#not understanding a topic and starting with drop out ideation is part of the journey when you are a student.

[ohitslen]

Living together.

The snail video if you are interested :)

[nerdygaymormon]

Dad’s dream & my response

From DAD:

I have not put my arms around for way too long and tell you how much I love you and how much you mean to me.  

Many years ago God who was showing to me how he would feel if I did not make it back to live with Him. This is how he did it. I had a dream and it was you and me. We were arguing about church doctrine. Not sure what except we drove up to the temple and we got out and you wanted me to deny what I knew to be true. We both had all our possession in backpacks. I dropped mine trying to reach you. You would not listen and you turned and urinated on the pillar of the temple. Then you turned and gave me one last chance to deny that which I knew was true and I could not. You started to walk off. The temple we had driven right up to the door and it was on the edge of a parking lot of a big spacious mall with the parking lot filled with thousands of people. I went to grab my pack back because it had all my earthly possession and it was covered in ants. I looked at it and you leaving and called after you and dropped my backpack because it did not matter. I turned to go after you and I was on an elevated sidewalk and you were walking into the crowds. I kept calling and trying to see you and you did not seem to know I was even there. And I knew with assurity that if I lost sight of you I would never see you again. Then you were lost from sight and the emptiness, sorry and despair was so great, there are no works that can adequately express those felling. There was a despair that had no end. Then I woke up. Thought boy that was a weird dream. 

 After a while I went back to sleep and the interpretation was given to me. That God has given me the truth and I was rejecting it and he could not, would not revoke my free agency. He wanted me to realize that all my worldly possession mean nothing eternally and for me to experience how He would feel if I did not return to live with Him. That was the interpretation.  

That was dramatic and left me with a vision but without words to explain. That feeling was given to me when I thought I was never going to see you again. I realized how precious you were to me. You David was that son on mine. You never feel you are not important or a burden or a embarrassment. No you are a son of God. Humble and serving Him who will judge us all. In reality you are probably in equal or better standing than I who has had so much given to me. I love you and sent you an email a couple of weeks ago because I had dreams about you two night in a row that you were being placed in jeopardy by the world and I saw it but did not know what to do or say. That’s why I sent you an email. Today when Elder Anderson was describing you (actually a different person who is like like you ) and how he served, honored and kept the commitment to His temple covenants.  So I ask you what can I do to help you know of your value ?  Is there anything you want to talk about ?   Love You as do all your family, especially your nieces and nephews Your Dad

————————————————————- ME (this also addresses some things from the previous emails):

Well, Dad, I've been on a very long journey. There's a whole side of my life you know almost nothing about. 

I've tried hard to make being in the church work, and that has meant suppressing an important part of what makes a whole person. That comes at a very heavy cost. Part of making it work is some spiritual independence, I have serious differences with the church on LGBT topics, yet I'm here. Being in a church with a heavily homophobic theology comes with a lot of consequences.  

A bit over 2 years ago I started a descent into darkness. I actually wrote out a eulogy. After a 2nd suicidal episode, I knew I had to get help and I began therapy. I was diagnosed at high risk of suicide. I had to go weekly to therapy and have a safety plan I kept on me at all times. Over the months, the psychologist helped me with several things to help improve my mental health. I was in therapy for 10 months, felt so much better and learned a lot.  

The past 6 months, though, I've been taking steps backwards, and that shows in my weight and my demeanor. Also work is rough because we're very shorthanded as some people have left and not been replaced and we're having yet another reorg (the 3rd one in 5 years since I started my current position). I'm not able to keep up and my work is suffering, it's stressful.  

Just before your last email, I decided it's time to get control again of my life. I'm trying to lose weight, I need to apply for a different position, I need to start doing some exercising, I need to enforce some of the boundaries I drew regarding church, and I need to engage in more social activities.   

The stake president knows most of what I just shared, and more. We've had a number of deep talks, in fact, he was part of my safety plan. He tells me it's okay to have disagreements with the brethren and still be a good member, to have some doubts and have a testimony.  

I'm putting a link to a video that I hope will help you feel better about having a gay child. It shares a lot of research that's been done in an easy to understand way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Khn_z9FPmU&t=26s My path forward is unclear, and I've worried a lot about how you & mom would react to different paths I could take. And it probably doesn't make sense to you that the church is something that is so valuable to you but is something which can be so negative for me.  

For gay people, being active in the church increases rates of suicide ideation, increases rates of depression, increases internalized homophobia. It also results in lower self esteem and lower quality of life. A study last year found 70% of LDS gay people have the symptoms of PTSD (trauma). There's a lot of good things about our church and much that I cherish, but for LGBT people, it also causes damage and is a key reason most step away. The gospel should be good news, not harmful.   

I believe that a God who is the author of diversity would have accounted for it in his plan. I believe I am included in God's plan, just not in the church's version of God's plan. I told that to Elder Costa last year as we had lunch together (right after he told me that he has the same birthday as you). He said that it's true gays are not in the church's understanding of the plan, "yet here you are." I believe there is more to be revealed. In some ways, my salvation is between me and God without the church getting in the middle.   

I'm sure you and I interpret your dream differently. You're probably thinking all of this proves I'm ready to urinate on the temple and destroy everything you hold of value. Meanwhile I'm not asking you to betray the church, I'm just asking to not sacrifice me. Wouldn't a dead son would be worse than one who is completely orthodox in his beliefs? We see things differently, but I love you. Thanks for your concern, David

[useyourwordspodcast]

Seasonal Affective Disorder - S.A.D

"If we can talk about sexuality, sexual positions, and sexual preferences out in the open without squirming, without any shame, then why the hell can we not talk about our own mental health. On things that may impact whether we live or die! Because were too ashamed to talk about it."  -- Paul

Here in Wisconsin we are getting close to having our second season, winter. We have endured the months and months of construction - but thanks to Covid that season has been more of an irritation instead of an inconvenience. I guess even Covid has it’s silver lining huh?

This week Aaron and myself talk about mental health and the impact that S.A.D. has had on both of our lives, and the current impact it is having on Aaron’s. Sometimes S.A.D. appears as just wanting to sleep more, but it can also have the same symptoms as depression up to and including suicidal ideation. S.A.D. is not something to be taken lightly, but it is also not something to immediately freak out about if one of your family/friends is diagnosed/dealing with it. S.A.D. is a very common diagnosis actually according to the Mayo clinic , with over millions of people diagnosed yearly in the United States, with some estimates putting it at 4% - 6% of the population being impacted by this yearly - with 10% - 20% of the population experiencing mild S.A.D. symptoms. Putting that into perspective 4% of the United States Population is close to 13.2 million people annually who deal with this medical condition. If you took the higher end 20% of the population, that brings the total U.S. population dealing with some form of S.A.D. up to 65.6 million.

