Author: financialpost.com

By its bootstraps: How Netflix uses content to market content

Netflix is lavishing attention on the promotion of its exclusive properties using content marketing — unique material designed to stimulate buzz around such hit fare as House of Cards and Orange is the New Black. The online television provider makes it look easy, really. Yet copycats take note: campaigns of Netflix’s complexity require effective partnerships with reputable media brands, the services of professional content creators, and research into results to make sure that marketing dollars are well-invested.

“Around the thought leadership of sponsored content, Netflix is at the top of the heap,” says Chad Pollitt, co-founder of Relevance, a digital magazine, agency and events company specializing in content strategy, and an adjunct professor of Internet marketing at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. “One thing they’re doing well is partnering with outlets, such as the New York Times, with strong brand equity. They’re not doing massive-scale content marketing campaigns on mommy blogger sites.”

 

Read More at financialpost.com

Author: Jeff Bullas

What Content Strategy Will Work For You? (With Examples)

There are so many contrasting views on content marketing and creation, that it is impossible to find your way out, unscathed and unaffected.

While some say ‘tis the year of video marketing, others insist email marketing was and is the best way forward. On top of that, there is an ever-going war on the length of written content – whether it should be customer friendly or SEO friendly, snack-sized or long form, and so on.

For someone who is not intimately involved with content marketing, selecting amongst the divergent routes may look especially daunting.

So here we are, with no-bullshit, bitterly honest reviews for a few content strategies (revolving around different content formats) that worked – or didn’t – for some companies.

No sports fan would be a stranger to SB Nation’s immersive game threads and biting news. The site boasts more than 80 million unique visitors and great content, on and off-season.

A while back, they introduced long-form content in addition to their usual news bytes and short commentaries. These included in-depth profiles, memoirs, essays and thought-provoking editorials.

 

Read More at jeffbullas.com

Author: Kylan Nieh

We’ve been hard at work since launching the new Campaign Manager last year. Now we’re rolling out several new features to make it even easier for marketers to manage and optimize their campaigns on LinkedIn.

These releases are just some of the many advertising platform enhancements we’ll make in 2016 to help marketers better engage LinkedIn’s audience of over 433 million influencers and business decision-makers.

With that, here are some new tools and features we are adding to Campaign Manager.

We know that thinking through and customizing a target audience for very specific marketing objectives can take some time, especially for people who manage many Sponsored Content, Sponsored InMail, or Text Ads campaigns. Advertisers will soon be able to save a targeted professional audience for reuse on other campaigns, which should save you time when setting up your targeting.

Starting in early June, advertisers will see a “Save audience as template” section at the bottom of the Audience page, which is where you set up your campaign targeting. This option will allow you to save all selected targeting facets as a template. You can apply that template to any future campaigns across any account you have access to, without having to manually enter your targeting criteria multiple times.

 

Read More at business.linkedin.com

Author: themuse.com

I’m an adult with a job and responsibilities, yet I’m a Taylor Swift super fan. While some can’t see past her youth or twee blond looks, I see a seriously powerful businesswoman—one we should learn from, not underestimate. Her latest release, 1989, garnered three Grammy nominations, saw the best opening-week sales of her career, and became the “only instant-platinum release” of 2014. Impressive.

Last year was a critical turning point for Swift’s brand. As Rolling Stone points out, she had a bit of a coming-out party, debuting as a full-fledged pop star. Gone were the frilly white dresses and songs about waiting for Prince Charming. Instead, she debuted a new identity, one brimming with business prowess and brand awareness.

Want to rebrand yourself or your business? Take a page from T. Swift’s playbook.

Music critics, teen fans, and grown-ups like me lost their minds over 1989. But it was a business decision that kept Swift on top the of news cycle: She removed her catalogue from Spotify. Swift says Spotify does not compensate artists adequately, and as she boldly put it in a Wall Street Journal op-ed: “Music is art, and art is important and rare. Important, rare things are valuable. Valuable things should be paid for.” Amen.

 

Read More at themuse.com

Author: themuse.com

Jennifer Goff was fresh out of college when she landed a dream job at a thriving art gallery in San Francisco.

Before long, she climbed the ranks to become the director of PR and media. She loved it, but after three years in the role, she began to feel restless.

“I had adapted to the continuous deadlines, and had established smooth, efficient routines—yet I was less absorbed by the work,” says the 27-year-old Goff. “I no longer had moments when I felt ‘in over my head.’ And, oddly, I missed that.”

After reflecting on her situation, Goff realized that she wanted to expand her writing and marketing skills beyond what her current gig offered. So she made the difficult decision to move on, accepting a content marketing job at an Austin-based startup.

“My team in San Francisco was extremely close-knit, so it was hard for me to say goodbye,” she admits. “But I looked ahead to the benefits that could come from exploring the unknown.”

In fact, Goff recalls a quote from Yahoo president and CEO Marissa Mayer that really resonated for her when she was contemplating the career move: “When you have different options, you should choose the thing that looks like it will be more difficult, because that usually turns out to be the right choice.”

 

Read More at themuse.com