Inbound Marketing Age

Many bloggers and content creators will just take or find an image and use it "as is" - but this is rarely the best approach. Ideally, they should be resizing it, adjusting the contrast and brightness, sharpening where necessary and cropping.

The first three are fairly obvious: uploading a huge image and letting the blogging software resize it slows down response times and is unnecessary; adjusting contrast and brightness will get the best out of the image and show all the detail; whereas sharpening will also help the detail and remove any fuzziness.

But why crop? Of course, if you have a rigid layout with a specific area for an image, then you would have to resize and crop to fit that space. But otherwise? Well, cropping is a very powerful tool in the content creator’s toolbox - which is mostly overlooked - but once you understand its power, you will never look at images in quite the same way again.

The GIF image format is making a comeback. While you may not have heard of the format until now, it is, in fact, one of the oldest image formats on the web. If you had noticed it, it was probably when some annoying small, brief animated cartoon popped up on the page you were browsing. But now that Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook have all introduced support for the format it's time to work out what it is and how best to use it.

You may have seen our previous blog post all about B2B infographics, which outlined what infographics are, why you should use them in your content marketing and how to go about creating one of your own, using free tools.  

To give you some further inspiration and guidance on how your information, expertise and knowledge can become a beautifully represented visual, just look at the 10 B2B infographics we’ve chosen below to see how it should be done.  Whether you want to create a “how to” infographic, which offers guidance to your industry, a “history of…” type visual to highlight your experience in the field, or are merely showcasing your latest research, these fabulous marketing infographics demonstrate how to achieve that successful mix of clarity, appeal, authority and shareability:

Predicting the future is fraught with pratfalls and shouldn't be undertaken lightly. Never forget that someone once predicted that the Beatles would never catch on, and another said Connery wouldn't be right for Bond!

So, back in January, when we cast around for helpful predictions in the content writing and marketing field in 2013; we looked to the industry's experts and thought leaders, such as Jonathon Colman, Marcus Sheridan, putting our trust in them to the test.

So did we back the trillionaire rockers or have we got yolk dripping down our shirts?

Can it easily be done – so that the end result presents the necessary information successfully, and conveys meaning to the audience?

This is the challenge we recently set our intern, Luisa Fulcher, working at Equinet for the past few weeks.  To make the challenge even tougher, it should be mentioned that Columbian Luisa is a native Spanish speaker, working in an English-speaking, British business, with no previous experience of B2B inbound and content marketing; but happily, she possesses a natural creativity and an enthusiasm and propensity to learn. So, an easy task then!?

And this is her journey from content marketing newbie to infographic creator, in the time it takes to say “Buena suerte con todo”.

In a world where the consumption of information and how it reaches us is growing exponentially, yet the time available to consume seems ever fleeting, b2b infographics are fast-becoming an exciting new currency for conveying meaning to your audience in one palatable bite.

But what exactly are b2b infographics and why should you consider using them in your content? In this post, you’ll find the answer to both these questions, alongside examples of the types of infographics you might wish to consider, and how to go about creating one.

What are infographics?

As the name suggests, infographics are graphical representations of information or data, also known as “data visualisations”.  They are used to portray what might otherwise be quite complex pieces of information, such as survey results, data

Here at Equinet Media, we’ve been doing a lot of deliberating over images in online content recently, both in designing a new website for a customer and considering images for our own website and blog posts. 

Of course, using images to enhance your online content is a clear opportunity to broaden your visual appeal to your audience and to promote your brand. 

In order to get the best results from this opportunity, however, it’s clear that you are asking your chosen image to do a number of key jobs for you:

• Firstly, and obviously, it needs to illustrate and enhance the content it accompanies
• Secondly, you want it to “tell its own story”, as a stand-alone image
• Third, in doing both of the above, it must not distract the visitor away from your content
• Fourth, the image can lend value to your webpage SEO
• Lastly, you want the image to compel the visitor to engage with the content.

It seems like you’re doing everything right to engage your customers: your website and other content is getting found via numerous avenues (via search engines, your blog, via eNewsletters, your social media sites, banner ads) and yet you’re still not getting the desired response from your clients.  So what might make that all important difference, what’s the final piece of the jigsaw, in converting an interested browser into an active buyer? 

At the heart of any campaign should be a well-designed landing page, one of the most critical tools for inspiring action in your customers, and for capturing details of future leads for your business to nurture. 

We hear so much about the benefits of online marketing these days, you could end up believing that print marketing is dead. After all, who reads anything on paper anymore?  More people than you might think, which is why some great marketing efforts still exist offline.

A company brochure is one of them.  It's a staple of marketing because it can be easily carried around, displayed in prominent positions, as well as mailed, copied and faxed.  Here are just some of the ways a brochure works to promote your business.

First, it provides a quick overview of you and your business.  People often turn to their devices when they need basic information, but your brochure is just as handy.  It can include a summary of what you do and who you serve, a short note from the company head, and contact information.

It also serves as a handy leave-behind at key events.  Sales reps can bring copies to sales meetings and leave them with potential customers, or include them in sales kits.  Or you might attend an event and bring a stack either to leave at your booth or hand them out to fellow attendees.  

So, as a savvy new media marketer, you understand what landing pages are and the central role they play in your inbound marketing campaigns.  You realise the importance of using tailored landing pages behind your latest email campaign or pay-per-click (PPC) ad or social media feeds, in order to best capture interested customers and collect information from them for future lead nurturing campaigns.