“Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear – not absence of fear.”
-Mark Twain
The best marketers are incessantly learning. Why? They can’t afford to stop.
BY TRAVIS WRIGHT Chief marketing technologist, CCP Globe
The marketing industry must constantly evolve alongside the audiences it attempts to reach. Cutting-edge is adequate, and everything else falls by the wayside. I’ve often said that the one main secret to my success is my possession of an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and curiosity. Without that, it’s hard to stay relevant in a space that changes so rapidly. That being said, where can marketers go to learn from influencers within the industry?
There’s a variety of blogs in social media, content marketing, and other different marketing verticals, so it’s difficult to identify which ones best serve general marketing needs. Some blogs and publications supply the knowledge every marketing professional requires.
Also, they all offer critical resources for the application, not just the digestion, of what they’re trying to teach. Here are 16 marketing blogs and publications you should add to your reading list this year.
Whether you’re seeking industry trends, topical overviews, or professional development, MarketingProfs is a blog for marketers of any ilk. Typically, umbrella sites don’t deliver unique insights. But, as a network of marketers–supported and read by marketers–MarketingProfs is constantly stocked with legitimate content.
Key Resource: Marketing Guides and Reports
Processes and procedures can be hard to define for first-time entrepreneurs. The guides and reports provided by MarketingProfs can be a life raft when beta testing email automation, for instance.
A rising star in the content world, Business Insider publishes on markets and strategy, daily. Think of it as the Huffington Post for business and marketing professionals.
Key Resource: BI Intelligence
Beyond the content that Business Insider already produces, Intelligence is the company’s research arm. Utilized by Fortune 1000 companies and startups alike, it provides data-driven solutions “essential for corporate decision making.”
Influence & Co. specializes in creating and distributing content to influence an audience and raise the profile of a company’s key employees. But the company’s blog touches on all aspects of content marketing and branding–from thought leadership and content creation to lead generation and content distribution.
Key Resource: Resource Library
Content is taking over the marketing industry. Here, whitepapers and templates provide step-by-step guides to a comprehensive thought leadership platform. You started a business; you’ve got it in you.
HubSpot is best-known for its software and primetime marketing conference, Inbound. Beyond these product offerings, this blog is the first step toward inbound marketing certificates offered by the company.
Key Resource: Academy
Home to the aforementioned certificates, the Academy provides inbound marketing training that can be critical when developing your young business’s content strategy.
Email campaigns have long been the bane of marketers’ existence. How do we get consumers to open our outreach material? The answers reside with Vero, a purveyor of email automation software.
Key Resource: How To’s
On the surface, email marketing appears easy. Write strong copy and send, right? Not quite. Utilize the blog’s “How To” tab to discover the role data plays in this process.
Entrepreneurs occasionally struggle with leveraging the analytical data available to them. Kissmetrics sifts through the numbers, to expose mistakes your current suite of metrics can’t account for.
Key Resource: Infographics
For many marketers, a predominantly aesthetic perspective conflicts with data interpretation. Kissmetrics’ infographic library provides visual roadmaps for complex marketing practices.
As many entrepreneurs figure out the hard way, social media is not simple. Consistency is key for your social audience, and Hootsuite provides myriad content options for micro-scale businesses looking to adopt a macro approach to posting.
Key Resource: Hootsuite Life
This portion of the company’s blog adopts a cultural approach to social education. If social media is truly a device for bringing people together, shouldn’t we study it as such?
If brevity is the soul of wit, then Seth Godin is the wittiest man in marketing. Featuring short, highly digestible posts, Godin frequently dives into marketing life lessons that would benefit marketers of any age or skill level.
Key Resource: Levity
The content marketing world is saturated with articles on processes and procedures. Godin connects our professional lives to our personal. It’s a welcome reprieve.
If you’re a human being, then it’s likely that the first time you heard of search engine optimization, you were confused. Moz strives to sift through the algorithms and keywords of SEO to provide insights on the search engines businesses must pacify.
Key Resource: Whiteboard Friday
Led by Moz co-founder Rand Fishkin, Whiteboard Fridays provide visual dissections of confusing marketing principles. The medium? You guessed it, a whiteboard.
Ogilvy is synonymous with excellence in advertising. No matter what portion of the marketing mix you or your business addresses, learning from design pioneers is crucial to evaluating how your brand looks to consumers.
Key Resource: The Red Papers
Authored by company thought leaders from around the world, The Red Papers address topics spanning from the unwritten rules of digital marketing to appraising brand worth. These authors are more than bloggers; they’re the best in the business. Learn from them.
Within an industry focused on content, Impact won’t let us forget about branding and design. Be it strategy, lead generation, or even software hosting, this blog addresses how marketers can greet consumers with an endearing aesthetic and intuitive user interface.
Key Resource: The Learning Center
Every marketer knows that strong brand messaging takes some TLC (forgive me). The Learning Center provides just that with white papers, video, and slideshow content on everything from demographic studies to the in-house versus agency debate.
Digital marketing and tech development are mutually inclusive. Marketing Land reports on this relationship and more, ensuring that your content strategy fits in the palm of your target consumer’s hand.
Key Resource: Marketing Technology Landscape
Every year, Marketing Land creates a massive infographic categorizing the companies that make up the marketing tech world. If you’re looking to find a software provider for your company or next campaign, this is an excellent place to start.
