It’s a big week here in the world of content marketing. It’s time for Content Marketing World.  I am about to jump on a plane to Columbus, OH to share my latest ideas on the topic of content marketing.

But before I do, I thought it would be a good idea to share some of the best articles this year on the topic.

Last week I covered the 8 Marketing Strategy articles you missed when you were too busy. And 6 Social Media and Search articles you missed when life was too hectic.

So here are the 9 content marketing articles you shouldn’t miss…

The Battle for Customer Attention

It used to be so easy. With the right amount of budget and the right agency, any business could reach their target audience. But now, the consumer marketplace is fragmented almost beyond recognition. We receive more marketing messages than we can handle and the battle for customer attention has moved from being mainly about the medium to technology to content. If “content is king,” then customer attention is the “Holy Grail.”

6 Steps to Content That Isn’t Boring

Does your content bore your audience to death? Common mistakes include talking too much about your products, promoting your company before you’ve allowed them to get to know you at all, or even “creative storytelling” that is an obvious or insidious attempt at getting the reader to enter into a sales conversation before they are ready. Good content educates, entertains or even amazes your audience because it starts with a focus on them.

Build Your Own Content Marketing Destination

B2B Marketers have always been doing content marketing. And the reason is simple: the decision making process in B2B is a bit more complicated than buying a pack of gum. To meet the needs of today’s buyers, we need dynamic content destinations that deliver educational, helpful and rewarding experiences to meet the needs of our buyers’ earliest questions.

Content Marketing Terms Defined

Content Strategy and Content Marketing may be the marketing buzz words of 2012 but their meaning is still debated by many in our industry. So from “content curation” to “content syndication” we’ve got your glossary of terms right here,

Search, Social and Content – The Keys To Inbound Marketing

The simplest definition of Inbound Marketing is to attract new customers. And you can’t do that with boring, promotional content that no one wants to share or content that no one can find. The keys to inbound marketing success are search, social and great content that allow you to get found, get shared and gain the trust your prospects are looking for in a new business relationship.

The 30 Best Content Curation Resources for Marketers

It may not be an exhaustive list but here is the list of top news sources that I use to stay on top of the latest and greatest in the world of business and marketing.  I invite you to visit these sites, subscribe to their RSS feeds or follow them on twitter. I’ve also created a twitter list of these resources and other influential bloggers that you can also subscribe to.

The Content Marketing Checklist

This is an overview of a great piece of content itself from Velocity Partners. They are the ones who also wrote the B2B Marketing Manifesto, a dedicated rant and call-to-arms for marketers in Business-to-Business companies to wake up and start doing marketing that customers don’t hate. Thanks to Velocity’s co-founder and creative director Doug Kessler (@DougKessler).

The Content Marketing A-Team

If you are looking to pull together your own dream team of content marketers, here is a list and definition of the roles you need to fill and the key tasks they each perform to help make your brilliant content marketing plans come together.

The Content Marketing Bucket List

Remember that life is short and that you may only have one shot at helping your organization implement the kind of transition to the kind of content marketing that it needs. So here is the content marketing bucket list to help you prioritize where you should start. What would be first on your list?

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