Dear ,

For those of you who lived in or near the path of Hurricane Dorian,
I hope you and your families are safe.

I'm back home in New York City after a packed week at Content Marketing World.

For me, Content Marketing World is about the people.
 

Yes, the conference laser-focuses on every aspect of content.
But the reality is that your content is worthless without people:

• The content creators and distributers,
• The readers and
• The people who comment on and share your content.

They reward you with their most valuable gift, their time.

But there's a catch:
You must earn each reader's attention with every piece of content.

Further,
The subtext of your words matter! And regardless of how well you craft your words, your readers, listeners and others control how, what and when your message is received.

As a result, the intention or feeling you "believe" you communicated is not the message your audience receives and/or experiences.

As Ann Handley said at Content Marketing World: Unlike many other attendees, I am 100% focused on the real life conference experience. I don't pay attention to work, email or my phone during conferences.

Why?
Because giving someone your focused attention can be a life-altering gift.

Antoine de Saint Exupery's Le Petit Prince:
Actionable Marketing Lesson:

• Care for your readers. Respect their attention by consistently sharing quality content on a regular schedule.

Dr. Seuss's Happy Birthday To You:
Actionable Marketing Lesson:

• Appreciate and celebrate your own unique qualities. At the same time, be part of the larger community.

Louise Fitzhugh's Harriet The Spy: Actionable Marketing Lesson:

• Understand your audience and larger community. Despite the labels you apply, each person is unique.

As Tamsen Webster told attendees:
Actionable Marketing Lesson:

• Do the difficult work to reach out and accept, approve and recognize your colleagues and readers.

So, what should you do post-Content Marketing World to get the most out of the experience?

• Follow up with everyone you met. Send a personal note—skip the one-size-fits-all social media request.
• Share other people's social media and blog posts from the conference. Where you have them, include people's names, photographs and the #CMWorld hashtag.
• Complete speaker surveys for the presenters you loved or who helped you to learn. Reach out to speakers privately where appropriate. 

• Rewrite your notes to solidify key concepts. Then share key learning on social media. Also, follow Joe Pulizzi's advice: share them internally to make the case that you should attend this conference next year.
• Document actionable tactics. Highlight key action items so they don't get lost in the post-conference shuffle.

Further, if you didn't attend Content Marketing World you can still benefit by following these tactics:

• Follow social media streams for useful tidbits and reshare them.
• Collect the useful tips, data and tactics from social media.
• Download available presentations  and study them.
• Check CMWorld's list of top speakers. Subscribe to their newsletters.
• Buy the session videos and watch them. (Use code COHEN19 to save $100.)

BTW—If you missed me at Content Marketing World in Cleveland, I'm moderating a panel at:
And I'm speaking at the SEMRush Content Marketing Panel, at Bizaboo HQ on September 12th. BTW, Contently's Joe Lazerous is also on the panel.
 
Also I'll be at: MarketingProfs B2B Forum, October 16 – 18 in Washington D.C.  I've got a brand-spanking-new presentation called, Marketing ROI: How To Talk C-Suite. It's really, “Finance for Marketers.” 

Based on CMO Survey 2019, there's a good chance your CMO can't show marketing results in financial terms. This session will help you shine.
Why should you attend this session? Here's what my former NYU students say about this material:
BTW—This session is user-friendly. It's marketing math for the math-phobic. And, you can save $100 by using the code, B2BFriend19 when you register.

If you’re running an event that you would like me to speak at, please let me know. (Just hit reply to reach me.)
 

Shout out to new readers: Carol, Jose, Ken, Cristal, Vicki, Prisca, Rowena, Nathalie, Michiel, Nicole, Hagoody, Naqeeb, Irene, Stefanie, Laura, Dan, Ann, Mayy, Naushir, Hanna, Vanessa, Kari, Alison, Margaret, Terry, Ezline, Fouad, Muhammad, Michelle and Petra. Welcome and thank you for joining our community.

Happy Marketing,
Heidi

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FEATURED ARTICLE: Content Marketing World Take-Aways

Get the full meal from #CMWorld straight from the presenters in their own words!

   

FEATURED ARTICLE: Seismic Content Marketing Shift

Are your once stellar content marketing results starting to decline?
Even though you’ve followed “best practice” tactics.

Content Marketing has changed. 

 

FEATURED ARTICLE: Content Marketing Gut

Read this light-hearted piece that gets to the core of 2 important content marketing problems:

• Making marketing decisions without data.
• Having too much content 

 
 

Heidi Cohen Around The Web

CMWorld Honor:
Wow! Erika Heald and Dennis Shiao spotlighted a tweet of mine in their Friday morning session on community building. #Gratitude #PayItForward
 

Big tip of my hat to these amazing content creators:

• Top Rank Marketing. Not only did I make the Top 50 Content Marketing Influencers of 2019, I was among the Top 5! W00t! 
   
• AgoraPulse’s Veronica Jarski spotlighted tips for newbies: 
  How to Get the Best Out of Content Marketing World 2019: Advice From the Experts

• Even my new bestie, Naren from Social Animal included me in their monster round up: 
  Top 125 Content Marketing Influencers For 2019!

 

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Photo of CMWorld 2019 Speaker Party – ©2019 by Stephanie Stahl
Photo of Heidi, Carmen and Naren – ©2019 by Dennis Shiao

The fine print:

• Unless noted otherwise, all photos are ©2019 by Heidi Cohen
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