No Content Strategy is an Island
It’s not hard to convince businesses of the merits of a robust content strategy. The problem is that many agencies rush to the altar of content marketing without realistically assessing their ability to devote the time and resources necessary to do it right. There’s nothing “set it and forget it” about content marketing, and many agencies make the mistake of thinking that it’s something one person can handle all by themselves. Not true. Too often, the practice of putting content in a silo sets the whole thing up for failure from the start. That's why the single most important thing you can do is to avoid isolating your content strategy from the larger marketing goals and day-to-day concerns of your business. Here's how...
When Reading Habits Change, Writing Habits Must Follow
If you’re at all familiar with Newfangled, you already know we’re pretty sweet on content marketing. But whenever we go online, we enter a world of distraction and information overload, making a state of semi-sustained attention a content marketer's best-case scenario. Writing to the distracted reader in a way that still manages to connect: that’s the challenge. The good news is that it's possible to master. Having a solid understanding of what we’re up against and how we got here is the first step in doing just that...
Email Tips (or, How to Stay Friends When Communicating By Machine)
MYOB 2012
Triangle AMA Fall Training Camp
A Content Marketing Training Session
Today I spoke at the Triangle AMA's Fall Training Camp on the four stages of content marketing. It was an honor to be invited, and I enjoyed spending time speaking with triangle area folks who are at various stages of content marketing themselves — from a few years in to just discovering it for the first time. Below is the content of my talk...
We don’t just build websites for agencies. We also build websites for their clients!
Since January, 2012, we've started 9 new website projects for agencies, 9 new website projects for clients of our agency partners, 5 new projects for clients with whom we work with directly (including providing visual design), and 5 new consulting engagements. Here are some examples of these projects...
Designing Newfangled’s Home Page Slides
You've probably seen the rotating slide show that sits atop our home page. The slides promote upcoming events, book releases and new services. I've designed most of the slides, with some art direction and feedback from Chris Butler (who's created a few of the slides as well). Since our website will be undergoing a redesign soon, I thought it would be a good time for a retrospective of previous slides as well as a peek at how they're designed...
Modern Marketing Content Has a Big, Complex Job to Do
Much of the angst within agencies around writing web copy, blog posts, and newsletters stems from the fact that many of us aren't yet sure what these content types ought to achieve, especially in the context of the modern marketing website. Unlike traditional print writing or even marketing copy, online marketing content has a big, complex job to do. It has to catch the attention of both search engines and human readers, earn readers’ sustained interest, offer real value and, most importantly, it has to inspire some percentage of those readers to take a specific action that's intentionally built into or around the content itself. This is a lot to ask of our written words, and it takes time, forethought, and a good deal of skill to get it right. The good news is that, with a little guidance and lots of practice, most anyone can master it.
Usability Testing for Mobile Devices
It's easy to do usability testing on desktop machines. Laptops with built-in microphones and webcams partnered with screen-recording software make it simple to capture the experience of using a website — from the obvious stuff, like the movements, scrolling, and clicks of a volunteer's mouse, to the subtler stuff of facial expressions and voices. But what about testing user experience on a mobile device? This is a challenge that has resulted in some interesting innovations...