The Top 50 Content Marketing Posts of 2013

ShareBloc

presents

The Top 50 Content Marketing Posts of 2013

Top 50 Content Marketing Posts of 2013
In December 2013, as part of our
open beta launch, ShareBloc
launched a contest to identify the
Top 50 Content Marketing Posts
of 2013.

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We launched the contest with 11
of the most influential sales &
marketing bloggers. We asked for
their recommendations and then
opened up the contest for more
nominees.

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For two weeks, 641 voters cast
their ballots 7,678 times to narrow
a competitive field of 175
nominations to the top 50.

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For the full list, go here.

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The Top 50 Winners
1. Content Is King, But Distribution Is Queen and She Wears
the Pants

20. Experiential Selling is What Leads to Buyer “Aha
Revelations” – An SSTools Classic

2. Marketing Automation 101

21. Demand Generation 2013: The New State of
Enlightenment

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3. Crap. The Content Marketing Deluge.

4. Marketing's Rise Misses Bigger Opportunities

5. 3 Things Every Business Needs to Succeed in Social
Media

6. Content Marketing Isn't for Everybody

7. 99 Facts on the Future of Business

8. Big data – something for everyone

9. B2B Content Marketing 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets &
Trends - North America by Content Marketing Institute
and MarketingProfs

10. Objection-Handling Technique: The Agreement Frame

11. Staying Optimistic in Social Media Marketing

12. Social Signals Are So Last Week – Use Infographics to
Drive Real Leads

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22. 12 Skills You Need to Keep Your Job in Sales

23. How to Get The Most Out of Your Chamber of Commerce
Membership

24. Hire the Right Type of VP of Marketing or You'll End up
with a Bunch of Blue Pens

25. What Separates the Top 13% of Salespeople From the
Bottom 87%

26. Creating Snappy Sales Presentations

27. Content Marketing Show 2013: The Future of Content
Marketing in 2014

28. Find the Heart of Your Brand Storytelling with These 6
Questions

42. 9 Simple Tips To Make Your Hashtags Work Read

43. 7 Key Performance Indicators That Every Sales Manager
Should Use

44. Is It Time to Close Your Facebook Page?

45. Six Digital Media and PR Lessons From 2013

46. The 9 Facebook Ad Mistakes that are Hurting your ClickThrough-Rate

47. Intensely personal revelations via Marketing Automation

49. The Top 10 Things You’ll NEVER Hear Good Content
Marketers Say

32. 7 insights from Brian Solis on marketing to the new
connected consumer

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41. Beat Status Quo With a Great Value Proposition

30. 5 Quick Tips for Engaging Facebook Fans

14. 17 Ways to Conquer Blog Traffic Plateaus

17. Getting Content Caught by the B2B Buyers Filter

40. Announcing the Next Generation of HubSpot's Inbound
Marketing Platform [INBOUND 2013 Keynote Video]

48. The emerging third-party era of marketing automation

31. The Best Political Ad Ever

16. 50 Small Business Blogs to Watch

39. 8 Must-Know Facebook Tips for Small Businesses

29. What Physics Taught Me about Marketing

13. The Definitive Guide to Copywriting

15. The Sales Development Team: A Proven Framework for
Success

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38. How to consistently produce amazing content? 8 top
bloggers and content marketers know the answer

50. B2B Marketing: Why Marketing shouldn’t promise BANT
qualified leads for Sales

33. The Secret To Amazing Customer Experience: Know Thy
Customer

34. The SaaS Buying Experience: Mapping How Businesses
Buy Software

18. The Scarecrow

35. Sales Reps on LinkedIn: You're Doing It Wrong

19. The 3 Rock Solid Questions To Guide 2013 Social Media
Success

36. New Ways to Pitch and Other Advice for Sellers

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37. Beeps and Tweets: Car Companies’ Social Media
Customer Service Compared

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What Did We Learn From These Posts?
Among the 641 voters and 7,678 votes, we found some interesting trends and insights.

