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.

At Tendo, we work with a range of clients—from those just dipping their toes into content marketing to companies with sophisticated content marketing machines. Whether we're helping them optimize an existing content marketing campaign or start a new one from scratch, we've found that there are a few common traits that all successful content programs share.

Whether you're an expert on mindfulness, productivity, Cloud or Big Data, raising your online influence can help establish you as a thought leader and burnish your company's reputation. But if you go about it the wrong way, you can inadvertently alienate the very people you're trying to win over.