Ever Considered Pay-per-Lead Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing can be a great way to get started in the online marketing world. The reason I love affiliate marketing is that you can test your online marketing skills with someone else’s product before going out and creating your own.

Creating your own products takes tons of time. There’s also no guarantee that it will sell. But if you sell someone else’s product and promote it and the product gets tons of sales, then you can use that same strategy when your create your own product.

When starting out, you can use pay per lead affiliate marketing. This is one of the most popular techniques in affiliate marketing and you get a better commission than display ads.

If you’re in the personal finance industry, check out LeadNetwork.com to generate your leads. It is a trusted and established company that is known for its high industry payouts.

The LeadNetwork creates products that are needed in the financial marketplace. The purpose is to connect lenders with consumers looking for installment loans, payday loans, and startup business loans.

Leadnetwork has high rates of conversion, proprietary technology, superb digital marketing materials, high ethical standards, a weekly payment schedule, and unwavering support for their publishers.

It works based off an auction-based system. This means that the lead is put at the highest price possible. From there, the price will gradually lower until a buyer is ready to complete the deal.

When you use this affiliate program, you get lifetime commissions. When you refer a new client you’ll continually generate commission from that client for forever.

With Leadnetwork they have a payment threshold of $100. Once you hit the $100 mark they can pay you through PayPal, Wire Transfer, EPESE, ePayments and Webmoney.

The leads you generate need to be based in the United States but you can be located anywhere in the world.

If your website is in the finance niche it could be very profitable for you to check out affiliate network mentioned above.

Original post: Ever Considered Pay-per-Lead Affiliate Marketing?

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8 Affiliate Marketing Myths That Are Holding You Back Financially

Affiliate marketing is a funny thing – it’s something you can either fall in love with, or get overwhelmed by.

Defined as an online sales tactic that lets a product owner increase sales by allowing others targeting the same audience – ‘affiliates’ – to earn a commission by recommending the product to others, it’s mainly controversial because there are so many myths surrounding it.

If you’re reading this post, I’m guessing you’re ready to launch an affiliate marketing program for your blog or business – either that, or you’re looking to earn better money from your existing one.

So in this post I’m going to debunk eight of the myths surrounding affiliate marketing and online joint ventures – the ones that frequently cause problems for brands and businesses. It’s important to understand these myths if you want to improve your sales and leads, and start seeing bigger money land in your bank account, so buckle up for the ride.

Affiliate marketing is effective not just because you can determine the amount of commission paid to your partners, but because it’s holistic, meaning that it can be leveraged across all channels (whether it’s through paid search, referrals like Amazon, affiliate networks or other channels).

So here are eight crazy affiliate marketing myths that you need to avoid.

1. It’s too competitive!

Some people assume that affiliate marketing is just too competitive to make money and that there’s no way to create a profit because you have to be louder than everyone else in a crowded marketplace.

Actually, the opposite is true.

Competition is a sign of user demand, indicating that there’s tons of money to be made in the industry.

According to a report by Emarketer, total online sales in Australia are set to reach $32 billion in 2017 – up 18% from 2014. The proliferation of new technologies will only continue to fuel the increase in consumption, providing publishers and merchants with even more opportunities.

2. It’s only about niche product targeting

It’s important to observe that many publishers rely on more than one product to sustain and grow their affiliate revenue.

Publishers need to be found to be profitable, which can be achieved using earned media (i.e., organic search and paid media channels through content), otherwise, targeting very niche products which aren’t found will set you back from day one.

So this is a big myth, as it’s only after you’ve found and have your own following that you can create a program that advertisers will demand and consider partnering with.

As an advertiser, you should take the time to get to know your publishers. This can help with creating flexible incentives for their audience, which can be mutually beneficial.

3. Affiliate marketing links aren’t good for SEO

One of the primary concerns for affiliate marketers is about link placement on their sites from an SEO perspective, given Google’s link scheme guidelines. The myth goes that websites may be penalized if they have a paid link from another site.

This is not true.

It’s important to understand that all SEO guidelines are proportional to the clout of your business (with both a user and commercial intent in mind). For example, if you had a new low-on-content e-commerce or blog site that was plastered with different advertisement links to external sites and prevented users from either reading a blog post or making a purchase, then sure, that site may be deemed untrustworthy and penalized. However, if you’ve got a well-built up site, it’s hardly overusing ads.

There are also technical parameters that you can incorporate into your affiliate marketing process as standard to prevent paid links from being crawled. These include:

• Using a masked URL or a tracking URL for campaign tracking
• Implementing a 302 redirect for all affiliate links to the site
• Including a disallow line command for the URL path you’re using within the robots.txt file
• Inserting a ‘no follow’ link attribute across all affiliate URLs

Ultimately, an affiliate site needs to be promoted and maintained, just like any other high-quality site.

4. People who use coupons don’t spend as much

We’re not talking about your grandma’s coupons here… these are coupons for the online community.

You can increase your customer’s basket value by providing them with the deal they are looking for and understanding that people who are looking to spend more are always going to go for an attractive offer.

A good tactic is to look at what your average order value is, round it up and then offer a percentage off this amount (for example, 5% off a $50 purchase or 10% off a $100 purchase).

Whatever your customers spend, make sure you’re offering them a discount and make them feel like they’re getting a good deal. It’s a core component of affiliate marketing.

Even if customers are already active on a dedicated coupon site, you can check that you have better deals than your competitors. This can encourage previous buyers to make another purchase and also attract new consumers.

5. Previous buyers can’t be persuaded to make a repeat purchase

As mentioned above, everyone loves a great deal. But if you’ve read stats about decreasing customer loyalty online, you might be convinced that previous buyers won’t return to your site. This is another myth.

When you think about it, someone who has purchased on your site after seeing a good deal is more than likely to purchase on your site again. The game-changer in this is actually how you personalize coupons and create better recurring user experiences.

A great example is offering customers a discount code on a special occasion, like their birthday, that’s exclusive to them and therefore likely to get used.

6. Offering people incentives to sign up to your newsletter won’t work

Emails have a longer content shelf life than paid ads in general and are more trustworthy because they’re a permission-based marketing scheme. According to Get Response, if you’ve got a big mailing list, and your email open and click-through rates are either reaching or exceeding the benchmarks (see the below image). That means you’re probably an excellent candidate for offering incentives through email marketing.

