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We all know that content marketing – and more specifically, blogging – works. It works really well. Consider a few statistics:

• The average company that blogs generates 55% more website visitors than companies without a blog on their sites.
• Blogging generates 97% more inbound links to a site and 126% more leads.
• What’s more, blogging gets you 434% more indexed pages in search engines – that’s more chances for you to get found by search users.

With all that goodness right there for the taking, why are so many marketers and business owners struggling to create enough content to build some momentum and make an impact?

And folks, we are struggling. Tea Silvestre of Story Bistro conducted a survey a few years back. Over 1,000 respondents were asked what their biggest marketing challenge was. Number one with a bullet, at 40%, was time management.

And in another study, 51% of B2B marketers said a “lack of time/bandwidth” was their biggest challenge to producing enough content consistently to achieve their marketing goals.

So, clearly we’ve got a problem here, and a lot of us are still looking for solutions. 

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What does July 4th mean to you? Freedom? Liberty? Justice? Independence? The American Dream?

Well, as an Irish lass, it never held much meaning for me. It was always just another day. Until last year, that is. Last year July 4th marked the day that my first post for Spokal, entitled “How To Overcome Your Fears And Write The Perfect First Blog Post“, was published.

As a writer, there are very few times that you look back at your writing and confidently declare, “I wouldn’t change a thing”. This, however, was one of those pieces.

When I was mulling over ideas for my first blog post, I realized a 2 things:

1. I had no experience in the marketing industry, so writing about SEO or lead nurturing was out of the question. I’d need more time to do some studying and learn about the industry before I can write about it in any legitimate way.
2. Being the sole writer of a business’s blog (that’s not your own) is kind of intimidating.

So what did I choose to do?

I focused on myself. I focused on what problems I was facing.

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Content marketing is an ever-evolving marketing strategy that can, at times, leave us feeling overwhelmed. How are we supposed to keep on top of all the latest news? When are we supposed to take time out of our very busy days to read all the latest blog posts? How does everyone know about the latest so-and-so before me?

Well, it’s all thanks to Twitter.

Twitter provides us instant access to the inside workings of some of the best in the business, and you’d be a fool for not tapping into it.

From social media strategists, to growth hacking gurus, and prolific bloggers, Twitter allows you the opportunity to follow some of the best in the business to help you keep updated and informed. But, it’s not as easy as “build it and they will come” anymore. You can’t just start an account and follow anyone related to “content marketing”. You may very well end up following a bunch of Twitter accounts that are less than stellar.

So, if you want to get all the latest and most reliable updates and insights quickly and easily, you have to know who to follow. Or, in other words, you have to figure out who’ll add the most value to your Twitter stream.

And while there are tons of amazing thought leaders out there, here’s a list of 16 best content marketing twitter accounts to follow.

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I love writing. I love language. I love reading a sentence that flows with such lyricism that stopping it could be likened to a blow against the very fabric of nature.

So it comes to no surprise that I’m all for preserving language and abiding by its grammar rules. For me, grammar rules are there for good reasons. They exist to ensure that we’re able to express what we want to say with complete clarity and confidence.

However, I believe that some rules are made to be broken. I believe that some rules don’t help with clarity. I believe some rules are outdated. Plus, language is fluid and should grow and change as society does.

So I like to start sentences with “and”. Sometimes there’s nothing like good ol’ slang. And I think using “I” makes things way more personal and creates connections with readers like no other word can.

And I want you to learn how to write without fear of the Grammar Police reigning down their corrections of terror on your content.

But before we go any further, here’s some ground rules:

1. Think about your audience. If you’re writing an academic paper, you should probably be writing in a formal tone. If you’re writing for an audience of small business owners who’ve very little time to waste, you want to keep things informal and straight to the point.
2. Be true to your voice where possible. If you’re writing for personal reasons, or in a market that’s more informal, this will come naturally. However, if you’re writing in a more formal tone, this is going to be more of a challenge, but one that you should definitely work on.  
3. Understand the context. What is the topic you’re writing on? What kind of content are you creating? An EBook will be more formal than a blog, for example.

Now, on to the rules you should know (and break).

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Creating a website and trying to figure out what platform to use? 

We created a site in the big 4 website creation tools – recorded the video and show you the pros and cons of each.

If you’re thinking of building your own website – you want to read this first.

First, some background on each:

Reports of the number of users of each platform vary widely from source to source, but the general consensus is that WordPress leads and no one else is catching up anytime soon. 

