Grammar Etiquette 101 [infographic]

March 4, 2015

grammar etiquette 101

Joining National Peanut Butter Day (and National Wine Day), today marks one of our most beloved quirky holidays. It’s National Grammar Day. And in true, celebratory spirit, we’re giving y’all a gift. (Who said Christmas and birthdays had to have all the fun?) Spread the love by sharing our “Grammar Etiquette 101” infographic below to coworkers, family and perhaps those special Facebook friends who don’t proofread before sharing whatever it is that’s on their minds.

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Why every blog needs an editorial calendar

February 25, 2015

GettyImages_488499107Many of the clients we work with understand the benefits of having a blog. Most, however, haven’t embraced developing an editorial calendar. That’s a huge mistake.

Assigning bloggers to specific days, thereby creating an editorial calendar, makes many bloggers nervous. You want the freedom and flexibility to write when it’s convenient for you – we understand that. However, an editorial calendar has benefits that cannot be overlooked.

Ensure frequency

An editorial calendar ensures you have a minimum number of posts per week. According to a study by HubSpot, companies that post more than 15 blogs per month receive five times more traffic on their website than companies that don’t blog at all. If you have a smaller team of writers — or maybe it’s just you — 15 posts per month might not be a reasonable goal. However, the same study showed companies that increase blogging from three to five times per month to six to eight times per month almost double their leads.

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Inbound marketing strategy: Where to focus in 2015

February 19, 2015

inbound marketing strategy 2015As inbound marketing gains in popularity, some companies are playing catch up, while others are reaping the rewards of their efforts and refining their strategies. The cardinal rule in content marketing hasn’t changed along with the calendar year: it will forever be to focus on helpful, useful content that is well written and produced. As more and more companies see the ROI of inbound and shift more marketing dollars to content marketing, it’s important to know where to focus your attention:

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Marketing automation is not a strategy (and it’s useless without content)

January 26, 2015

Tech_frustration_with_copy

Do NOT buy that marketing automation software (just yet). Before you pull the trigger, please read this blog post first.

Marketing automation is an incredibly valuable tool that is transforming the marketing industry. In the space of one year, the number of marketing technology companies has nearly doubled, rising to nearly 2,000 in 2015 according to Marketing Land.

However, it still faces an embarrassingly high failure rate of 60 percent. According to the Sales Benchmark Index, three out of five marketing automation installations fail, meaning they are under-utilized, not used at all, or eventually canceled.

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Want employees to learn and grow? Let them blog

January 9, 2015

How content marketing can fuel employee learning and development

Intellectual growth should commence atI have always been an insatiable learner. I was a big reader as a child and now as a professional, it’s almost overwhelming the amount of books, blogs and articles that I want to read. But as I’ve gotten busier, like most people, reading has fallen by the wayside, with books piled up on my nightstand that I never quite get to.

However, I continue to learn and stay at the cutting edge of my industry. How? Content marketing. My agency is committed to writing and speaking about marketing and public relations topics, and thus I continually read and conduct research to ensure my blog posts and presentations are accurate, comprehensive and up to date.

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Yes, it’s that New Year’s post: one look back, two steps ahead

January 5, 2015

Superhero_20152014 was a big year for Reputation Ink. As many of us do at this time of year, over the holidays I reflected on the year. As I thought about how busy it had been, I started to think about everything we achieved and somewhat startled myself when I developed a list. Here are some of the highlights:

Out with the old, in with the Ink

We started the year as Reputation Capital. In March, we rebranded to Reputation Ink and haven’t looked back. While I loved the name that we originally launched with back in 2011 (and as any company founder knows, it can be hard to let go of some things), I now love the name Reputation Ink even more. It perfectly reflects our commitment and passion for quality writing and how we use great writing to build our clients’ reputations.

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Happy Holidays!

December 19, 2014

 
 

Social media stocking stuffer: tips for managing your company accounts

December 16, 2014

social media stocking stufferWhat’s my secret to being the coolest Santa? Pinterest. I click over to the giftee’s Pinterest page, scope out their pins and then I buy one of said pins. I’m jolly because it’s quick and easy; they’re merry and bright because they don’t have to fake a smile and shove their way through the Wal-Mart returns line.

While I’m in the spirit of giving, I’ll be straight up. I’m not going to all of your Pinterest pages to shower you with gifts. What will I give you? A social media stocking stuffer with helpful tips and tricks I’ve learned from managing business accounts.

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Converting website visitors into customers—the content marketing conversion process explained

December 12, 2014

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With any marketing, the end goal is to make money, right? If you talk to some marketers, you’d think their primary goal is “brand consistency” or “generating awareness” or “increasing website traffic.” But in the end, these aren’t the real reasons we as marketers get up in the morning and do our jobs. We are here to help our companies make money. Otherwise, our jobs wouldn’t exist. Thus it’s imperative that our content marketing efforts convert website visitors into leads, and eventually, into customers. But how does that happen?

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Want better marketing? Start by retaining your agency

December 4, 2014

teamwork, retaining an agency

Many companies struggle with determining whether it makes sense to secure a monthly retainer with an inbound agency or marketing firm, or employ these agencies on a project-only basis.

 

As someone who used to work for an agency on the project fee model, where assignments are scoped and an agreed-upon budget is determined before work begins, I can honestly say that the employees, the agency and the work suffer. Projects are underbid and overspent, leaving creatives frazzled and holes in agencies’ pockets.

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