Let that number sink in for a minute. 65.6 million people each year potentially deal with some form of S.A.D. that impacts them in some way. Now just because someone is dealing with S.A.D. does not mean that they are themselves suicidal or in any way in threat of hurting themselves - though it is possible. What this means is that annually, we have millions of people who are suffering alone and trying to make it through the winter to times when we have more sunlight to help them stave off the effects of this disease. Like it’s “big brother” depression, S.A.D. is something to keep an eye on and know the symptoms of and how to help others dealing with it - because more than likely someone you know is attempting to deal with this disease in some way.

So how do you help your friends/family that are dealing with S.A.D. - especially if it’s not diagnosed? More ideas can be found at the links below.

Encourage them to go outside if possible, or at least open a window to let in natural sunlight.

Encourage them to get some exercise.

Encourage them to talk to their doctor to get officially diagnosed.

Check in with your friends that are “feeling blue” during the winter months to make sure they are doing well.

I have been pretty open on the podcast with my struggles regarding my own mental health and the journey to get better. I have been a big advocate for working to drop the stigma attached to mental health, especially after seeing the reaction of some of the people in my own family and it is refreshing to see others taking up the mantel as well and bringing these conversations to the forefront. This is the first time that Aaron has been as open as he has on the podcast regarding his own mental health issues - specifically S.A.D. and how it has impacted him these past years.(Way to go Aaron!)

I have been frustrated by multiple people due to the fact that whenever mental health is brought up, a lot of people immediately stop talking - almost like the conversation is an “impolite” topic to discuss in “civilized” conversation. But those same people may then go into a long discussion about their date the other night and all the things they may have done sexually with the other person - and yet the concept of talking about mental health is considered taboo.

Part of the goals of our Podcast is to no longer let specific topics be “taboo” for “polite” conversation - and sometimes we do well at it and sometimes not so well - but we are working on it each and every week.

One of the things that Aaron brings up is the song Sometimes by Skillet and while it may not have originally been written regarding mental health how it fits perfectly with how we feel at times when we don’t want to necessarily get better mentally and get over what is going at the time. The lyrics are powerful - and I recommend you listen to the song and read the caption for the lyrics from the final chorus to understand the portion that both of us talk about in the episode.

As far as people being more open about these things, someone I know recently created a Facebook group for those in the construction/trade industries dealing with various mental health issues. You should check out their page - https://www.facebook.com/HardTalksInHardhats/ and join in the conversation especially if you are in the construction/trade industries. While you are on Facebook - go ahead and check out and like our page as well at https://www.facebook.com/UseYourWordsPodcast You can also ensure that when your friend/family is talking about any issues they may be experiencing this winter - especially in the time of covid - that you listen to them and understand and if the issues of mental health start to come up, don’t shy away from those conversations. Lean into them - hard.

Links:

https://www.facebook.com/UseYourWordsPodcast

https://www.facebook.com/HardTalksInHardhats/

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/seasonal-affective-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20364651

https://www.healthline.com/health/summer-SAD-is-all-too-real#triggers

[luxus4me]

Sprout Social http://j.mp/2zRRbjj

In the early days, a lot of companies looked at content marketing as just another word for blogging. Today we know it’s much more. Content marketing encompasses nearly every aspect of online marketing that involves content. That means SEO, PR, social media marketing and more.

With all these moving pieces, there’s a lot to manage. In order to help you get a better understanding of what is content marketing, how it can help your business and how to create a winning strategy, we’ve compiled a huge list of 179 content marketing tools and resources.

This list includes tools, articles, templates, case studies and everything else you need to become a content marketing pro.

We highly recommend bookmarking this post so you can come back to it whenever you need any type of content marketing resource. There’s nothing worse than struggling to remember where you saw that one tool you forgot the name of. Everything you need is right here in one place. Here’s our list of some of the top paid and free content marketing tools on the market:

Design tools

Writing tools

Content ideas

Content promotion and distribution

Scaling content marketing

Measuring and tracking content marketing

Downloadable templates

Content marketing blogs

Content marketing articles & guides

Content marketers to follow

Content marketing case studies

Content marketing white papers and reports

Content marketing infographics

Content marketing training

Videos and webinars

Content marketing podcasts

Content marketing statistics

Content marketing events

Content marketing books

Design Tools for Content Marketing

Visuals are crucial for your content marketing strategy. We’ve seen a huge surge in infographics, photo sharing and visually driven social networks over the past five years. Remember, content means more than just text. These tools will make it easier to add professional looking photos, infographics and illustrations to spice up your content marketing efforts.

Canva: Canva is a simple drag and drop graphic design tool. It comes with a huge library of free templates, design elements and helpful articles to improve your design skills.

Piktochart: Piktochart allows you to make professional looking infographics from scratch or with the help of customizable templates.

Infogram: If you have a lot of stats and data, you can use Infogram to turn them into beautiful charts and graphs.

Easelly: Easelly is another graphic design tool to make infographics and other visuals. You also have the ability to get your designs featured on the site for added exposure.

PicMonkey: PinkMonkey is a popular image editor for desktop and mobile. You can apply filters to your photos, add borders and hundreds of other design elements.

Pixlr: Pixlr is cloud-based image editor that’s like a lightweight Photoshop.

PicJumbo: Finding stock photos that don’t look horrible can be a challenge for content marketers. PicJumbo has a vast library of free, high quality stock photos that go beyond the generic businessman smiling at the camera.

GraphicRiver: GraphicRiver is a marketplace to buy fonts, icons, vectors, logo templates and other designs.

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Writing Tools for Content Marketing

Just because visuals are important, that doesn’t mean you can slack on your writing. Since writing doesn’t come natural to everyone, having a little help can go a long way. The tools below will make writing easier and improve the quality of your content.

WordPress: WordPress is the most popular Content Management System (CMS) in the world. It’s one of the easiest platforms to setup your blog or entire website and enter content without needing to know how to code.

Focus@Will: Need some relaxing music to help you focus while you create content? Focus@Will uses scientific research to create songs and playlists designed to help you concentrate.

Grammarly: Grammarly is a freemium tool you can use to check the grammar and spelling of your content. It goes beyond the spell check features of most word processors and even has handy reports to show how many corrections you’ve made.

Title Capitalization: When you’re not sure which words to capitalize in your headlines, plug it into Title Capitalization to see the correct format.

AP Stylebook: AP Stylebook is a great resource to ensure you’re following AP style guidelines in your writing.

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Content Idea Sources & Tools

One of the most difficult parts of content marketing is coming up with ideas. You need to make sure you’re creating and sharing content about topics your audience cares about. At the same time, your topics should have SEO value so keywords play a role. Try these tools for a steady supply of content ideas.

Buzzsumo: Buzzsumo helps you find content that has been highly shared on social media, as well as the top influencers in your industry.

Long Tail Pro: Long Tail Pro makes it easy to discover low competition keywords for your content.

Keywordtool.io: Keywordtool.io is another keyword research tool. In addition to sourcing ideas from Google, it also checks YouTube, Amazon, Bing and the App Store.

Feedly: Feedly has several uses for content marketing. It gives you the feeds of all your favorite blogs in one dashboard. You can use Feedly to source content to share on social media, or to get ideas for your own content. Feedly also integrates with Sprout Social to make scheduling your content quick and easy.

