What’s the easiest way to check which blog posts perform best in search and social referrals?

May 26, 2017

I wouldn’t call myself a data analyst by any means of the imagination. But here’s the thing: Writers, content creators, content marketing strategists or whatever else you might call them should indeed look at the metrics of how their content is performing. Not everyone needs to be able to dig deep into the numbers, but […]

UPDATED: How to add the CONTACT button to your Instagram account in seconds

Christoph

May 7, 2017

Measuring results, Social media, Strategies

A look at how to add the contact options on business Instagram accounts.

Why digital marketers must be okay with constant rejection and how to deal with it

Christoph

April 27, 2017

Change Leadership, Measuring results, Strategies

A look at how digital marketers can deal with constant rejection and move forward for digital marketing success.

Here’s the real reason why content marketing fails in large organizations

Christoph

April 20, 2017

Measuring results

A look at the most common reason why content marketing projects fail. Once the reason is identified, we can try to fix it!

[MEASURING RESULTS] How many web analytics services should I use on my website?

Christoph

April 9, 2017

Measuring results

This article looks at how many web metrics services we should have on our website.

[PERSONALIZATION] Designing for the masses is not the future

Christoph

April 6, 2017

Change Leadership, Customer service, Measuring results, Technology

You hear the so-called experts out there who say they test and measure and whatever else the latest buzzword in digital marketing is. Buzzword bingo can be fun, but does it actually helps us create better customer experience? Not always. Talking still needs to be backed up by the right walk! We put this box […]

The latest blogging-related marketing technique: “Reverse content marketing”

Christoph

April 5, 2017

Change Leadership, Measuring results, Strategies

Reverse content marketing - a new way to reach out to potential customers. This article looks at how that's done.

[CONTENT MARKETING] How I learned to love ❤️ growth hacking

Christoph

March 30, 2017

Change Leadership, Journalism and Content Marketing, Measuring results, Strategies

I’m really not a fan of buzzword bingo. So when I first heard the term growth hacking I simply thought “oh great another buzzword that I now have to use.” Or ignore. 🤔😱😩 I’ve thought of myself as a content guy for many years. Even when I worked as a journalist there is a certain […]

#AdobeSummit 2017 Blog: Data without context and from a party with a stake in outcome can be worthless

Christoph

March 20, 2017

Journalism and Content Marketing, Measuring results, My Fitness Tips

Disclaimer: Adobe invited me to the Adobe Summit North America 2017. This post was not approved by them. They didn’t even get a preview. It’s my opinion and if you agree it’s yours too. 😂🤔 I was still flying to Las Vegas on Day 1 of the conference but was reading the tweets surrounding data […]

Content marketing metrics: How to measure performance in shorter months

Christoph

March 1, 2017

Measuring results

Oh no!!! Our digital key performance indicators are way down for February. It’s like we were about three days short of January! LOL. It’s easy to forget that February is a short month. I also worked out less and even ate fewer calories than January, but did not lose more weight because of that in […]

How to set (content) marketing goals that can actually be achieved!

Christoph

February 1, 2017

Measuring results

The sky is the limit so, um, let’s set a goal of reaching the sky. This month. Exactly. Good luck with that one! Setting unrealistic goals might be one of the latest marketing diseases out there: This blog post will generate $5 million in revenue. Everyone that comes to our website will convert. Can we […]

Is authentic storytelling content marketing still a differentiator when everyone does it?

Christoph

January 14, 2017

Change Leadership, Health, Journalism and Content Marketing, Measuring results

Here’s the scenario: Two competitors both use similar authentic storytelling content marketing techniques. They all read my book, which you can order here.Ha. But seriously, let’s take that scenario. Is this technique still usable when everyone – including our competitors – use it? Totally! Yes. Yes. You own your stories and others own theirs. Many […]

[DATA ANALYSIS] Does web traffic really decrease that much on holidays?

Christoph

December 27, 2016

Measuring results

Nobody reads blog, websites, or does anything online during holidays. It’s the time to put our phones down and don’t sit in front of our computers and talk with our families instead. It sounds so early 2000s, which is also when I first heard that nobody does anything online on the holidays. No reason to […]

[DIGITAL MARKETING] Actual conversation is overrated and here’s why

Christoph

December 25, 2016

Measuring results

In 2016 I was on the Heathly Wealthy Smart podcast and made this statement: “Storytelling is a conversation even when people are not talking back.” You are sharing a story with an audience – like you are talking to them. Sometimes they talk back through comments, emails, etc. But most of the time they don’t. […]

Content marketing: How to not get greedy chasing website numbers!

