Jimmy Fallon Crowdsourcing for Ad

Ford has set up SteertheScript, a crowdsourcing platform that asks fans to co-author an ad that will feature Jimmy Fallon, Todd Wasserman of Mashable reports.

The ad will be promoting Lincoln cars, which “has lost 63% of its sales since its 1990 peak.”

Making Content Emotional

CopyBlogger’s Demian Farnworth writes that marketers need to master four emotions in their content: love, greed, fear, and duty or honor.

He says, “If you’re a copywriter, then — by default — you should write to the emotions of your readers. You need to know the proper appeals to use in order to gain attention, stoke interest and push for action.”

Marketers should look to relieve their readers/consumers’ anxieties: “Give the reader the sense that you will bring him peace (financial, future, relational, future, security) … that you’ll solve his problems that keep him up at night … that you will give him a good night’s sleep … and you will win his attention.”

Barnes & Noble Focuses on Pinterest Users

A new video from Nook Media, a collaboration between Barnes & Noble and Microsoft, targets Pinterest users and scrapbookers.

The new platform, Nook Scrapbook, “enables users to rip and save pages in a personalized collection along with other chosen pages saved from catalogs and magazines.”

While Nook has been on Pinterest for six months, Barnes & Noble itself doesn’t have a page on the site.

Engaging Content in Every Industry

Sean McVey of Content Marketing Institute says that it doesn’t matter what industry marketers are in – engaging content can be created for anything.

Companies can always seek out issues that pertain to lots of people and write about how to solve them.

They can also ask different people to get involved and offer their own personal points of view. Content should be light, personal, and promoted on social media sites as well.

New York Times Offering Buyouts to Staff

The New York Times reports that 30 people in its newsroom are being offered buyout packages on a volunteer basis.

In a letter to employees, Jill Abramson said that a reduction of the number of people on staff was necessary. These severance packages have been offered before to workers in the advertising department.

Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of the Times Company, said, “These are financially challenging times. … While our digital subscription plan has been highly successful, the advertising climate remains volatile and we don’t see this changing in the near future.”

Establishing a Freelance Writing Career

Miley Linden of The Work at Home Woman writes about what it takes to establish oneself as a freelance writer.

Aspiring freelancers should set up a support system of other freelancers and connect with them on LinkedIn, Media Bistro, and Freelance Writers Den. Basic research should be a part of the job (she suggests reading “The Urban Muse” by Susan Johnston and “The Well-Fed Writer” by Peter Bowerman) and a personal writing website is crucial.

“If you want to be taken seriously as a professional freelance writer, then you need to look the part,” says Linden. “You absolutely must have a website.  Without one, you will look like an amateur – especially if you are searching for online writing gigs.”

When Freelancing Goes Bad

Make a Living Writing reports on what to do if a freelance writing client is a nightmare. Writers need to set limits with their clients and not work during established times.

Contracts should always be given up front and negotiated upon if the job changes. If worst comes to worst, writers shouldn’t be scared to simply decline to do work: ”When pushy clients want more and more, simply refuse to play. When they ask if you could bang out a couple of extra articles by Friday, tell them you’re fully booked. They can’t make you do it.”

Search Engines, Social Media, and the Election

Search engines and social media sites went all out for election day, according to ClickZ.

Google’s content for voters included a tool to find voting locations and hours, and “a suite of free tools called the Election Toolkit, which is really just a giant ad for media, campaign managers and others to use Google+, YouTube, and an assortment of search tools.”

Yahoo’s Just the Ticket blog featured election articles, along with real time results, and Bing let people see “what social media users are talking about, which political hashtags are trending, tweets from influencers, and trending search topics.”

YouTube asked users to submit videos about who they voted for, and Facebook posted a Polling Location search tool.

Hiring Journalists for Content Marketing

Kasey Steinbrinck of Copyjuice argues that companies should be hiring journalists to produce their content for marketing purposes because journalists know how to tell stories, and they are excellent at doing research.

“With a job as a content marketer, journalists still get to do what they love … telling stories, creating something original and having their voice heard,” she says. ”However, they get to do it with a lot less pressure, and most likely a lot more freedom.”