But should you? Maybe… it all comes down to credibility, credibility, credibility. If you can prove that the ads aren’t shaping the content that you’re sending out, that you have clear user guidelines and that you aren’t taking advantage of your authority, then this could be an extremely scalable avenue – especially if you work with affiliate networks.

Leading publisher powerhouses such as BuzzFeed increasingly put product affiliate links into their newsletters and are reaping the benefits of their blended content commerce monetization strategies – for instance, their yearly Christmas gift guides.

7. You need to have managed many affiliate programs to succeed

Charles Ngo, a prolific affiliate marketer, rolls his eyes when newbies ask him questions such as, ‘How do I get started?’ or ‘What tracking tool should I be using?’ It’s always nice to have a coach or mentor, but there’s so much information online, from YouTube videos, blogs and guides to offline events (including meet-ups) that you can take advantage of if you just open your eyes.

Once you have this, it’s all about working to build relationships and improving your affiliate product until it reaches the ‘aha’ moment to generate new and returning customers.

The difference between a good and a great affiliate marketer is not how much you know (although you need to know the basics), it’s how well you can execute your program. There are times when not having the right setup, expectations and conviction can hold you back from succeeding, but this is no reason to be discouraged. You only reap the rewards from what you sow.

8. Affiliate networks can make you rich quickly

Just like all other channels, affiliate networks and affiliate marketing programs – especially new programs – take time and effort. If you were thinking that all you would need to do is set up a site, choose an affiliate program or network and then get on your way, well, I’m sorry… but you’re deeply mistaken.

Affiliate marketing relies on bringing the right partners and fostering the right relationships. Do this by:

• Bringing on new partner programs
• Seeking out better and more effective partnerships
• Devising a content strategy for up-to-date and fresh information
• Effectively promoting these programs

At Commission Factory, we tell our clients that it takes anywhere from three to six months to gather enough data to see the effectiveness of our client campaigns and strategic suggestions on improving the return on ad spend. So think at least a few months ahead.

Wrapping up

Can we stop spreading these affiliate marketing myths, please?

I get excited thinking about how we can make the industry stronger and better; one where these myths do not cause brands and businesses to pass on these kinds of programs.

Get the foundational knowledge, put in the hard work and, if necessary, get some advice or help. You’ll be well on your way to improving your sales and leads by setting up a solid affiliate program.

Please share this article to help destroy these myths, and let me know if you think there are any I’ve missed!

Guest Author: Zane McIntyre is an Australian affiliate marketing veteran with 12+ years experience in affiliate marketing. He is the CEO and co-founder of Commission Factory.

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Proofing and Editing: How to Make Your Content Less Frightening

Want to know a few scary truths ignored by too many content creators?

Editing and proofing are not the same thing. And you can’t adequately execute the two at the same time.

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You can’t adequately edit and proofread at the same time, says @AnnGynn.
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And if you think the same person can write, edit, and proof their own work, you should be afraid, very afraid of publishing that content.

Even the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recognizes proofreaders as distinct from editors. Its description of proofreaders’ duties includes: “Read transcript or proof type setup to detect and mark for correction any grammatical, typographical, or compositional errors. Excludes workers whose primary duty is editing copy.”

What’s the difference?

Grammarly offers a succinct explanation of how a copy editor approaches content:

The tasks include checking written material for grammar, spelling, style and punctuation issues before it’s prepared for proofreading. A copy editor may also do a rewrite, if necessary, to fix any problems with transitions, wordiness, jargon, and to ensure the style of the piece fits with the publication. This work is known as revision.

In contrast, proofreaders review the content after it has gone through the editing process. They scrutinize the content in its finished and almost-published state to catch any typographical or minor errors that weren’t fixed in the editing process or were created in the production process.

For example, at CMI I edit the blog, but Lisa Higgs proofreads the posts in WordPress before they go live. With CCO magazine, I put on the proofreader’s hat, while Clare McDermott edits the articles.

TIP: If you wear a proofreader hat for some projects and an editor’s hat for others, don’t attempt to do one right after the other. Take a break. Exercise your brain with a non-word activity. If you don’t take a breather, you’re likely to be wearing both your proofer and editor’s hats – and the content review will be messy and unfocused.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: The Content Marketing Book of Answers: Managing Your Content

How to edit well

With your editor’s hat on, follow this five-step process:

1. Make sure you understand the overall purpose for the piece of content for the audience and for the brand before you read the first word.

TIP: Require content creators to write one or two sentences at the top of the content to explain to the editor who the intended audience is and why the content was created.

2. Read through the content as a reader would – hands off the keyboard except to scroll. (If reviewing in print form, keep the pen out of your hands.)

3. Go through the content again as an editor. Put your hands on the keyboard (or pen in hand) and note where the content doesn’t work well and why. Does the opening grab the reader’s attention? Is the content focused on a singular theme throughout the piece? Can every sentence and paragraph be understood? Does the order of the content flow logically? Does the content represent the brand’s voice and style?

4. Pause, then edit. Depending on your process, if the needed changes are significant, return the marked-up content to the writer to revise. If the content won’t be going back to the writer, go ahead and make the changes.

5. Read through a final time to ensure that the content reads well from the audience and brand’s perspective.

TIP: If you revise the content significantly, go back to the writer, especially if the article includes a byline, to make sure you edited accurately.

With the content in good shape from a readability perspective, now you can scrutinize other elements of the content. You should:

• Ensure factual correctness and proper credit. If the content includes research, statistics, opinions, or quotes, make sure they are accurate and attributed correctly. In digital form, make sure links go to the original source of information (not to another post quoting the original content).
• Do the math. If the content includes numbers, make sure they add up correctly. For example, if an article about favorite ice cream flavors includes the sentence: “70% agree chocolate ice cream is better than vanilla,” the next sentence should not be “one-third prefer vanilla over chocolate.” The math doesn’t add up.