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1. Content Marketing and Social Media were the leading vote getters by category.

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2. Vote early and often if you want to win.

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3. The Top 3 posts did not fluctuate too much throughout the contest.

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4. Most posts received votes throughout the whole two weeks but a few winners sniped in
the end.

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5. There is value in having good curators.

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Category Breakdown
We covered eight categories, but content marketing (36%) and social media (18%)
received the lion’s share of votes.

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The Horse Race for Top 10
The top 10 winners saw voting for almost all 14 days, with the exception of Richard
Francis’ Big data – something for everyone, which was posted on 12/17, two days before
the end of the contest and received 226 votes from 40 voters in those two days. Since
each voter could vote 3 times, this post received 226 out of the possible 240 votes.

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Being #1 is Hard Work
The #1 content marketing post of 2013 was Chad Pollitt’s Content Is King, But
Distribution Is Queen and She Wears the Pants. Aside from the first day, Chad’s post was
#1 for the remainder of the contest.

The race for #2 was decided on the final day between Jon Miller’s Marketing

Automation 101 and Velocity Partner’s Crap. The Content Marketing Deluge.

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The Snipers
Six posts were sniped, receiving all their votes in the final two days.

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• #8: Big data - Something for everyone by Richard Francis with 226 points

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• #12: Social Signals Are So Last Week - Use Infographics to Drive Real Leads by Will
Scott, Search Influence with 146 points

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• #20: Experiential Selling is What Leads to Buyer “Aha Revelations” – An SSTools
Classic by Nancy Nardin with 95 points

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• #37: Beeps and Tweets: Car Companies’ Social Media Customer Service Compared by
Katie Tand with 52 points

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• #49: The Top 10 Things You’ll NEVER Hear Good Content Marketers Say by Kevin Cain
with 33 points

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• #50: B2B Marketing: Why Marketing shouldn’t promise BANT qualified leads for Sales
by David Green with 33 points

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The Top Curators
The top 50 posts were nominated by only 29 people. Since we had a hand in selecting a
nominating committee, it was no surprise that 9 out of 11 committee members were
represented. What was surprising was seeing the other 18.

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The Top 50 Winners in Appendix

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#1 Content Is King, But Distribution…
Content Is King, But Distribution
Is Queen and She Wears the
Pants

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By Chad Pollitt on socialmediatoday.com to
Content Marketing

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Rank: #1

Points: 677

Nominated by: Mike Gingerich, TabSite

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“Too many marketers are forgetting about
promotion; instead, they believe the
answers to their content marketing woes
are to produce more and better content. As
mentioned above, every day great content
goes unread. Without a promotion strategy
like the ones previously described, the vast
majority of content being created and
published by the brands across this country
will continue to go unread.”

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#2 Marketing Automation 101
Marketing Automation 101

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By Jon Miller on blog.marketo.com to
Marketing Automation

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Rank: #2

Points: 581

Nominated by: Justin Gray, LeadMD

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“Marketing automation is the technology
that propels your business into a new era of
relationship based marketing with
quantifiable results. When powerful
technology meets effective implementation
and internal process management, your
company will soon find itself on a journey
that leads to new heights of business
success.”

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#3 Crap. The Content Marketing Deluge.
Crap. The Content Marketing
Deluge.

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By Velocity Partners on www.slideshare.net
to Content Marketing

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Rank: #3

Points: 484

Nominated by: Ardath Albee, Marketing
Interactions

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“A Great Content Brand is a brand that’s
famous for producing intelligent, useful and
entertaining content that’s always worth
consuming.”

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#4 Marketing's Rise Misses Bigger …
Marketing's Rise Misses Bigger
Opportunities

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By Jeff Pundyk on www.cmo.com to Lead
Gen/Inside Sales

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Rank: #4

Points: 391

Nominated by: Ardath Albee, Marketing
Interactions

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“The rise of the B2B CMO may feel like a
moment of triumph for marketing as a
function, but it may very well be the last
gasp of out-of-date organizational
structures. Don’t be fooled: It’s the
customer who is in ascendency. The
growing role of the marketer is simply a
leading indicator of that phenomenon. And,
in many ways, asking more of marketing is
the easiest organizational response.”

