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How to Improve Your Social Media Marketing Productivity
Marketing 5 min read

How to Improve Your Social Media Marketing Productivity

Social media marketing can be extremely time-consuming. Monitoring mentions, responding to comments, managing your engagement on multiple profiles and doing everything possible to ensure you get the best results from social media—it all adds up to a lot of time spent using and switching between different apps. A good social media management tool can save you a lot of hours, while also improving your results. This infographic lists 5 top social media management tools on the market right now, rated by customer reviews. Infographic brought to you by Seriously Social and G2 Crowd. Credit: Ian Anderson Gray   The real trick when finding social media management tools is to find the one that has the features you need, whether based on the social channels you use, or the goals you have for your social media marketing efforts. From there, it’s a case of finding the perfect plan for your dashboard that provides the features you want at no extra cost. Sometimes this can prove problematic, as many tools have hidden costs that you may not know to look for. Let’s examine how you can use social media management tools to improve your productivity. Customer Relationship Management Social media has always offered a way for businesses to have a closer relationship with their customers, but now, it’s more important than ever to not only respond as promptly as possible to any inquiries, comments and customer service issues, but also to create a more personalized experience for your followers. Social media management dashboards are now incorporating more complex CRM tools. For example, you can organize and segment your audience by tagging users. Many tools also allow you to see all of the past conversations you’ve held with a certain social media user. This way, you’re always in the loop and by showing you remember past discussions you give that personal touch that can help build stronger connections with your followers. More and more businesses and marketers nowadays are using influencer marketing to reach a bigger audience and get more traffic, engagement and make more sales, and a social media management tool can help you in those efforts. You can use it to identify any influencers that are already in your list, as well as other influencers in your niche. From there, it’s just a question of engaging as much as possible with them, in order to build mutually beneficial relationships. A social media management tool with a strong CRM function can help you not only with customer service on social media, but it can also help you develop stronger relationships and to find more potential leads. Set Up an Editorial Calendar In order to be successful on social media, you need to post updates often and at the right times. Being organized with your content can help with this in the long run, especially if you’re using an editorial calendar, which is a feature I’m seeing more and more in social media management tools. Up until recently, one of the biggest draws of social media management tools was that you could easily schedule updates for your social media accounts. Now, though, tools make it easier to schedule your content more intelligently and help you make sure you don’t miss any opportunities to raise your traffic and engagement. Evergreen content is also on the rise, with more and more marketers striving to create content that will remain relevant months and even years from now. If you have any evergreen content, make sure to add it to your editorial calendar in order to re-publish it regularly and get the most out of it. Collaborate with Your Team When you have multiple social media profiles to manage and don’t want to work 24 hours a day, the best thing to do is to get some of your team members to help. Find a tool that has team management capabilities – the more, the better. This will not only free up some of your time, you might find that some of your team members are better at social media and getting better results. Most tools will allow you to assign tasks to team members, which they can see when they open their own accounts. For instance, if you’re get a lot of mentions and comments, you could have someone from your team assigning the most important ones directly to the head marketer, while they respond to all the other mentions. Some tools also include a breakdown of analytics by team member, so you can see what each person’s response time is, what kind of engagement they’re getting, and more. How Are You Using Social Media Marketing Tools? Social media marketing has evolved a lot over the years, and marketers’ needs are changing as well. Social media management tools are evolving to meet those needs, and are becoming more than just tools for scheduling and publishing to a few social accounts. How are you using these tools to become more efficient and productive? Share your favorite tools and tricks in the comments below. Author Bio Highly regarded on the world speaker circuit, Lilach Bullock has graced both Forbes and Number 10 Downing Street with her presence! Listed in Forbes as one of the top 20 women social media power influencers, Lilach has been crowned the Social Influencer of Europe by Oracle, and is a recipient of a Global Women Champions Award for her outstanding contribution and leadership in business.  

4 Ways to Arm Your Team for Content Marketing Success
Marketing 3 min read

4 Ways to Arm Your Team for Content Marketing Success

The Content Marketing Institute recently held its annual conference, Content Marketing World, and also published their B2B Content Marketing Study. Some trends that became very clear from both the survey and the event. We’re going to be increasingly flooded with content from brands Content marketers will continue to hone their skills, so content will get better and better To stand out, your content needs to be both unique and consistently delivered You’ll need a management approach, tools, processes and people in place to have an effective Content Engine To focus on the last point, and to arm your marketing plan for content marketing success, the effective management and operations of the content marketing team requires four things: 1. An Agile management approach to adjust to constantly changing demands from both internal stakeholders and customers. (See 7 Steps to Developing an Agile Marketing Team.) 2. A tool to manage communication, workflows and project management. (Learn more about Wrike for marketing team collaboration.) 3. Appropriate resources and access given to the content creators, designers and web developers to support rapid and regular content creation. 4. A collaborative relationship with the marketers who handle social media, advertising, email marketing/marketing automation. Learn more about the approaching content wave and the key takeaways from Content Marketing World 2014 in our Slideshare.   Standing Out: Content Marketing World 2014 Takeaways #CMWorld Is your marketing team ready? How is your marketing team approaching the increasing need for high quality content? Let us know in the comments!

