

Tales from the flip side: What judging the ADDYs taught me
Oscars weekend I had the pleasure (and honor) of serving as a judge for the Little Rock Advertising Federation’s American Advertising Awards (ADDYs) competition. As someone who has entered creative work into the ADDYs in multiple districts throughout the course of my career, including our first-ever entry here at Rep Ink, it was eye-opening to be on the other side of the table.
And since I can’t say anything specific about the work or the winners (who will be announced later in March), here are a few things I wanted to share about the experience:
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8 imminent content marketing trends you can’t ignore in 2016
2016 is here with lots of ch-ch-ch-ch-changes to offer (R.I.P. David Bowie). Yes, we’ll be getting a new president, but our industry will also be accelerating like your uncle’s new Tesla. Luckily for me, some of the top content marketing blogs have already done the hard work of tracking down industry idols (e.g. Ann Handley; Sonia Simone) to ask their predictions for this coming year. And though they may have not been able to predict the name of Kimye’s baby like this guy,
I’m feeling pretty confident that these industry gurus will be pretty spot-on with their forecasts.
Let’s get trendy
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Make Your Mark on Inbound Marketing with Storymaking: How storymaking helps you connect with your audience
One evening about a year ago, I found myself trying on glasses frames for about two hours in my apartment. I don’t even wear glasses. But my former roommate Victor does. He had ordered five pairs of frames from Warby Parker as part of their free five-day home try-on offer. I thought this was the coolest thing; I’d certainly never heard of anything like it. And as a college gonfiabili student with no discernible income, being able to try on glasses at home for free was pretty damn great, even if I wasn’t looking for glasses in the first place.
Victor and I tried on all five pairs he ordered and explored dozens of other designs on the Warby Parker website. I had to wonder: what was the reason behind such an awesome try-on offer? Their company story is fascinating. It began when the founders’ frustration with crazy-expensive glasses finally boiled over. They wanted to make sight—a basic necessity—more readily accessible to those in need of glasses. And so they did.
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Don’t Give Up On Newswires Just Yet: The role they can play in your press release strategy
Recently, Reputation Ink has been distributing client press releases left and right, and it got us thinking: are newswires worth it? Like really worth it?
In the past, the answer was a resounding ‘yes’ for most public relations professionals, and still is scivolo gonfiabile for some. Newswires were a go-to resource for distribution and SEO purposes, especially for corporate entities that had the funds to use a wire service every time they had news to distribute.
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Inbound Marketing and Inbound Sales: the new peanut butter ‘n’ jelly
If you read our blog regularly or follow Rep Ink on social media, you know that our entire team went to HubSpot’s annual INBOUND conference in Boston last month. The conference is the largest event dedicated to the art of inbound marketing (often also called content marketing, although that’s subject to lots of debate). Whatever term you prefer, this is the practice of creating quality content that attracts people to your company rather than the old outbound “interruption” method of cold calling, advertising, buying email lists and praying for leads and sales.
So, why, over and over again, did I keep hearing about sales?
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RAMP up your brand with curiosity
It may have killed the cat, but it could save your brand
INBOUND track star
I started my new agency life with the largest gathering of marketing professionals at HubSpot’s INBOUND conference. INBOUND was an incredible pre-first-day-of-new-agency-job training experience. Between riding in Ubers around Boston and sitting through Amy Schumer’s comedy act together, I got acclimated to my new team pretty quickly.
Other than learning my PR for sprinting to the next popular session (coming in hot at 6:03.23), my favorite part of INBOUND was learning from the kings and queens of marketing themselves. King marketer Rohit Bhargava particularly stood out to me.
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Showcasing Your Shortcomings: How transparency makes your marketing stronger
Don’t just mention your weaknesses, lead with them
Round two of the Republican Party debates ensued last week, meaning the run to the 2016 presidential election is well under way. If you carved out a few hours of your life to listen to it, I commend you, I really do.
Because you probably found it more like a poorly put-together reality TV show than an official political debate.
Amazingly enough, the debates do offer some beneficial material for content marketers – a lesson on exactly what NOT to do.
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Why #GIRLBOSS interview missed the mark (and the message)
INKsights from #INBOUND15
Writing. Strategizing. Creating. Pumpkin spiced lattes (finally).
As my professional career chugs along, I continue to gain a greater understanding of what truly energizes me day in, and day out. Female empowerment—that’s emerged as another biggie for me. Following the stories of women who’ve rocked the business world inspires me, it motivates me. It’s something I’ve loved about walking into the doors of Reputation Ink every day.
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Are you helping or hurting your marketing content?
Effective writing is an integral part of marketing success and excellent writers are necessary in producing valuable content. While sometimes you’re helping your marketing content, other times (without noticing) you could be hurting it. If you’re not writing with a purpose, you’ve chosen the latter. Since this is my first time working in a marketing firm, it was no surprise that I needed to sharpen my writing skills and fine-tune my technique. If you’re in need of some improvement (let’s be honest, everyone has room to improve), there are a number of resources available online to help hone your skills.
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