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#5 3 Things Every Business Needs to …
3 Things Every Business Needs
to Succeed in Social Media

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By Rachel Strella on strellasocialmedia.com
to Social Media

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Rank: #5

Points: 384

Nominated by: Jennifer Grigg, Social
Dragon Marketing

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“Social media is a relationship-building tool
– a utility for establishing new relationships
or enhancing current relationships. A
business will be hard-pressed to find a way
to accelerate – or even skip – the ‘know/
like/trust’ process. I urge all businesses to
give relationship marketing at least one year
before anticipating a steady stream of
qualified leads.”

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#6 Content Marketing Isn't for Everybody
Content Marketing Isn't for
Everybody

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By Barry Feldman on socialmediatoday.com
to Content Marketing

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Rank: #6

Points: 286

Nominated by: MJ Wesner, Social Media
Today

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“Don’t do content marketing because it’s
hot. Don’t do it because that’s where media
is going. Don’t do it because your
competitors are doing it, your friends are
doing it, your mom’s doing it, or the crowd’s
doing it.”

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#7 99 Facts on the Future of Business
99 Facts on the Future of
Business

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By SAP on www.slideshare.net to Sales
Enablement

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Rank: #7

Points: 243

Nominated by: Craig Rosenberg, TOPO

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“Business Innovation is the key ingredient
for growth in the future of business.
Changes in technology, new customer
expectations, a re-defined contract
between employees and employers,
strained resources, and business and social
networks are requiring businesses to
become insight-driven businesses.

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In this presentation, we have gathered 99
facts that represent the changes taking
place in the world today. Each facts
represents a key insight and suggests
where we need to focus and change to
become viable, sustainable and growing
future businesses.”
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#8 Big data – something for everyone
Big data – something for
everyone

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Richard Francis on www.the-biz-box.com to
Other

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Rank: #8

Points: 226

Nominated by: Nicolette Lelieveld, Exact

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“By combining raw big data with analysis
tools now available off the shelf, it’s become
possible to identify issues in real-time. Fix
your problems quicker and you’ll spend
less. Identify them before they happen and
you’ll save even more. You can let business
facts guide your priorities. Identify, for
example, which customers are your most
important by margin and by volume and
give them extra attention – while refreshing
your risk information on a continuous
basis.”

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#9 B2B Content Marketing 2014 …
B2B Content Marketing 2014
Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends North America by Content
Marketing Institute and
MarketingProfs

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By Content Marketing Institute on
www.slideshare.net to Content Marketing

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Rank: #9

Points: 184

Nominated by: Matt Heinz, Heinz Marketing

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“For the first time, we asked marketers
whether they have a documented content
strategy (44% do) and a person who
oversees content marketing strategy (73%
do). Our findings tell us that there are
distinct differences between those who
have a strategy and those who do not.
Marketers who do are not only more
effective but also less challenged with every
aspect of content marketing.”

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#10 Objection-Handling Technique …
Objection-Handling Technique:
The Agreement Frame

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By Alen Mayer on www.alenmajer.com to
Sales Management

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Rank: #10

Points: 184


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“Not all objections should be received as a
negative blow to your sales presentation. In
fact, most objections can be dealt with
effectively and are actually a positive sign
that your client is showing some interest.”

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#11 Staying Optimistic in Social Media …
Staying Optimistic in Social
Media Marketing

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By Barry Ricks on www.netmark.com to
Social Media

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Rank: #11

Points: 183

Nominated by: Barry Ricks, Netmark

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“In conclusion, make sure you plan, are
active, celebrate your successes and smile.
At times it can be hard to stay optimistic,
but follow these steps and you’ll become a
“Glass half full” person and not feel like
you’re “half empty” in your Social Media
Marketing.”