McDonald’s Creating Content from Questions

Jay Baer writes about the McDonald’s campaign, “Our Food, Your Questions,” which is  running in Canada and invites anyone in the country “to ask any question whatsoever about McDonald’s food on a special website developed by Tribal DDB Toronto.”

Participants can ask questions by connecting by Twitter or Facebook. More than 16,000 questions have been asked, and about 10,000 have been answered. McDonald’s, in creating this campaign, has given customers more knowledge, cleared up any issues with the food, given consumers a voice, and promoted transparency.

President of The New York Times Retires

The President and General Manager of The New York Times, Scott Heekin-Canedy, will be retiring at the end of the year, according to The Wall Street Journal.

After he leaves, his position will be terminated in an effort to “streamline the company’s corporate structure in the wake of a series of asset sales in recent years which has shrunk the company’s focus to the flagship newspaper, the Boston Globe and the International Herald Tribune.”

Earning Media Coverage for Health Video Content

Lisa Arledge Powell of Content Marketing Institute gives suggestions on how companies creating health video content can earn media coverage.

She says that marketers should produce videos that are similar to ones produced by the media entities they are targeting. They should also not be evergreen, and should tie into “something relevant, such as today’s headlines, the time of year, national health observances, pop culture, or other timely events.”

They should also include real-life stories, and commentary from a health expert.

Chrome Puts Out “Do Not Track” Feature for Users

Google’s Chrome browser now has a feature called “Do Not Track,” which allows users to turn off tracking from marketers, according to Mashable.

It blocks cookies, which let marketers determine how to target users. However, it isn’t a final solution, and marketing firms have to agree to remove cookies in their possession.

Branded Content and Film 

The Guardian’s Michael Berliner writes about branded content and the relationship between marketers and filmmakers.

He says, “If brands can latch on to content that audiences find appealing and they actively want to watch — rather than simply making the advertising material that people endure before getting to the good stuff — then there is a lot of brand recognition and goodwill to be earned.”

He points out Red Bull, which posted the space jump footage, and Terry Gilliam’s film The Wholly Family, which received funding from a pasta company.

Dodge and Onion Producing Parody Videos

Dodge is putting out a parody video it created with the Onion on the satirical paper’s YouTube channel, reports New York Times’ Tanzina Vega.

“It features the car in a series of mock programs featured during a fictitious upfront presentation by Onion Digital Studios, the company’s real digital entertainment arm,” she writes.

Since the subject of the ad, the Dodge Dart, is a car is aimed at millennials, the company chose YouTube as the platform.

BuzzFeed Signs on Former Editor of Spin

Former Editor of Spin, Steven Kandell, has joined BuzzFeed to assist the company with its long-form journalism coverage, according to the New York Times.

Recently, BuzzFeed has been picking up editors from all kinds of publications including Politico and Rolling Stone.

In a statement, Kandell said, “Even though print itself is becoming less prevalent, the conversation-provoking long-form journalism and profiles that have long been a staple of magazines are as vital as they’ve ever been, and I’m thrilled to help make this kind of writing a working part of the social web at BuzzFeed.”

Mark Hermann’s Content Lessons from Jimi Hendrix

Mark Hermann of CopyBlogger has created a list of content marketing lessons that companies can learn from Jimi Hendrix. He says that Hendrix created songs that never existed before, and that marketers should do the same when it comes to content.

They should be as passionate as the guitar player about their work, be a confident leader, keep creating even if nobody is digesting the content, and electrify the audience with strong content.

Ford’s Funny Web Series

According to a release from Ford, the company has released a comedy web series titled “Escape My Life,” which advertises the 2013 Ford Escape.

Comedians Natasha Leggero and Joe Lo Truglio star in the videos, and Zombieland director Ruben Fleischer was signed on as well.

It’s running for eight episodes on YouTube, Hulu, MSN, AOL, and GlamMedia.

Advice for Video Marketing

Content strategies need to include video, argues Lou Bortone of Future of Ink. A video campaign needs to start with a strategy, whether that includes making a company known on YouTube, posting video blogs, or sending out video emails.

