Content Marketing Catchup: Content Marketing Like a Football Fan, the Secret for Startups, and More Must-Reads

Here’s what you missed while wondering whether tweeting counts as “labor”…

What Great Content Marketing and Football Fandom Have in Common

The run-up to Labor Day Weekend marks the time of the year when I start relating all of my content strategy articles back to football:

With the NFL season just a week away, I’m already starting to notice my Sunday night browser history is a mashup of marketing/media articles and reports from the New York Giants practice facility. It’s a reminder that at 26, I’ve come to follow the marketing and media industry—which I cover as the editor of The Content Strategist—in the same way I’ve followed the sport I’ve loved since I was three years old.

That may sound kind of weird, but I’m not alone. It’s common for writers, even those who don’t work in the sports section, to follow the beat they cover with the obsessiveness of a sports fan. Ask any dedicated reporter and he’ll tell you that spark of passion is creative kindling, igniting the best storytelling inspirations, ideas that sneak up on you when you least expect it.

Past the tools, analytics, and optimization, that spark is what makes for really good editorial content. Read it.

These 4 Companies Prove That Content Marketing Is Essential to Startups

Brands dream of building a publication that attracts an audience of hundreds of thousands of readers. But a number of startups—with limited budgets—have done just that, proving along the way that a smart content plan is essential to startup marketing in 2014. Read it.

Serious About Brand Publishing? Don’t Send a Copywriter to Do a Journalist’s Job

Think a copywriter can handle your brand’s editorial needs? Think again, writes Yael Grauer.

Sure, copywriters can write effective prose; their persuasive calls to action get results. But there’s one thing they’re simply not trained to do, and that’s reporting. Here’s the difference: When an assignment lands on a journalist’s desk, she rolls up her sleeves, makes a half-dozen phone calls, and gets her hands dirty tracking down specific details that are important to the story. Read it.

The Quest for the Holy Grail of Sponsored Content Measurement

We talk about the way brands should measure content all the time, but what about when the branded content runs on a publisher’s site instead of on the brand’s own site? How should publishers report sponsored content to brands? And even more importantly, how should that sponsored content be sold? Read it.

7 Retail Brands That Will Inspire You to Up Your Content Game

The retail industry is one of the most intriguing spaces for content marketing. Julia Rubin highlights seven of the best examples of this:

In the world of content marketing, retailers are doing so much more than just advertising their products; they’re providing useful information, visibility, and helping brands build relationships with consumers.

Here are some of the most inspiring B2C retail content marketing campaigns that have managed to build brand loyalty by engaging new and old consumers with awesome branded content. Read it.

Rock out this weekend. It’s the last of summer.

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