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#12 Social Signals Are So Last Week …
Social Signals Are So Last Week
– Use Infographics to Drive Real
Leads

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By Will Scott, Search Influence on
searchengineland.com to Lead Gen/Inside
Sales

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Rank: #12

Points: 146

Nominated by: Annette Golemi, Search
Influence

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“As SEOs and online marketers have
sought to keep up with the latest trends,
infographics quickly became a new weapon
in the content marketer’s arsenal.
Infographics have also become a staple of
publishers, thanks to their visual, easy-toconsume nature and virality.”

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#13 The Definitive Guide to Copywriting
The Definitive Guide to
Copywriting

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By Neil Patel on www.quicksprout.com to
Content Marketing

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Rank: #13

Points: 135


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“From SEO to content marketing to even
link building…I’ve created a lot of guides
over the past twelve months about traffic
acquisition. But what I haven’t touched on
much is the topic of optimizing your site for
conversions. One way to do this is by
modifying elements on your web page, and
another way is by optimizing your copy.”

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#14 17 Ways to Conquer Blog Traffic …
17 Ways to Conquer Blog Traffic
Plateaus

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By Crystal Ponti on
www.business2community.com to Content
Marketing

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Rank: #14

Points: 129

Nominated by: Crystal Ponti, MommiFried

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“Before implenting any of these ideas, it’s
prudent to check through your history of
posts and engagement (use Facebooks
Insights, Google Analytics, Hootsuite and
so on) to see what has been working. Next,
consider creating a content calendar.
Consistency can help boost traffic and the
likeliness of repeat visits. When people
know what to expect and enjoy a regular
feature, they usually come back for more.”

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#15 The Sales Development Team …
The Sales Development Team: A
Proven Framework for Success

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By Craig Rosenberg on blog.topohq.com to
Sales Enablement

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Rank: #15

Points: 127

Nominated by: Matt Heinz, Heinz Marketing

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“Sales development is fundamentally
different than the rest of the sales cycle.
The science of connecting with someone is
hard enough, but when you connect, you
have a few seconds to generate interest
and a couple minutes to handle objections
and close for a meeting. Effective sales
development requires full-time
management, specific training, and
constant coaching.”

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#16 - #20

#16

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113 pts.

#17

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113 pts.

#18

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113 pts.

#19

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110 pts.

#20

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95 pts.

50 Small Business Blogs to
Watch

Getting Content Caught by the
B2B Buyers Filter

By Andrea Parker on bigideasblog.infusionsoft.com to Social
Media

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Nominated by Madison Jacobs, Infusionsoft

By Ardath Albee on marketinginteractions.typepad.com to Content
Marketing

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Nominated by Lori Richardson, Score More Sales

By Chipotle on www.youtube.com to Advertising

The Scarecrow

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Nominated by Michael Brenner, SAP

The 3 Rock Solid Questions To
Guide 2013 Social Media
Success
Experiential Selling is What
Leads to Buyer “Aha
Revelations” – An SSTools
Classic

By Jay Baer on www.convinceandconvert.com to Social Media

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By Nancy Nardin on www.smartsellingtools.com to Sales
Management

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#21 - #25

#21

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93 pts.

#22

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83 pts.

#23

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81 pts.

#24

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80 pts.

#25

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77 pts.

Demand Generation 2013: The
New State of Enlightenment

By Craig Rosenberg on www.funnelholic.com to Lead Gen/Inside
Sales

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12 Skills You Need to Keep
Your Job in Sales

By Kyle Porter on blogs.salesforce.com to Sales Enablement

How to Get The Most Out of
Your Chamber of Commerce
Membership

By Mike Wolfe on blog.wamenterprisesllc.com to Content
Marketing

Hire the Right Type of VP of
Marketing or You'll End up with
a Bunch of Blue Pens
What Separates the Top 13%
of Salespeople From the
Bottom 87%

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Nominated by Dave Brock, Partners In EXCELLENCE

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Nominated by Connor MacNeil, WAMenterprises

By Jason Lemkin on saastr.com to Lead Gen/Inside Sales

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Nominated by Craig Rosenberg, TOPO

By Mike Bosworth on www.insidesales.com to Lead Gen/Inside
Sales

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#26 - #30
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#26

70 pts.