Marketers should be looking for ways to receive the ROI for videos, whether that means selling webinars or producing other video products.

He also says that marketers shouldn’t fret too much over technology: “Your message is far more important than whether you shot your video with your webcam versus your iPhone. Find a repeatable process that works for you, and keep it as simple and streamlined as possible.”

Making Content From Social Stats

Content Marketing Institute’s Jonathan Crossfield argues that it’s not the quantity of followers that a brand has, but the quality of those followers.

Followers should be used for lead acquisition. This means that content marketers need to be leading them to follow the brand on additional channels, read the company blog, sign up for email newsletters, and download eBooks, among others.

“Create a path for others to follow,” he says. “It can require a lot more effort to design a strategy and create the content, particularly for those still harboring the belief that it’s possible to reap benefits from social media with a couple of automation tools and a few button pushes once in a while.”

Paywalls Dropped for Elections

According to Mashable, on Tuesday, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal will take down their paywalls to provide free election coverage to website visitors.

From 6 p.m. Tuesday (EST) to the next day at the same time, the New York Times will allow full access, and the Wall Street Journal is dropping it from 5 p.m. Tuesday (EST) to 5 p.m. Wednesday.

VW’s Branded Music Campaign

Channel 4 in Europe and VW’s media agency, MediaCom, have created Abbey Road Studios: In Session with Volkswagen Beetle.

The eight part series begins on Nov. 14, and pre-rolls and short-form video content will be posted online, according to Campaign Live.

Sirius XM Gains Subscribers

The New York Times reports that in the third quarter, Sirius XM subscriptions jumped by 446,000.

For the whole year, the amount of subscribers is expected to grow by 1.8 million, at least. The announcement was made by Mel Karmazin, who has run the company for eight years and is stepping down on Feb. 1.

Marketing Chief to Join NPR

For the first time, according to the Wall Street Journal, NPR has hired a chief marketing officer ”in a bid to better make a case for public radio amid political challenges to its public funding, a falloff in corporate sponsorship and growing competition for audiences.”

Emma Carrasco of ad agency Republica is taking over as CMO to help sell the NPR brand. Part of her job will be to bring corporate sponsor back up to par.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia in Trouble

And this time, it’s not for legal reasons. The New York Times’ Christine Haughney writes that on Nov. 1, the company announced that it would be “scaling back two of its four magazines and laying off about 70 employees, or 12 percent of the nearly 600-person company.”

The company is suffering not only in the publishing sector, but the broadcasting and merchandising industries as well. In terms of publishing,

Whole Living Magazine is either going to be sold or shut down, and Everyday Food is going to be reduced to five issues a year instead of 10 and appear “as a supplement to subscribers of Martha Stewart Living.”

Using Words, in Addition to Images, for Brand Storytelling

According to Content Marketing Institute’s Debbie Williams, strong words are essential to a strong branded storytelling campaign. Words help form emotional connections and “can actually paint an exciting and interesting picture of your business and products.”

Visuals and words together should create a comprehensive story says Williams:

“Your package design, website, blog theme, catalogue, or brochure might be drop-dead gorgeous, but if the words in it aren’t compelling, no one will keep reading. When the design is interesting, all of your words create a more powerful experience. On the flipside, if the design is bad, your brilliant words will go unread and your story untold.”

Newlywed Content Provided by Startup Carats and Cake

Startup Carats and Cake, which provides content geared towards newlyweds and couples planning weddings, is taking off because it “offers a dedicated space for personal wedding photos, vendor information and venue details,” according to Mashable.

On the site, newlyweds are able to produce “Wedding Pages to share moments from their dream weddings. Brides can upload pictures of the dress, the groom’s shoes, the perfect wedding hair, the engagement ring and anything else that stood out on that special day.”

Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter can be incorporated into the personalized content as well.

Make a Sandy Contribution via Facebook

Mashable also reports that in the aftermath of Sandy, Facebook is allowing users to make charitable donations on the Gifts platform.

