IMPACT Inbound Marketing Agency]
Services
TAYA

They Ask, You Answer Mastery

A coaching & training program that drives unmatched sales & marketing results.

Sales

Sales Performance Mastery

Improve the competencies and close rates of your sales organization.

Web design

Website Mastery

Web design, development & training for your team.

HubSpot

HubSpot Mastery

Everything you need to get the most from HubSpot.

AI Mastery

AI Enablement Mastery

Unlock the power of AI in all aspects of your revenue operations.

Discover how IMPACT’s services can help take your business to the next level. Book a free 30-minute coaching session Book a free 30-minute coaching session
Learning Center
Learning Center

Learning Center

Free resources to help you improve the way you market, sell and grow your business.

[NEW] The Endless Customers Podcast is now available everywhere. Learn how to earn trust & win more customers in the age of AI. Listen Now Listen Now

Free Assessment: How does your sales & marketing measure up?

Close Bottom Left Popup Offer

Free Assessment:

How does your sales & marketing measure up?
Take this free, 5-minute assessment and learn what you can start doing today to boost traffic, leads, and sales.
Liz Murphy

By Liz Murphy

Nov 21, 2018

Topics:

Content Marketing
Subscribe
Join 40,000+ sales and marketing pros who receive our weekly newsletter.

Get the most relevant, actionable digital sales and marketing insights you need to make smarter decisions faster... all in under five minutes.

Thanks, stay tuned for our upcoming edition.
Content Marketing

"Content Tips, Apps & Inspirations I'm Thankful for" (Content Lab, Ep. 17)

Liz Murphy

By Liz Murphy

Nov 21, 2018

"Content Tips, Apps & Inspirations I'm Thankful for" (Content Lab, Ep. 17)

Good morning, everyone! It's the day before Thanksgiving, and thank goodness, I remembered to pull out the turkeys last night to start thawing. (No repeat of the great turkey crisis of 2016 at the Murphy household this year!)

I had originally planned to take today off, but I’ll admit I’m not as salty about working this morning as I normally would be.

That's because Thanksgiving kicks off a time of year that warms my heart. 

Yes, the holiday season is clearly underscored in Sharpie by commercialism, but we’re now about to spend the next month or so pretending Uncle Frank’s political rants at the dinner table aren’t terrible. Instead, we'll focus on ways to bring joy to our friends, family, and other loved ones.

Probably by way of quality time, gifts, or cranberry-laden baked goods.

So, it is with this thankful spirit and grateful heart that I’m setting aside my usual interview format for this week. Next week, I’ll return with a fantastic interview about the importance of data in the art of content creation.

But for now, I want to share with you all of the tips, tricks, applications, inspirations, and people I’m thankful for today.

Enjoy! 

Listen to the Episode

What I'm Thankful for

I'm thankful for Noisli, the free ambient noise soundboard. It has saved me from myself and made me infinitely more productive. I know, I know, listening to ambient noise instead of music while working sounds crazy. But trust me, you have to try it! 

I’m thankful for finally understanding how to use Evernote. I’ve spent years listening to people preach the gospel of Evernote, just to roll my eyes, because I never got into a groove with it. Now, I stand before you (metaphorically speaking, of course) a changed woman and an Evernote evangelist. 

I use it to write podcast notes, create checklists for IMPACT’s brand team sprint planning, brainstorming ideas, building shopping lists for Thanksgiving dinner and Football Sundays, pillar strategy session brain dumps, and everything else you can think of. 

(And to all of my friends out there reading this, now is your time to say, “I told you so.” Enjoy it. This one time. I’ll be right about something again soon.)

I’m also thankful for SEMRush’s SEO Content Template. It has radically changed how I put together individual pillar content strategies. If you have SEMRush, simply click on “SEO Content Template” in the menu on the left near the bottom and enter the keyword you want to base a piece of content around.

It will spit out recommendations on everything -- target length of your content, links and semantic keywords you should include, and much, much more.