Content Forest Ideator: The ideator searches for existing content around the web containing your specified topic. Use the results to come up with new ideas for topics and headlines. Don’t copy the exact same headlines/topics Ideator displays.

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Content Promotion & Distribution Tools

Creating content is nice, but if nobody sees it, what’s the point? Content promotion is just as important as the creation process. Some content marketing pros even recommend spending more time promoting and distributing content than creating it. Use these tools to get your content in front of more people.

Sprout Social: Sprout Social is our social media management software. You can use Sprout to schedule your social media posts, engage with your audience and measure the performance of your social media shares.

Buzzstream: Buzzstream is a link building and PR tool you can use to manage all of your outreach efforts.

SlideShare: SlideShare is a community to share slideshow presentations, infographics and videos. It’s a great platform for repurposed or new content.

Social Media: It should go without saying, but using sites like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat is one of the best content distribution tactics you can try.

Ninja Outreach: Ninja Outreach is a web-based outreach tool. You can search for outreach prospects, send emails, manage your conversations and more.

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Tools to Scale Content Marketing

As content marketing becomes a bigger piece of your strategy and your team grows, you’ll need to improve your infrastructure and processes to keep up. Here are some great tools and resources to scale your content marketing efforts.

Trello: Use Trello to keep your projects and workflow organized when you’re working with a team.

Google Drive: Google Drive is a great tool to create and collaborate on documents with your team no matter where they are.

Problogger Job Board: In addition to being one of the leading resources for blogging tips, Pro Blogger also has a job board you can use to find high quality writers to create content.

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Content Marketing Analytics Tools

Is your content marketing working? Use these analytics and reporting tools to track and measure your brand’s content marketing.

Moz Pro: Moz Pro is known for being a popular SEO tool, but it’s just as beneficial for content marketing. Track brand mentions, find outreach opportunities and much more.

Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a must-have tool to measure and analyze your site’s traffic.

Cyfe: Cyfe is a dashboard that lets you connect the various tools you use to manage your content marketing efforts like Google Analytics, Twitter, email marketing software and dozens of others.

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Content Marketing Templates

Diving head-first into content marketing may work on some occasions. But if you want to improve your chances of success, it helps to have a strategy laid out. These templates, checklists, and workbooks will make it easier for you to create an actionable plan.

Core Content Strategy Statement: This template will set the expectations for what you want to accomplish with your content marketing strategy.

Content Planning Template: Use this template to create a plan and strategy for your content.

Content Marketing Quick Start: This workbook will give you a basic understanding of what content marketing is and the steps you need to take to get started such as doing a content audit and developing buyer personas.

Create a Buyer Persona: This tool helps you define your buyer personas through a series of questions.

Customer Journey Map: Certain content will resonate differently with your audience depending on what stage of the buying process they’re in. This template lets you decide what content to produce for each buyer persona you create.

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process: This handy checklist walks you through the keyword research process.

Editorial Calendar Template: You can use this spreadsheet to manage your blog’s content calendar.

Content Audit & Keyword Matrix Template: This is more robust spreadsheet to organize and audit all the content on your site.

Content Marketing Budget Template: How much are you going to spend on content marketing? Use this template to setup your budget.

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Content Marketing Blogs

Staying on top of the latest developments in content marketing and immersing yourself in the industry will help you become a better content marketer. These are some of the top content marketing blogs to add to your reading list.

Content Marketing Institute: Content Marketing Institute has a wealth of actionable articles, data and resources for content marketers of any level.

Hubspot: The founders of Hubspot actually coined the term “inbound marketing” which often gets intertwined with content marketing. On the blog, you’ll find case studies, templates and inbound marketing tips.

Convince & Convert: Convince & Convert tackles the topic of content marketing primarily for larger organizations. It focuses on using content marketing to gain customers.

Copyblogger: Copyblogger does a great job of teaching content marketers how to write compelling content. But there are plenty of other topics to read about on the blog as well.

The Content Strategist: The Content Strategist is a magazine-style blog with articles about content marketing news, examples of creative campaigns and how-to guides.

The Scripted Blog: The Scripted blog helps writers learn more about content marketing as a whole, outside of just the content creation portion.

Sprout Social Insights: Social media is one of the most important pieces of the content marketing puzzle. On our blog, we share helpful articles about social media marketing for businesses.

The Knowledge Bank: The Knowledge Bank is a creative content marketing blog that allows you to customize your feed to see the topics you want to read about.

Quick Sprout: Neil Patel writes about all areas of marketing on his blog, Quick Sprout. However, a majority of the content is extremely helpful for content marketers, so it’s definitely worth adding to your reading list.

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Content Marketing Articles & Guides

If you’re just getting started with content marketing or looking to expand your knowledge, these articles and guides are a great place to start.

The Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing

The Advanced Guide to Content Marketing

How to Make Every Piece of Content SEO Friendly

7 Tips From SEO Wizards That Will Boost Your Content

How to Optimize Your Content for Google’s Featured Snippet Box

What is a Content Marketing Strategy?

10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work

105 Types of Content to Fill Up Your Content Calendar

7 Content Distribution Techniques You Totally Forgot About

Long vs. Short-Form Content Which Is More Effective?

10 Tips to Make Content Marketing Work for Small Budgets

Keyword Research: The Definitive Guide

5 Content Metrics Every Marketer Needs to Analyze

Sumo Growth Study: 13 Marketing Tips from HubSpot’s 21.5 Million Website Traffic Growth

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Content Marketers to Follow on Twitter

One of the best parts about content marketing is the huge community. Plenty of content marketers are happy to share their top tips and insights. Give these influencers a follow to see what top content marketers are Tweeting about.

Aaron Orendorff — @iconiContent

Ann Handley — @MarketingProfs

Ash Ambirge — @TMFproject

Brian Kolb — @BrianKolb

Christoph Trappe — @CTrappe

David Meerman Scott — @dmscott

Doug Kessler — @dougkessler

Guillaume Decugis — @gdecugis

Gary Vaynerchuk — @garyvee

Aaron Lee — @askaronlee

Jeff Bullas — @jeffbullas

Joanna Wiebe — @copyhackers

Joe Pulizzi — @JoePulizzi

Julia McCoy — @JuliaEMcCoy

Karola Karlson — @KarolaKarlson

Lee Odden — @leeodden

Mark Schaefer — @markwschaefer

Michael Brenner — ‏@BrennerMichael

Neil Patel — @neilpatel

Rand Fishkin — @randfish

Jay Baer — @JayBaer

Chris Brogan — @ChrisBrogan

Brian Solis — @BrianSolis

Amy Porterfield — @AmyPorterfield

Brian Clark — @brianclark

Neal Schaffer — @NealSchaffer

Ann Smarty — @seosmarty

Mari Smith — @marismith

Ryan Hanley — @RyanHanley_Com

Rebekah Radice — @RebekahRadice

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Content Marketing Case Studies

Sometimes the best way to learn is to see what successful people have done. These case studies will not only give you inspiration, but they also serve as proof of how effective content marketing can be.