The American Red Cross, Livestrong, and Boys and Girls Club of America are all participating.

A new infographic from Pardot delves into the metrics behind content marketing. According to the company, since this past January, the popularity of the search term “content marketing” on Google has increased by 38 percent.

A whopping 90 percent of in-house marketers say that content is going to become more important, while only 38 percent report having a content marketing strategy.

The biggest reason for producing content is to engage audiences, followed by garnering traffic for the company’s website and spreading brand awareness. In terms of metrics, 88 percent of marketers measure unique visitors to the content, 76 percent measures pages viewed by the visitor, and social shares clock in at 59 percent.

The infographic reveals, however, that marketers are overlooking key metrics: “Marketers are focused on metrics directly related to how their audience is consuming and sharing the content. These metrics are a great way to measure how much your content interests your audience and how well it resonates with them. However, by also focusing on lead generation and sales metrics, marketers can keep content aligned with overall business goals.”

In terms of measuring metrics, Content Marketing Institute offers a handy list of tools for content marketers including Blog Pulse (searches blogs for keywords), Intense Debrate (tracks comments online), and Omgili (scans forums).

To measure sales metrics, which is “the holy grail” of metrics according to Jay Baer of Convince and Convert, he suggests using tools like Highrise or Sugar CRM.

“You’ll want to note in the prospect record that the potential customer consumed content pieces X, Y, and Z,” he says. ”Then, when your crack sales team turns that prospect into a sale, determine the projected revenue and profit (lifetime value if you can) of that customer, and assign it to the content pieces.”

The key question that marketers need to ask when it comes to sales metrics is how often the content successfully turned consumers into customers. Baer stresses the same point as the infographic: “Content isn’t just about consumption, so don’t only track consumption. It’s also about sharing and leads and sales.”

Red Bull Impresses with Stratos Content

Felix Baumgartner jumped 120,000 feet on Oct.14, and Red Bull was there to document the record-defying event.

The energy drink company set up an interactive portal, where “audiences could learn about Felix and read about the science and technology that would make the mission possible,” according to News Cred. “An extensive media gallery housed photos and videos from every aspect of the stunt from the balloon, to the weather, to images of the earth mid-freefall. A blog tab allowed audience members to learn about the progress of the project in the days and weeks leading up to the event.”

There were also hashtags like #SpaceJump and #RedBull trending on Twitter, and the company garnered more than 17,000 new Twitter followers. Branded content success!

Larry Flynt to Acquire New Frontier Media

Larry Flynt, adult entertainment mogul, has purchased New Frontier Media for $33 million, writes Ryan Dezember of the Wall Street Journal.

Currently, New Frontier “offers pay-per-view adult programming, including Penthouse TV, on cable and satellite systems. It also produces original films, some of which are mainstream, and operates subscription websites.”

Marketers Tap Into Geek Trend

At New York Comic Con this year, which took place over the weekend, companies came out in droves to reach the 18-34 male demographic, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Hasbro, Mattel, Marvel, Walt Disney, and Barnes & Noble were just a few of the brands seeking out the 116,000 people who showed up. Lance Fensterman, who manages NYCC, said it was one big focus group for the brands.

New York Times Reaching Out to Brazilians 

The New York Times will be adding an edition in Portuguese in 2013. According to the Times, the site is going to be launched in the second half of next year and feature 30-40 articles per day from Times staff members, local writers, and International Herald Tribute staff members.

In a statement, Chairman of the NY Times Company and publisher of the paper said, “As the world gets smaller and digital technology enables us to reach around the globe to attract readers with an interest in high quality news, Brazil is a perfect place for The New York Times to take the next step in expanding our global reach.”

How to Create Attention Grabbing Content

Content Marketing Institute’s Scott Aughtmon says that marketers need to “create content that demands attention,” which rings true in a time of information overload.

To accomplish this, he recommends using provocative titles and headlines, hooking people in with a good story, add an element of surprise, and “learn to connect the dots between your prospects’ passions and your content.”