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Editors: if the #content includes numbers, make sure they add up correctly, advises @AnnGynn.
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• Review with your style guide in view. Scrutinize the copy to make sure it follows your brand’s style guide and chosen dictionary. For example, the CMI Style Guide is the AP Style Guide with some minor customizations for the brand.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How to Write a Style Guide for Your Brand

TIP: Create checklists for editing and proofreading to ensure that each step is completed. When someone must physically check off an item from a list, he or she is more likely to do it. Plus, completed checklists with the editor and proofreader’s names also serve as a helpful tracker of who was responsible for each piece of content.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: 7 Ways to Accelerate Your Content Review and Approval

How to be a good proofreader

In the proofreading stage, the work is fastidious. A proofreader should not review the content just one time and expect to catch everything that needs fixing. Like editing, proofreading is a multi-step process. Each of these steps requires its own reading of the piece of content:

1. Review for flow and understanding. Though the editing process should have taken care of any problems in this area, proofreaders must read through the content for their own understanding so they can properly review the content. And if flaws are found at this point, make sure to address and fix them, preferably with input from the editor.
2. Read each sentence for proper grammar. This is what most people consider proofreading – the subject-match-the-verb stuff.
3. Check spelling of each word. This sounds easier than it is. If you spell-check the same way you read (top to bottom, left to right), you’re less likely to catch errors because your brain is still reading for comprehension. Start with the last word in the content and work your way up to the top, checking each word’s spelling as you do.

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Proofreading Tip: Spell-check by starting at bottom of #content and reading backwards, says @AnnGynn.
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4. Evaluate the content in published form. Review the content to make sure it appears the way it was intended. Do all the subheads follow the same typography? Are there any awkward line breaks? Does the content match the table of contents? Do all the links work?

TIP: Proofreaders should document the mistakes they find more than once. Share that information with the writer and editor to prevent (or at least minimize) future occurrences.

NOTE: If your team only has the resources for a single person to handle editing and proofreading duties, that’s OK. Just make sure to create a production schedule that at least allows for editing and proofreading to happen on separate days. You also can use tools like Hemingway App and Grammarly to help in the editing and proofreading process.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Content Marketing’s Secret Sauce? Good Workflow

Conclusion

By recognizing the truth that editing and proofreading are two distinct responsibilities, you’ll improve your content results so they won’t be as scary for your readers or your brand. You’ll also avoid spending time on big problems that arise from poor editing and poor proofreading (lack of interest and trust in your brand’s content, for example, which ultimately lead to fewer readers).

Improving your content creation is a hot topic in the CMI newsletter. Subscribe today.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post Proofing and Editing: How to Make Your Content Less Frightening appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

5 Self-Branding Tactics For Beginners That Will Get You Noticed

As we all know, everyone has a purpose in life, and with constant focused effort, we can become what we wish to be.

Knowing what you are passionate about and becoming an expert on a particular subject is crucial. If you really want to make a difference and become a known personality, ask yourself these three questions:

• What makes YOU stand out?
• How are YOU different to other people?
• How would YOU prefer to share your expertise with the world?

Once you know your answers, make a commitment to yourself. That’s right – it’s time for you to build a brand for yourself, a brand called YOU.

What is self-branding?

Self-branding is a strategy in which an individual works constantly and consistently towards creating a brand for themselves. It’s a process of positioning oneself with credibility and trust when it comes to a particular topic, or a constant endeavour to get better at a particular skill and making an impression on others.

It is not just about being excellent at your skill, but also about how well you share it with the world so that the world actually knows who you are. Hence, promoting yourself is the most important aspect when it comes to self-branding.

The importance of self-branding

No matter what industry you are in, you should always strive to be known for your skills and what you do. Come on – who doesn’t want to be a hero or look like one?

While many don’t understand the value of self-branding, some early adopters are enjoying sweet success because of the brand they have created for themselves.

Gary Vaynerchuk is one such person I can vouch for when it comes to self-branding. Gary knows his audience and understood the value of self-branding at a very early stage of his life. He knows and has implemented many ideas to become a brand himself, and the proof is in his videos and updates on social media getting literally millions of likes, views, and comments from fans around the world.

Once you have established a good follower base and credibility for yourself through self-branding, you can go on to act as an industry leader where you will have the power to influence thousands positively through your content.

Enough of the theory part. Let’s look at some incredible growth hacks and specific examples of how others have soared at self-branding.

1. You need a personal website with a unique home page

A personal website is like your home, it represents you and should look welcoming. It’s always better to have a domain in your name.

Your home page should talk about your life story – make it relatable so that visitors can easily connect with it. Add humor and anecdotes about your struggles, failures, wins and emotional milestones. Include a narrative about how you started it all, your passion for a particular subject, and your achievements so far.

Compelling professional pictures and a clear call to action at the end will help add more professional clout to your home page. While many people neglect this point, it is vital to make sure your website is polished-looking without any grammatical or spelling mistakes.

Let’s look at Leonard Kim, a marketing and branding expert, as an example. His website is an excellent example of self-branding. The home page talks about him, who is he, his early life and his achievements. You will also see a clear value proposition with his blogs centred in the middle and a clear CTA at the end to subscribe to his updates.

2. You should be smart and consistent on social media

Be sure to use social media in many varied and unique ways to see what works best for you. Know your customers and try to share updates by varying your formats. Sometimes an image and sometimes a blog post will work best. You should try to update your social media as often as daily.

Put your name as a signature or a watermark on your images to avoid plagiarism. Make sure to use your name or anything that represents you consistently on important updates. If you’re bored by inspirational quotes, come up with your own and make them look appealing in InDesign! And don’t forget to put an appealing cover image and strong profile description on all of your social media accounts.

Brian D. Evans is a serial entrepreneur and a marketing influencer. He uses social media consistently and efficiently. Whether it is Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, he uses different formats to share daily updates with his fans. You might want to take a look at his social profiles to see how well he maintains a daily schedule of posts and interaction with his audience. His cover images are also compelling and say a lot about him.

Brian Evans on Instagram

Brian Evans on Twitter

3. You should adopt a storytelling approach

Storytelling is an art that marketers often use to promote their ideas or products, and is considered the best growth strategy for a small brand. Stories are engaging, and can help create and sustain an emotional connection with readers. Great stories inspire people to change for good and take actions, and can really help you position yourself as a thought leader.

Apple uses the storytelling approach in the best possible way – everyone knows the basic history of Steve Jobs. Even an individual can use this method. Take an experience, build a narrative around it, and publish it on your social media platforms.

You cannot look past Gary Vaynerchuk, an American serial entrepreneur, when it comes to self-branding and the power of storytelling. Gary is a great storyteller who uses the storytelling approach to the best extent possible, and that is how he connects with his audience. He has gained a great follower base around the world through his talk, suggestions and entrepreneurial skills.

4. You need to guest blog on popular websites

Articles authored by Neil Patel

Guest blogging is still considered the best strategy to build a personal brand. You might have noticed that many subject matter experts don’t just blog on their own website but are always on the look-out for ways to share their knowledge and thoughts through other websites and platforms.

