Content

Hello! I was wondering if Impact has a documented content operations framework they'd be willing to share or any key tips for building one. For context, we're scaling our content efforts and feeling the need to build a structure around content development processes (people, tools, workflows, governance, etc.) to become more efficient and maximize our very lean resources. Any guidance would be appreciated! See More

If you're struggling with writing a cost article, here are 12 examples of top-notch cost articles to help inspire your own.
This article breaks down examples from B2B to B2C, from products to services, and covers a range of industries. You're sure to find something relatable.
However, if you feel you've written an awesome cost article of your own and want to help inspire others, please leave a link below so we can all check it out. See More

Hello there--I am new to this program so I believe that there is some sort of "meeting" today for Content Managers. Can anyone please tell me how this will work or how I even "get to the meeting"? Is there a planned topic of discussion?

Also, it says 2 pm but I guess that is Eastern time? I am in Central Time Zone. Sorry to be a dummy, can someone help me out?

Nika See More

Almost daily, I get emails like the one below from strangers. They're usually requests to contribute content to IMPACT or asking for backlinks. Outreach emails are important to many marketers' content strategy. Unfortunately, most of the emails I receive get deleted without a response.
So tell me, what is wrong with this email and what could they have done to get me to respond? See More

Hey Content Managers,

We talk a lot about how blogging can improve your keyword rankings and bring traffic to your website. But more important than that is these articles should help move people further along in their buying journey.
If you're getting views on your blogs, but you're not converting many leads, you might be making one of 6 common mistakes.
Check out this article by our Director of Inbound & Content Services, Justine Timoteo Thomas, 6 Reasons You're Not Generating Leads with Your Blog Content

Let me know if any of you are falling into one (or ALL) of these traps.

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I am the owner of a business and hired a journalist to write our first article using the They Ask, You Answer methodology. I am thinking that all the articles should be ghost written for me. Is ghost writing the best choice for the They Ask, You Answer methodology? See More

Hey everyone! I'm working on identifying articles for a client that they should optimize to be more updated to present-day situations but also so it is more sales enabling than purely Top of Funnel information.

To give more context, the sales team isn't fully bought in just yet and it'd be hard to ask them to find articles they need updated, so instead, I'm jumping in to help start the process.

Would love to hear the experiences you've had for optimizing content in this way and perhaps when you bring in Sales in that process? See More

This is something content managers come up against time and time again—they need collaboration from the rest of the company to create content, but it's often something that's pushed aside as "the content manager's job" in its entirety.

True- content managers do a lot of writing and creating content, but for a company to form a culture of content in following a They Ask, You Answer philosophy, everyone needs to be engaged in the effort in some form or another.

At IMPACT, it's set in stone from the get-go in our employee handbook that everyone contribute at least 1 piece of content per month. And yet we still have a rockstar Content Team ( Liz Moorehead , Ramona Sukhraj , and John Becker ) who crank out TONs of content themselves.... See More

Thanks to Liz Moorehead for a great article about Revenue Teams!

I'm wondering if anyone else is embracing this model in your organization?

As our first and only marketing employee, I already "live" in the sales department. I participate in all of our weekly sales meetings and activities, and my goals are directly tied to sales goals.

I've been adamant that while we need more marketing manpower, we should not create a separate marketing department. Instead, I'd like to see our current Sales Team Plus One Marketer grow into a Revenue Team with a more balanced representation of both sales and marketing professionals.

I've already adopted a lot of the reporting tactics Liz mentioned in the article, like weekly updates of content published... See More

What's up IMPACT Plussers?

My computer recently crashed, and I lost all my bookmarks and Google Chrome extensions.

Needless to say, I was devastated.

Once the tears dried up and I glued my hair back to my head, I started putting the pieces back together.

One of the first things I did was re-install my favorite Chrome extensions that I use almost every day as a content marketer.

And that got me thinking: What Chrome extensions do other content marketers use that they can't live without? What makes these extensions so valuable (beyond the FREE price tag)?

So I put together a quick list of 4 of my favorite Chrome extensions I use when updating existing blogs, stalking competitor articles, or just double checking that all is good and well on my... See More

Is it just me, or does it sometimes feel like pulling teeth for content managers to get all the information they need from SMEs?

One thing I notice in lots of content managers is the hesitancy to ask follow up questions for when experts explain something in a really technical way (that literally no one but them understands). I think there's sometimes a fear of "looking dumb" when really, the job of the content manager is to distill the expert's knowledge in a simple way that anyone (even someone "dumb" about the specifics of that industry) can understand.

What are the best practices you've incorporated into your process to get the experts to actually share their expertise with you in an efficient way? See More

A very interesting post in Search Engine Land about productivity, location, and the long shadow COVID-19 will have on marketing.

About productivity:

"Removing the boundaries around work – such as morning and afternoon commutes – allows employees to work more efficiently, and just plain work more. Indeed, during the pandemic many workers report working more hours than before it began. That has led many to feel stressed, fatigued and even burned out."


About moving from urban centers:

"A related Fishbowl survey, of 18,000 workers across companies, found that WFH was motivating a substantial number of them to move or consider moving from high-cost urban centers to lower-rent locations. Just over 43% of survey respondents in the top 50 markets... See More

You've read They Ask, You Answer, and are ready to start writing Big 5 content and addressing the questions your sales team gets online. From someone who has helped navigate many companies through this transition, here are a couple of things you need to be aware of and create a plan to overcome.

Company-wide buy-in: They Ask, You Answer isn't a content strategy. It's a business philosophy that requires your entire organization to agree that the best way to increase sales is to become the best educator in your space. If this doesn't happen, you'll struggle to produce the quantity and quality of content that you need to. The sales team needs to work in lockstep with your content manager to provide great ideas for articles based on... See More

'Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.' -- E.L. Doctorow

It's not about content marketing, but I love the idea that you might not understand the whole journey when you start out, and that's okay. See More

Hey everybody! What tools are you using to write and edit your content? I've heard good things about the Hemingway app but I've never used it. See More

Is there such thing as too many links in a blog? I know we need to include external and internal links within a blog - but what is the right amount of links? I just read one online that had 16 links within the text. See More