How to Use Wrike for Content Planning
Marketing 5 min read

How to Use Wrike for Content Planning

It is crucial to plan ahead so you always have ideas at the ready. It's even better if you have finished and recyclable content pieces that can be published at a moment's notice. That's the purpose of this blog post: to walk you through a three-part process for planning out your content in advance of deadlines and sudden needs.

The Art of Writing: How to Create Content Like a Pro
Marketing 7 min read

The Art of Writing: How to Create Content Like a Pro

Even if writing isn’t exactly your forte, the ability to communicate clearly and persuasively is essential—both for your leadership skills, and your ability to develop a strong online presence for your brand.  Imagine this: you’ve spent a good deal of time and money developing a beautifully designed, user-friendly website for your company, and you have high expectations for it to lead to greater brand awareness and more sales. But that website needs fuel in the form of great content. Moreover, you’ll have to promote it via social media, with… you guessed it, more great content.  Many of you don’t need to envision that scenario: you’ve faced it already, and you know that you simply can’t afford to neglect your writing skills. How to Master the Art of Writing Of course, there's aren't any instant shortcuts that will make you a brilliant writer overnight. It's a skill that takes a lot of practice, commitment, and diligence. However, there are certain methods that will help you improve your creativity and writing technique with less effort, including these key strategies and tools: 1. Understand the 'Why' Behind Each Piece of Content Think the purpose of content is simply to promote your brand? Think again! Your primary goal is to help the reader. Your reader should not come away believing that promotion was your main objective, but that your content is helping them in some way. Here are the main goals your content should have: Delivering value for the target audience, in the form of problem solutions, tips that improve their lives, answers to their questions, or entertainment Growing relationships with your audience that keep them coming back over the long term Defining your brand (or yourself) to target readers Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania analyzed the most emailed articles from The New York Times. The results were surprising: people liked sharing elaborate articles on intellectually-challenging topics, and they preferred recommending articles that awakened positive emotions. What about your brand? Analyze your own audience's preferences and then craft content that will meet their expectations.   2. Create How-To and List Articles Although some audiences prefer long form content based on in-depth research, they still want it organized in a clean, easy-to-skim format. Even if listicles and how-to articles seem like an outdated form of content, they are still effective.  The trick is, you need a very specific topic that will separate you from the competition. So, instead of writing an article named Top 10 Movies from the 80s, try something like Top 10 Movies from the 80s to Watch in October.  3. Use the Right Keywords It's not enough to write great content—you have to make it easy for your audience to find. You know how Google works: you enter a set of keywords and the engine lists relevant results. Obviously, you want your content ranked as high as possible in results pages for the search phrases your audience uses most often. This is where SEO optimization comes in. You’ll need to use the right keywords in the right places, without letting those keywords take over your content. You should always put the human reader first by making sure keywords make sense within the context of your writing.  4. Ask Questions Questions are great because they make your content interactive. When you ask a question, the reader will answer it in their own head (and hopefully in the comments section of your article as well). In addition, questions awaken curiosity. It's a perfect opportunity for you to guide them to another of your articles or content pieces that discusses their question in greater detail and offers answers.  5. Express Your Personality Uniqueness is the factor that makes your content recognizable. It doesn’t matter whether you’re learning how to start a blog, a social media page, or you’re writing email campaigns. You have to find your unique voice! Your content should convey your company's distinct organizational culture, and it should make your brand recognizable.  You’ll connect better with your audience if you write in first or second person, as if you're speaking directly to them. Adding some humor, storytelling, and real-life experience to your posts will help make your content even more engaging.  Tools to Make You a More Efficient Writer Now that you’re aware of some tips to help you reach your the target audience, let’s go through some tools that will support the process. Google AdWords – Keyword Planner This is where you’ll get SEO keywords from. In addition to keyword ideas, the tool gives you a chance to organize your overall content writing campaign. You will see how a list of keywords may perform, and you can create your own keywords by combining different suggestions.  EduGeeksClub Professional Writing Service If you need outside help generating content for your blog, email campaigns, and social media updates, you can outsource with a service like EduGeeksClub. This writing service connects you with professional writers from different niches, so you’ll always rely on experts who will work under your specific instructions.  Hubspot’s Blog Topic Generator A great title is a critical part of attracting attention, especially when it comes to standing out in a sea of online content. If you have no idea where to start, this tool will give you a solid starting point. Enter three nouns relevant to the theme you want to work on, and the app will give you suggestions for a captivating title.  CoSchedule Blog Post Headline Analyzer If you've brainstormed a few options for a headline but don't know which to use, this tool will predict how each of them will perform before you even publish the content. It gives you a grade based on word choice, emotional appeal, and the power of the topic.     Are you ready to start working on your writing skills? Try the tips and tools suggested above and inform us about the progress you make! Author Bio Karen Dikson is a marketing expert and creative writer.  She finds her inspiration in books and traveling. Connect with Karen on Twitter.