Guest blogging helps you build credibility. Start small, connect with local bloggers who are looking for contributors to their website, and focus on making connections with like-minded people. Once you build some confidence and success, move onto the bigger publications and approach them for guest posts.

Try these different variations to find opportunities for guest blogging:

• Your keyword + Write for us
• Your keyword + Contribute
• Your keyword + Submit post

5. You need to create communities of conversation

In terms of building a voice in a community sense, one of the best places to look is the question-and-answer based platform, Quora. It’s a ready-made platform to share your insights and build an audience based on your expertise. You should also join any Facebook groups and forums that are relevant to your skills and what you do so that you can be there and chip in when someone is asking for advice or solutions.

Try to answer every question that you can when interacting in online communities and be generous when helping others with their problems through your replies and suggestions. This will enhance your credibility. When you start answering questions on a particular subject or topic regularly, people will get to know you, and you will become their go-to source for information on such topics.

Nicolas Cole, the founder of Digital Press, is one of the top writers on Quora. He will reach 700 answers soon with 20.2m answer views so far on Quora. Nicolas’s name has become a brand in itself when it comes to Quora. Nicolas’s answers are up to the mark, provide great value to anyone who is reading them, and generate a good number of ‘up votes’ from users.

Wrapping up

Knowing your true self is the key to effective self-branding. Once you know who you are and what you are really passionate about (and how you want to stand out in the crowd), you will be ready to build a brand for yourself.

Investing in self-branding is the best investment ever but it begins with understanding YOU.

Guest Author: Pavan Belagatti is one of the youngest growth hackers from India and a digital marketing influencer. He writes about marketing and growth hacking related topics as well as helps companies maximize their traffic and outreach. He is the owner of Growth Hacky and contributes to some top-notch websites around the world including TheNextWeb, Influencive, ThriveGlobal and Tech in Asia.

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How Brands Use Pop-Up Experiences to Make a Lasting Impression

A couple of months ago, my daughter sent me a link to a place in San Francisco that I just didn’t have a name to describe. Some might call it a museum. Or maybe it was a pop-up experience? To me it looked like attending a toddler birthday party while on ’shrooms.

I’m talking about the Color Factory – an appointment-only museum. If you’re not familiar with it, spend a few minutes browsing #colorfactory on Instagram. (Or check out the Color Factory account @colorfactoryco.)

It’s essentially a space designed for the selfie generation. In one room you wander through millions of ribbons hanging from the ceiling. In another, rainbow confetti showers over you. And there’s no need to keep your smartphone at the ready for that perfect shot. In each room, cameras click away at just the right angle and with perfect lighting. It’s nearly impossible to take a bad picture … and that’s kind of the point. This place was designed for sharing. I’m betting not a single person visits the Color Factory without posting (stunning) images on social – most often Instagram.

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The @colorfactoryco museum is designed for sharing on social, says @soloportfolio. Read more >
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After my daughter alerted me to it, I spotted fantastic pictures of @amywhiggins in a Day-Glo yellow ball pit. I didn’t need to see an ad or sponsored social content to know that on my next trip to San Francisco, I’m booking a ticket.

Plenty of brands have noted this concept even before the Color Factory opened its doors and tried to design what I’ll call “selfie moments.” I’ll venture to say most are weirdly gratuitous selfie moments … and that’s OK because it’s in keeping with the brand.

The Cheetos Museum wasn’t intended to be a transcendent experience. Cheetos invited people to submit pictures of their most interestingly shaped puffed cheese snacks. (Kind of like a modern version of finding the likeness of the Virgin Mary in an everyday object.) Winners were displayed in a museum-worthy temporary space in New York’s Times Square, but an online museum also memorialized the curled cheese crunchies.

Or consider the air-freshener brand Glade’s Museum of Feelings, a pop-up show that saturated all your senses with lights, textures, and smells. (I’d call it the precursor to the Color Factory.)

These are fleeting experiences for brands to create a short-lived memory or brand association. They are passing campaigns from brands thinking more about advertising and less about longer-term relationships.

What is it about pop-up experiences that deliver something a little more meaningful? Maybe an experience that transcends the selfie moment and has more staying power?

In recent months, I’ve spotted some amazing examples of brands that aim to capitalize on the selfie moment, but do so in a way that’s true to the brand and not quite as cheesy or fleeting as the Cheetos Museum.

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Brands can aim to capitalize on selfie moment in a way that’s true to brand and not fleeting. @soloportfolio
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HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: Brand Museums: How Companies Tell Their Stories

State Street Global Advisors

We all know about this example: The Fearless Girl statue. Images of the Fearless Girl were splashed across media sites and social media channels from its debut. State Street handled the launch particularly well – unveiling it on the International Day of the Woman and not wading into the inevitable controversy that followed. (Some people thought the global bank’s honoring women was disingenuous; plenty of people defended the statue as a creative and bold statement, meaning State Street didn’t have to argue much on its own behalf.)

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Maria’s Field of Hope

I found out about Maria’s Field of Hope on social media, where all my Cleveland-based friends were suddenly posting images of their families posing in endless fields of sunflowers. Like any mildly curious individual, I searched on Google for Maria’s Field of Hope and found out it was launched by the Prayers from Maria Foundation, a nonprofit devoted to funding global research into gliomas, a form of childhood brain tumors. The first field of sunflowers was planted in 2014 to draw attention to the lack of funding for childhood cancer, but the arresting images of sunflowers spread via social have pushed the foundation’s message much farther than typical social media messaging could have achieved.

GE

GE won a lot of attention a few years ago for its pop-up garages, essentially maker spaces for those curious about new manufacturing technologies such as laser cutting, 3D printing, and CNC mills. But GE has a long history of bringing its ideas and passions to life in the real world. GE hosted a campus bus tour – part of its Balance the Equation movement, which aims to attract more women to work in the STEM fields. The bus tour stopped at a half-dozen campuses and helped students set up professional social media profiles on sites like LinkedIn. Chief Marketing Officer Linda Boff told CCO magazine, “You may expect LinkedIn to show up on campus and teach kids how to update their social profiles … but we work really hard to bring the brand to life in ways that people can feel and touch.” In other words, it’s less about creating a moment, and much more about creating a deeper relationship.

