The Modern Marketer: Part Artist, Part Scientist

Today's guest blogger is Matt Wesson, a Marketing Content Specialist at Pardot. 

The marketing profession is changing. The Mad Men-style era of marketing, which prized creativity above all, has evolved as technology provides new opportunities to track performance and create data-driven marketing campaigns. While many view this shift from creativity to data as a battle between two distinct and separate ideologies, the truth is that marketers can’t afford to pick sides.

The modern marketer needs to be multifaceted, with one foot planted in art and the other in science. The daily responsibilities of a marketer are not conveniently divided into quantitative and creative tasks and marketers that truly excel in today’s environment are those that can shift effortlessly between these two mindsets. Marketers need to become part artists and part scientist. We have put together the infographic below to help highlight the tremendous assets marketers can bring to the table if they are able to find a balance between the two.

Click on the image to see a larger version:

http://blogs.salesforce.com/company/2013/04/the-modern-marketer-part-artist-part-scientist-infographic.html

Tomorrow's webinar with @ChadPollitt - Improving Traffic & Conversions with Content Marketing

Whether you realize it or not, there can always be an improvement in how you're turning

real online marketing into more viewers and more buyers. Web marketing analyst and expert Chad Pollitt comes to our Wednesday Webinar series with his knowledge of increasing traffic and conversions within the aspect of content marketing. This presentation will explore the relationship between online content, its channels of distribution and the top of the sales funnel using over three years-worth of data. In addition, the inbound marketing campaign process will be defined and dissected. The bottom line is that attendees will leave knowing exactly what they need to do and how to do it in order to substantially improve web traffic and conversions from all inbound channels.

Click here to register for FREE (4-24-13 at 12:30pm EST)
http://bit.ly/15fqVfl

Bio:
For more than 10 years Chad Pollitt has played an integral role in designing, developing, deploying, executing and tracking robust web marketing strategies for hundreds of companies and brands. He is a decorated veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, a former Army National Guard Commander and the Director of Marketing at digitalrelvance (formerly Slingshot SEO). He’s authored several inbound marketing ebooks, is a member of a Forbes Top 100 list and has been featured by several top media brands. His other writings and articles have been published in dozens of newspapers, magazines and websites throughout the world.

Click here to register for FREE (4-24-13 at 12:30pm EST)
http://bit.ly/15fqVfl

Have Your Audited Your Content?

You may have heard that content is king and you need to your customers interested in your products and services by creating it - but how do you know that you're creating content that the customer wants? How do you know how much content and what types you have created, and if there are any holes in your content marketing strategy? Here is where a content audit comes in handy.

According to Christopher Detzi, a comment audit can be used to determine 4 things:

1. Reveal the true scale of the website’s content (there was less than we thought).
2. Clarify and refine the project scope (it took on a different focus than we had expected).
3. Facilitate strategic discussions about design objectives and direction (which were different from what our stakeholders had imagined).
4. Establish a common language for the team to use throughout the project (which was more complicated than we had anticipated).

Your analysis of your marketing content must be both quantitative and qualitative to be effective - that is, you need to determine how much content you have and what types of content you have. The content audit above is a great place to start when trying to determine the content types. You can further break your content down by what category it falls under (for example, internet marketing content might further be divided into SEO content, PPC content, and social media marketing content). This should help you get a clearer picture of what you already have and key areas you want to focus on that you may have missed, or don't have a lot of. After your audit, revise your strategy accordingly and don't forget to track it with your SEO tools to make sure that it's having the intended effect.

Have any personal tips on creating and curating content? Let us know in the comments.

Content Marketing for Your Business

Not sure how to combine approaches when getting your linkbait online? While you may want to consider getting Hootsuite to jumpstart your social media campaigns on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more, you may also realize that you need some sort of plan to get you social media and company blog to all work together. Never fear - SEOmoz has come out with a handy guide that offers you ideas on the perfect way to plan content.

The only hint that's missing? Don't forget to disseminate your content across all of your social media. Your blog post can become a few tweets or Facebook posts without you struggling to come up with original content across all of your social media.

What are some strategies that you already use when planning your content?

InternetMarketingClub.org Presents The Brand As Publisher - Should Content Be the Center of Your Marketing

This Wednesday Webinar, provided by Joe Pulizzi, content marketing evangelist, founder of the Content Marketing Institute, and CEO of SocialTract, will include strategies to help you leverage the power of content marketing.

The webinar will provide examples and case studies of successful content marketing and will detail the 8 things you should do right now with your content marketing.

This free webinar will take place Wednesday, December 7, 2011 from 12:30pm EST – 1:30pm EST. To register and for more information please visit: The Brand As Publisher - Should Content Be the Center of Your Marketing