I’m thankful for Franco Valentino of Narrative SEOI recently had the pleasure of collaborating with him on a long-form comprehensive analysis for digital marketers called Is SEO Dead in 2019? 

Not only is it such a joy to collaborate with an enthusiastic partner, who also happens to be a great writer, I learned so much about technical SEO and the history of organic search through helping him shape his strategy and editing his work.

Check it out -- it's a fun read, and you'll learn a lot.

I'm also thankful for another man, whom I have never met, named Myk Pono. 

He wrote an article recently entitled Read This Before You Hire a VP of Anything which is the third article in a series of articles on why every company is a media company today and what that means for organizations.

Here's the opening passage, which will give you an idea why I love it so much:

"Today, every company is a media company. A media company requires a new set of skills from its directors and VPs. While domain expertise is critical, it's not enough. The most effective leaders and executives in the media economy must have at least one media-related superpower.

What is a media-related superpower? Well, the successful VPs are strong writers who regularly publish articles or blog posts. Or they are prolific speakers who present at industry conferences. Or they host a podcast, or acquired an active following on social media, or create a following by publishing video content. It doesn't mean that your VP should be a writer or talk show host or a YouTuber.

But your VP or director should regularly communicate and share their expertise with your company’s target audience. This not only enhances your corporate brand, it also attracts top talent to your company."

This is a MUST-READ article for you all over turkey day break. And then, when you get back to the office, send it to everyone in your organization.

(Special shout out to Kathleen Booth, our VP of Marketing and one of my favorite humans, for sending this to me, because it's magical.)

OK, what else am I thankful for?

Oh, of course -- I’m thankful for my team at IMPACT:

I’m thankful for great craft beer -- because yes, I’m that happy craft drinking hipster who listens to NPR. 

I’m thankful for my husband who lets me ramble to him about content ideas, when he lives in the IT world and has no idea what a buyer persona is:

 
 
 
View this post on Instagram
 
 

Hey, good lookin’. 😍

A post shared by Liz Murphy (@naptownpint) on

I’m thankful for our two dogs, Horatio and Nugget, and our James Bond villain cuddle monster cat, Pumpkin

I’m thankful for Ernest Hemingway, Christopher Buckley, and Agatha Christie -- my three favorite authors -- who transformed me from a middle schooler who hated writing and got regular Cs in my English classes to someone who loves words. 

Oh, I’m also thankful to one of our lead strategists, David Little, who just taught me the most amazing Slack hack for vacation ever. 

He changed his username from David Little to "@Drinking Guinness in Ireland until the 27th!”

Screen Shot 2018-11-21 at 9.45.19 AM

So, whenever you try to message him on Slack while he is on vacation, that’s what is going to come up. It’s brilliant and perfect, and I’m doing that whenever I go on vacation now. 

And finally, I’m thankful for all of you.

Each week, I hop on my microphone with a brain scrambled full of ideas and a passion for creating amazing, super helpful content that I hope some of you share.  

I rant. I rave.

I speak at length about dumb things that are bothering me -- like hot weather, or the fact that my beloved Washington Redskins are going to get demolished because our quarterback Alex Smith broke his leg in two places last week, because we aren’t allowed be happy as Washington sports fans EVER -- for no reason at all.

Yet, once a week, I get a note from at least one of you telling me how much you enjoy this. How much this podcast helps you do your jobs better. And that’s why I do this. For all of you. 

So, thank you. You make this all possible.

Subscribe to the Content Lab Monthly Newsletter

Once a month, I'm going to send you an absurdly useful newsletter will tons of insights, tips, and tools for you to make your content amazing. It's that simple.

Here's what it looks like, so you know what shenanigans you're getting into with me:

content lab

So, what are you waiting for? Go to this page and sign-up.

Connect with Content Lab 

Okay, first, you've gotta subscribe to Content Lab on Apple Podcasts. That way you'll never miss an episode! 

Or you can comment on this episode below! I'd love to hear from you.

Free Assessment:

How does your sales & marketing measure up?
Take this free, 5-minute assessment and learn what you can start doing today to boost traffic, leads, and sales.