How do you get better at content marketing? First, you need to do it yourself. Second, you need to read about best practices from people who have already succeeded.
The value of smart, complex content marketing strategy can’t be overstated. Whether you want to jumpstart your own business efforts, target a more specific audience, or just make sure you’re up to date with cutting-edge insights in a rapidly changing field, look to the leaders for wisdom. On that note, here are 12 must-read blogs you’ll want to bookmark and keep a close eye on in the year ahead.
Buffer
Buffer is a web-based tool that enables users to manage social media shares, but its blog offers excellent posts on social media marketing, analytics, and tools. Known for its transparency, Buffer is quick to share analyses of its own data and company practices.
Popular posts: “How to Get Your First 1,000 Followers on Every Major Social Media Network,” “15 Psychological Studies That Will Boost Your Content Marketing.”
Content Marketing Institute
The Content Marketing Institute is known for its leadership in the industry, and its blog is no exception. If you’re looking for content marketing best practices, up-to-date research and reports, nitty-gritty how-to posts, and content that’ll help move the industry forward, look no further than the CMI blog.
Popular posts: “How to Know What Content Drives Traffic,” “Why Your Content Is Sabotaging Your Lead Generation.”
Copyblogger
Full disclosure: I write for Copyblogger from time to time. And I’m proud that they choose to feature my work alongside work by content marketing gurus like Brian Clark and Sonia Simone. Copyblogger has always been an incredible resource for nuts-and-bolts copywriting for consultants, publishers, freelancers, and small business owners. Other topics covered in a clear and accessible way include non-gimmicky SEO, email marketing, content marketing, landing pages, and more.
Popular posts: “The Right Way to Think About Google,” “The ABCs of Landing Pages That Work (Infographic).”
Digiday
Not only does Digiday offer honest information on digital media and marketing, it often goes out on a limb by asking intriguing questions and making bold insights. Satisfy your curiosity with the site’s blog posts, which always approach brands, agencies, publishers, and platforms from novel angles.
Popular posts: “The Many Definitions Publishers Use for ‘Platform,’” The State of Native Ads on Mobile in 5 Charts.”
HubSpot
HubSpot’s marketing blog is an authoritative resource loaded with inbound marketing strategy, templates, infographics, and how-tos related to lead gen, analytics, landing pages, blogging, SEO, and social.
Popular posts: “A Beginner’s Guide to Creating Visual Content (Free E-Book),” “UX vs. Marketing: Can These Opposites Attract?“
KISSmetrics
Best known for their web analytics solution, KISSmetrics also has a killer blog that provides very detailed posts about analytics, marketing, and testing—with tons of examples and data to back up any conclusions.
Popular posts: “5 Smart Marketing Predictions for 2015 That All CMOs Should Know About,” “Balancing the Art & Science of Content Marketing (Infographic)“
LKR Social Media
Social media marketing maven Laura Roeder’s blog is an essential read for small business owners trying to get a handle on their own strategy without feeling overwhelmed. That’s because it’s easy to understand, fun to read, and gives you takeaways and strategies you can immediately implement.
Popular posts: “How to Make Your Marketing 13 Times More Likely to Succeed, and Other Surprising Stats from 2014,” “The Surprisingly Simple Secret to Hooking More Devoted Blog Readers.”
Moz
Who better to get SEO and inbound marketing information from than a leader in the industry? Moz blog offers tips, tricks, and strategies for improving your content and brand marketing, as well as search and social.
Popular posts: “Illustrated Guide to Advanced On-Page Topic Targeting for SEO,” “When Is a Blog the Right Form of Content Marketing?“
Quick Sprout
In this blog, entrepreneur Neil Patel shares content marketing secrets he’s learned from his own consulting business and from starting companies like KISSmetrics.
Popular posts: “How I Reached 100,000 Visitors with These 7 Rules,” “How to Structure a Perfect LinkedIn Profile.”
Seth Godin
Entrepreneur and bestselling author Seth Godin coined and developed the term “permission marketing.” Each day on his blog, he shares his insight on marketing, business, creativity, and the way ideas are spread. Posts are short and sweet, always thought-provoking, and sometimes even philosophical.
Popular posts: “A Three-Step Marketing Ladder,” “Organizing for Growth.”
Signal vs. Noise
For those of us who’d be hopelessly lost without Basecamp as our project management tool, the company’s brand blog has instant credibility. The Signal vs. Noise blog, around since 1999, delves into system administration, programming, bootstrapping, writing, design, and customer support. Signal vs. Noise could never be accused of being a “me too” blog.
Popular posts: “Accepting the Worst,” “Sharing a First Draft.”
Social Triggers
Derek Halpern delves into the psychology behind online marketing to explain how you can get traffic and sales, launch courses, deal with challenging customers, and increase your conversion rates. Social Triggers is endearingly edgy and always to-the-point.
Popular posts: “New PDF: 7 Things That Make Content Go Viral,” “Struggling to Make More Sales? Follow These 2 Simple Steps…“
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