Top 10 Add-ons for Adobe Premiere
Marketing 5 min read

Top 10 Add-ons for Adobe Premiere

For video professionals, Adobe Premiere Pro is one of those powerful tools that allow you to bring a vision to life onscreen. And Premiere Pro gives users a large assortment of add-ons that can help expand your options for editing and compositing your videos. Here are the top 10 most useful and most popular Adobe Premiere Pro add-ons, both paid and free.

11 Top Add-Ons for Adobe Illustrator
Marketing 5 min read

11 Top Add-Ons for Adobe Illustrator

As a creative professional, you're always looking for new ways to bring your designs to life. Add-ons offer more tools, effects, and workflows to help you do more with your Adobe Creative Cloud apps. While there are countless plugins and add-ons available for Adobe applications, we asked our own design team to share some of their favorites. These 11 add-ons will save you time and effort on your designs — and add some cool new visual styles to your arsenal. 1. Dragstrip Illustrator Brush Kit - RetroSupply Co. Price: $15 Give your vectors the look of hand-painted brush strokes with this add-on. Includes 26 illustrator brushes, including TIFF versions, painterly and splatter texture overlays, and two examples of professional quality reference art so you can see exactly how to use the brushes for best results.  2. Handmade Linocut Brushes - Guerillacraft Price: $8 35 lino cut brushes and 12 vector textures to give your work a handmade, hand-printed look, along with a set of brushes to create a unique woodcut effect.  3. Vintage Comic Press - AI Actions  Price: $19 Inspired by comics from the 1950s, this add-on uses yellow, magenta, and cyan overlays to produce an authentic vintage look in vector format. Also includes halftone variations, 3D shadows, text outlines, coloring tips and cheat sheets.  4. PosterPress for Illustrator - Ian Barnard Price: $16 Give your designs the look of beautiful vintage travel posters with this add-on. You’ll also get 18 vector textures, a visual font list plus links to download them, and 13 beautiful photographs to use in your work.   5. Gold Rush for Illustrator - Studio Denmark  Price: $18 All the metallic, glitter, and foil effects you could possibly want, in every shade of gold, rose gold, black, silver and copper. Over 200 swatches that include crumpled foil, gold leaf, metallic paint, textures, glitter, confetti, and geometric patterns. 6. Watercolor Fantasies Quick Styles - Creators Couture  Price: $18 140 raster pattern swatches, each with a light and intense style variation. Apply it with a click and it pulls your current vector color as the base color, then adjust the style via the appearance panel.  7. 300+ Real Markers for Illustrator - Hejbrush.com Price: $9 Realistic marker brushes—over 300 actual markers scanned in 2400 dpi, cleaned and sharpened, then taken back to original size at 300 dpi.  8. VectorScribe - Astute Graphics Price: $78 Edit vector paths with precision, create dynamic shapes and corners, convert and delete points, extend and trim paths, and more. Included is a smart remove brush tool to remove excess points, a path extend tool, dynamic corners and shapes tools, a PathScribe tool to edit vector paths, the dynamic measure tool for quick and accurate measurements, and a protractor tool.  9. Magic Exporter - Kodlian.com  Price: $25 Export objects from your AI docs to PNGs for all devices and screens. The add-on exports objects separately, so you can export artwork with a graphic layout behind it, and you can export designs scaled precisely for various devices and screen sizes.  10. CADtools 10 for Illustrator - Hot Door Price: $349 Easily draw, edit, and dimension vector your artwork with these 87 tools and 12 panels. Hundreds of editable symbols for architecture, people, and landscapes that automatically scale to the target layer, plus a built-in dashboard to control CAD features in Illustrator.  11. Wrike Adobe Creative Cloud Add-In - Wrike Price: Free Trial Attach previews of your work to Wrike, update and track file versions, update task status, and quickly find instructions, creative briefs, and feedback comments without leaving Illustrator.  More Tools and Resources for Creative Professionals Whether you’re a novice designer or have years of experience under your belt, there are always new shortcuts and techniques to learn. Check out our list of free online training resources for Adobe Creative Cloud to sharpen your existing skills or learn the ins and outs of a new tool. Then see how Wrike's solution for marketing and creative teams can streamline administrative tasks and free your time to focus on creative work. 

