I found a recent news story interesting because I was just writing a piece on impending copyright issues related to GenAI for my “Let’s Get Strategic” column in Information Today. The makers of Star Wars’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story are being sued over the use of Peter Cushing’s image. The use of the […] The post Navigating the Wild, Wild, West of GenAI and Copyright Issues appeared first on Strategic Communications ..read more

In Part 2 of this three-part series, we took a deep dive into successfully monetizing website content. Here, we take a look at some key considerations and best practice recommendations from digital marketing experts. Key Considerations and Best Practices   Topping the list of key considerations is alignment with your brand. Building a strong brand can […] The post From Traffic to Income: A Comprehensive Guide to Monetizing Your Website—Part 3 appeared first on Strategic Communications ..read more

In Part 1 of this three-part series, we took a look at how website content can be optimized to deliver a relevant audience as a first step to successfully monetizing that content. Here, we take a deeper dive into how to deliver content designed to be monetized. Ways to Monetize Your Website Deepak Shukla is […] The post From Traffic to Income: A Comprehensive Guide to Monetizing Your Website—Part 2 appeared first on Strategic Communications ..read more

While many people may not think of it this way, Amazon is likely one of the most successful—if not the most successful—websites from a monetization standpoint. Initially, it started as an online bookseller, but today, much of Amazon’s revenue comes through payments received from third parties selling products on its site—a practice referred to as affiliate marketing. […] The post From Traffic to Income: A Comprehensive Guide to Monetizing Your Website—Part 1 appeared first on Strategic Communications ..read more

As I work with people on strategic planning activities—once we get over the initial resistance to strategic planning—one of the biggest barriers I find is concern about implementation. Too often implementation just doesn’t happen and organizations find themselves in an endless loop of planning without achieving measurable results. Part of the problem, I believe, is […] The post 10 Tips for Implementing Your Strategic Plan appeared first on Strategic Communications ..read more

Rosser Reeves, an advertising guru, was active from the 1930s through the 1960s, with significant contributions in the 1950s and 1960s. His phrase “unique selling proposition” (or USP), is a concept that is still relevant today. A USP is exactly what it sounds like it is—a unique selling proposition–something about you, or your product or […] The post Crafting a Powerful USP: Lessons from Advertising Legend Rosser Reeves appeared first on Strategic Communications ..read more

Popular wisdom has it that people like to read stories and that storytelling is a very important skill for content marketers to have—even if they work in the B2B realm. But what if your content team is hesitant about storytelling? How can you convince them of its importance? This is a question I responded to recently on LinkedIn. My two main points: first find out why they’re hesitant. Second, understand that content has to go beyond storytelling. Find Out Why You can’t reach a resolution with anyone until you understand where they’re coming from—their point of view or unique perspective ..read more

Creating marketing communications materials can be challenging. After decades in the business (yeah, I’m “seasoned”… ), I’ve had multiple experiences with review processes—some great, some good, some not so good, and some absolutely horrendous and extremely frustrating. Over the years I’ve come to identify a number of best practices that can help to both streamline the content review process and minimize frustrations along the way—for both content creators and subject matter experts. The Ideal Review Process Ideally, a great content creation process would work like this: Project requestor and ..read more

In my last blog I talked about what I’ve observed as a disconnect between how businesses often talk about their own products and services and how their prospects and customers talk about them. This disconnect can become a significant obstacle when it comes to SEO designed to get audiences to your website. If you’re not using the same words and phrases that your target audience uses when they’re looking for products and services like yours, they’re not likely to find you. They’ll enter in their search terms and phrases and, other companies that have used the right words and phrases, will captu ..read more

Content marketing is still something that a lot of companies, large and small, continue to invest in. The ultimate goal, of course, is sales. But, along the way to a sale, content marketers must first capture attention, drive traffic to a website (in most cases), and deliver on the promise that their copy promo or social media post suggested. SEO, or search engine optimization, has been a big part of this process. And, while I certainly consider SEO when crafting content for myself or my clients, I’m not a slave to it. Here’s why.   While SEO (search engine optimization) can seem foreign ..read more