In 2007, the mention of content marketing brought as many blank stares from small business owners as the mention of a website did 10 years before. In fact, in 1997 when we started our small business magazine in Southwest Florida, few owners had websites, let alone an online marketing strategy. Their current tagline, "Save Money.

have written before about the importance of adding visual elements to content so it was particularly gratifying to find that Mark Smiciklas had represented my article, Six Steps to a Successful Small Business Content Marketing Strategy simply and clearly with a big graphic accompanied by five bullet points. The New Marketing Strategy.

Even a micro business can use video effectively to communicate with its customers online. Here Are Kathy’s 6 Secrets to Video Success for Small Business: Make sure that you are telling a compelling story. Share and Enjoy: Tags: Content Marketing Knowledge Center News Online Tech Tools Tips & Mini-Guides Trends Video

IBM Knowledge Socialization Project: Storytelling in business. MIT Storytelling and Business Resources. Stories Are Serious Business. People using the Beyond Bullet Points (BBP) approach enjoy successful presentations because they tell stories while giving the presentation. Stories connect speakers with their audience.

It’s particularly gratifying to watch so many small businesses and independent professionals putting content marketing to work. 10 Lessons Small Businesses Can Learn from Smart Content Marketers. Share and Enjoy: Tags: Content Marketing In Print Knowledge Center News Online Success Stories Tips & Mini-Guides

Marketing your small business with Facebook sounds like a lot of fun and a great idea—until it hits you. One of the great things about social media for marketing is the fact that it gives small businesses some of the advantages once enjoyed by large corporations with big marketing budgets—namely, tremendous reach and measurable results.

The just released study on business use of social media from the folks at Business.com is must reading for content marketers who are active, tentative or hesitant about social media. Their research, 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study makes it clear that even small business owners need to take social media very seriously indeed.

Here are the top 10 takeaways on the how-to’s of content strategy: From the very moment you launch your website, you are in the publishing business. Since you are now in the publishing business, you need to do exactly the same. Why An Effective Content Strategy is Fundamental to Effective Content Marketing.

Thanks to free or inexpensive blogging tools, any individual can be on the same technological footing as the New York Times or Business Week. Tags: Blogging Content Marketing Knowledge Center Marketing Basics News Online Social Media Tips & Mini-Guides Trends We often talk about the need to develop a content marketing mindset.

You may be wondering why something as seemingly simple as Twitter causes so much confusion and consternation among business people. If you are brand new to Twitter, you may want to read our earlier post, Twitter for Business Made Easy , before continuing). So too with Twitter. That’s good and important.