According to a July 2015 study by W3Techs, out of the 40.1% of the websites it surveyed that use a Content Management System, WordPress enjoys a market share of 60.3% (24.2% of the potential market overall, when including non-CMS users). 

The study found that all other CMS platforms together account for just 15.4% of the potential market, and Wix, Weebly, and Squarespace each claim less than 1%. WordPress dominates on all fields and channels, except on Facebook, where Wix’s recent surge is likely attributable to its promotional broadcast during Super Bowl XLIX.

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Let me ask you this: why did you think your service/product would be a viable idea for a business? I’m willing to bet it’s because you identified your ideal customer’s pain point and validated that your product and/or service could solve this problem. That’s how most successful businesses start out. They see a customer’s pain point, and they find and then offer a solution to it.

So why doesn’t our content marketing work in the same way?

In Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, he tells us of an anecdote of researchers who conducted a study where they sent two different ads to homeowners in the same neighborhood. 

One ad said, “if you insulate your home fully, you’ll save 50 cents every day.” The other said, “if you don’t insulate your home fully, you’ll lose 50 cents every day.”

When the study was completed it showed that the people who received the ad that focused on “loss language” were 150% more likely to insulate their house than the other group.

What this study shows us is that people are more often motivated by fear of loss than hope of gain. As humans, we’re wired in a way that avoiding pain is much more important to our survival than gaining pleasure is (most of the time, anyways!).  

If you want to find more customers, then focus on creating content that provides them with a solution to their pain points.

There are a lot of questions that come to mind when we talk about keywords. How should we use them? Where should they be placed? What’s too much and/or too little? Are long-tail keywords or short term ones more effective? Does Google even take them into consideration anymore?

If you’re new to the content marketing world, or just trying to keep up with the latest updates, you’re probably going to want to get the skinny on keywords and, as is natural, query some of those questions. What you’ll find is a whole bunch of conflicting advice. Some will tell you that keywords are obsolete, while others will tell you that they’re still as important as ever.

And, with Google constantly updating their algorithms, most of these results are undoubtedly outdated too.

It’s a little frustrating, to say the least.

What’s more frustrating is that keywords aren’t all that complicated. In fact, keywords make more sense now than they ever have before.

Here’s the 5 things you need to know about keywords.

Every day, without fail, you’re writing.

This could be because it’s part of, or the entirety of, your job description. Or maybe it’s because you’re a business owner and content marketing is the lifeline of your business’s success.  

Whatever the reason, you find yourself producing and writing content on a daily basis.

But, lately things haven’t been going so well. Sure, you’re putting out the content that you’ve been asked to, you’re finishing up the posts that you’ve been assigned and you’re always hitting your word count target every day. It’s paying the bills, you’re checking the boxes, and on the surface, everything’s going just fine. You’re doing what you love as a career, how can you complain?

When you go home, you’re tired. But that’s normal, right? You’d love to work on those personal writing projects that you enjoy, but you just can’t write anymore today. You’re finding yourself more often than not sitting brainlessly in front of the television.

Then, you start to notice that even your content writing at work isn’t going too well.

It’s taking you longer to finish writing projects, and the content just isn’t that deep or exciting anymore. Your editor can tell, your readers can tell, heck if you’re being totally honest with yourself, even you can tell. Your writing has become formulaic, basic and low-quality. You’re not proud of it, and you begin to resent the restraints on your creative mind that are holding you back from writing something truly remarkable.

This, my friends, is writer’s burnout.

It’s seems like every month there’s some new marketing strategy emerging online. Some fad or trend that business owners clamber to look at with a mixture of caution and awe as they ask themselves, will this be the next big thing, or a complete waste of time?

Inbound marketing is an ever-growing topic and it seems like every year it becomes more complicated, more intricate, more… well, more. 

And sometimes it can feel overwhelming. 

But not to worry – there are people out there committed to keeping up to date with all the latest updates, trends, news, research and data. People so committed to keeping up to date with all of this information that they maintain wonderful blogs that then help us to stay on top of this fast-paced industry. 

Last year, we brought you the top 7 content marketing blogs to read in 2014. Each and every one of those blogs is still going strong, so check them out if you get a chance! This year we wanted to top that number and bring you 8 more that are sure to help you stay at the top of your game. 

Here are the top 8 content marketing blogs to read in 2015 to get more customers and boost your sales online.