PTC goes from 0 to 100,000 visitors per month

Groove improves blog engagement by 300%

Vero gets 1,000 email subscribers from one content marketing tactic

Brian Dean uses Infographics to increase organic traffic by 175%

Eloqua increased referral traffic by 43%

Dive Rite increases traffic 65%

A dentist proves the value of Facebook Live

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Content Marketing White Papers & Reports

Whether you’re trying to sell content marketing to the C-Suite or just want insight into the industry, these white papers are valuable resources.

Turned Off: How Brands Are Annoying Customers on Social: Find out what your brand is doing that could be annoying your customers on social media.

Stop Killing Your Content: 3 Reasons Your Content Is Falling Flat: In this whitepaper, you’ll learn how poor content hurts your brand and how to avoid it.

What Works in Content Marketing?: This whitepaper consists of case studies and resources to get a better understanding of what works in content marketing.

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Content Marketing Infographics

These infographics display data, stats and actionable tips about content marketing. Give them a look or share them with your team.

The 2017 State of Content Marketing

The Amazingly Simple Anatomy of a Meaningful Marketing Story

11 Essential Ingredients Every Blog Post Needs

9 Landing Page Goofs that Make You Lose Business

Content Marketing vs. Advertising

22 Ways to Create Compelling Content

The Anatomy of Content Marketing

The Do’s and Dont’s of Content Marketing

How to Use Colors to Increase Your Conversion Rate

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Content Marketing Training & Courses

Content marketing might not be something you can major in at college, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a formal way to learn how to do it. Class is in session with these content marketing courses.

Hubspot Content Marketing Certification Course: This course breaks down the difference between content marketing and inbound marketing. You’ll also learn how to build processes to scale your content marketing efforts.

Online Marketing Institute: In this library of video lessons, you’ll be able to learn everything from how to become a better storyteller to how to measure content marketing.

Copyblogger Membership: Signing up for Copyblogger’s free membership gives you access to a long list of trainings, eBooks and articles to learn about all aspects of online marketing.

Content Marketing University: This course is aimed at enterprises and content marketing teams, as well as individual content marketers who want to expand their skillset.

Content Marketing Crash Course: This content marketing course is all about how to create better content. If your biggest struggle is the creation process, this course is worth checking out.

Content Marketing Bootcamp: This course is about the intersection of content marketing and SEO. Learn how to use content to bring new visitors to your website.

Content Marketing for B2B Enterprises: This free Udemy course shows you how to get B2B leads using content marketing.

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Content Marketing Webinars & Videos

Want a break from watching funny cats on YouTube? Take a look at these videos about content marketing to learn and be entertained.

What is Content Marketing?

How Long Does it Take for Content Marketing to Work?

Steve Job’s Marketing Strategy

Next Wave with Gary Vaynerchuk: Content is King

Introduction to Content Marketing with BuzzFeed

Creating Demand With Content Marketing

Content Marketing for Startups

How to Switch from a Campaign Strategy to an Always-On Content Marketing Strategy

Epic Content Marketing

If You Want User Generated Content, Ask for It

Creative Ways to Grow Your Email Marketing List

How to Create a Content Strategy for Your Employee Advocacy Platform

10 Types of Interactive Content for Social Engagement

How to Build a Social Media Content Calendar

Engaging Customers Through Content, Contests & Community Building

How to Optimize Your Content Marketing Lifecycle for Long Term Success

Using Social Media Analytics to Create Better Content

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Content Marketing Podcasts

This Old Marketing

Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose, two of the most well-known experts in the content marketing space, talk about the latest content marketing trends and discuss how businesses can use content to attract and retain customers. Each podcast show features a discussion of content marketing headlines, rants from Joe and Robert on what’s going on in the industry, and a “This Old Marketing” example from the past (that we can learn from). Always useful, entertaining and never more than 60 minutes.

Content Warfare

Every week on the Content Warfare Podcast, Ryan Hanley interviews the Internet’s most prolific content creators to extract their secrets for winning the battle for attention online. Popular guests include: Chris Brogan, Marcus Sheridan, Mark Schaefer and Gini Dietrich. Popular topics include: content marketing, writing, podcasting, social media and audience building.

Content Inc with Joe Pulizzi

Content Inc. is for entrepreneurs and startups who want to be big — not by creating and selling more products and services — but by developing a loyal audience through remarkable content. Podcast creator Joe Pulizzi, known as the “godfather of content marketing,” believes that most small businesses and startups are going to market in the wrong way. Instead of leading first with product, Joe believes entrepreneurs should be building audiences…then they can sell whatever they want. Each podcast contains one inspirational idea that can change your business — all in less than 15 minutes per episode.

The Superheroes of Marketing Podcast

Kelly and Alisa are passionate marketers who get a real thrill from helping small and medium-sized businesses harness the power of online inbound marketing to increase website traffic, leads and sales.

Content Marketing Podcast with Rachel Parker

Content marketing isn’t just a buzzword — it’s the key to connecting with today’s hard-to-reach consumer. In the Content Marketing Podcast, Rachel Parker of Resonance Content Marketing helps you understand what content marketing is, why it’s important, and how to put it to work attracting and retaining customers for your business.

The Content Champion Podcast

Learn to be a content marketing contender with the Content Champion Podcast. In each show we share the essential strategies, tactics and tools to help you punch above your weight online. Vibrant, informative and always essential listening, we showcase step-by-step techniques you can start using right now to become a content champion in your own business.

Content Matters

A talk show about all things content marketing featuring Andy Crestodina and Barry Feldman. Each 22-minute episode explores a significant tactic that makes content marketing effective.

Duct Tape Marketing Podcast

Interviews with authors, experts and thought leaders sharing business marketing tips, tactics and resources hosted by one America’s leading small business marketing experts.

Seth Godin’s Startup School

Seth Godin is a thought leader in the marketing and business world. In this rare live recording, hear Seth as he guides thirty entrepreneurs through a workshop exploring how they can build and run their dream business.

Copyblogger FM

Copyblogger FM is a weekly, short-form broadcast hosted by Sonia Simone. Each week, she and a cast of rotating experts analyze the week in content marketing, copywriting, email marketing, conversion optimization, mindset, and much more.

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Content Marketing Statistics

In case you need proof of how effective content marketing can be, or need to prove it to someone else, you can use these content marketing stats as a resource.