Will Your Company's Social Media Marketing Efforts Pay Off? (Infographic)
Marketing 3 min read

Will Your Company's Social Media Marketing Efforts Pay Off? (Infographic)

In order to be successful marketing your business in social media, you need to invest time and resources, and understand what is targeting in marketing. This decision tree helps you see if you're ready to launch a full-scale social media effort that will lead to more attention and business leads. Will your company's social media efforts pay off? See the decision tree below. Embed this infographic in your site using the code below: Wrike Project Management Software What ingredients are key to social media success? What do you think the most essential ingredient is for a social media strategy? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.

5 Best Affiliate Programs for Bloggers
Marketing 3 min read

5 Best Affiliate Programs for Bloggers

You've been working hard to fill your blog with unique and inspiring content, carefully choosing topics and polishing sentences. Now it's your moment of glory — and you've gotten hundreds or even thousands of comments, shares, and retweets! If you're at this point and you haven't started monetizing your blog with top affiliates programs, then it's high time to jump into the world of affiliate marketing. When launching an affiliate program on your blog, keep in mind these ground rules for success: Choose a niche, best-seller product that appeals to the majority of your readers. Ideally it should be a product you actively use, or have a good understanding of how to use. If you're not quite sure which tool to choose from a list of market competitors, check out ratings on review sites to see how real users feel about it. Check out the main affiliate conditions: besides commission rate, take a look at minimum payout, cookie length, and reporting systems for tracking your referrals. Use a combination of promotion tools: writing a detailed review from your own point of view is always the best. Combine it with social media promotion, banner placement on your blog, or featuring it in your newsletters for better results. Don't hesitate to contact vendors you're going to promote for more details about the product, best practices, product screenshots, or any other promotional materials. To help you get started monetizing your blog, we've prepared a short list of best affiliate programs in various niches: Business: Wrike Wrike is a leading work management and collaboration tool that helps teams all over the world complete projects on time and on budget. You'll get $100 per paid Professional subscription and $200 per paid Enterprise subscription. Travel: TravelPayouts TravelPayouts.com is actually a mini-network of three travel engines that scan through popular sites to help users find cheap, easy travel and accommodations. As an affiliate, you will receive up to 70% of the income on each sale, for an average of $9 USD on airline tickets and $30 USD on hotel bookings. Books: Amazon This niche has one obvious, trusted choice! If you want an established affiliate program to support your book reviews, check out Amazon Associates. You'll get up to 10% in advertising fees. Health: HealthyWage Earn money by helping others win big, lose weight, and get healthy! HealthyWage is a friendly weight loss challenge site. Earn $60 for each HealthyWager sign-up you generate, or $40 for each Team Challenge participant sign-up you generate. Education: Udemy Udemy is one of the largest marketplaces for online education courses. You'll get 50% commission for any course you sell both to new and returning customers. What other top affiliate programs do you recommend? Have you tried monetizing your blog? Which tools can you recommend with high-paying affiliate programs to help writers earn and provide value for their readers? Help everyone out in the comments below!

Top 10 Photoshop Plugins for Creative Professionals
Productivity 5 min read

Top 10 Photoshop Plugins for Creative Professionals

Adobe Photoshop supports plugins, which allow you to add more useful features that help you save time and effort. Have a look at our list featuring 10 of the top free and paid Adobe Photoshop plugins that will be useful for all creatives.

Marketing Calendar Software to Streamline Your Campaigns
Project Management 5 min read

Marketing Calendar Software to Streamline Your Campaigns

It’s time to leave marketing spreadsheets in the past. Choose the best marketing calendar for your organization and increase productivity and collaboration.

10 Elements of a Successful Content Marketing Engine (Infographic)
Marketing 3 min read

10 Elements of a Successful Content Marketing "Engine" (Infographic)

Content marketing is critical component of many companies' marketing strategies. For those who are trying to build up what I call a "content engine" or for those who are looking to do a tune-up on their marketing vocabulary, this infographic provides ten areas that need to be addressed. Use the infographic below to understand the areas and to assess your company's situation with regards to content marketing. Which areas need the most attention? You can share this infographic with your team! Share this post, or copy the embed code below to put it on your site: Infographic brought to you by Wrike Which areas are the hardest to fix? Let us know in the comments!

