Danny Wong

It’s a free-for-all out there.

These days, competition for audience attention is intense — and in some cases, cutthroat.

Some of the world’s most respected brands have decided, instead of noisily shouting their marketing message at the top of their lungs, to pursue more subtle campaigns that drawn in consumers.

Before we ring in the new year, we wanted to reflect on key trends in content marketing in 2013. Here are 25 of the best and the worst trends in content.

In an increasingly mobile world, video works – and brands need to be prepared to deliver beautiful, frustration-free and native experiences on any device.

Being an entrepreneur is a frightening experience. You’re constantly faced with challenges that frequently put you on edge.
Here is a (relatively) short list of things that easily kept me up at night...

Starting a business is one of the most challenging, yet most fulfilling things you could ever do. In the process of starting up and growing a company you learn a wide variety of new things, including – but not limited to....

If engineers had it their way, they’d develop a wide variety of tools no one cared about. When marketers and salespeople finally have their say, the company builds a product that is commercially viable, but fails basic usability tests....

We marketers sometimes don't always get it right.

We buy ad space on sites that look pretty. We giggle with glee when someone tweets about our product. We let out a victory cry when we are mentioned in the news. But often, marketers forget to ask the question: What will this do for our business?

Top performers in any firm are not necessarily the longest-tenured or most-qualified.

Usually, their uncanny ability to sidestep obstacles, leverage professional relationships and exceed expectations is not the result of devoted training, specialized education or unfair privilege. In fact, the most surprising success stories come from individuals who’ve utilized non-traditional methods for problem-solving to achieve greater goals faster.

Is native advertising evil? and is it more than just the latest fad in an industry, ironically, dying for attention?

As controversial is it may be, I can think of dozens of other things more worthy of the label "evil." Native advertising doesn't even come close. Also, as trendy as it may seem, branded content is here to stay.

Facebook is the social network to end all social networks. At least, we have a bit of evidence to support that claim.

For brands, publishing has historically been reserved for journalists.

Nowadays, brand publishers are as prolific as social media strategists, PPC experts and advertising gurus. But there are still plenty of naysayers, skeptical about blogging’s potential and unclear about how producing content will impact their overall business goals.

The mobile landscape offers both opportunity and challenge.

This year, nearly one-in-four people across the globe will be a smartphone user, according to a report by eMarketer. By 2017, smartphones will be in the hands of more than one-third of individuals around the world.

For many users, their mobile device is their primary instrument for digital activity and web browsing.

Driven by passion, funded through websites and customers, the modern-day maker develops items she has always wanted and distributes those goods to an eager audience.

If you have any upcoming holiday or travel plans, be sure to pick up (or download) one of these reads before you go. In no time, you’ll find yourself thinking like a world-class marketing expert.

Likes, favorites, shares, and retweets are fine and dandy, but if you are not somehow driving traffic to your site, then what’s the point?