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You need to work really hard to bring your brand to life in ways that people can feel & touch. @lindaboff
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HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How GE Gives Recruiting Content a Personality Lift

Land O’ Lakes

One of my favorite examples is the Crop Adventure from Land O’ Lakes (the butter people). The museum experience is built into an existing destination: Fair Oaks Farm, the largest agri-tourism destination in the United States. Land O’ Lakes partnered with Fair Oaks Farms in Indiana to build a 12,000-square-foot Crop Adventure exhibit that highlights how high-tech tools like drones will play a part in modern farming. Land O’ Lakes CEO Chris Vilsack explained to local media, “I hope that when young people go through it the first reaction is, ‘I didn’t know that, I want to know more … I want to be the scientist, I want to be the farmer. I want to be in the new economy that is displayed here.’” The Crop Adventure destination is part of a bigger push by Land O’ Lakes to be a leader in the conversation about modern farming; its hallmark event, Fields of the Future, aims to raise awareness about the complex challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050.

Adidas

High on my list of uplifting live experiences is adidas’ Brooklyn Farm Studio – one of three global creative spaces from the athletic brand. This example isn’t for a public audience but for creative talent inside adidas who are designing the next generation of footwear. It’s part maker lab and part gorgeous, industrial-styled meeting space. A blog post about the lab explains, “When two people connect in the MakerLab, collaborate, learn from each other and then pass their experience on to another person … That’s the magic spark. From there, it’s a ripple effect until a whole community of creators, artists, and thinkers are igniting new dialogues and perspectives. This is the key to innovation.”

Why does the Creative Farm make my list? It’s not exactly a selfie-machine. I love this idea because it capitalizes on the network effect of the social graph, but it’s focused inward on a single brand’s culture and knowledge sharing. The Farm Studio (as well as adidas’ other hubs in Germany and Portland, Oregon) is intended to be a creative collaboration space, but even more, it’s designed to create a ripple effect of knowledge sharing and culture transfer across the organization … much like the Color Factory images spread virally across Instagram. In this case, however, the shareable experience is less about imagery (though there are some amazing images coming out of the Farm Studio) and more about ideas.

How will you create interactive, memorable, and shareable experiences beyond those you serve up on a screen? This is the question every brand – not just consumer-facing brands – should be grappling with.

HANDPICKED RELATED CONTENT: How Adidas Creates Moments of Relevance

Want to experience a content marketing selfie opportunity? Attend an upcoming CMI Master Class this year. Check out the dates and cities for the rest of 2017.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post How Brands Use Pop-Up Experiences to Make a Lasting Impression appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

7 Digital Marketing Marketing Trends You Can’t Afford to Ignore

I would have written you a shorter letter but I didn’t have the time.

This quote attributed to many different sources sums up what we are facing in this now very complex world. But keeping it simple and short takes time and effort. Distilling the complex into something that makes sense in one sentence or even a six second video is an art form that is to be treasured.

But as marketers that is what you are confronted with. Increasing complexity. It is just one of the trends that will impact your business in the years ahead.

We also need the right tools, platforms and technology to help us scale the huge amounts of data and noise that now confront us online. Here are 7 digital marketing trends that you need to keep your eye on.

1. Increasing complexity

Tech is largely to blame for making marketing complex. But it’s also the answer. Making sense of tons of data, always on marketing and the many forms of splintered media is something tech platforms do well.

Right alongside that sits different categories of complex. Facebook advertising is a discipline on its own that requires focus. Then add the dark science of “Search Engine Optimisation” and understanding the many moving parts that require mastery.

The types of media we need to master includes live streaming, Facebook videos and GIFS and Infographics.  Then you need to master marketing automation and artificial intelligence tools and platforms.

2. Marketing technology

Marketing technology (sometimes called Martech) is continuing to grow. According to Venture Beat there has been over $134 billion invested in this category in startups in just 5 years. In 2018 IDC is predicting that CMO’s will spend $32 billion on buying and implementing Martech solutions.

But the category has 3 core categories. B2B marketing, B2C marketing and advertising technology. It should not be seen as one size fits all.

According to Ajay Agarwal in an article on TechCrunch there is an interesting divide between spending on marketing versus sales between B2B and B2C. B2B companies spend much more on their front end sales than on marketing at a ratio of  10:1. B2C spends a lot more on marketing than sales with an inverse ratio of 10:1.

Maybe we will expect to see Salesforce dominate B2B marketing tech as it is the dominant sales tool for B2B globally.

He sees the key trend and opportunity as one in which a B2C marketing company can create a B2C system of record from the start of the customer journey to sale.

3. The rise and rise of algorithms

The beauty at the the birth of social media networks was their simplicity. They flowed past you unfiltered.

Twitter was a distilled stream of unfettered consciousness. Facebook was a flowing page of diverse ideas and people.  And some sat outside your tent of ideas and interests.

But things have changed.

The need to make money from the platforms meant that algorithms needed to be programmed to ensure that the social networks could start to monetise their distribution. The organic reach that initially excited marketers, writers and entrepreneurs has been dialled back.

Also the volume of data has also exploded in the last 10 years driven by the two obsessive technologies of social media and smartphones. To make sense of that as finite humans means we need help from the machines. And they run on algorithms.

Why do we need algorithms?

The amount of data that confronts us each day needs filters to help us make sense of it. Here is the global digital snapshot of the size of the ecosystem that confronts us.

These platforms, devices and networks are producing this avalanche of data.

• 5.97 billion hours of YouTube are watched every day
• 4.3 billion Facebook messages are posted each day
• 67 million images posted on Instagram every 24 hours
• 269 billion emails are sent 24/7 each day

How algorithms are applied

Algorithms also help marketers and entrepreneurs break through the clutter. And they are used to reach your target markets on Amazon, Tripadvisor, search engines and even in email marketing .

• Amazon – products or books you might like based on past activity and other secret codes.
• Search – Content and information you want to find.
• Social – People you want to hear from or see.
• Emails – Gmail now uses an algorithm that sorts it into tabs and also sends it automatically to spam based on its filters.
• GPS – Help us navigate a city or find our way to a hotel.
• Choose a restaurant – Reviews on Yelp or on Tripadvisor.

So we need to keep studying how they work and learn to work with them as they continue to change and shape shift.

4. Platforms and apps

The web is moving away from an Internet of websites to an Internet of apps and platforms. You may not have noticed it but it is happening right before our eyes. In 2014 more people accessed the Internet though mobile apps than desktop computers for the very first time.

In 2017 over 86% of our time is spent on apps on our mobile phones.