Managing Your Marketing Collateral from Start to Finish
Marketing 7 min read

Managing Your Marketing Collateral from Start to Finish

Effective marketing collateral helps communicate crucial details about brand goals and identity. Learn more about communication collateral and marketing collateral development.

Deliver Better HTML Web Content Faster With Wrike Proof
Project Management 5 min read

Deliver Better HTML Web Content Faster With Wrike Proof

Companies around the world have reduced approval drag via Wrike Proof. Now they can go even faster and experience a more fluid communication and collaboration process with the introduction of Wrike Proof for HTML.

How Wrike's Content Marketing Team Manages Projects in Wrike
Marketing 7 min read

How Wrike's Content Marketing Team Manages Projects in Wrike

Here at Wrike we eat our own dog food—or drink our own champagne, as we like to say—so we were able to quickly adapt our workflow to meet our evolving needs and increase our momentum. Let’s dig into how we manage content projects in Wrike!

Top 11 Quotes To Get Your Creative Juices Flowing
Productivity 7 min read

Top 11 Quotes To Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

Stuck in a creative rut? Here are 11 quotes from some of the most creative minds in history who've felt your pain and emerged victorious. May you find the inspiration to rise above your slump and free the genius inside your mind.

How Wrike Uses Wrike Requests to Deliver Content
Leadership 5 min read

How Wrike Uses Wrike Requests to Deliver Content

Wrike Requests now allows us to standardize and prioritize content suggestions that come from other departments. With customized fields and templates, people are able to suggest their ideas and provide all the necessary info we need to execute it.

How to Set Up an Editorial Calendar in Wrike
Marketing 5 min read

How to Set Up an Editorial Calendar in Wrike

Wrike is introducing more and more features to help marketing teams manage and track all their work in one centralized place. Our marketing team completely relies on Wrike to collaborate and get work done, so we're doubly passionate about making Wrike the best workspace for Agile marketers. One of the many ways we use Wrike is to track our blog's publishing calendar. For example, this post has been on our editorial calendar since March, and we've been tracking its progress from just an idea all the way through the publishing date today! Now we want to show you how we use Wrike as an editorial and marketing calendar, so you can efficiently manage your company blog, too. 5 Steps to Set Up Your Marketing Editorial Calendar with Wrike 1. Create a folder to hold every post that you'll publish on your blog. Our folder is called "Blog Posts". Every time you create a new task to write a blog post, make sure it's tagged into this folder. 2. Create a Custom Workflow that accurately reflects all the different stages that your blog posts go through on their way to being published. For example, at Wrike our Custom Workflow for our blog calendar looks like this: Sometimes, posts jump back and forth between "In Review" and "Writing", if the author has received feedback on their post for additional edits, and Wrike makes it easy to adjust your task to that back-and-forth workflow.   3. Create a Shared Dashboard to give your team visibility into the publishing schedule. We call our Shared Dashboard "Editorial Calendar". It will look like this when you're done with every step:   4. Now you need to create the two widgets for your Dashboard: a. One for all posts that have yet to be scheduled, e.g. "To Be Scheduled". These will be tasks in your folder without due dates. i. Create the widget by filtering inside your Blog Posts folder for tasks that are BACKLOGGED. ii. Also select all Custom Statuses you care about for this widget. At Wrike, we filter for 'planned', 'writing', 'in review', 'in design', and 'ready to post' because we want a list of everything that is definitely going to be published at some point. We leave out 'idea', since those ideas may never make it to the publishing calendar. iii. Once you've filtered for tasks to show only what you want to see in your widget, add the widget to your Dashboard! b. Now create a widget for your current publishing schedule, e.g. "Publishing Schedule". These will be tasks in your folder that do have due dates. i. Create the widget by filtering inside your Blog Posts folder for tasks that are PLANNED and MILESTONE ii. Also select all custom statuses you care about for this widget. At Wrike, we filter for 'planned', 'writing', 'in review', 'in design', and 'ready to post' because we select publishing dates before posts are fully ready. We choose NOT to show posts that are already 'published', but you can decide to show them if you'd always like to see previously published posts on your Dashboard. iii. Finally, make sure you organize your task list "By Date" to make sure the widget lists your tasks in the correct order, and then add your widget to your Dashboard! 5. Now you're all set up! When you're looking at your Dashboard, you can click the quick scheduling button on your task card to choose publishing dates. If you've set up your filters as described above, your task will automatically move from the "To Be Scheduled" widget over to the "Publishing Schedule" widget once you've selected a date. You can use the same button to quickly rearrange posts in your publishing schedule, in case new posts need to be added into the mix and things need to move around. It gives your marketing team the ability to stay agile. Note: Because our Editorial Calendar system uses task due dates to set publishing dates, we cannot use due dates to note when we'll be done writing, when editing needs to be completed, or anything except the final publishing date. If your team relies heavily on due dates to move work through every stage of your workflow, you will need to modify our process described above to fit your needs. More Tools to Make Your Marketing Team More Agile Learn more about how today's marketers are using Agile techniques in our survey report: How Marketers Get Things Done: The State of Agile Marketing in 2016. Then, start a free trial of Wrike to get your Agile marketing team running at peak performance.