#27

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69 pts.

Creating Snappy Sales
Presentations

Content Marketing Show 2013:
The Future of Content
Marketing in 2014

By Jill Konrath on www.jillkonrath.com to Other

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Nominated by Trish Bertuzzi, The Bridge Group

By Fergus Parker on www.slideshare.net to Content Marketing

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Nominated by Tania Varga, NewsReach

Find the Heart of Your Brand
Storytelling with These 6
Questions

By Debbie Williams on contentmarketinginstitute.com to Content
Marketing

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What Physics Taught Me about
Marketing

By Jon Miller on blog.marketo.com to Marketing Automation

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5 Quick Tips for Engaging
Facebook Fans

By Kristy Barken on socialmediatoday.com to Social Media

#28

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64 pts.

#29

62 pts.

#30

62 pts.

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Nominated by Andrea Miller, Sprout Content

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Nominated by Doug Kessler, Velocity

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Nominated by Barbara Helfer, Immersion

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#31 - #35
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#31

61 pts.

#32

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60 pts.

#33

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58 pts.

#34

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55 pts.

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#35

53 pts.

The Best Political Ad Ever

7 insights from Brian Solis on
marketing to the new
connected consumer
The Secret To Amazing
Customer Experience: Know
Thy Customer
The SaaS Buying Experience:
Mapping How Businesses Buy
Software

Sales Reps on LinkedIn: You're
Doing It Wrong

By Ann Handley on www.annhandley.com to Advertising

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By Susan Young on www.getinfrontcommunications.com to Social
Media

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Nominated by Tibor Shanto, Renbor Sales Solutions

By Michael Brenner on blogs.sap.com to Sales Enablement

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Nominated by David Cheng, ShareBloc

By Scott Albro on blog.topohq.com to Sales Management

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By The Bridge Group on www.slideshare.net to Social Media

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Nominated by Tibor Shanto, Renbor Sales Solutions

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#36 - #40

#36

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53 pts.

#37

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52 pts.

#38

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47 pts.

New Ways to Pitch and Other
Advice for Sellers

Beeps and Tweets: Car
Companies’ Social Media
Customer Service Compared
How to consistently produce
amazing content? 8 top
bloggers and content
marketers know the answer

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8 Must-Know Facebook Tips
for Small Businesses

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Announcing the Next
Generation of HubSpot's
Inbound Marketing Platform

#39

43 pts.

#40

41 pts.

By Christopher Cabrera on blog.sellingpower.com to Sales
Enablement

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By Katie Tandy on www.sparkcentral.com to Social Media

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Nominated by Natasha Wyatt, Sparkcentral

By Olga Gabdulhakova on www.link-assistant.com to Content
Marketing

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Nominated by Ksenia Dobreva, WebMeUp.com

By Socially Stacked on www.sociallystacked.com to Social Media

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Nominated by Sara Piccola, ShortStack

By Dharmesh Shah on blog.hubspot.com to Content Marketing

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#41 - #45
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#41

40 pts.

#42

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40 pts.

#43

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38 pts.

Beat Status Quo With a Great
Value Proposition

9 Simple Tips To Make Your
Hashtags Work Read

7 Key Performance Indicators
That Every Sales Manager
Should Use

By Jill Konrath on www.jillkonrath.com to Sales Management

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By Rupert Staines on www.business2community.com to Social
Media

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Nominated by Taylor Naten, Barokas PR

By William Tyree on blogs.salesforce.com to Sales Management

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Is It Time to Close Your
Facebook Page?

By Alon Popilskis on socialmediatoday.com to Social Media

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Six Digital Media and PR
Lessons From 2013

By Martin Waxman on spinsucks.com to Other

#44

38 pts.

