Social media is, at heart, a relationship-building tool. But it can also be used to promote content. It's all about finding the balance between self-promotion, sharing useful information, and entertaining your readers.

Being well-liked. It's something we all desire. And we can all think of people in our spheres whom everyone feels comfortable around and whom everyone wants to know better. These people are like magnets. How do they do it? When we break it down, it's because they've worked on and gotten really good at many, if not all of, the following 15 habits.

Any rumors you may have heard about the death of SEO have been vastly overstated. What is true, however, is that the focus has shifted from provider to audience. That means instead of producing product pages, sales one-sheets, and other company-centric content, you need to pivot and create great content that's focused squarely on your target personas.

Your startup may literally be the best new thing since sliced bread, but if you can't market it, the world will not even be able to find the path to your door.

Humans love stories. We also happen to love data. And what do you get when you mix data with storytelling? For our purposes, a case study.

Content and data? Yep, content and data. Despite how these may seem—at first—to be at odds, data-driven research is a great way to further customize your content to your audience and drive your SEO straight through the roof.

There are already a lot of articles out there on data-driven content. Many purport to give you “5 pieces of data you need to know…” before starting a content marketing campaign. While we absolutely support doing pre-campaign research, there is also a strong possibility of you falling into a data rabbit hole and being unable to extricate yourself.

Instagram is the place to be for small businesses, new businesses, and startups of all persuasions. In other words, you should probably be on Instagram.

To get the best possible return on any email marketing you do, you have to have a system in place for managing your email list. You don't want to have such a bad deliverability rating that your email is declared spam by the email giants. And you don't want to simply waste your money on email campaigns that yield poor returns. So let's talk about what you need to do to have the most efficient email list.

You know content matters. But the content marketing space keeps getting noisier and noisier which makes it harder and harder to be heard. 

Online videos are huge. There’s no other way to say it. People want to watch videos, and watch them they will. On Youtube and Vimeo, Netflix and Amazon Prime. And, importantly, people want to see videos from the brands they follow.

It's human nature to look back in time, heave a sigh, and mumble about those good old days. You know, when it was relatively easy to get your message across on sites like Facebook and get noticed by potential customers.

Social media marketing. Kind of a daunting subject, huh? Well, it doesn’t have to be. Use guides like the ones we publish regularly and move incrementally, and in no time you’ll have your presence set up and be seeing returns on your efforts.

The humble landing page. Often neglected, this simple piece of content has the power to make or break a campaign. OK, that might be a bit hyperbolic; however, it is true that the inherent power of the landing page to entice readers to take action is often overlooked or mishandled. We’ve pulled together some best practices, tips, tricks, and generally good ideas to help you set up your own campaign landing pages for success.

A great example of the power of episodic marketing is a series of television ads that ran as thirteen 30-second spots from 1990 until mid-1997. The ads were for instant coffee, and they followed a relationship between neighbors that began with a borrowed cup of coffee. As the 13 ads played out, we wondered whether or not the woman would choose romance with the neighbor or get reinvolved with her ex. The strength of this kind of storytelling is exemplified by the fact that it has come to mind more than 25 years later in a discussion of episodic content marketing.