This big trend is something that can’t be ignored and marketers are going to need to work out how they reach consumers via apps and platforms. The obvious answer to this in part will be the rise and rise of Facebook advertising from the platform and also applying marketing tactics to apps like Messenger and WhatsApp.

5. Artificial intelligence

There are two things that humans aren’t good at. Collating and making sense of the vast amounts of data and also scaling our humanity. That is what machines excel at and artificial intelligence allows humans to amplify themselves.

Watson, Einstein and Rank Brain are just three of the big players battling out for world domination in artificial intelligence . Watson is owned by IBM, Einstein by Salesforce and Rank Brain by Google. But underneath these giants who mostly use it for internal use sits a growing range of apps and platforms that are using AI for niche marketing optimization.

Chatbots were maybe the first obvious use of AI for marketing with their abilities to handle initial enquiries without the need for human inervention.  But what are some of the other ways AI is being used and imagined for improving marketing performance and scaling?

Robert Allen from CITU lists 15 ways in which AI can be used for marketing. 

But let’s take a closer look at just 3 ways you can use artificial intelligence .

Content creation

An AI program called WordSmith produced 1.5 billion pieces of content in 2016. The other challenge is not just creation but curation of content at scale. An AI tool like Rocco  can recommend content from social media that your followers are likely to love.

Pay per click advertising

Making sure that you are making the best use of your budget when performing paid ad campaigns with millions of dollars in spend means AI becomes an attractive option.

Albert and Frank are two marketing platforms that use machine learning to buy media and deliver ads for the best results. And this is done at scale and speed that no human could ever hope to achieve.

Email marketing

Making email smarter instead of a blunt tool for just broadcasting is something that AI can offer. AI can improve the delivery time for achieving the best open rates, target customers with the right emails and even product recommendations that they want to buy.

McKinsey research estimates that Amazon generated 35% of its revenue with email product recommendations driven by AI.

6. Video

Video continues to emerge as a visual marketing trend that sits in a variety of buckets. For simplicity we can place them in 3 categories. Traditional 30 second ad style, live and social pre-recorded for social.

Traditional

The traditional 30 second ad style video 20 years ago was typically created 4 times a year with a 2 million dollar budget for each. This continues but the 2 trends that are transforming video today are driven by social media realities of live streaming and 6 second videos.

Live streaming

Live streaming is the hot new trend with Facebook (Facebook Live), LinkedIn, Twitter with Periscope and YouTube with its “Live Events”

According to Globalwebindex.net “As ad-blocking continues to grow in popularity it’s more important than ever for brands to engage consumers via entertaining content and native advertising”

And live streaming is one of those forms of content.

Image source: GlobalWebIndex

But the challenge with any form of video is doing it well.

The 6 second pre-recorded video

According to AdAge, Facebook has already been telling its video advertisers to hit people with faster messages. The 6 second video emerged as an ideal ad length in a recent test conducted with Tropicana.

Tropicana compared the results from Facebook ads that were 6, 15 and 30 seconds long. The shortest saw “higher brand metrics across the board,” Sandberg said.

Companies like Shuttlerock are using technology to scale 6 second Facebook video ad and are riding the wave of what the data is telling us is the most effective length for a video.

But the challenge for all video is still the messaging.  Video is now often watched in silence with subtitles running so people can read while viewing.

7. Influencer marketing

The rise of ad blocking means that reaching your audience via influencers is on the rise. A study by PageFair and Adobe shows that online consumers are becoming more and more frustrated with adverts interrupting their browsing experience. As of June 2015, 198 million people used ad-blocking browser extensions.

Today’s consumers prefer to make their purchasing decisions based on either recommendations from friends and family, or from online influencers they admire and trust.

Also the reason influencer marketing trend is becoming entranced is its performance. Just check out these stats on the effectiveness of influencer marketing:

• Businesses earn approximately $6.50 for every $1 they spend on influencer marketing.
• 81% of marketers who have used influencer marketing deemed it to be effective.
• 86% of women turn to social media platforms before making a purchase.
• Influencer marketing delivers 11 times higher ROI than traditional forms of digital marketing.

There are also 2 distinct categories of influencer marketing. B2C which is generally about building brand awareness and B2B which often is more about lead generation and measurable results.

8. Storytelling

Despite all the tech there is a real movement to making our marketing more human. Companies are backing causes. Taking a stand whether it is for equal opportunity, ageism or sexism. Marketers and entrepreneurs are using “live” video to share their ideas and insights.

But the trend that I am enjoying is seeing the rise and application of storytelling being woven back into the digital marketing landscape. It is being used more in blog posts and online presentations. It is being written into emails to stand out from what is often an ocean of bland information and data.

We have been distracted too long by the shiny new tech toys and forgotten some of our humanity in the process.

It’s also time to tell better stories.

The post 7 Digital Marketing Marketing Trends You Can’t Afford to Ignore appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.

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A Content Marketing Love Letter

Almost eight years ago to the day was one of the worst days of my life.

The business I had started 2.5 years earlier was on its last leg. It wasn’t just that we weren’t making money, but we were losing enough money that I started to question whether our family would have enough to pay certain bills.

The downtrend was apparent, but on this day … nail met coffin.

This was the day that one of our biggest clients, the one we delivered our best results to and was the most revered of all our case studies, decided not to renew our service (we provided qualified leads for content agencies).

I called the client, received the “official” word, and hung up the phone. In a daze, I walked out of my home office, and then wandered outside and into the yard.

I can’t remember how long I was back there … it could have been five minutes or five hours. I could hear my two boys (then 8 and 6) laughing from inside the house. I think they had just come home from school.

What would I do? What would we do?

It’s a strange feeling when you feel deeply sorry for yourself. Maybe you’ve felt it before … failure that rolls onto you like the ocean waves. Slowly, it overtakes you.

Looking back on it now, it all seems so silly. I mean, this is the definition of a first-world problem. Sure, it wasn’t nice, but it wasn’t the end of the world … except that’s exactly what it felt like.

I guessed I’d just go back and get a “real” job, which was fine except for the fact that I was unmanageable. I left an executive position 2.5 years earlier, put the shingle out, and vowed I’d never do it again. And here I was, considering going back to the corporate world.

A few days went by. I promised myself I wouldn’t make any decisions while in an emotional state.

