchability of the content, people can look for certain epis

Hey, it’s Stiles from Brand Content Studios and here’s your Content Marketing Quickie for the week of April 8, 2019. Let’s see what changed while you weren’t looking.   -Are you one of those people that talks to the commercials when they come on TV? “Hey cartoon of lower back pain illustrated by little lightning bolts around it, that’s exactly what I feel like! Can your solution really help me?” If so, sure your family is very worried about you but you’ll love this news. When you’re listening to music or a podcast on Pandora, you might soon be able to talk to the ads you hear, and they’ll listen. Maybe you’ll say, “Hey ad, please email me more information about what you’re talking about.” Or maybe you’ll say, “Not interested. I don’t believe that non-stick frying pan is really coated in diamonds.” Later this year, in the year of our Lord 2019, Pandora will do a beta test with Instreamatic, which is a company called Instreamatic. The ad unit will listen and respond to voice commands. Will it work? Probably as

Hey, it’s Stiles from Brand Content Studios and here’s your Content Marketing Quickie for the week of April 1, 2019   -A new study of B2B buyers shows they want random, one-off content pushed out to them by vendors, and they want that content to be all text and focus only on the sales proposition vendors want to say. They say if they get this, they’re likely to buy immediately based just on what they’re told. Okay so now we’ve got the obligatory April Fools story out of the way. And it would be funny except for that’s actually how a lot of companies are still approaching content. They’re living the dream but make no mistake, they are dreaming.   -I know what you want from the Content Marketing Quickie, I’m not stupid. You want to hear all about European law! Well straighten up your beret and pull up a hot plate of bangers and mash because here it comes. This actually made a lot of news and does potentially affect you because, it kind of changes how you’re allowed to put content on the internet. That’s right I

Hey, it’s Stiles from Brand Content Studios and here’s your Content Marketing Quickie for the week of March 25, 2019   -Don’t worry everyone, the stability of the world and the validity of news and information is safe in the hands of Generation Z. Naw, I’m just kidding with you. We are completely doomed. Now you’d think with all the garbage Facebook and Twitter have gone through, all the scandals, all the suspicion, all the shady stuff, all the content censoring and manipulation, all the dropping stocks…you’d think that social media would be about the last place you would go to get trustworthy information. Nope. Not Gen Z. Comscore says they lead the way at 55% in turning to social media for their primary source of news. That might be because social media has totally consumed their lives and they see it as the only way one would get information, or maybe they just like what they’re seeing on it and are loving the echo chamber. Colby Atwood at Borrell Associates said, “They believe if it’s important enough, th

Hey, it’s Stiles from Brand Content Studios and here’s your Content Marketing Quickie for the week of March 18, 2019   -Do you know when the first email was sent? 1971! 1971! The top song was Three Dog Night’s Joy to the World, you know, the Jeremiah was a bullfrog song? The highest grossing film was Fiddler on the Roof. On TV we were watching the then highly controversial political fights between Archie and Meathead on All in the Family. They think that in 2018, 124.5B emails went out. And yep, emails are content. Or at least what you put in them is content. So it’s worth knowing how to do it right and things like the Email Marketing Survey Summary Report help because their research gives us some insights, or at least some things to debate. The first thing they found out is engagement and improving brand awareness is the main thing companies want out of their email campaigns. Nobody likes to see low opens and click rates. And you’re never going to up your engagement unless you learn what your target audience

Hey, it’s Stiles from Brand Content Studios and here’s your Content Marketing Quickie for the week of March 11, 2019   -Time for another chapter in the continuing story of “how do you get some kind of control over lunatics on Twitter who leave nasty replies to your tweets”? If you’re waiting for a good answer, you won’t find it here and you won’t find it at Twitter. Bless their hearts, they’ve tried. They want to fix the problem. But every fix creates a new problem. CEO Jack Dorsey himself said a year ago, the platform’s just not that great at keeping conversations productive or meaningful. You probably have people in real life who can’t keep their conversations productive or meaningful. You’re thinking of a name right now aren’t you?! Here’s what you find, too often, on Twitter, good ol’ abuse, harassment, lies, definitely echo chambers. I think this, you’re welcome to agree with me all you want. The initial thought was well, we can ban the worst offenders and kick them off Twitter. That wasn’t working so ho

Learn: what the biggest skills gap in marketing is Learn: why Google's giving up on comments on blogs Learn: whether or not you should use vertical instead of horizontal video The Content Marketing Quickie brings you a quick and fun look at the latest happenings in content - delivered with fun and snarky commentary by Mike Stiles and Brand Content Studios.   Here’s your Content Marketing Quickie for the week of March 4, 2019   -The good news when the Internet came along was, the people had a voice. The bad news was, people had a voice. And none other than Google has decided eh, we don’t so much want to hear what people have to say. Frankly that content’s usually just crap and it’s too much trouble to manage. So, at least for their Webmaster Central Blog, they’re cutting off comments. You’ll see that’s becoming typical on publisher sites too. Ever read an article that was actually good and made you care and you couldn’t wait to say what you thought only to find…oh, there’s no way to comment. They don’t want to

Content production is WAY up, but what about engagement? Headline tips you've got to know Branded content is a recall monster This and other top content marketing stories for the week, delivered fast & fun from Mike Stiles & Brand Content Studios. http://www.mikestiles.com

Some very interesting new podcast statistic What's annoying people most about online video ads Just a couple of stories in this week's update of the top content marketing and branded content news, from Mike Stiles and Brand Content Studios. http://www.mikestiles.com

Lucky you, you get some of the top takeaways from Content Marketing World 2016 just by listening to this episode. The top content marketing, native advertising, and branded content news of the week, from Mike Stiles & Brand Content Studios.

On this week's Content Marketing Quickie... how to optimize your videos for YouTube, why people unfollow you on social, and the reasons brands do (and don't) podcast.

Where should you put the important stuff in a video ad Here's what Google will punish you for Will the robots soon make "photos" for you? Just one story from the weekly Content Marketing Quickie podcast from Brand Content Studios. Hear the whole thing at http://www.mikestiles.com

YouTube NOT preferred for video ads How many people feel tricked by sponsored content Learn from the most shared articles The top content marketing, native advertising, and branded content news of the week, delivered fast and with plenty of personality by Mike Stiles & Brand Content Studios.

BIG advertiser backs away from Facebook targeting Latest on successful email delivery rates Content Marketing jobs you might not have thought about The top content marketing, native advertising, and branded content news of the week, delivered fast and with plenty of personality by Mike Stiles & Brand Content Studios.