The 7 Themes My Content Marketing Blog Covered in 2012

With the end of the year fast approaching, this week I’m looking back at some of my content marketing blog posts from 2012. I’ve spent the past 12 months writing about several broad topics and I thought it might be helpful — for anyone new to my blog or my regular readers (do you exist?) — to organize my posts thematically.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my blog this year and would love to hear any feedback you may have!

Theme #1: Setting up a Content Marketing Team

Content marketing is rarely a one-man show. Doing it successfully often takes a combination of dedicated in-house staff and freelance resources, and the support of highly engaged co-workers:

• What to look for in a key content marketing hire: your managing editor
• How to build a stable of freelance writers and use them effectively for content marketing
• Leveraging your co-workers and peers to help you create content

Theme #2: Building a Content Factory

Many of the posts in my content marketing blog focused on how to build a content factory, i.e., the people, processes, and tools you’ll need to support your content marketing efforts effectively. Here they are:

• Why your company needs a content factory
• Figuring out if you’re ready to build a content factory
• Why a content factory isn’t a content farm
• How to get started with your content factory
• What your content factory should produce
• Rule for B2B content factory supremacy 
• Still don’t have a content factory? Here’s how to get ready to build one in 2013

 

Theme #3:Creating Kick-ass Content

This year, I also started a series on how to create “kick-ass” content. These posts offer step-by-step instruction on how to create content that will help drive your B2B marketing efforts:

• Case studies
• Reports
•  eBooks
• Speeches
• Press releases
• Business blogs
• Viral videos

 

Theme #4: Optimizing Your Content so that it Performs

Of course, there’s a lot more to creating content than just the mechanics of putting it together. You’ve also got to think about a lot of other factors such as the utility of that content, whether or not it’s optimized for search engines, and if it can help you convert leads:

• Making it useful
• Ensuring that it’s engaging
• Optimizing it for for search engines
• Creating high-quality inbound links to it
• Ensuring it’s ready to convert leads
• Ensuring it helps to build sales
• Positions your company for success

 

Theme #5:  Content Promotion and Distribution

You can have all of the best content in the world, but if you don’t know how to get it out to your target audience, what’s the point? The following posts can help with that:

• 6 outbound communications channels you must be using
• Creating regular subscribers to your content
• Content sharing sites you’ve got to be on

 

Theme #6: Content Marketing Tools and Services

To be effective at content marketing, you need the right tools (and sometimes services) to help you get the job done. These posts speak to various aspects of this theme:

• Editorial and content creation calendars
• Writer’s checklist
• Content marketing style guide
•  Questions to ask before choosing a CMS
• Content marketing service providers

Theme #7: Miscellaneous Rants and Raves

Ok, it’s not exactly a theme, but I enjoyed writing these posts and wanted them to be reflected in this list. Check them out if you haven’t already seen them:

• The negative effects of Facebook on communication
• What is thought leadership?
• Ideas from Content Marketing World 2012
• What the Oscars can teach us about content marketing

Again, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my content marketing blog this year as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it. Please share your thoughts and/or feedback in the comments section below.