via Content Marketing Institute http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2013/12/content-marketing-ideas-2013/

By MICHELE LINN published DECEMBER 22, 2013

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Earlier this week, Joe released the 6th annual content marketing predictions. While it’s fun to hypothesize on what 2014 will have in store, it’s also amazing to see how much has changed across the content marketing industry in the last year. While we had dozens of savvy experts cover the gamut of the past year’s advances, nine themes seemed to have emerged to characterize the 2013 content marketing landscape.

Strategy

If nothing else, 2013 distinguished itself as the year of strategy. As our annual content marketing research revealed, those with a documented content marketing strategy are far more likely to be effective than those working without one. How do you create a strategy that will guide your content marketing efforts in the right direction? Here are some essentials to get you started:

Planning

One key component of a successful content strategy is editorial planning, which was a hot topic this year. What type of info do you need to have to build a workable plan, and how do you keep it organized as your content processes take shape and start to grow? These posts address these questions, and more:

Ideas

Of course, you need to fill your calendar with content. If you are looking for fresh ideas to keep the pump primed, these posts can provide some inspiration:

Storytelling

While the notion of brands as storytellers is nothing new, it’s tough for brands to find the right story to tell, let alone become familiar with the new perspective and processes that content marketing brings to the table. To learn what it takes to excel at brand storytelling, check out these posts:

Google

The world of SEO is ever evolving, and this year was no exception. Google underwent a lot of changes that kept content marketers on their toes, in addition to introducing a new suite of tools:

Value

The job of content marketing is never done. Rather, smart marketers realize that they continually need to measure what is working (and what isn’t) and evolve. At many organizations, it’s also imperative to prove value on a regular basis, making ongoing measurement essential to the content marketing process. If this is your challenge, these posts can help:

Social

Like search, social media plays a huge role in providing content marketers with ideas and giving them a way to distribute their content. The consensus is that marketers should focus on the channels that make the most sense for their audience and customize their messages and content for those channels to make the biggest impact:

Curation

While creating original content is key to most organizations, curating content can also play a significant role — if executed in a smart way:

Brands

While there is no substitute for trying things yourself, it’s also helpful to learn from what others are doing — particularly those businesses that are finding great success with content marketing. Our readers have found these stories on what brands have accomplished through content to be particularly inspiring:

I’d love to hear from you: What are your favorite lessons from 2013 that you’ll be taking into 2014?

Cover image via Bigstock

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Monday, January 13, 2014

36 Content Marketing Ideas from 2013