You’ve Just Been Given Your Own Creative Team. Now What!?
Marketing 10 min read

You’ve Just Been Given Your Own Creative Team. Now What!?

Opportunity and excitement aside, making the transition from individual contributor to creative leader is tough.

Creative Block? 5 Surprising Ways to Spark Creativity
Productivity 5 min read

Creative Block? 5 Surprising Ways to Spark Creativity

There it is. That blank sheet of paper. Or a blank Word doc with the blinking cursor. Or blank Wrike task. It’s daunting to think about that deadline due in two days, or two hours, or 24 hours... you can feel the panic creeping in. You're in desperate need of a creativity boost, and it's not coming from your marketing collaboration tools. Forcing a creative state feels downright impossible. When you're in the zone, the ideas seem to come to you out of thin air. So what can you actively do to fuel creative inspiration? Next time you're stuck, just remember to B.U.I.L.D! Be bored Yes, you heard me right. Actually try to be bored... it's not as easy as you think! Technology has opened a vast horizon of stimuli; between mobile apps, search engines, social networks, and instant communications, we reflexively reach for our phones when we have nothing else to do. The reason we so often come up with our best ideas in the shower is simply because we have nothing else to do but think. When you find yourself with a creativity block, try to daydream. Instead of tapping into an app, tap into your subconscious. Who knows what you'll come up with when you let your mind wander?  Unwind with a drink Looks like Don Draper was on to something! Drinking (a little) alcohol has proven to help boost creativity. In a study conducted at University of Illinois at Chicago, two groups of individuals were asked to perform the same creative task. The only difference: one group was slightly inebriated (BAC = .075) and the other group was stone-cold sober. To no one's surprise, the inebriated group performed slightly better on the task than the sober group. The study determined that a person's "creativity peak" is reached at a BAC of .075, just under the legal limit. Of course, too much alcohol is almost guaranteed to give you an even bigger creativity block (not to mention a headache). But go ahead, pour yourself a glass of wine and get the ideas flowing! Inspire with color Believe it or not, there are colors that can help influence creativity. Blue and green in particular can help boost both creativity and productivity. Red helps with focus and concentration. Having a blue or green desktop image, or even just sitting next to a window and looking outside once in a while, will enhance your ability to focus and be more creative.  Listen to music Music can trigger different emotions from different listeners. Oftentimes, writers listen to the lyrics of a song to get inspired or to simply alter their mood. Mood can often reflect in your writing, so it's important to make sure you're selecting your music choice appropriately. The type of music can also effect how you write as well. Classical music, such as Haydn or Mozart, helps with concentration and focus whereas Impressionist music, such as Debussy and Ravel, helps trigger creativity and imagination. Music can also act as a powerful anchor. When you need to remember the feeling or emotion of a specific moment in your past, music can trigger that memory and mental state. Music is a truly powerful tool when it comes to creativity and it's fairly accessible, so make sure you turn up the radio when looking for inspiration. Draw on paper Although there are many tools available on your computer to inspire you, sometimes it's good to get another perspective — a pen and paper perspective. In their book, The Creativity Cure, Drs. Carrie and Alton Barron show how it's better to capture your ideas with pen and paper first. So grab some supplies and just start jotting down words or even doodling. It'll help clear your mind of distracting thoughts keep fresh ideas coming.  How do you jumpstart your creativity? What are your favorite ways to get your creative juices flowing? Tell us in the comments! Related Reads:How to Better Foster Creativity on Teams5 Ways Creative Teams Can Boost Productivity

Anatomy of the Perfect Blog Post (Infographic)
Marketing 3 min read

Anatomy of the Perfect Blog Post (Infographic)

