I'm a firm believer is the virtuous circle, and passionate about transparency. MediaPost invited me to be its branded content/content marketing columnist in part because I myself am branded content (or a content brand).

According to the Content Marketing Institute's 2015 report, demand for content strategists has skyrocketed. However, content strategists are only as competent as their understanding of what success actually looks like in their company's eyes. The trash bin is the richest place in many offices, filled with ideas that have been shot down. Content strategists can boost their campaigns by formulating and addressing KPIs ahead of time, during the initial stage of idea creation.

Just about everyone has embraced content marketing. And some people are even succeeding with it. However, a shockingly high percentage of B2B content marketers report that it really isn't going all that well. According to a recent Content Marketing Institute study, just 38% of content marketers say their efforts are effective. Which means that almost two-thirds of content marketers are coming up short. Why is that?