Our Most-Shared Marketing Blog Posts from 2018

January is the month for reflection and self-assessment. We encourage one another to look back on the year and set new goals for the year ahead. Best of all: it’s a fresh, 365-day start.

Since you’ve probably already set your personal goals, what about your professional ones? How will you make your marketing program even savvier in 2019?

For a little inspiration, we pulled PR 20/20’s most-shared blog posts from 2018. We used Buzzsumo’s Content Analyzer to curate the top posts across Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, as well as links from other websites. Catch up on what you missed before you set your marketing intentions.

Best of luck in 2019! 🙌 

1. 12 Ways to Apply Structure and Meaning to Marketing Data

During a HubSpot User Group (HUG) meeting, PR 20/20’s VP of Strategic Growth, Keith Moehring (@keithmoehring), discussed how marketers can unlock the true potential of marketing data. For those who missed it, we recapped 12 takeaways, like how to define goals, scrub your data, take advantage of HubSpot features and more.

2. The 80/20 Rule: Why You Need to Spend More Time on Content Amplification

At our agency, we live by the 80/20 rule when it comes to content: spend 80% of your time on promotion and 20% on creation. After all, what’s the point of your efforts if no one ever sees it? This post includes nine quick ways to amplify your existing content.

3. 5 Lessons Learned from Content Marketing World 2018 #CMWorld

The largest content event there is, our team always sends a lucky few to Content Marketing World. In 2018, top speakers including Tina Fey, traveled to Cleveland to network with the best and brightest in content marketing. See what our team took away from the event.

4. 6 Expert Marketers Share Their Top Secret to Get Executive Buy-In

Gaining executive buy-in for new ideas continues to be a top pain point for many of our clients and peers. So we asked top marketing experts for their best piece of advice. In this post, see what Bob Ruffolo (@bobruffolo), Ellie Mirman (@ellieeille), Mark Roberge (@markroberge), Michael Brenner (@brennermichael), Paul Roetzer (@paulroezter) and Robert Rose (@robert_rose) have to say.

5. How to Prepare Your Content Marketing Strategy for 2019 [WEBINAR]

We partnered with Influence & Co to host a webinar on the future of content. PR 20/20's Paul Roetzer and Influence & Co.'s Brittni Kinney talked about content trends and what they’ll mean for our industry in 2019. You can read this post or listen to the full webinar here.

6. 4 Tips to Unleash Your Inner Content Creative Genius

Let’s face it: if you’re a writer, you’ve experienced writer’s block at some point. In this post, we featured four tips to get your creativity flowing.

7. 4 Trending Tactics to Add to Your Video Marketing Strategy

More and more marketers continue to take advantage of video marketing. That’s why we felt it was critical to spotlight the power of video during one of our 2018 HUG meetings. A local video production company, Pritt Entertainment Group, co-hosted the event and showed attendees how to integrate video into a 2019 strategy. You can view the whole SlideShare presentation here.

8. 3 Strategic Ways to Make Visitors Love Your Website

Your website might be beautiful, but can visitors easily find what they’re looking for? Streamline your website’s user experience with these three tips.

9. 4 Lessons Learned From the Most Agile Brands on Social Media

Social media platforms were constantly evolving and updating in 2018. And there were a few model brands that leveraged each feature to its maximum potential—all the while entertaining us. See which brands kept us on our toes and why.

10. 5 of Our Favorite (FREE) Online Digital Marketing Courses

Looking to master new marketing skills this year? You’re in luck. This post features five of our favorite free courses.

11. 10 Ways to Promote Your Next Lead Generation Campaign (Free GamePlan)

If your promotional tactics are feeling tired, this post includes ten tactics to distribute your offer, and hopefully, capture more leads. A few ideas include pitching target influencers, mapping out related blog content and utilizing gated content in the sales cycle.

12. Book Clubbin': 4 Ways Marketers Can Better Manage Day-to-Day Activities

This post is part of our Book Clubbin’ series, which recaps business and marketing related books read by the PR 20/20 team each quarter as part of the agency book club. This particular book, Manage Your Day-to-Day: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus, and Sharpen Your Creative Mind, by 99U (@99u), was among our favorite reads in 2018.

13. Are You Tracking Data Daily? Marketing Experts Agree, You Should Be.

How often should you report on (and adjust) campaign performance? In the wise words of Pete Caputa (@pc4media), “According to our data, the most successful marketers monitor their metrics on a daily basis.” In this post, other top marketing minds weigh in on the topic.

14. 5 Actionable Ways to Apply B2B Content Marketing Trends in 2019

Thanks to Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, we have a wealth of B2B content marketing information from this year’s B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends Report. If you don’t have time to read the whole report, check out this post for five actionable lessons.

15. Unexpected Facts About the History of Search Engine Optimization

This post features an infographic from Bubblegum Search on the evolution of SEO—starting in 1945.

16. 5 Best New HubSpot Features to Supercharge Your Website

If you’re like us, you love learning about new features and tools available in the HubSpot platform. A few new features in 2018 included an auto-audit of your content for recommended topic clusters, a built-in solution for site search, as well as new integrations with SEMrush and Typeform, among other new tools.

17. 5 Intelligent Content Tools to Disrupt Your Strategy Now

Save time on manual tasks and strengthen your marketing toolbox with AI-powered technology. This post features a few of our team’s favorite intelligent content tools, including MarketMuse, Automated Insights, Scripted, Curata and Persado.

18. 8 Social Media Features You Should Be Using … But Probably Aren’t

Are you using new social media features to bolster your marketing? See how you can easily apply newer tools, like Instagram Polls and AI-powered chat bots.