Blogging may seem like one of the easier ways to market your product or your service, but if you’ve ever found yourself staring down a blank page, you know it’s not as simple as it looks. There are many factors that go into a successful post, from length, imagery, subheads, social sharing messages, and much more.  Whether you need help getting started with this special type of content marketing, or just want an easy way to keep track of blogging best practices, iSpionage has the perfect cheat sheet. The infographic below includes all the details you need to write an article that’s sure to attract and engage your audience, from a gripping headline and hook to the perfect call-to-action — and everything in between.  Infographic by iSpionage Further Reading: 4 Ways to Arm Your Team for Content Marketing Success How to Use Wrike for Content Planning 10 Elements of a Successful Content Marketing “Engine” (Infographic)  

How to Better Foster Creativity on Teams
Leadership 5 min read

How to Better Foster Creativity on Teams

Without creative thought, your team can become stagnant — and a company that isn't growing is dying. Over time, even the best people can lose their enthusiasm for finding new approaches. The status quo can feel like quicksand that pulls everyone in and holds them in stasis. With effort and planning, however, you can shape an environment that encourages your team to think outside the box, bringing fresh ideas, growth, and enthusiasm. Make Brainstorming an Agenda Item Experiment to see what approach works best for your group. You might present an issue and ask each team member to bring ideas to discuss, and then see what grows from that discussion. Or try bringing them in cold and asking them to generate ideas on the spot as a team. Put someone in charge of drawing a mind map on the whiteboard one day, and have everyone take his or her own notes another day. Try setting a short time to generate a minimum number of ideas, so the energy level stays high, and the team isn't bogged down by yet another lengthy meeting to attend. Consider Your Space Does your team have access to a common area where they can relax together? If not, your first brainstorming session might be about creating an environment that fosters creativity. Most teams do best in an open, uncluttered space with plenty of light and comfortable seating, where members can move freely around the room or even pace  — the opposite of many meeting rooms. The space should be free of clutter but offer all the tools staffers might need to develop and communicate ideas (e.g., whiteboards, markers, modeling materials). Democracy and Diversity Are Vital Your job is to bring diversity and equality to the creative process. This assures that you will include the broadest possible range of voices. Take the dominant participants aside before the meeting and let them know you appreciate their leadership, but need them to give space to other voices. If a reminder during the meeting doesn't work, remove them. Young staffers and women are often interrupted or discounted in groups — make sure their voices are heard. Bring in front-line staff and others whose perspectives are different, and treat their input with respect. Support Your Creative Team If ideas are judged harshly or mistakes aren't tolerated, people will start keeping their creative thoughts to themselves. Model for your marketing team how to receive all ideas enthusiastically and respectfully. Tossing out half-baked ideas is part of the brainstorming process, so never mock or show disdain for a "bad" idea. Support your staff when mistakes occur as well. By definition, if they are taking risks, some of their new ideas will fail, and that's when your enthusiasm and acceptance are most needed. If you don't stand behind your staff when their ideas fail, they will stop trying new ideas. Invite and Celebrate Staff Input Publicly acknowledge team members who bring you new ideas, so your staff will get the message that you value their input. Nothing dries up the flow of suggestions faster than a staff who believes their boss will take credit for their ideas, so give credit publicly and often. Another factor that shuts people down is feeling like their ideas aren't welcome. Counter that by openly inviting input. Don't just have a suggestion box — publish and respond to suggestions in the company newsletter. Run a contest, awarding time off or a pizza party for the person or team who offers the best solution to a problem. Are you fostering the right environment for your creative team? If your people aren't excited about solving problems any more, that's a problem. It's normal for team members to get into a rut, focus on daily tasks, and stop looking creatively at the big picture. But if everyone is rowing the boat, no one is steering. Energize your team and bring their enthusiasm back by tweaking the environment to foster, invite, and reward creative thinking. Top image via Flikr by Office Now Guest AuthorJT Ripton is a business consultant and freelance business, marketing, and technology writer out of Tampa. You can follow him on Twitter @JTRipton.  

