By Lee Odden

You know that time in between the holidays and new years when work slows down a bit and you take some time to reflect on the past while also looking to the future?

That’s the time when I decided it was time to start a blog and published my first “hello world” post on December 28, 2003. Fast forward nearly 22 years to today and oh so much has changed.

What started as an experiment in easy content creation quickly turned to community engagement with other marketing practitioners and the growth of a niche, yet well known and respected marketing agency that has influenced some pretty interesting outcomes. Like what, you say? For example this little old marketing blog has:

• Attracted millions of visitors each year for many years to our content, our message and brand.
• Earned thousands of media pickups on industry publications, blogs and the likes of Forbes, The Economist, and a teeny tiny mention in the Wall Street Journal.
• Got me on TV news with a local station, Kare 11 as well as an NBC affilate in San Francisco and in news show in Bucharest, Romania!
• Helped earn top visibility on Google (and increasingly ChatGPT) for a wide array of high demand search terms which helped attract so many inquiries at one point I had to turn off the contact form.
• Created interest from multiple book publishers approaching me to write a book, which I eventually did (Optimize) thanks to Shannon Vargo at Wiley and my team.
• Instigated local, then national then international speaking opportunities. I’ve been invited to give over 300 presentations in 20 different countries. I don’t know how many of those were directly sourced from the blog, but many were and more were certainly influenced.
• Been recognized by numerous publications and industry websites including being the only blog to be named the #1 content marketing blog three times by Content Marketing Institute.
• Earned enough credibility to be seen as a publication which I leveraged for years to secure media sponsorships at marketing industry conferences enabling us to send team members to events and get digital and on-site exposure to buying audiences for the price of a few blog posts
• Enabled me to skydive with the Army Golden Knights, the competitive skydiving team that was on-site at a blogger conference in Texas. Thanks, Greg Swan.
• Helped me to be recognized as a B2B marketing influencer resulting in influencer engagements with companies like IBM, Oracle, Adobe and the Digital Marketing Institute as well as numerous collaborations and interviews with other companies.
• Connected with thousands of marketers around the world who have: hired TopRank Marketing, been hired by TopRank Marketing, learned from our content and contributed to our content. Our lists of top marketers like the Women Who Rock in Marketing annual list (14 years and running) have, according to feedback I’ve received from numerous honorees, been instrumental in helping marketers get recognized by their peers, by the leadership at their companies and amongst the marketing industry at large.
• Helped develop a community of marketing professionals and leaders that has …read more

  Source:: Top Rank Blog

        

  

  Author: Aaron