Some insights from north of the border would be nice, eh? Marketing efforts don’t know geopolitical lines. Eventually, your company may grow beyond its home base. Marketing Magazine provides insights on marketing in Canada, a reasonable place to expand operations.
Key Resource: The 10 Most Influential Brands in Canada
The best way to start understanding a foreign market is to see what works there. This list of influential brands, with context, proves a strong starting point.
As a newfound small business owner, you may be an expert on your brand, but not necessarily on how to market it. John Jantsch and Duct Tape provide content on how to garner your first consumer base and grow from there.
Key Resource: Community
E-books, webinars, and podcasts dot the Community page, providing numerous resources for small business owners. All you have to do is register; it’s free.
If you are looking for ways to use social media, marketing, content, and other digital tactics to help convert customers, Jay Baer and team has actionable advice that is timeless.
Key Resource: Podcasts & Books
Jay Baer and team have a ton of great resources on the site including podcasts, case studies, and a couple of books as well. All for free, well, except for the books.
No list of marketing thought leader blogs would be complete without including Brian Solis. Solis, which is pronounced “so-lease” (I asked him), not “solace” or “soul-less,” has authored several best-selling books including: The End of Business as Usual,What’s the Future of Business (WTF), Engage!, and his latest, X: The Experience Where Business Meets Design.
Key Resource: Insights & Books
His blog, BrianSolis.com, is ranked as a leading resource for insights into the future of business, new technology, and marketing.
Marketers are only as proficient as what they learn tomorrow. As ours is a business of “what’s next,” learning the fundamentals of “what was” is the first step in discovering your ability to innovate. If you stop learning in this space, you’ll quickly become irrelevant.
The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com. PUBLISHED ON: FEB 16, 2016
FROM ME:
Phoenix Commercial Real Estate and Investment Real Estate: investors and Owner / Users need to really know the market today before making a move in Commercial Properties or Investment Properties in Phoenix / Tucson / Arizona, as the market has a lot of moving parts today. What is going on socio-economically, what is going on demographically, what is going on with location, with competing businesses, with public policy in general — all of these things affect the quality of selling or purchasing your Commercial Properties, Commercial Investment Properties and Commercial and large tracts of Residential Land in Phoenix / Tucson / Arizona. Therefore, you need a broker, a CCIM (Certified Commercial Investment Member) who is a recognized expert in the commercial and investment real estate industry and who understands Commercial Properties and Investment Properties.
I am marketing my listings on Costar, Loop-net CCIM, Kasten Long Commercial Group. I also sold hundreds millions of dollars’ worth of Investment Properties / Owner User Properties in Retail, Office Industrial, Multi-family and Land in Arizona and therefore I am working with brokers, Investors and Developers. I am also a CCIM and through this origination ( www.ccim.com ) I have access to marketing not only in the United States, but also international. Click here to find out what is a CCIM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCIM
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http://walter-unger.com/?p=15472
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Click here to find Reasons to Consider me for Commercial Referrals
http://walter-unger.com/?p=15010
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Click here to View My Listings and Profile
http://www.loopnet.com/profile/14101172900/Walter-Unger-CCIM/Listings/
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Click here to find out what is a CCIM:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCIM
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Click here to view my website:
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Interactive Map Of All 10+ Unit Apartment Listings in Metro Phoenix
http://www.easymapmaker.com/map/28cb3b8b3206c377a6f282d980dc7974
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3rd QTR 2015 GREATER PHOENIX APARTMENT OWNER’S NEWSLETTER Kasten Long Commercial Grpup.
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Click here: No Slowdown in New Construction in Q3 – Apartments
http://walter-unger.com/?p=15073
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Click her to join my mailing list :
Walter Unger CCIM – walterunger@ccim.net – 1-520-975-5207 – http://walter-unger.com
2016 Official Arizona Visitors Guide
http://walter-unger.com/?p=13391
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Timeline of Phoenix, Arizona history
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Phoenix,_Arizona_history
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix,_Arizona
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Facts of Arizona – year 1848 to 2013
http://walter-unger.com/?p=9507
Feel free to contact Walter regarding any of these stories, the current market, distressed commercial real estate opportunities and needs, your property or your Investment Needs for Comercial Properties in Phoenix, Tucson, Arizona.
walterunger@ccim.net 1-520-975-5207
Check out my professional profile and connect with me on LinkedIn.
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Kasten Long Commercial Group tracks all advertised apartment communities, including those advertised by other brokerages. The interactive map shows the location of each community (10+ units) and each location is color coded by the size (number of total units).
Click here for Map of Apartments for Sale (10+units)
Walter Unger CCIM, CCSS, CCLS
I am a successful Commercial / Investment Real Estate Broker in Arizona now for 20 years. If you have any questions about Commercial / Investment Properties in Phoenix or Commercial / Investment Properties in Arizona, I will gladly sit down with you and share my expertise and my professional opinion with you. I am also in this to make money therefore it will be a win-win situation for all of us.
Please reply by e-mail walterunger@ccim.net or call me on my cell 520-975-5207
Walter Unger CCIM
Senior Associate Broker
Kasten Long Commercial Group
2821 E. Camelback Rd. Suite 600
Phoenix , AZ 85016
Direct: 520-975-5207
Fax: 602-865-7461
Reasons to Consider me for Commercial Referrals
Delivering the New Standard of Excellence in Commercial Real Estate
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