14 Essential Books for Content Marketers
Marketing 7 min read

14 Essential Books for Content Marketers

  Whether you’re just starting out in content marketing, or you're a veteran looking for a few new tricks, add these 14 titles to your bookshelf for a shot of inspiration, a review of the fundamentals or some information on marketing tools to add to your arsenal. Content Marketing Basics 1. Epic Content Marketing: How to Tell a Different Story, Break through the Clutter, and Win More Customers by Marketing Less (2013)From Joe Pulizzi, head of Content Marketing Institute, this book is the perfect primer on all things content marketing. Pulizzi explains why good content is essential for attracting customers, and takes readers through the process of curating and creating effective content.  2. Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, eBooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business (2012)CCO at MarketingProfs, Entrepreneur columnist, and keynote speaker Ann Handley offers tips to find your company’s unique voice, discover which topics resonate with your customers, and get the most out of social media. She covers all kinds of content, from podcasts and webinars to eBooks and blog posts, and presents concrete strategies for producing each.  3. The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly (4th ed., 2013)Online Marketing strategist David Meerman Scott wrote nearly 400 pages of advice on developing your brand's reputation and authority online. He covers case studies and real-world examples of companies with successful content marketing strategies (and a few examples of what not to do), plus platform-specific tips for social media sites like Google Plus, Instagram, and LinkedIn.  4. Managing Content Marketing: The Real-World Guide for Creating Passionate Subscribers to Your Brand (2011)“Be a publisher.” “Engage your customers.” You may know the core principles of content marketing, but how do you actually do them? Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi (again!) offer a practical 12-step guide to building a content engine, from developing a personal strategy to finding the right distribution channels.  Writing Tips 5. Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content (2014)Another bestseller from Ann Handley, this book includes best practices, tips for reluctant writers, and a “Things Marketers Write” section with guidance on 17 kinds of content that marketers are most often asked to create.  6. How to Write Short: Word Craft for Fast Times (2013)In the age of microblogs, Tweets, and status updates, marketers need to be convincing and concise. Pick up a copy of writing professor Roy Peter Clark's book for a guide to crafting compelling headlines, Tweets, blog posts, and more.  Social & SEO 7. Social Media Explained: Untangling the World’s Most Misunderstood Business Trend (2014)Social media consultant Mark Schaefer dives into the psychology and sociology behind social media. He not only explains why you should be doing social media marketing, he helps you formulate a real plan of attack. Each chapter ends with a series of questions to help you apply the book’s principles and create your own social media strategy. 8. Big Book of Content Marketing: Use Strategies and SEO Tactics to Build Return-Oriented KPIs for Your Brand's Content (2013)SEO pro Andreas Ramos teaches readers how to boost content marketing results with effective SEO strategies. He also covers a range of distribution strategies, and outlines key metrics to analyze your success and make improvements. 9. Optimize: How to Attract and Engage More Customers by Integrating SEO, Social Media, and Content Marketing (2012)Lee Odden gives his top tips on how to combine SEO and social media with content marketing to make your content marketing efforts more effective. Learn how to plan a content strategy that will get the best results for your company, and measure the business value of every effort.  Getting Your Content to Stand Out 10. Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook: How to Tell Your Story in a Noisy Social World (2013)It’s not enough to develop high-quality content — it must be placed in the right context in order to grab your target audience’s attention and spread to new potential customers. Social media and brand building expert Gary Vaynerchuk teaches you how to create content tailored to succeed on social media. If a “jab” is a touchpoint, and a “right hook” is the knockout punch that’s sure to convert, Vaynerchuk shows the best combination of jabs and hooks to nurture leads and win new business.  11. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion (2006)This classic from renowned psychologist Dr. Robert Cialdini gives a peek into the psychology of persuasion. Learn what drives people to say “yes” — and how to use principles like social proof and perceived scarcity to create effective CTAs that get audiences to take the next step. Absolutely essential for email marketers!  12. The Fortune Cookie Principle: The 20 Keys to a Great Brand Story and Why Your Business Needs One (2013)Brand strategist and award-winning business blogger Bernadette Jiwa explains how to tell your brand’s story and establish powerful emotional connections with your target audience. Pick up a copy to learn how to differentiate your brand from competitors and earn the loyalty of your customers. Creating Visual Content 13. The Power of Visual Storytelling: How to Use Visuals, Videos, and Social Media to Market Your Brand (2014)As the average attention span continues to shrink, visual content is becoming more and more important for grabbing and holding your customers’ attention. Ekaterina Walter and Jessica Giolio outline strategies for the best marketing videos, infographics, Slideshare presentations, and other visual media. 14. Blah Blah Blah: What To Do When Words Don't Work (2011)Sometimes words just aren’t enough. Explaining complex concepts, making ideas memorable, and snagging your audience’s attention needs the perfect visual. Dan Roam's book shows you how to liven up your content and engage your audience through visual media. What are your content marketing must-reads? Even in an industry that changes quicker than you can turn the page, these books will keep your marketing skills sharp!  What content marketing books have you read? Share your recommendations in the comments! And if you're looking for more great reads, check out these 5 Best Project Management Books for Beginners and Accidental Project Managers and 15 Books Every Manager Should Read. 

5 Reasons Why Your Creative Team Isn't Scalable Yet
Collaboration 7 min read

5 Reasons Why Your Creative Team Isn't Scalable Yet

Creative teams are constantly under the gun to deliver compelling, innovative campaigns. And it's easy to buckle under that pressure when there's a lack of time and resources. As anxious as you might be to scale, here's why you might not be ready yet.