Christoph

December 16, 2016

Measuring results

My blog grew from 35,000 annual visits to around 175,000 year over year and seeing those numbers grow, can be slightly addictive. What else can I publish to hit that next high? To get to quarter million, half and then a full million annual visits. Since digital marketing is a numbers game the higher I […]

MY TEST: Does HTTPs really help with Google Search results?

Christoph

December 16, 2016

Measuring results, Strategies

A look at whether or not my blog performs better since I made the Google-recommended switch from http to the secure https.

Content marketing is more about hitting singles than home runs

Christoph

November 2, 2016

Creativity, Measuring results, Strategies

Home runs are certainly fun to watch. Did that make it into the water outside the San Francisco Giants park? Did that make it onto the street outside the Baltimore Orioles diamond? You get the picture. Things can happen with home runs and they can be entertaining and look powerful. And of course they count […]

Why “being busy” shouldn’t be a content marketing success metric

Christoph

October 23, 2016

Change Leadership, Creativity, Journalism and Content Marketing, Measuring results, Strategies

This brochure, blog post, whatever piece of content I just finished took me a while to produce. Hours that added up to days and maybe even weeks, but I don’t even want to consider the actual amount of time it took, because, well, that’s a lot! Wow, it took that long to produce this thing? […]

KEYNOTE VIDEO: The six steps to tell better stories

Christoph

October 22, 2016

Measuring results, Strategies, Training

I spoke to the Iowa CPA conference in Des Moines in October 2016 and shared these six steps you need to take to share authentic stories to be successful. (I start at 1:18 mins if you want to fast forward to there.) In summary, here are the six steps with short overviews: 1) The decision […]

Why it’s important to keep track of your search engine rankings [Google Search Console]

Christoph

October 20, 2016

Measuring results, Strategies

Search is not dead – in case anyone was wondering or about to declare it to be. 🙂 In 2016, about 70 percent of all traffic to this content marketing blog came from search engines. That’s an interesting statement for a social media guy. Social media, by the way, sent 11 percent of all traffic […]

Why soft metrics matter in content marketing

Christoph

October 15, 2016

Measuring results

Show me the money! Is all this content marketing actually leading to revenue? Yes! I’m all for getting paid, because afterall, pageviews are not accepted currency in any grocery store. My kids don’t accept them for their allowance either! But, soft metrics (so not revenue) are an indicator that things are or aren’t on the […]

Why traveling can be a sign of content marketing success

Christoph

September 1, 2016

Measuring results, Stories

One of my goals is to make the biggest impact on authentic storytelling content marketing possible. In a global economy, that means traveling and flying around the country and globe to help others share better stories. I love traveling to find and document those stories, teach strategies and help people spot and then share their […]

How to avoid having unrealistic expectations in content marketing

Christoph

August 18, 2016

Content distribution, Measuring results, Strategies

Let’s publish and go for 1 million viewers… by tomorrow. That sounds like a good dream but not a realistic goal for many brands and organizations who are just getting started in content marketing. We all start at zero audience though some of us have an existing audience that helps us start a bit higher. […]

Why online ROI measurements are not perfect [EXAMPLE]

Christoph

August 15, 2016

Measuring results

We want to measure our Return on Investment (ROI) and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – and especially online. After all measuring the apparent effectiveness of an online ad is much easier to measure than that of an offline billboard, which is likely why we expect more from online channels. But it’s not perfect. That doesn’t […]

[ANALYSIS] Why not to overthink publishing schedules based on user behavior

Christoph

June 28, 2016

Content distribution, Measuring results

I’m a big fan of analysing what is working and why it’s working, but there is also the flip side of overthinking things and mis-analyzing them. When to publish stories or social media posts fits there. Social media research changes constantly on when the best times to publish are. Publish at 1. No 3. On […]

How to scale content marketing (or any) strategies

Christoph

June 8, 2016

Change Leadership, Creativity, Measuring results, Strategies

One person presents a new idea, concept or technique to a group of people (dare I say committee members?). Another person – often one with a fancy title – chimes in: “But, but, but how do we scale that?” “Um, I don’t know. I was just coming up with an idea.” And with that the […]

How to find your organization’s content sweet spot [CONVERSION + ENGAGEMENT]

Christoph

June 7, 2016

Change Leadership, Customer service, Measuring results

Digital marketers often fall into one of two categories: The engagement huggers – These are the marketers who report every like, retweet and comment they get. Success in their world is a feeling. People are hearing us and they are responding. The conversion overthinkers – How do we get people to do something next? Usually, that something […]