08
Jan

Make Your Mark on Inbound Marketing with Storymaking: How storymaking helps you connect with your audience

January 8, 2016
by: in B2B , Marketing strategy , Content marketing No comments  

Make Your Mark with Storymaking

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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16
Dec

[Free Download] Crimes Against Content: The content marketing & PR party game

December 16, 2015
by: in B2B , Content marketing Comments (2)   

[Free Download] Crimes Against Content: The content marketing & PR party game

If you know Rep Ink, you know we do it up big with our annual holiday card. Last year, we unveiled a custom-illustrated storybook, telling the tale of  how little Timmy wooed Santa with some good ol’ content marketing. Could we really top that? Abso-friggin-lutely. It may have taken us a few months of late-night brainstorming over cabernet, but we did it.

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14
Dec

What Elf on the Shelf can teach us about content shelf life

December 14, 2015
by: in B2B , Content marketing No comments  

What Elf on the Shelf can teach us about content shelf life

What’s in an elf?

I remember my first encounter with Elf on the Shelf: I was babysitting a pair of siblings who in no way got along. The destructive duo had this ugly felt elf who giochi gonfiabili changed positions every night, but they weren’t allowed to touch him, or else his magic would be ruined. If they acted up, the elf would tattle to Santa and they would be put on the naughty list. It was the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard — but they believed it.

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05
Nov

How to create content to fuel a zombie’s appetite

November 5, 2015
by: in B2B , Content marketing No comments  

Zombie post

The Walking Dead

I love AMC’s “The Walking Dead.”

After being hesitant about its gruesome content and the strangeness of zombie subculture for all of these years, I finally gave in after multiple “normal” people told me it was worth the watch. I got hooked on it just this year, making sure to catch up to the current season with plenty of Netflix binge sessions.

Part of what makes #TWD such a successful gonfiabile percorso ad ostacoli show (other than its overabundance of gory zombie attacks, as some may argue) is the storyline. And good stories, zombie survival-themed or otherwise, make the experience great. And worth live-tweeting.

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02
Nov

Simple is Better: How plain language benefits your content

November 2, 2015
by: in B2B , Content marketing No comments  

Simple is Better: How plain language benefits your content

OK, so I’m pretty new to content marketing. As of this week, I’ve got a little over one full month of on-the-job experience under my belt, and I’m well aware that I have a long way to go before I can declare myself an actual content marketer. I’ll get there, just bear with me for now.

Like any form of writing, inbound marketing has its own unique flare about it. I’ve found it to be sort of like personal gonfiabili sportivi blogging, but on a professional platform. You pick and choose which topics really interest you, and write about why other people should care about them, too. So, my first impression of inbound marketing is teaching the world about the things you enjoy, which is pretty damn cool.

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12
Mar

Buy me dinner first: How to nurture leads without coming on too strong

March 12, 2015
by: in B2B , Marketing strategy , Content marketing Comment (1)  

nurture leads without coming on too strong

According to a recent benchmark study by Marketo, 50 percent of leads aren’t ready to buy yet. That’s why it’s important to nurture them for a while and separate those who will never buy from those who will.

With advanced marketing automation software, companies can see a prospect’s behavior on their website virtually in real time. As consumers, we all know this on some level, but when your sales rep calls me while I’m still perusing your website or before my e-book is even finished downloading, I am forever turned off from whatever it is you’re selling.

Here’s why:

  • I haven’t had a chance to determine whether what I’ve downloaded is going to help me solve a problem, or simply take up space in my cloud
  • I stumbled upon your content while doing at least five or six things at once (and definitely don’t have time to hear a sales pitch)
  • I want to conduct additional research to compare solutions, if I’ve even identified what they are at this point

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11
Mar

Change the game in your career by becoming a visible expert

March 11, 2015
by: in B2B , Marketing strategy , Content marketing No comments  

How I transformed my career from lawyer to ESPN reporter to sports marketing consultant by becoming a ‘visible expert’

476720863On Wednesday, March 11, I’m honored to be a panelist at the Jacksonville Women’s Leadership Forum on a panel entitled “Game Changers: Career-Defining Moments.” At just 33, why was I chosen for a panel on career-defining moments? It was probably because of that big career switch I made four years ago when I left my law practice and became ESPN’s sports business reporter on my way to becoming a nationally recognized expert on the business of college sports.

As I’ve prepared for my panel the past few weeks, I’ve been struggling to pinpoint the exact moment that changed my career.

My gut reaction was to say it was when I got my first book deal. Except, I wouldn’t have gotten that first book deal if I hadn’t written a legal journal article on the same subject or blogged about it for months afterwards. So was one of those my game-changing moment?

It took me a few weeks, but I finally figured it out. All those things — my legal journal article, my blogging, my book deal, my eventual invitation to write for Forbes and appear on television for Comcast Sports Southeast — they were all stairsteps on my way to my true game-changing moment: when I became a “visible expert” on the business of college sports.

What is a visible expert?

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25
Feb

Why every blog needs an editorial calendar

February 25, 2015
by: in B2B , Marketing strategy , Content marketing No comments  

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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11
Sep

Blog topic ideas: nine ways to beat blogger’s block

September 11, 2014
by: in B2B , Content marketing No comments  

wall of post-it notes and ideas

Stuck in a rut when trying to find blog topics? Once you’ve been doing this content marketing thing for a while, you may feel like you’re running out of things to talk about. Much like writer’s block, blogger’s block is a real epidemic. There’s a time and place for repurposing, but where do you turn when you want to churn out new topics? Here are nine sources of inspiration:

1. LinkedIn groups – what are your prospects discussing with their peers? How can you help? 

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08
Aug

That’s a Wrap! Google’s autocomplete headache, PR firms freeze out climate change skeptics, John Oliver skewers native advertising, Nine West steps in it, B&B’s bad bridal policy

August 8, 2014
by: in Content marketing , Public relations No comments  

As wild weather bombards parts of the nation, it’s time for Reputation Ink’s round-up of the week’s wildest stories in PR, marketing and social media. Which companies and tactics weathered the storm? You be the judge:

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