If you’re anything like us, your resolution to hit the gym three times a week is going to fizzle out by mid-February. But when it comes to your business, there are a few resolutions you should work hard to keep.
1 | Take a fresh look at your brand.
What are the values and experiences that define your brand, and are they still relevant to the actual values and experiences you’re hoping to embody? Just as importantly, are they still relevant to what consumers want from a company in your space? If your most recent brand update happened a few years ago — or in reaction to a market trend that might no longer be current — the new year is ...
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We challenge you to stop doom-scrolling, sit back and relax to the tune of these three delightful facts about our beautiful planet.
Fact 1 | Need More Time in Your Day? You’re Getting It!
It’s true — the Earth’s days are in fact getting longer. Back when the Earth first formed, a day was roughly six hours long. That was 4.6 billion years ago. Then, by 620 million years ago, the days had lengthened to 21.9 hours. Why did this happen? The moon and the tides it creates cause a twisting force that slows the Earth’s rotation incrementally over time. Here’s the bad news though — this is happening at a rate of about 1.7 milliseconds every century. So if you ...
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Consumers spend hours each week on social media. And so do brands — which means it’s increasingly challenging to rise to the top amid the constant onslaught of information we all experience on our favorite platforms.
What you need is a strategy to help you cut away the noise and make your social media presence work for you. Here are a few simple tips to help you make that happen:
1 | Tailor your approach to your audience.
What age group do you want to reach? What are their values and interests? What do they need from you? The answers to those questions will determine on which platforms you’re going to concentrate your branding efforts.
If you’re a visitor bureau and want ...
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It’s every brand’s email nightmare: you work hard on crafting the perfect pitch, but when that email hits your prospects’ inbox, they hit the delete button without even opening the message.
How do you craft an email worth opening? And how do you close the sale once you have your prospects’ attention?
Step 1 | Choose a Catchy Subject Line
Good subject lines:
Are short. You want people to be able to read the whole thing, whether they’re on desktop or mobile! So keep your subject line to 40 characters or less.
Don’t contain “spammy” words. Avoid phrases like “buy now” or “free,” which could land you in spam filters.
Include a call to action. What is it you’re asking people ...
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If we had a nickel for every time someone has declared print dead, only to eat their words later… well, we’d have quite a few nickels.
The point is this: print is more valuable and resilient than a lot of people give it credit for. Here are just a few of the reasons why.
Print makes people happy.
No, seriously. You’ve probably subscribed to at least one magazine over the course of your life. Do you remember that little burst of happiness when you check your mailbox and find the most recent issue in there? You just don’t get that from clicking on a digital edition. (You also don’t get to experience that nice new-ink-and-paper smell. What do you mean, you’ve never ...
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It’s never been easier to get in touch with your audience. Gone are the days when you were limited to print ads or even email marketing blasts. Today, savvy brands choose to reach out to customers and prospects via content they’ve created themselves (or paid someone to create for them).
But it’s also never been more confusing to choose the right strategy for your brand. There are so many different kinds of content, and each of them serves a different purpose. Here is a short introduction to some of the most common terms, what they mean, and how they help your brand in different ways.
Thought Leadership
As a general rule, this kind of content comes from the top of your organization ...
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It feels like the world is stuck in perpetual crisis mode these days. You probably didn’t need us to tell you that, but we think you do need some facts to remind you that we still live on a wondrous, fascinating planet.
Fact 1 | There is such a thing as a “moonbow.”
Rainbows are created when sunlight reflects off water droplets in the atmosphere. But did you know that it can happen with moonlight too? “Moonbows” are significantly more rare than rainbows. They only occur in places where the night sky is very dark, and when the moon is either full or close to full. The phenomenon is most often seen near waterfalls. SOURCE
Fact 2 | Times Square’s New ...
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Whether digital or in print, ads are one of the best ways to get your brand in front of consumers. But given the sheer amount of information competing for your targets’ attention every day, how can you stand out?
Here are ways not to do it:
Write a novel.
Ad space is pricey, so it’s tempting to fill that space with everything you want your target audience to know. Resist that temptation. People’s eyes will slide right over an ad that is too heavy on the text. Anything more than two sentences and a couple of bullet points is probably excessive.
Combine messages.
One of the fastest ways to lose someone’s attention is by throwing too many different pieces of information at them, so ...
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Let's be real: things haven't been great for most people lately. This article can’t claim to solve any of life’s big problems, but we do hope it’ll make you feel better for a little while.
Fact 1 | The Post-it note was invented completely by accident.
Dr. Spencer Silver, a scientist at the company 3M, was researching ways to make stronger, tougher adhesives, when he accidentally discovered one that stuck to surfaces but didn’t bond with them. For years, he struggled to find a use for his invention, until Art Fry, one of his colleagues, realized it would be useful to have a bookmark that would adhere to pages without damaging them. The two worked on their invention together. When they ...
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Your brand is your most valuable asset.
So when you trust somebody to tell your brand story for you, you want to make sure it’s the right kind of person. Someone who can write copy that’s engaging and easy to process and, most importantly, get to the heart of what your brand is about.
In other words, a journalist.
Why a journalist, you say? Seems like a marketer or ad copywriter would be a better choice.
And sure, we get it. Marketers and salespeople know how to craft an appealing message and broadcast it. But so do journalists, and they have a few other skills in their repertoire too.
Here are five reasons why journalists make the best content marketers:
1 | They can distill ...
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