#45

37 pts.

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Nominated by David Mongelli

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#46 - #50

#46

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35 pts.

#47

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33 pts.

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#48

33 pts.

#49

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33 pts.

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#50

33 pts.

The 9 Facebook Ad Mistakes
that are Hurting your ClickThrough-Rate

By James Scherer on blog.wishpond.com to Advertising

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Nominated by Krista Bunskoek, Wishpond

Intensely personal revelations
via Marketing Automation

By Justin Gray on www.leadmd.com to Marketing Automation

The emerging third-party era of
marketing automation

By Scott Brinker on chiefmartec.com to Marketing Automation

The Top 10 Things You’ll
NEVER Hear Good Content
Marketers Say

By Kevin Cain on blog.openviewpartners.com to Content
Marketing

B2B Marketing: Why Marketing
shouldn’t promise BANT
qualified leads for Sales

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Nominated by Matt Heinz, Heinz Marketing

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By David Green on http://b2bleadblog.com to Sales Management

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Nominated by Matt Heinz, Heinz Marketing

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Praise for ShareBloc
“Our B2B readers really appreciate our annual research reports because it offers them
valuable insights on the industry and their peers and justification for their content
marketing programs. As this is our fourth year doing the survey, they can also see how the
industry is evolving.”

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Joe Pulizzi, CMI

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"Sales reps who leverage LinkedIn for Social Prospecting™ understand that their profile is
not a repository for their online resume but rather their personal elevator pitch for how
they bring value to their clients. Our eBook provides a step-by-step guide to help reps
strengthen their LinkedIn presence, build out meaningful connections and leverage
groups and search to make the most of their Social Prospecting efforts."

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Janet Stucchi, The Bridge Group

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"This contest is proof of the shift that makes social media so powerful.

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Those who have the greatest impact are not necessarily the “celebrities” or large-scale
influencers. In fact, the next influencer could be someone in your daily interactions -- a
client, a colleague or even a friend. Word-of-mouth still has a very real impact on the
bottom line.

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Content is still king. And while it’s getting harder to compete for online attention, the key
to staying visible is creating relevant content, which addresses the needs of your
audience."

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Rachel Strella, Strella Social Media

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"Content marketing has exploded this year and many industries have maxed out, or
nearly maxed out, their content saturation indices. This means that late adopters are
finding themselves so far behind that neither quantity nor quality improvements in content
will do much to move the needle for years, if ever. Many marketers came to this realization
this year. My post gave these marketers a glimmer of hope by removing the quality versus
quantity debate and offering a realistic path to content success with distribution and
promotion tactics. I believe the post represented a light-bulb moment for many content
marketers."

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Chad Pollitt, Digital Relevance

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"I believe our post was nominated and voted into the top 50 because it was different. It
focused on content but also the aspect of networking and relationship development.
There were so many great articles it's a true honor to be named into the top 50."

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Mike Wolfe, WAM Enterprises

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“As a member of a team focused on helping our clients reach their marketing automation
and content goals, having a post named among ShareBloc’s Top 50 Content Marketing
Posts of 2013 is great validation of the work we do. We all know content in and of itself
isn’t enough anymore, and at LeadMD we work hard to create compelling content with
which people truly want to interact. I think the reason this particular post, Intensely
Personal Revelations via Marketing Automation, resonated with a large audience is
because it illustrates how central it is for marketing efforts to retain humanized elements
and remain conversational.”

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Justin Gray, LeadMD

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"We’re delighted to have ranked so high in the contest. Hopefully it endorses our
commitment to providing high-quality, value-adding content - storytelling with genuine
business relevance and actionable insights. We’re determined to be useful, and it’s nice to
be recognized for it."

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Richard Francis, Biz Box

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Contact

David Cheng

david[at]sharebloc(dot) com

CEO & co-founder

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Andrew Koller

andrew(at)sharebloc [dot]com

Co-founder

38

The Top 50 Content Marketing Posts of 2013

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