Reddit Campaigning Across America

AdWeek is chronicling Reddit’s tour across America, where the team is campaigning for the Internet in cities throughout America. Staff members are giving speeches at gatherings about the positives of the Internet, and the negatives of online censorship.

The site currently sees 42 million unique visitors a month and recently hosted an Ask Me Anything thread starring President Obama. The tour is design to help ”preserve an open Internet in the real world.”

IBM Creating its Own Content

Mashable reports that since 2005, IBM has been publishing content from its 433,000 employees, including 32,000 individual blogs.

Much of the content, which includes videos and articles “that show how life is becoming better thanks to IBM.”

According to the company, its goal isn’t to produce content that goes viral, but rather to “keep up a dialogue between its workers and those who use its products and services.”

Ralph Lauren Donating for Tumblr Reblogs and Likes

Ralph Lauren, which joined Tumblr in August, is donating $1 to its Pink Pony fund for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month when it receives a like or reblog on its posts.

Mashable reports that the brand will donate up to $25,000, and, as of Oct. 11th, had seen over 500 notes on its post.

Branded Content for Bloggers

Independent Fashion Bloggers’ Chelsea Burcz wrote about a growing trend in the fashion world: The sponsored posts on fashion blogs from brands. She delves into the types of campaign that have been run, and how both the brand and blogger benefit.

As for bloggers that may be skeptical, she says, “You’re still providing your readers with content that is “read worthy” that you wrote — and as long as you announce the post is sponsored or affiliated with a brand (as the FTC guidelines states), it’s kosher.”

A Look at Best Western’s Facebook Push

ClickZ ‘s Matt Kapko wrote about how hotel chain Best Western has been using Facebook to increase sales and customer satisfaction. It was the one of the first hotels to offer reservations on Facebook, and it conducted a survey “to determine the greatest problems facing business travelers.”

The page gained 256,000 new fans throughout its “Be a Travel Hero” campaign, and saw a 12-fold increase in terms of engagement.
Digiday’s Week in Branded Content

Digiday collected some of last week’s best branded content campaigns, including AMC’s Instagram contest on Gawker, in which fans submitted pictures of themselves dressed as zombies, and BuzzFeed’s Microsoft photo collaboration.

Also on BuzzFeed was promotions for Spike TV’s “Ink Master” — the site showed photos of celebrities who made bad tattoo decisions.

Joe Pulizzi’s Content Marketing Insights for 2013

Joe Pulizzi, who established the Content Marketing Institute, published his seven insights about what content marketing will be in 2013.

He says that companies should be developing their mission statements, try to become thought leaders within their industries, get employees involved, and work on content partnerships.
Content Marketing Course from CopyBlogger

Want to know the ins and outs of content marketing? CopyBlogger has got you covered.

Check out its Codex of Content Marketing, a free download comprised of 53 articles on content creation, social media promotion, traffic generation, and content essentials.

Demian Farnworth writes, “This list makes for perfect Twitter content … drip out just one article a day to your readers over a 53 day period, and you’ll look like a content marketing genius.”

Paywalls Helping Newspapers Survive

According to the Wall Street Journal’s Keach Hagey, “paywalls have begun to give newspapers a way to slow, and in some cases reverse, circulation declines, raise prices and open up a new source of revenue.”

Although advertising revenue is still down, papers are finding ways to slow the decline thanks to paywall profits. For example, Gannett, which publishes USA Today, found that such moves, “along with price increases, would bring in an additional $100 million in annual operating earnings next year.”

When pilgrimaging to South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, you know that you’ve reached the ad tech festival blocks before you hit the convention center. The guerilla marketers flock to you, and by the time you reach the door, you’re holding a taco, wearing a new pair of sunglasses, and have three to five stickers taped to you.

If you’re lucky, you’ve also taken a big shot of tequila, courtesy of a tech startup whose name you can’t remember.

At Content Marketing World, which runs through Thursday in Columbus, Ohio, the initial scene is more subdued. In fact, upon arriving on the evening of the opening reception, it’s possible to walk alone for 10 minutes through the convention center before you reach registration.

But soon, you enter the main ballroom and are met by a packed crowd here for Content Marketing World, the next iteration of the content marketing craze that overtook South By Southwest Interactive in March.