88% of B2B marketers currently use content marketing as part of their marketing strategy, yet only 32% have a documented content marketing strategy. (source)

42% of B2B marketers say they’re effective at content marketing. (source)

70% of B2B marketers planned to create more content in 2017 than they did in 2016. (source)

Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads. (source)

78% of CMOs believe custom content is the future of marketing. (source)

The average length of a blog typical blog post in 2016 was 1,054 words compared to 887 in 2015. (source)

41% of marketers believe visual images are the most important type of content. (source)

60% of the most effective B2C marketers have a documented content strategy. (source)

73% of organizations have someone in place to oversee their content strategy. (source)

Almost 60% of marketers reuse content two to five times. They generate “snackable” content based on assets. (source)

64% of B2B marketers outsource writing. (source)

82% of marketers who blog see positive ROI from their inbound marketing. (source)

91% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content. (source)

34% of marketers selected visual assets as their most important content, behind blogging (45%) and before videos (19%). (source)

Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without relevant images. (source)

Infographics were the B2B content marketing tactic with the biggest increase from 2014 to 2015, up from 51% to 62%. (source)

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Content Marketing Events

Attending events allows you to network with other content marketers as well as learn from guest speakers. Add these annual content marketing events to your calendar before they’re completely booked.

Content Marketing World: This is one of the most popular content marketing events in the industry. Experts from around the world gather to teach and learn about everything content marketing related.

B2B Marketing Exchange: This conference is focused on B2B marketing and tackles new exciting topics each year.

GrowthHackers Conference: As the name implies, this conference is all about growth hacking. Speakers talk about how to create a growth team, content marketing, effective tactics and everything in between.

Marketing Sherpa Summit: Over 500 companies gather at the Marketing Sherpa Summit to discuss fast, effective and measurable marketing strategies and tactics. You also have the opportunity to participate in workshops and plenty of networking.

Intelligent Content Conference: The focus of this conference is content marketing strategy. It goes beyond how to write great content and touches on topics such as how to scale and the tools you can use to be more efficient.

Conversion Conference: If you can’t convert your site’s traffic, it doesn’t matter how great your content is. The Conversion Conference is all about how to make your site a converting machine through A/B testing, effective copywriting and more.

Confab Events: Confab Events hosts three different events about content marketing throughout the year. Check out their website to snag a ticket to their next conference.

MozCon: MozCon is one of the top events in the entire marketing industry. With various sessions, speakers and networking events, you’ll learn about SEO, content marketing, CRO, community building and much more.

Inbound: Inbound brings together some of the top marketing professionals in the world to talk about inbound marketing, sales and business.

Search Marketing Expo: SMX is a global event that centers around search engine marketing. Learn actionable tactics and hear experts speak about the state of search marketing.

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Content Marketing Books

Adding some content marketing books to your library is a great way to open your mind to new tactics and concepts that will sharpen your skills. Read through these books to learn more about branding, design, the art of storytelling and more.

Buyer Personas

Buyer Personas is the marketer’s actionable guide to learning what your buyer wants and how they make decisions. Written by the world’s leading authority on buyer personas, this book provides comprehensive coverage of a compelling new way to conduct buyer studies, plus practical advice on adopting the buyer persona approach to measurably improve marketing outcomes.

Content Inc.

In Content Inc., one of today’s most sought-after content-marketing strategists reveals a new model for entrepreneurial success. Simply put, it’s about developing valuable content, building an audience around that content, and then creating a product for that audience.

The Content Strategy Toolkit

In this essential guide, Meghan Casey outlines a step-by-step approach for doing content strategy, from planning and creating your content to delivering and managing it. Armed with this book, you can confidently tackle difficult activities like telling your boss or client what’s wrong with their content, getting the budget to do content work, and aligning stakeholders on a common vision.

Purple Cow

In Purple Cow, Seth Godin urges you to put a Purple Cow into everything you build, and everything you do, to create something truly noticeable. It’s a manifesto for marketers who want to help create products that are worth marketing in the first place.

Content Strategy for the Web

For organizations all over the world, Content Strategy for the Web is the go-to content strategy handbook.

Everybody Writes

Everybody Writes is a go-to guide to attracting and retaining customers through stellar online communication, because in our content-driven world, every one of us is, in fact, a writer.

Letting Go of the Words, Writing Web Content that Works

Website design and development continues to become more sophisticated. An important part of this maturity originates with well-laid-out and well-written content. Ginny Redish is a world-renowned expert on information design and how to produce clear writing in plain language for the web. All of the invaluable information that she shared in the first edition is included with numerous new examples.

Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content

Clout explains the key principles of influence and how to apply them to web content. Along the way, those principles come to life with practical examples from HowStuffWorks.com, Newell Rubbermaid, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many more brands.

Don’t Make Me Think

Since Don’t Make Me Think was first published in 2000, hundreds of thousands of Web designers and developers have relied on usability guru Steve Krug’s guide to help them understand the principles of intuitive navigation and information design. Witty, commonsensical, and eminently practical, it’s one of the best-loved and most recommended books on the subject.

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What Are Your Favorite Content Marketing Tools?

While 170 tools sounds like a lot, it’s only a small percentage of all the content marketing platforms available. Did we miss your go-to piece of software? Let us know what your favorite content marketing tool is in the comments!

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179 Content Marketing Tools & Resources to Bookmark

In the early days, a lot of companies looked at content marketing as just another word for blogging. Today we know it’s much more. Content marketing encompasses nearly every aspect of online marketing that involves content. That means SEO, PR, social media marketing and more.

With all these moving pieces, there’s a lot to manage. In order to help you get a better understanding of what is content marketing, how it can help your business and how to create a winning strategy, we’ve compiled a huge list of 179 content marketing tools and resources.

This list includes tools, articles, templates, case studies and everything else you need to become a content marketing pro.

We highly recommend bookmarking this post so you can come back to it whenever you need any type of content marketing resource. There’s nothing worse than struggling to remember where you saw that one tool you forgot the name of. Everything you need is right here in one place. Here’s our list of some of the top paid and free content marketing tools on the market:

Design tools

Writing tools

Content ideas

Content promotion and distribution

Scaling content marketing

Measuring and tracking content marketing

Downloadable templates

Content marketing blogs

Content marketing articles & guides

Content marketers to follow

Content marketing case studies

Content marketing white papers and reports

Content marketing infographics

Content marketing training

Videos and webinars

Content marketing podcasts

Content marketing statistics

Content marketing events

Content marketing books

Design Tools for Content Marketing

Visuals are crucial for your content marketing strategy. We’ve seen a huge surge in infographics, photo sharing and visually driven social networks over the past five years. Remember, content means more than just text. These tools will make it easier to add professional looking photos, infographics and illustrations to spice up your content marketing efforts.

Canva: Canva is a simple drag and drop graphic design tool. It comes with a huge library of free templates, design elements and helpful articles to improve your design skills.

Piktochart: Piktochart allows you to make professional looking infographics from scratch or with the help of customizable templates.

Infogram: If you have a lot of stats and data, you can use Infogram to turn them into beautiful charts and graphs.

Easelly: Easelly is another graphic design tool to make infographics and other visuals. You also have the ability to get your designs featured on the site for added exposure.

PicMonkey: PinkMonkey is a popular image editor for desktop and mobile. You can apply filters to your photos, add borders and hundreds of other design elements.

Pixlr: Pixlr is cloud-based image editor that’s like a lightweight Photoshop.

PicJumbo: Finding stock photos that don’t look horrible can be a challenge for content marketers. PicJumbo has a vast library of free, high quality stock photos that go beyond the generic businessman smiling at the camera.

