Blogging appears to be a permanent resident in the house of great marketing, but writing something helpful for your readers can be much more difficult than you’d think. Your audience is probably drowning in irrelevant search engine results, social media posts and spam already, making it exceedingly difficult to stand out amongst the clutter.

Fortunately, there are ways to check your writing to ensure it will not only be visible, but easily understood and actionable. 

Now that you know the first two reasons why I love Podio, easy customization and fluid communication features, let’s look at the final reason why this tool seems to be the best solution for our needs right now (and might be the best solution for your company or agency, as well):

By Kristi Tan and @JackieClews

Project management includes a lot of parts, especially when content is thrown into the mix. A million shared docs, a never-ending email thread, questions left unanswered — these things are what raise our blood pressure and sometimes make us want to throw our computers out the window. This is why a comprehensive, reliable, easy-to-use project management software is absolutely crucial to build in the early stages of a growing agency, as well many other businesses. So I wanted to share some feedback on other systems I've tried and Podio, the software DMD began using recently, to share how they all compare.

When searching the web for anything related to design you're going to run into a huge selection. I am going to give you a list of the top 5 that I regularly browse. These sites range from user-submitted work, industry professional insight, design freebies, wallpapers, tutorials and much, much more.

This week a colleague sent me a Business Insider article with a series of screen shots from the "coolest websites in 1996."

They're horrifying.

They look more like something you might see on Tetris or Super Nintendo (remember those?) than websites for big, serious names like Fidelity, American Express, or Bank of America.

Are you wondering why someone might take the time to write a blog or pay to have one professionally written and managed by someone else for their business's website?

Because it works.

Blogs have evolved a lot in the past 10 or so years when they were first people rambling their thoughts in their basement for the world to read. Now, they're a serious source of business.

Pick a city, start a search, and links to dozens of dental practices instantly pop up.

Clearly, dentists are as aware as anyone of the importance of online tools and social media in growing their practice.

Are you looking to get business on your website in an authentic, non-spammy way? Then Hubspot is probably right for your business.

So how does it work?

By @JackieClews

Are you a content marketer looking to show results for all of your content marketing campaigns and collaborate easily but not quite ready to take on a more sophisticated project management software?

Whether you’re marketing an e-commerce or a service-based business to consumers or businesses, an easy trick to try is adding the most important stats to your editorial calendar so you can plan in advance and turn your calendar into a detailed analytics report, as well.

Two great tools to use are Microsoft Excel (as long as you can share it and edit in real time on the cloud) or Google Spreadsheets, which can be viewed and edited by all collaborators in real time.

Guest Blog from TheDoctorBlog.com

Are you a doctor thinking about investing in online marketing but not sure whether it's worth the investment?

Check out this whitepaper from TheDoctorBlog that explains why you should seriously consider it- before your competition does.

Check out a quick preview below-

Abstract

The Internet has fundamentally redefined how Americans connect with physicians. In this white paper, ZocDoc draws on recent studies and expertise from digital healthcare leaders to interpret these changes. We provide a vendor evaluation document and an interactive return-on-investment calculator (see Appendices A and B) to help healthcare providers determine the optimal marketing mix for their practices. We illustrate the costs and benefits of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn, and detail best practices when appropriate. A method for obtaining positive reviews and attenuating negative reviews is described; it is demonstrated that an average 37 percent increase in appointments results from each half-star improvement to a provider’s online rating profile. We close by outlining the patient satisfaction and loyalty healthcare providers can accrue by offering online booking and related transactional services, which are preferred by 81 percent of consumers.