Big Questions: What Makes a Story Newsworthy?
Have you ever noticed how often Time and Newsweek have the same cover stories? It's almost like they get together to compare notes, although we all...
When Does It Make Sense to Outsource Content Marketing?
How long does it typically take you to write a 500-word blog post for your company? If your answer is less than an hour, congratulations! You're in...
Uncover Your Company Stories Like a Veteran Reporter
Darcy Pohland was known for her ability to dig up stories like few other reporters in the Twin Cities television news market. Bound to a wheelchair...
Editorial Meetings that Fuel Interesting Brand Stories
“We have too many meetings!” “We don’t have enough time.” “We’re understaffed.” These are a few of the reasons I hear to explain why marketing teams...
Why Storytelling for Business Matters and How to Start
“We have an important story to tell,” is something I hear from business owners quite often. They then proceed to tell me about their story of value,...
Why Organic Search Beats Paid Search Over the Long Term
Quickly, answer this — do you click on “ads” when you’re searching for something on Google? If you’re like most people, you answer this with a...
What You Need to Know Before Hiring a Digital Marketing Agency
Erik Saltvold knows things about digital marketing agencies that agencies don't even know about themselves. In the past eight years, he's worked with...
A Talk with John Arms: The Power of Online Video Advertising
“2017 is going to be an inflection point when it comes to online video” according to John Arms, CEO of Minneapolis-based Wingnut Advertising. Arms...
5 Journalism Principles that Should Guide Your Content Strategy
I'm surprised by how often people question me when I compare content marketing to journalism. Perhaps it's my newsroom background, but it seems...
The Fall of Traditional Media and Rise of Content Marketing
Much has been written about the fall of traditional media, but I had a front row seat. I lived through it as a producer for 30-years at one of...
Content Marketing is Growing, is Quality Content Lacking?
B2B marketers are making content marketing a higher priority and they feel they are doing a better job adjusting their strategy and actually creating...
Making Content Marketing Your Best Lead Gen Tool
Finger-pointing between sales and marketing has been one of the oldest business blame games for years. Sales complains that marketing doesn’t do...
[REVIEW] HubSpot Content Marketing Certification
As a content marketer working on the HubSpot platform, I'm thrilled with the newly-created Content Marketing Certification. Why? Because it puts...
StoryTeller Wins 4th Midwest Regional Emmy® Award
From the beginning, I thought it would be fun to have a video company that could produce video content powerful enough to win awards. Back in 2005, I...
5 Ways to Tell Your Story So People Actually Care
One of the most common challenges I hear from business leaders and marketers is this: “We have a hard time telling our story”. They have a desire to...
Find and Share the Inspirational Stories in Your Company
Identifying inspirational stories within your company is a challenging proposition. Not because they don’t exist, but because we sometimes overlook...
Common Marketing Questions: Do People Read Blogs?
Did you ever notice how many times we use words that don't really mean what we're saying? Out-of-date sayings like dial a phone number, when phones...
The One Simple Question to Help Identify the Elements of a Story
I learned one of the most important lessons of my career before it actually began. The key question that helps me determine the elements of a story,...