GraphicRiver: GraphicRiver is a marketplace to buy fonts, icons, vectors, logo templates and other designs.

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Writing Tools for Content Marketing

Just because visuals are important, that doesn’t mean you can slack on your writing. Since writing doesn’t come natural to everyone, having a little help can go a long way. The tools below will make writing easier and improve the quality of your content.

WordPress: WordPress is the most popular Content Management System (CMS) in the world. It’s one of the easiest platforms to setup your blog or entire website and enter content without needing to know how to code.

Focus@Will: Need some relaxing music to help you focus while you create content? Focus@Will uses scientific research to create songs and playlists designed to help you concentrate.

Grammarly: Grammarly is a freemium tool you can use to check the grammar and spelling of your content. It goes beyond the spell check features of most word processors and even has handy reports to show how many corrections you’ve made.

Title Capitalization: When you’re not sure which words to capitalize in your headlines, plug it into Title Capitalization to see the correct format.

AP Stylebook: AP Stylebook is a great resource to ensure you’re following AP style guidelines in your writing.

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Content Idea Sources & Tools

One of the most difficult parts of content marketing is coming up with ideas. You need to make sure you’re creating and sharing content about topics your audience cares about. At the same time, your topics should have SEO value so keywords play a role. Try these tools for a steady supply of content ideas.

Buzzsumo: Buzzsumo helps you find content that has been highly shared on social media, as well as the top influencers in your industry.

Long Tail Pro: Long Tail Pro makes it easy to discover low competition keywords for your content.

Keywordtool.io: Keywordtool.io is another keyword research tool. In addition to sourcing ideas from Google, it also checks YouTube, Amazon, Bing and the App Store.

Feedly: Feedly has several uses for content marketing. It gives you the feeds of all your favorite blogs in one dashboard. You can use Feedly to source content to share on social media, or to get ideas for your own content. Feedly also integrates with Sprout Social to make scheduling your content quick and easy.

Content Forest Ideator: The ideator searches for existing content around the web containing your specified topic. Use the results to come up with new ideas for topics and headlines. Don’t copy the exact same headlines/topics Ideator displays.

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Content Promotion & Distribution Tools

Creating content is nice, but if nobody sees it, what’s the point? Content promotion is just as important as the creation process. Some content marketing pros even recommend spending more time promoting and distributing content than creating it. Use these tools to get your content in front of more people.

Sprout Social: Sprout Social is our social media management software. You can use Sprout to schedule your social media posts, engage with your audience and measure the performance of your social media shares.

Buzzstream: Buzzstream is a link building and PR tool you can use to manage all of your outreach efforts.

SlideShare: SlideShare is a community to share slideshow presentations, infographics and videos. It’s a great platform for repurposed or new content.

Social Media: It should go without saying, but using sites like Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat is one of the best content distribution tactics you can try.

Ninja Outreach: Ninja Outreach is a web-based outreach tool. You can search for outreach prospects, send emails, manage your conversations and more.

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Tools to Scale Content Marketing

As content marketing becomes a bigger piece of your strategy and your team grows, you’ll need to improve your infrastructure and processes to keep up. Here are some great tools and resources to scale your content marketing efforts.

Trello: Use Trello to keep your projects and workflow organized when you’re working with a team.

Google Drive: Google Drive is a great tool to create and collaborate on documents with your team no matter where they are.

Problogger Job Board: In addition to being one of the leading resources for blogging tips, Pro Blogger also has a job board you can use to find high quality writers to create content.

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Content Marketing Analytics Tools

Is your content marketing working? Use these analytics and reporting tools to track and measure your brand’s content marketing.

Moz Pro: Moz Pro is known for being a popular SEO tool, but it’s just as beneficial for content marketing. Track brand mentions, find outreach opportunities and much more.

Google Analytics: Google Analytics is a must-have tool to measure and analyze your site’s traffic.

Cyfe: Cyfe is a dashboard that lets you connect the various tools you use to manage your content marketing efforts like Google Analytics, Twitter, email marketing software and dozens of others.

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Content Marketing Templates

Diving head-first into content marketing may work on some occasions. But if you want to improve your chances of success, it helps to have a strategy laid out. These templates, checklists, and workbooks will make it easier for you to create an actionable plan.

Core Content Strategy Statement: This template will set the expectations for what you want to accomplish with your content marketing strategy.

Content Planning Template: Use this template to create a plan and strategy for your content.

Content Marketing Quick Start: This workbook will give you a basic understanding of what content marketing is and the steps you need to take to get started such as doing a content audit and developing buyer personas.

Create a Buyer Persona: This tool helps you define your buyer personas through a series of questions.

Customer Journey Map: Certain content will resonate differently with your audience depending on what stage of the buying process they’re in. This template lets you decide what content to produce for each buyer persona you create.

SEO Checklist: The Keyword Research Process: This handy checklist walks you through the keyword research process.

Editorial Calendar Template: You can use this spreadsheet to manage your blog’s content calendar.

Content Audit & Keyword Matrix Template: This is more robust spreadsheet to organize and audit all the content on your site.

Content Marketing Budget Template: How much are you going to spend on content marketing? Use this template to setup your budget.

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Content Marketing Blogs

Staying on top of the latest developments in content marketing and immersing yourself in the industry will help you become a better content marketer. These are some of the top content marketing blogs to add to your reading list.

Content Marketing Institute: Content Marketing Institute has a wealth of actionable articles, data and resources for content marketers of any level.

Hubspot: The founders of Hubspot actually coined the term “inbound marketing” which often gets intertwined with content marketing. On the blog, you’ll find case studies, templates and inbound marketing tips.

Convince & Convert: Convince & Convert tackles the topic of content marketing primarily for larger organizations. It focuses on using content marketing to gain customers.

Copyblogger: Copyblogger does a great job of teaching content marketers how to write compelling content. But there are plenty of other topics to read about on the blog as well.

The Content Strategist: The Content Strategist is a magazine-style blog with articles about content marketing news, examples of creative campaigns and how-to guides.

The Scripted Blog: The Scripted blog helps writers learn more about content marketing as a whole, outside of just the content creation portion.

Sprout Social Insights: Social media is one of the most important pieces of the content marketing puzzle. On our blog, we share helpful articles about social media marketing for businesses.

The Knowledge Bank: The Knowledge Bank is a creative content marketing blog that allows you to customize your feed to see the topics you want to read about.

Quick Sprout: Neil Patel writes about all areas of marketing on his blog, Quick Sprout. However, a majority of the content is extremely helpful for content marketers, so it’s definitely worth adding to your reading list.

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Content Marketing Articles & Guides

If you’re just getting started with content marketing or looking to expand your knowledge, these articles and guides are a great place to start.

The Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing

The Advanced Guide to Content Marketing

How to Make Every Piece of Content SEO Friendly

7 Tips From SEO Wizards That Will Boost Your Content

How to Optimize Your Content for Google’s Featured Snippet Box

What is a Content Marketing Strategy?

