Actionable Marketing Guide Newsletter – How To Find New Content Ideas

Published: Mon, 01/15/18

actionable marketing guide

Dear ,

While many Americans spent the weekend celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I fed my creative side at Vogue Knitting Live, a 3 day knitting event complete with classes, lectures and yarn shopping.

Since New York is a fashion capital, this knitting show attracts a diverse group of designers, fiber artists and yarn purveyors from the US, Canada and Europe.

Even my local knitting friends, who can buy a diverse assortment of yarn across New York’s 5 boroughs, paid to walk through the show’s exhibits and fondle the fibers.

Like me, many use the event as an excuse to indulge in shopping therapy, even though our closets and other storage areas are bursting with unknit yarn. Yet I bought an assortment of yarns I wouldn’t spent the time searching for or been able to see the actual colors via their online stores.

I attended a discussion by a panel of knitwear designers and was surprised to get advice that I could apply to my content creation.  

  • Make good art. Is a quote from Neil Gaiman’s 2012 commencement speech (via this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ikAb-NYkseI) Hat tip: Martina Behm whose top design is the Hitchhiker, a shawl knitted 28,000+ times!

  • Don’t be afraid to play. Many creatives need to allow themselves space to make new connections between ideas. Hat tip: Andrea Rangel whose top design is a men’s sweater called The Dude which has been knit 600+ times.

  • Give yourself room to make mistakes.  As a creative, you can’t let anything you make get too precious. In writing classes, I learned to ‘kill your darlings”. This means that you must be willing to let go of your favorite pieces of your work because they’re not as good as you think.

As a marketer, I’m always looking for new ways to merchandise products. Love Knitting, for example, attracted my attention because they worked with knitting designers. Each designer curated a set of colors for specific types of yarn and patterns.  Even better, they donate a portion of each sale to support the women who create their yarn in Peru.

Lastly, tap into the community of people attending a conference. Kay Gardiner and Ann Shayne of Mason-Dixon Knitting, a blog that’s been going since the early 2000s, hosted a get together at a local bar after the festivities ended on Sunday. Who can say no to drinks, food and other knitters?

Kay Gardner, Martine Behm & Ann Shayne

Gardiner confided to me that they thought they were late to the knitting blog thing. Before you think that knitting’s a grandmother thing, I suggest you hop over to Mason-Dixon Knitting to see how this dynamic blogging duo can teach you a few new tricks.

  • Make your blogging personal. Readers felt like part of the family since Shayne and Gardiner address their posts like letters between good friends.

    How to count your guage

  • Build your community. For Shayne and Gardiner, these aren’t empty words. Mason-Dixon Knitting has an active forum on their site and Gardiner’s recent post, How To Count Your Gauge, attracted 68 comments! 

  • Tell them, don’t sell them! Gardiner’s review of Slow Knitting feels like another post and meditation on the act of knitting rather than a hard sell. Even more surprising, it gathered 15 comments!

    Slow Knitting

For those of you seeking more inspiration for content creation and social media, please join me at Social Media Marketing World in San Diego.

I’m very excited about this year’s conference since there’s a special creator’s track. I’m presenting an action-packed session on “How To Generate Quality Ideas To Fuel Consistent Content Creation.”  Please let me know if you’re attending.

Happy marketing,
Heidi.

Heidi Cohen
Actionable Marketing Guide

​​​​​​​Social Media Marketing World 2018Join me at:

Social Media Marketing World 2018

Brought to you by Social Media Examiner, this is the conference for anyone wanting to learn how to make the most of social media and meet the companies and experts in the field.

Join me at this exciting event. I’ll be speaking about Content Creation.

This year you have a wider choice of attendance options:

  • All Access Pass. Allows you entry to all of the sessions and parties. It’s the traditional offering. This is good for people interested in social media who want all the networking benefits of the parties and gatherings.  Learn More.

  • Content Creator. Is tailored to content creators. Its lower price point helps content creators on a budget. It limits your attendance to creation sessions (including mine) and the general sessions.  Learn More

  • Virtual Ticket. Gives you all of the conference content from the comfort of your computer. You don’t need to leave home. It saves you on travel as well as other live expenses.  Learn More

Don't delayRegister Now and Save!                            (affiliate advertisement)

 
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Q: What’s your best piece of advice for readers looking to improve their marketing?

I’ve been spending a lot of time of late focused on WHY people buy. As marketers, we tend to focus on the logical or rational reasons someone SHOULD buy, but that’s not how humans make purchase decisions. We buy on emotion so marketers should focus on that and not on the great features and benefits of their products or services. Continue reading

 
MUST-READ CONTENT
  • There’s been a ton of advice regarding Facebook’s recent announcements. I suggest that you check Social Media Examiner’s Facebook Live and   Jon Loomer’s post after he thought about the topic.
    ​​​​​​​

  • If you’re a writer or content creator, you’ve got to check out Ann Handley’s recommended dozen books on AdWeek. Leave it to Handley to make her own list. It has some unconventional choices.

 
HEIDI COHEN AROUND THE WEB
  • Check out what Heidi Cohen and her fellow content creators predicted for 2018 via Social Media Examiner.

  • Heidi Cohen was one of 65 entrepreneurs who contributed to Mike Allton’s Entrepreneurial Roundup. Using a baseball metaphor, Mike assembles experts' input on what to do when faced with the “Green Monster” of self-doubt.

  • Actionable Marketing Guide joined SnapApp’s list of top content marketing blogs. Check out this list to fill your feeds and keep up on the latest information.

  • My colleague Melonie Dodaro has put together a great post on digital marketing in 2018. It’s worth your time to see what’s coming and how to invest your budget

    Digital Marketing Experts​​​​​

 

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Vogue Knitting photos ©2018 Heidi Cohen