That week I received an email from one of our blog subscribers. She worked at a fairly large B2B company. She said she absolutely loved the blog and felt like she found her calling around content marketing. She’d been doing content marketing for years but called it something else. She was glad there was a name for it now. Regardless, she wanted to implement a strategy and process in her company, and wanted to know if I could help.

“That’s nice,” I thought … a consulting gig would help.

Then, for whatever reason, I started going through all the emails I’d received from subscribers over the years. The content marketing blog I started in April 2007 was really taking off, and the audience was anything but shy.

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The @cmicontent blog I started in April 2007 was taking off & the audience anything but shy. @JoePulizzi
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And there it was … email after email, the audience telling me what they would buy. While I was so busy trying to perfect a failing product, the answers were right in front of me.

“Joe, our marketing department needs ongoing content marketing training. Does anyone do that?”

“Joe, why isn’t there a content marketing conference? I’d like to meet people who are going through the same challenges that I am.”

“Joe, is there any benchmark research on how marketers are using and succeeding with content marketing? I need to get buy-in from my boss.”

“I like AdAge and B2B magazine, but they never talk about content creation and distribution issues. Are there any media companies that focus on this? If so, I’d like to subscribe my team.”

The proverbial lightbulb had been switched to the “on” position.

Birth of Content Marketing Institute

Next to my computer was a cocktail napkin (I still can’t recall why). On that napkin, I wrote something to the effect of this:

In three years, we will run the leading online destination for content marketing, the leading content marketing magazine, and the largest content marketing event on the planet.

Just over six months later, in May 2010, Content Marketing Institute was born. The concept took off immediately. People came to the site. Social sharing was off the hook. It was hard to believe it was working.

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In May 2010, @cmicontent was born. The concept took off, says @JoePulizzi.
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Michele Linn bought into the vision and took over editorial. Robert Rose, always open to a disruptive idea, assisted with the vision and agreed to run consulting and training. Pam Kozelka, my wife and co-founder of CMI, took over all the operations so I could sell, speak, scale, and write. Joseph Kalinowski brought his design chops.

Chief Content Officer (CCO) magazine launched in January 2011. Clare McDermott, who for whatever reason agreed to edit the magazine, took charge of the brand with Angela Vannucci who became the project director.

I called Kelley Whetsell, event director extraordinaire, and explained to her the vision for Content Marketing World. She reserved a small space at the Renaissance Hotel in Cleveland, Ohio, based for 100 to 150 people. I honestly didn’t know if we could attract 100 people to Cleveland for a small content marketing conference.

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I didn’t know if 100 people would show up for a #contentmarketing conference. 660 people did. @JoePulizzi
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Just a few months later, 660 people showed up at the conference and we were bursting at the hotel’s seams.

Cathy McPhillips came on to run marketing. Lisa Beets agreed to run our annual research. Peter Loibl agreed to come over from Crain’s to run sales. Laura Kozak formalized a process for the website. Jodi Harris came on to help Michele with the blog and our content projects. Mo Wagner brought her social media savvy. Amanda Subler generated more buzz around content marketing than we could possibly imagine.

As we scaled, we added more talent, but even better human beings like Kim Borden, Karen Schopp, Lisa Dougherty, Krissy Leskovec, Dave Anthony, John Hanson, Wally Koval, Ann Gynn, Marcia Riefer-Johnston, and many others.

By the fall of 2012, just two years after the worst day of my professional career, we had achieved our “cocktail-napkin” mission, and indeed built the leading online destination for content marketing, the largest magazine property, and the largest in-person content marketing event in the world. 

It’s the community

I love the CMI team. They are family to me and always will be.

But I tell you this story because, to put it simply, CMI exists because of you.

CMI would not be “a thing” without you … your feedback, your honesty, your ability to challenge the status quo.

When I teach people about what it takes to build an audience, I don’t think of an audience as a nameless, faceless crowd. I think of Andrew Davis, Jay Acunzo, Ann Handley, Ardath Albee, Jay Baer, Arnie Kuenn, Ahava Leibtag, Jesper Laursen, Kazuo Watanabe, Pam Didner, Pamela Muldoon, and so many others.

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When I teach people about building an audience, I don’t think of it as a nameless, faceless crowd. @JoePulizzi
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I think of the time Andy Crestodina stalked me at Content Marketing World 2012 to hand me a printout of his Content Chemistry book (I still have it, Andy).

I think of Carmen Hill and how she always willingly spends her birthday at CMWorld every year.

I think of Marcus Sheridan, an incredibly raw and talented speaker that we gave 20 minutes to in 2011 … who became our keynote in 2012 and went on to affect so many people around the world in such a positive way.

I think of amazing moments like Pam and I crying behind the curtain before I went out on stage for CMWorld 2011, and how two days later three delegates came to me crying and disappointed for having to listen to that vulgar Kevin Smith performance (yes, that happened). And I’ll never forget seeing Amanda Todorovich’s face when she received Content Marketer of the Year, presented by her two beautiful daughters.

Content marketing has become a real, professional practice … maybe the most important practice in marketing, because you had the strength and courage to seek out a better way to communicate. You believed that marketing, as we knew it, was broken and there was (is) a better way.

Being witness to this and being able to serve you has been a wonderful and humbling experience. It’s a gift … one of the greatest gifts I’ve ever received. I don’t know if I’m deserving of it, but I will accept it nonetheless.

My journey

You are smart, so you’ve probably seen where this is heading (if you didn’t already scroll to this part of the story).

Starting Jan. 1, I will be ending my active role in CMI operations. On that exact date, I’ll be taking a 30-day, internet-free sabbatical and spending every possible second with my family. After that, I’ll be taking some very special (bucket list) trips with members of my family and will be working on some non-marketing writing projects (and other shenanigans). I’ll also be increasing my involvement in our nonprofit organization, Orange Effect Foundation, and will continue to raise money for children who desperately need speech therapy and technology equipment to help them communicate more effectively.

I’ve been given a very rare gift in that I can step away and focus on some things that I may have been neglecting over the past few years. As Alexander Hamilton says in the musical Hamilton, “I am not throwing away my shot.” My plan is to truly lean in to this and see where the journey leads me.

Some community members may not know this, but CMI was acquired in June 2016 by UBM, one of the most successful event and media companies in the world. UBM saw amazing value in the business, and CMI found a wonderful home. The partnership with UBM is the reason I have the opportunity to take some time off. Hopefully you’ve noticed that there haven’t been any changes to the CMI team operations or the way we interact with the community. UBM has done a great job in continuing in the spirit that Pam, I, and the rest of the team started so many years ago.

