It’s always fascinating when thousands of marketers, many of whom are competitors, can come together for a week to share ideas, innovations, and advice with one another to grow their business and push the boundaries of their industry. Content Marketing World 2019 was no exception to this act of selfless sharing. It was my first time attending and between the thought-provoking content, industry-leading speakers, and generously engaging attendees, I certainly hope it’s not my last. At TopRank Marketing, we made it our mission to ensure our readers would share in the benefit of our attendance. Below are the ideas, people, and moments that we were grateful to experience last week, all of which are summarized for your consuming pleasure below. We hope that similar to our conference experience, you walk away with a notebook chock-full of ideas to grow your content marketing programs. Enjoy! Big Ideas Beget Big Ideas At CMWorld 2019, every speakers’ session seemed to build from one another, making for a cohesive and comprehensive learning experience. Common themes included: Using data to tell stories Creating content that feels personal Creatively amplifying your message Leveraging teams and technology to scale Our live coverage of several sessions delved into all of these themes. Using Data to Tell Stories Lee Odden Shares His Secret to Content Marketing Fitness CEO of TopRank Marketing Lee Odden 工作职能邮件数据库 took the stage on Wednesday afternoon to draw parallels between his physical fitness journey and that of creating an always-on content marketing program. The underlying message throughout his presentation was that you should always be leveraging your data to iterate, optimize and push the boundaries of what you thought was possible. Read the entire blog here. April Henderson on Data-Driven, Empathetic B2B Content Forrester’s April Henderson followed up the next day to talk about data-driven, empathetic B2B content. And no – that’s not an oxymoron. She pushed her audience to think past traditional B2B content to build stories that don’t stray from statistics but instead, leverage them to resonate with your audience’s emotional side. Read the entire post here. Creating Personal Content Create a Stellar Audience Experience By Slowing Down with These Tips from Ann Handley MarketingProfs Chief Content Officer Ann Handley provided her audience with a powerful session that urged marketers to slow down and take the time to get to know their audience. She stresses that relationships, especially between buyer and seller, take time to build. Marketers who not only understand this but covet it as their guide to building great content, are going to be leaps and bounds ahead of the rest. Read the entire blog post here. Carlos Abler Details How Content Marketing Can Contribute to the Greater Good 3M’s Carlos Abler spoke to an audience of marketers about expanding the idea of personal content to include social value. Although brands have been notoriously known for sticking to objectives that only benefit themselves, Carlos ensures us that by building a strategy that provides our audiences an aspect of social value, we will be helping our bottom-line as well.