The theme of Content Marketing World’s opening reception is “Las Vegas” — ironic, since content marketers are trying to rebrand themselves as anything but a risky bet. Proving content marketing’s effectiveness has become a bit easier lately, thanks to evidence that content marketing is the most effective form of mobile advertising, and more and more thought leaders pointing to content marketing as the best mechanism for generating brand awareness.

The Vegas-themed ballroom holds a mixed crowd of content producers looking for clients, brands looking for content, and agencies looking to catch up on content marketing. As showgirl dancers contort in poses, attendees gulp cocktails — like the SEO Special, optimized for a hangover — play blackjack, and discuss the sessions in the days ahead.

Kicking off the first full day of Content Marketing World today will be Mitch Joel, the author of Six Pixels of Separation, which has been blowing digital marketers minds for the past decade. Following Joel will be the thought leaders from the brands and publications that content marketers admire most: from American Express to Google, from Social Media Explorer to CopyBlogger.

In a dream world, these top content marketing minds will provide answers to the questions that keep content marketers up at night. How do we show ROI that convinces a brand to move their dollars from TV to content marketing? How can content support social? How can content marketing surprise everyone and drive tons of direct sales?

Tomorrow, we find out if content marketing can take the next step. In case it can’t, organizers have planned a Rick Springfield concert to console the crowd. Now that’s content marketing.

Joe Pulizzi is known to many as the man in orange.

He’s the founder of Content Marketing Institute and runs his personal blog, Junta42.

He’s the co-author of Managing Content Marketing: The Real World Guide for Creating Passionate Subscribers to Your Brand, and has been a key player in the content marketing conversation for the past decade.

The Content Strategist spoke with Pulizzi about his thoughts on where the industry is heading.

The Content Strategist: What do you think are the most important factors that go into a solid content marketing campaign?

Pulizzi: An organization has to be telling good, engaging, instructive stories on a regular basis … just like a publisher would. So much content that brands create is just so-so. There is no room for average in content marketing anymore. It really needs to be amazing stuff that people are willing to share.

According to CMI’s recent study, the biggest challenge that corporate marketers have is creating engaging content.

From that, brands need to effectively link the content marketing to real marketing objectives. We can’t just create good content because we want to be nice. We need to do it to maintain or change a behavior.

TCS: What companies lately have got content marketing right?

Pulizzi: I think P&G is a great example, with content sites like Home Made Simple, Being Girl and Man of the House. Same for AMEX with Open Forum. Red Bull itself is a media company (even they say they aren’t).

On the B2B side, I like what Openview Venture Partners does, and what Adobe is doing with CMO.com. Also, check out Content 2020 from Coca-Cola, an amazing vision on content marketing from one of the biggest spenders of paid media in the world.

TCS: What do you see as the next big trend in content marketing?

Pulizzi: Now that content marketing is being accepted as an important marketing practice, we’re starting to see marketing departments (from a structural standpoint), start to look and feel like publishing departments.

Slowly but surely we are seeing more content creators, journalists and storytellers being hired by non-media brands. We have just seen the start of this, but this is an important first major step in the evolution of content marketing.

TCS: Why do you always wear orange?

Pulizzi: Well, orange is our company color, so that’s where it started. When I first began speaking heavily, I wore orange for the first four or five speeches. Then one event I decided to wear black. Multiple people came up to me and asked me where the orange was.

From that point on I knew I branded myself to the orange … so now I always wear some piece of orange while I’m out in public. People look for me in orange, and although I can’t prove it, I believe it has helped our business.

TCS: What role do you think multimedia (pictures, videos) will continue to play in marketing?

Pulizzi: Visual storytelling needs to be a marketing priority today. People share what they see, which means pictures and video. Most of what brands share today is textual (we are overweight in this area). We are in dire need of a correction.

TCS: Is outbound marketing is being phased out?

Pulizzi: No, I don’t at all. I think traditional advertising is still important and can be critical in distributing content marketing.