So, while I, of course, will be at Content Marketing World in 2018, I’ll be moving away from my other duties, including the podcast. I can do this because, to be honest, I have complete faith in you, the community, and the CMI team. I’m excited to see what you do next, and how our very important mission continues to evolve.

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I have complete faith in the community & the @cmicontent team. I’m excited to see what's next. @JoePulizzi
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It’s never been a more exciting time to be a marketing professional. We are the ones who will define the future business models, not just for marketing, but for our entire organizations. Building loyal and trusted audiences through the delivery of truly valuable information is the key to making this happen.

Although I won’t be active at CMI, I won’t be gone. I’m here for any one of you with anything you need, just like I always have been. You just might not be seeing my avatar as much on the site.

If you have any questions, please leave them below and I will answer as promptly as possible.

With love and content,

Joe

“Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.” – Napoleon Hill

Want to see Joe’s motivational words from Content Marketing World 2017 and learn from hundreds of presenters? Sign up for CMWorld’s video on demand.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

The post A Content Marketing Love Letter appeared first on Content Marketing Institute.

This Week in Content Marketing: Marketing Associations to Blame Publishers for Allowing Bad Ads

PNR: This Old Marketing with Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose can be found on both iTunes and Stitcher. If you enjoy our show, we would love it if you would rate it or post a review on iTunes.

In this week’s episode

This week, Robert ponders how we compare ourselves to others. In the news, we talk about a new initiative from three marketing associations that puts the blame for bad online advertising directly on the shoulders of publishers. We also discuss media companies’ rankings for brand loyalty – though these aren’t the media companies you’re looking for. Our rants and raves include Nielsen’s bid at measuring Netflix, and what we can learn from one-hit wonders; then we wrap up with an example of the week on the “Gary Vaynerchuk” of sustainable farming.

Download this week’s PNR: This Old Marketing podcast

Show details

• (00:01): An advertising blast from the past: “Gotta Be Pepsi Now!”

• (00:30): Robert muses on this week’s theme: How do you compare?   

• (05:45): Welcome to Episode 206: Recorded live on October 23, 2017 (Running time: 1:05:58)

• (11:38): Content Marketing Master Classes – Our multi-city tour is returning for another round of in-depth content marketing training. Starting on November 6, we’ll be making stops in Boston; New York; Washington, DC; Seattle; San Francisco; Chicago; Atlanta; and Austin, Texas. Robert and I would love to see you there, so register today.

Content love from our sponsor: Ahrefs (12:38)

Ahrefs is a powerful SEO tool set that has many amazing tools for content marketers who’re looking to grow their traffic from Google. With Ahrefs tools you can easily find out what people are searching for in Google, so you can create content around the most popular search queries. You can also discover content that got the most shares or earned the most backlinks, so you can piggyback from it and get the same results. And finally, you can easily research your competitors and find out which content brings them the most traffic from Google. Here’s an exclusive opportunity for PNR podcast listeners: Any listener who tweets using #ThisOldMarketing between the dates of September 30 through October 28 will be entered into a drawing to win an annual Ahrefs account plus a signed copy of Joe and Robert’s new book, Killing Marketing. One randomly selected participant will be drawn each week; four winners in total.

The quick hits – Notable news and trends

• (14:28): Who are 2017’s top brands, ranked by customer loyalty? (Source: Marketing Charts)

• (22:32): Publishers may have to “volunteer” in fight against annoying ads. (Source: AdAge)

The deep dive – Industry analysis

• (28:14): Ad Age Ad Lib Podcast: Neil Vogel’s adventures as an accidental publisher. (Source: AdAge) 

• (34:40): Content marketing is dead. Long live marketing. (Source: Forbes)

Content love from our show sponsor: SnapApp (41:39)

Today’s buying committees are diverse; Millennials are already taking their seats among Generation X and Baby Boomers at the buying table, making navigating the already complicated buying environment even harder, thanks to their different preferences. Though this shift might seem minor, it greatly impacts how marketing teams operate, sales teams engage, and how purchase decisions are ultimately made.

SnapApp and Heinz Marketing recently conducted research to answer the question: How do different generations like to buy? Their report, “The Millennials Are Here! How Generational Differences Impact B2B Buying Committees Today” looks at the differences between the rising Millennial buyer, their Generation X and Baby Boomer counterparts, and how B2B marketing and sales strategies can address the gaps between them. Read the report.

Rants and raves

• (44:02): Robert’s commentary: Nielsen is poised to start measuring the viewing audience of TV shows on Netflix. According to TechCrunch, the company’s new Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) Content Ratings Service will base its measurements on panel surveys, comparable to how it estimates linear TV ratings. While Robert understands why Nielsen is looking at this audience, he feels they are going about it all wrong.

• (48:36): Robert’s rave: Adweek profiles a new Burger King ad about tackling bullying that Robert simply loves. It’s feel-good advertising that handles the discussion of social issues in an elegant and effective way. 

• (50:50): Joe’s rave: James Altucher‘s podcast is a regular listen for me. The latest episode, featuring singer-songwriter Mike Posner, is a particularly interesting one for a few reasons, including his discussions on updating his older content, and a process he uses, which I would call an influencer marketing strategy.

This Old Marketing example of the week

(56:40): Polyface Farms: A reader recently referred Robert to the story of Joel Salatin, a second-generation farmer in Virginia who grew up watching his parents struggle to maintain their family farm. Though the Salatin Family had already started to explore organic farming and more humane farm animal practices at Polyface Farms, they were finding it even more difficult to turn a profit while using these techniques. However, once Joel took over the business, he committed himself to taking these practices to the next level, while increasing the farm’s profitability at the same time. He started by answering questions and offering advice to his fellow farmers to increase their understanding of the benefits of greener, more sustainable farm operations, and the idea quickly took off. Eventually, he turned his education platform into books, lectures, and other published content works. Years later, Joel Salatin is one of the most famous and successful farmers in the world, with a content portfolio that includes live tour experiences at his farm, as well as recipe of the week competitions, and other user-generated content initiatives. By creating a media brand to drive the success of his sustainable farming business, Joel has built Polyface Farms into a quintessential Content Inc.-style example of This Old Marketing. (Sources: Permaculture; Virginia Tech’s Virginia Cooperative Extension; VCU Office of Sustainability).

Image source

For a full list of PNR archives, go to the main This Old Marketing page.
Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

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