10 Sure-Fire Headline Formulas That Work

105 Types of Content to Fill Up Your Content Calendar

7 Content Distribution Techniques You Totally Forgot About

Long vs. Short-Form Content Which Is More Effective?

10 Tips to Make Content Marketing Work for Small Budgets

Keyword Research: The Definitive Guide

5 Content Metrics Every Marketer Needs to Analyze

Sumo Growth Study: 13 Marketing Tips from HubSpot’s 21.5 Million Website Traffic Growth

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Content Marketers to Follow on Twitter

One of the best parts about content marketing is the huge community. Plenty of content marketers are happy to share their top tips and insights. Give these influencers a follow to see what top content marketers are Tweeting about.

Aaron Orendorff — @iconiContent

Ann Handley — @MarketingProfs

Ash Ambirge — @TMFproject

Brian Kolb — @BrianKolb

Christoph Trappe — @CTrappe

David Meerman Scott — @dmscott

Doug Kessler — @dougkessler

Guillaume Decugis — @gdecugis

Gary Vaynerchuk — @garyvee

Aaron Lee — @askaronlee

Jeff Bullas — @jeffbullas

Joanna Wiebe — @copyhackers

Joe Pulizzi — @JoePulizzi

Julia McCoy — @JuliaEMcCoy

Karola Karlson — @KarolaKarlson

Lee Odden — @leeodden

Mark Schaefer — @markwschaefer

Michael Brenner — ‏@BrennerMichael

Neil Patel — @neilpatel

Rand Fishkin — @randfish

Jay Baer — @JayBaer

Chris Brogan — @ChrisBrogan

Brian Solis — @BrianSolis

Amy Porterfield — @AmyPorterfield

Brian Clark — @brianclark

Neal Schaffer — @NealSchaffer

Ann Smarty — @seosmarty

Mari Smith — @marismith

Ryan Hanley — @RyanHanley_Com

Rebekah Radice — @RebekahRadice

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Content Marketing Case Studies

Sometimes the best way to learn is to see what successful people have done. These case studies will not only give you inspiration, but they also serve as proof of how effective content marketing can be.

PTC goes from 0 to 100,000 visitors per month

Groove improves blog engagement by 300%

Vero gets 1,000 email subscribers from one content marketing tactic

Brian Dean uses Infographics to increase organic traffic by 175%

Eloqua increased referral traffic by 43%

Dive Rite increases traffic 65%

A dentist proves the value of Facebook Live

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Content Marketing White Papers & Reports

Whether you’re trying to sell content marketing to the C-Suite or just want insight into the industry, these white papers are valuable resources.

Turned Off: How Brands Are Annoying Customers on Social: Find out what your brand is doing that could be annoying your customers on social media.

Stop Killing Your Content: 3 Reasons Your Content Is Falling Flat: In this whitepaper, you’ll learn how poor content hurts your brand and how to avoid it.

What Works in Content Marketing?: This whitepaper consists of case studies and resources to get a better understanding of what works in content marketing.

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Content Marketing Infographics

These infographics display data, stats and actionable tips about content marketing. Give them a look or share them with your team.

The 2017 State of Content Marketing

The Amazingly Simple Anatomy of a Meaningful Marketing Story

11 Essential Ingredients Every Blog Post Needs

9 Landing Page Goofs that Make You Lose Business

Content Marketing vs. Advertising

22 Ways to Create Compelling Content

The Anatomy of Content Marketing

The Do’s and Dont’s of Content Marketing

How to Use Colors to Increase Your Conversion Rate

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Content Marketing Training & Courses

Content marketing might not be something you can major in at college, but that doesn’t mean there’s not a formal way to learn how to do it. Class is in session with these content marketing courses.

Hubspot Content Marketing Certification Course: This course breaks down the difference between content marketing and inbound marketing. You’ll also learn how to build processes to scale your content marketing efforts.

Online Marketing Institute: In this library of video lessons, you’ll be able to learn everything from how to become a better storyteller to how to measure content marketing.

Copyblogger Membership: Signing up for Copyblogger’s free membership gives you access to a long list of trainings, eBooks and articles to learn about all aspects of online marketing.

Content Marketing University: This course is aimed at enterprises and content marketing teams, as well as individual content marketers who want to expand their skillset.

Content Marketing Crash Course: This content marketing course is all about how to create better content. If your biggest struggle is the creation process, this course is worth checking out.

Content Marketing Bootcamp: This course is about the intersection of content marketing and SEO. Learn how to use content to bring new visitors to your website.

Content Marketing for B2B Enterprises: This free Udemy course shows you how to get B2B leads using content marketing.

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Content Marketing Webinars & Videos

Want a break from watching funny cats on YouTube? Take a look at these videos about content marketing to learn and be entertained.

What is Content Marketing?

How Long Does it Take for Content Marketing to Work?

Steve Job’s Marketing Strategy

Next Wave with Gary Vaynerchuk: Content is King

Introduction to Content Marketing with BuzzFeed

Creating Demand With Content Marketing

Content Marketing for Startups

How to Switch from a Campaign Strategy to an Always-On Content Marketing Strategy

Epic Content Marketing

If You Want User Generated Content, Ask for It

Creative Ways to Grow Your Email Marketing List

How to Create a Content Strategy for Your Employee Advocacy Platform

10 Types of Interactive Content for Social Engagement

How to Build a Social Media Content Calendar

Engaging Customers Through Content, Contests & Community Building

How to Optimize Your Content Marketing Lifecycle for Long Term Success

Using Social Media Analytics to Create Better Content

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Content Marketing Podcasts

This Old Marketing

Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose, two of the most well-known experts in the content marketing space, talk about the latest content marketing trends and discuss how businesses can use content to attract and retain customers. Each podcast show features a discussion of content marketing headlines, rants from Joe and Robert on what’s going on in the industry, and a “This Old Marketing” example from the past (that we can learn from). Always useful, entertaining and never more than 60 minutes.

Content Warfare

Every week on the Content Warfare Podcast, Ryan Hanley interviews the Internet’s most prolific content creators to extract their secrets for winning the battle for attention online. Popular guests include: Chris Brogan, Marcus Sheridan, Mark Schaefer and Gini Dietrich. Popular topics include: content marketing, writing, podcasting, social media and audience building.

Content Inc with Joe Pulizzi

Content Inc. is for entrepreneurs and startups who want to be big — not by creating and selling more products and services — but by developing a loyal audience through remarkable content. Podcast creator Joe Pulizzi, known as the “godfather of content marketing,” believes that most small businesses and startups are going to market in the wrong way. Instead of leading first with product, Joe believes entrepreneurs should be building audiences…then they can sell whatever they want. Each podcast contains one inspirational idea that can change your business — all in less than 15 minutes per episode.

The Superheroes of Marketing Podcast

Kelly and Alisa are passionate marketers who get a real thrill from helping small and medium-sized businesses harness the power of online inbound marketing to increase website traffic, leads and sales.

