We marketers are constantly in the search of inspiration. We want to know what’s happening in the world out there – applaud success stories, learn from other’s failures and more importantly try and remember the right examples that can be quoted to clients during the pitch meeting!
But with sooooo much content out there (and we are all guilty as charged on bombarding the world with 2M blogs a day!) how do you pick and filter the best from the noise? Well that is a very difficult task given that we keep pushing away even our “favourite” marketers and bloggers in read-later folders, which we often forget to even open for months.
To sum it up, you probably need to be fed with a good curation of all the best blogs that are worth a read. Well, the good news is that is what we have decide to do every month – put together the best reads on content, marketing, and business in general.
Here’s what we do at Justwords. We have each of our writers nominate their list of best reads from the month and put together a final list for you. (We do get into some serious debate when someone’s choice doesn’t make it to the list, but hey, in the interest of maintaining balance in the universe, we choose on the best that get voted in majority)
So here are the best reads that you might have missed in the month of July.
1. A quick ad writing refresher course we all need
As a digital marketer we execute SEM campaigns for our clients on a daily basis. There are tons of insights gained from our collective work, which we fervently and automatically implement during the execution phase. Some like ‘Sell benefits and not features’ is what we use as a baseline, while complete focus on analytics and A/B testing is what we like to keep trying out. This 30-point playback blog from Neil Patel works as a good refresher course for seasoned marketers and a checklist for the new ones.
2. The updated content creation tools checklist
Gone are the days when writers were alone with their typewriter and thoughts. From idea generation to grammar checks to hustler writing, if there is a writing aid you are looking for, someone probably has created it already. This is our favourite checklist. Here at Just Words, we use quite a combination of these on a daily basis.
An on wicked Fridays, when both deadlines and the weekend looms large, we love to use Write or Die to balance our work and play. (Like I said, its Wicked with a capital W)
3. Data Science and Marketing – Buzz word update
10 years ago, Digital Marketing and eCommerce was touted as the next big thing after the internet to conquer the world. That prediction has come true. Smart businesses have made digital a part of their regular marketing strategy. Today, the same prediction holds true for Data Science. In the next few years, it will be the one thing that controls a lot of our decision making. From Big Data to IoT, here’s what savvy marketers need to get started.
4. Smart, Alert, Strong, Kind, Brave
No – we aren’t describing qualities of a good content marketer. It is what we need to teach our kids when it comes to the big (sometimes bad) world of internet. And apologies for the cheat – this one isn’t a blog but a whole website. Why is this featured here? Because along with being content marketers, we shoulder the responsibility of making the world a better place with safer content for kids. This one is for your tea-time reads. Because we love to take a Saturday outing to a school near us to share some of this awesome content.
5. Influencers are the new brand
We’ve all been through that phase when we want to drink a particular brand of cola because our favourite actor was making it look ‘oh-so-cool’. (taste, health and calories be damned!). That is the power of influencer marketing which both traditional ATL and BTL have always been good at exploiting.
But the internet has made ‘brands’ out of food bloggers, shopaholics and even toy reviewers – everyday people who now have a decent ‘following’ on the internet. The numbers may not match up to Kim Kardashian’s but it is still good enough to get a lot of their followers to try out products. If you are selling tees, have a popular ‘Instagram model’ wear one and endorse it – and get their followers scampering to your website for more. Connect food porn with blogs and you just may get a restaurant’s registers ringing.
6. The updated guide to writing Privacy Policies
We content marketers don’t like to talk legal mumbo jumbo. Most people just find a similar website and do a straight cut paste after a Ctrl + F and replacing the company name. Do you have such redundant pages on your website which you can put an insomniac to sleep? Let’s take the ‘boring’ out of this page, keep it in the language we speak and understand. And more importantly, let’s not make it ‘fine print’ but be transparent and engaging.
7. Marketing conferences – to go or not to go
Do companies gain anything tangible by sending employees to marketing conferences? Is it just a bunch of people giving out ‘gyan’ while others hover around the cafe? Do employees get to network for their personal gains and not come back with anything tangible? Conferences are tricky – you can’t see the benefits immediately but you can definitely see the costs in your monthly bill. While it does get a bit difficult, our favourite Rand Fishkin sums it up well
CFO: What if we invest in our people and they leave?
CEO: What if we don’t and they stay?
8. If You Had 24 Hours to Improve Revenue as Much as Possible, What Would You Do?
Uncomfortable question, isn’t it?
It puts us digital marketers in quite a spot because all the analytics is clearly available and transparent. Besides, it will make you want to wear that creative genius hat and come up with a solution without A/B testing. What’s the key takeaway – it begins with a deep dive into analytics and the interpretation of data into meaningful conversion metrics.
The long answer to the question can be found from the best growth hackers here. The ‘offer’ and ‘flash sale’ strategy are the most recommended. But I would go on to suggest upselling to existing clients and using your customer database effectively too.
9. Does your business need to trademark its colours?
We know only too well where the content and plagiarism debate stands. But this sheds a different shade on the debate (pardon the pun). Colours can be trademarked! Yes, that was news to us too. We aren’t sure of individual country’s trademark laws but this can be done in the US. Well, it doesn’t mean that you can own the colour but you are the only one in the industry who can use it. If the colour is a big part of your identity, will you actually recommend it to a client?
10. Tips to make your dreams come true
This isn’t about content marketing. (phew!). It is one of those motivational reads that you need after an article like this to give you the inspiration to execute all you learned – not just today but to push forward with it for the rest of the month.
It is time to grab a cup of your favourite brew and settle in for the day. Good day!