The most important goal of a B2B blog post is to resonate and satisfy the informational needs of your audience. But for a post to resonate, it has to be seen. The sheer volume of information available to your audience, though, makes getting seen incredibly difficult. It boils down to attention economics—a numbers game. In today’s age of blog overload, how do you get yours to stand out?

2014 brought another year of hyper-viral Web videos that racked up millions of views. We looked at five of the most watched to see how they generated so many views and shares.

Let’s not reinvent the banner ad.

Reading the New York Times recently, two tech articles caught my eye. Farhad Manjoo wrote about "The Fall of the Banner Ad," and Microsoft announced that it would make Office free for mobile devices.

Anyone who started their career in a newsroom and then switched to marketing knows that the methods and values in most newsrooms are challenging to fit into a corporate environment. In a newsroom, when you write something that gets powerful people mad, you know you’re doing your job well. In marketing, not so much. So why are more and more companies interested in brand journalism?

The efficacy of traditional outbound marketing channels is in decline. As a result, savvy B2B marketers have turned to inbound tactics to provide customers with compelling, relevant, valuable content. But the question is: How do you know if your content is compelling?

Thought leadership content is not just about sharing ideas. It’s about offering a credible, well-reasoned, and occasionally provocative point of view on topics your audiences care—or should care—about. Not for the purpose of making the quick sale, but to start conversations, impart a vision, and engage others. You can use it to position your company as a potential valued partner or your executives as influential authorities in their fields, but in the end, it’s about building trust and relationships. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

Are you maximizing the impact of your brand’s voice to leave a lasting impression? Every interaction you have with prospective customers or long-time contacts is part of an ongoing conversation, and it’s important to make consistent use of your voice to strengthen that bond. Here are three simple steps to optimizing your brand’s voice for maximum effect.