Content Marketing Podcast with Rachel Parker

Content marketing isn’t just a buzzword — it’s the key to connecting with today’s hard-to-reach consumer. In the Content Marketing Podcast, Rachel Parker of Resonance Content Marketing helps you understand what content marketing is, why it’s important, and how to put it to work attracting and retaining customers for your business.

The Content Champion Podcast

Learn to be a content marketing contender with the Content Champion Podcast. In each show we share the essential strategies, tactics and tools to help you punch above your weight online. Vibrant, informative and always essential listening, we showcase step-by-step techniques you can start using right now to become a content champion in your own business.

Content Matters

A talk show about all things content marketing featuring Andy Crestodina and Barry Feldman. Each 22-minute episode explores a significant tactic that makes content marketing effective.

Duct Tape Marketing Podcast

Interviews with authors, experts and thought leaders sharing business marketing tips, tactics and resources hosted by one America’s leading small business marketing experts.

Seth Godin’s Startup School

Seth Godin is a thought leader in the marketing and business world. In this rare live recording, hear Seth as he guides thirty entrepreneurs through a workshop exploring how they can build and run their dream business.

Copyblogger FM

Copyblogger FM is a weekly, short-form broadcast hosted by Sonia Simone. Each week, she and a cast of rotating experts analyze the week in content marketing, copywriting, email marketing, conversion optimization, mindset, and much more.

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Content Marketing Statistics

In case you need proof of how effective content marketing can be, or need to prove it to someone else, you can use these content marketing stats as a resource.

88% of B2B marketers currently use content marketing as part of their marketing strategy, yet only 32% have a documented content marketing strategy. (source)

42% of B2B marketers say they’re effective at content marketing. (source)

70% of B2B marketers planned to create more content in 2017 than they did in 2016. (source)

Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads. (source)

78% of CMOs believe custom content is the future of marketing. (source)

The average length of a blog typical blog post in 2016 was 1,054 words compared to 887 in 2015. (source)

41% of marketers believe visual images are the most important type of content. (source)

60% of the most effective B2C marketers have a documented content strategy. (source)

73% of organizations have someone in place to oversee their content strategy. (source)

Almost 60% of marketers reuse content two to five times. They generate “snackable” content based on assets. (source)

64% of B2B marketers outsource writing. (source)

82% of marketers who blog see positive ROI from their inbound marketing. (source)

91% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content. (source)

34% of marketers selected visual assets as their most important content, behind blogging (45%) and before videos (19%). (source)

Content with relevant images gets 94% more views than content without relevant images. (source)

Infographics were the B2B content marketing tactic with the biggest increase from 2014 to 2015, up from 51% to 62%. (source)

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Content Marketing Events

Attending events allows you to network with other content marketers as well as learn from guest speakers. Add these annual content marketing events to your calendar before they’re completely booked.

Content Marketing World: This is one of the most popular content marketing events in the industry. Experts from around the world gather to teach and learn about everything content marketing related.

B2B Marketing Exchange: This conference is focused on B2B marketing and tackles new exciting topics each year.

GrowthHackers Conference: As the name implies, this conference is all about growth hacking. Speakers talk about how to create a growth team, content marketing, effective tactics and everything in between.

Marketing Sherpa Summit: Over 500 companies gather at the Marketing Sherpa Summit to discuss fast, effective and measurable marketing strategies and tactics. You also have the opportunity to participate in workshops and plenty of networking.

Intelligent Content Conference: The focus of this conference is content marketing strategy. It goes beyond how to write great content and touches on topics such as how to scale and the tools you can use to be more efficient.

Conversion Conference: If you can’t convert your site’s traffic, it doesn’t matter how great your content is. The Conversion Conference is all about how to make your site a converting machine through A/B testing, effective copywriting and more.

Confab Events: Confab Events hosts three different events about content marketing throughout the year. Check out their website to snag a ticket to their next conference.

MozCon: MozCon is one of the top events in the entire marketing industry. With various sessions, speakers and networking events, you’ll learn about SEO, content marketing, CRO, community building and much more.

Inbound: Inbound brings together some of the top marketing professionals in the world to talk about inbound marketing, sales and business.

Search Marketing Expo: SMX is a global event that centers around search engine marketing. Learn actionable tactics and hear experts speak about the state of search marketing.

Back to the top

Content Marketing Books

Adding some content marketing books to your library is a great way to open your mind to new tactics and concepts that will sharpen your skills. Read through these books to learn more about branding, design, the art of storytelling and more.

Buyer Personas

Buyer Personas is the marketer’s actionable guide to learning what your buyer wants and how they make decisions. Written by the world’s leading authority on buyer personas, this book provides comprehensive coverage of a compelling new way to conduct buyer studies, plus practical advice on adopting the buyer persona approach to measurably improve marketing outcomes.

Content Inc.

In Content Inc., one of today’s most sought-after content-marketing strategists reveals a new model for entrepreneurial success. Simply put, it’s about developing valuable content, building an audience around that content, and then creating a product for that audience.

The Content Strategy Toolkit

In this essential guide, Meghan Casey outlines a step-by-step approach for doing content strategy, from planning and creating your content to delivering and managing it. Armed with this book, you can confidently tackle difficult activities like telling your boss or client what’s wrong with their content, getting the budget to do content work, and aligning stakeholders on a common vision.

Purple Cow

In Purple Cow, Seth Godin urges you to put a Purple Cow into everything you build, and everything you do, to create something truly noticeable. It’s a manifesto for marketers who want to help create products that are worth marketing in the first place.

Content Strategy for the Web

For organizations all over the world, Content Strategy for the Web is the go-to content strategy handbook.

Everybody Writes

Everybody Writes is a go-to guide to attracting and retaining customers through stellar online communication, because in our content-driven world, every one of us is, in fact, a writer.

Letting Go of the Words, Writing Web Content that Works

Website design and development continues to become more sophisticated. An important part of this maturity originates with well-laid-out and well-written content. Ginny Redish is a world-renowned expert on information design and how to produce clear writing in plain language for the web. All of the invaluable information that she shared in the first edition is included with numerous new examples.

Clout: The Art and Science of Influential Web Content

Clout explains the key principles of influence and how to apply them to web content. Along the way, those principles come to life with practical examples from HowStuffWorks.com, Newell Rubbermaid, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and many more brands.

Don’t Make Me Think

Since Don’t Make Me Think was first published in 2000, hundreds of thousands of Web designers and developers have relied on usability guru Steve Krug’s guide to help them understand the principles of intuitive navigation and information design. Witty, commonsensical, and eminently practical, it’s one of the best-loved and most recommended books on the subject.

Back to the top

What Are Your Favorite Content Marketing Tools?

While 170 tools sounds like a lot, it’s only a small percentage of all the content marketing platforms available. Did we miss your go-to piece of software? Let us know what your favorite content marketing tool is in the comments!

This post 179 Content Marketing Tools & Resources to Bookmark originally appeared on Sprout Social.

from SM Tips By Minnie https://sproutsocial.com/insights/content-marketing-tools/