Ultimately, we want to own the subscriber relationship (not rent it like we do with traditional advertising), so brands should be leveraging paid media to gather attention for their stories.

IBM has always done a fantastic job with this.

Inbound marketing and outbound marketing are both key parts of content marketing.

Anyone who tells you that we only need inbound marketing today doesn’t understand the full scope of the buying process.

TCS: Anything else you’d like to add?

Pulizzi: If content marketing were a baseball game, we’d be getting out of the dugout for the first inning (even though content marketing is hundreds of years old). It’s going to be an interesting ride.

But what does it take to land a job? First, a heap of talent. Also a dash of tenacity, and a bit of quick-learned know-how.

And it also takes an acute awareness: Content marketing has become competitive. There are plenty of talented and tenacious writers all shooting for a chance to work on the next blog.

And so, what follows are some secrets of the content-marketing interview. Here is advice that can help you, dear writer, edge out the others and get that paying gig.

1. Understand the Big Picture

What is relevant to an interviewer — and what is relevant to the audience you’d be hired to reach — is not simply a checklist of facts in the form of 500 search-engine optimized words.

Acknowledging this, there should be a larger message and a takeaway when you speak about your writing and how it works.

Joe Chernov, vice president of content marketing at Eloqua, puts it this way: “If someone comes in hawking e-books and info-graphics, I’ll be less interested in hiring them because I’ll get the sense that the person is looking only at the content type, and not necessarily placing it in context of the larger business objective.”

2. Know the History of the Gig

Do your research. Go into the interview with company-specific ideas about what you’d like to write.

Chernov: “If a content marketing job seeker wants to grab my attention, he should offer up a candid analysis of what we are doing well in content marketing, what hasn’t appeared to work, where we could improve, and what types of content (whether topics, formats or media channels) we should begin employing.”

If you really know your stuff, says Chernov, take a risk: “Be frank. Be honest. Be direct. I can take it.”

3. Vernacular Talks (Jargon Walks)

Content marketers typically don’t want material that is burdened by an overabundance of technical jargon, but they do want you to have an idea or two about tackling the acronyms and terms of industry that apply.

For example, if you’re talking to a sales-oriented potential CM employer: know your ROIs (returns on investment). Bone up on the meaning of conversions: when an ad click leads to a sale or registration. Indicate this kind of knowledge in subtle ways (don’t flog it!) throughout the answers that you give.

Michele Linn, content development director at the Content Marketing Institute said, “We look for people who have experience with content marketing so they can talk intelligently about the industry.”

4. Be Able to Talk About Your SEO Strategy

A serious interviewer will probably put you on point about search-engine optimization.

Demonstrate that you not only understand what it is, in theory, but also outline some of your research tactics and what you do about placement and density of terms. Refer to a variety of pieces that you’ve done.

5. Know About SEO Testing

If an interviewer is looking for the threshold, the place where a topnotch candidate and one that’s not ready for the job just might begin to diverge, one question that comes up can cover split or multivariate testing.

Essentially, what they’re talking about are the ways that individual pages of online content are examined to see what it is that a visitor ultimately does. If you know that an earlier client has done this with your work, bring what you have of the results and be prepared to talk about them in response.

6. Cater and Contextualize Your Clips

Be certain your portfolio is fresh and make sure that you cater it to the company in question. If the job is in the sector of mobile phone apps, clips about travel and design alone are not going to do the trick.

On the other hand, if you sincerely believe certain lateral examples make a good case for you, offer them in context with your primarily relevant work: “I write well across a variety of topics, but I’m particularly happy with the voice that I struck in these one or two situations.”

It all comes down to telling stories in compelling ways, and as CMI’s Linn said, the best content writing candidates are accomplished storytellers.

“Of course, we look for people who are great with words,” Linn said. “This includes having a solid understanding of basic grammar, but even more importantly we want someone who can tell a story in a logical and entertaining way.”

So, whether you’re bound for your first — or fifth — sit-down with the folks who handle the content production of content marketing, take these interview ideas might make the difference between a polite thank-you e-mail and your next content-writing job.

Image courtesy of Andrey_Popov/shutterstock