
MARKETING
A Get-It Done Guide for Content Marketers

When it comes to task management, I’ve tried it all. I’ve used Asana, Trello, ClickUp, Monday, Notion, etc. I’ve built Gantt charts, placed sticky notes on physical Kanban boards, and used pen and paper to make list after list. I’ve followed the Getting Things Done method. I’ve even tried a stack of index cards with a binder clip cleverly called a “Hipster PDA.” Yeah, that was a thing.
Nothing stuck.
Until now.
I use a system. I stay on top of tasks, delegate things to the right people, follow up with people when I need to, and schedule my time, so I’m not frantically trying to finish everything right now.
My new system? An Eisenhower Matrix. I created it through Microsoft’s OneNote app, but most of the elements could be done on a spreadsheet or even a table in a document.
An Eisenhower Matrix did something no other task management tool could do – help me stay on top of my #ContentMarketing tasks, says @thatgirlrandi via @CMIContent. #Productivity Click To Tweet
What’s an Eisenhower Matrix?
President Dwight D. Eisenhower famously said, “I have two kinds of problems, the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.”
From this quote sprang the Eisenhower Matrix, a productivity framework to prioritize tasks. It’s a two-by-two quadrant with four squares. The y-axis includes “important” and “not important,” and the x-axis covers “urgent” and “not urgent.” You’ll place your x-axis above your y-axis, leaving room to write like this setup:
Note: Lines are for illustrative reference only.
Each square has a label – do (important and urgent), decide (important and not urgent), delegate (not important and urgent), delete (not important and not urgent).
Here’s how the execution works:
- DO tasks are to be done now. It could mean this hour, this week, or this month, but I prefer to define “now” as “today.”
- DECIDE tasks require you to decide when to complete them. Schedule time in your calendar to complete these tasks before somebody fills the time block with yet another meeting.
- DELEGATE tasks have the importance of being done today (or this week), but you do not have the time or capacity to complete them, so you will delegate them. (More on this later.)
- DELETE tasks are not worth your or others’ time and energy. Either remove the task or reconsider its importance and move it to delegate.
While I use the Eisenhower Matrix for my tasks and do not share it with my team, you can create a matrix for your individual or team considerations. (If anyone on my team needs to see mine, it’s available through my Sharepoint server.)
By classifying tasks based on important/not important and urgent/not urgent, you can do, decide, delegate, and delete them, says @thatgirlrandi via @CMIContent. #Productivity Click To Tweet
Here are the steps to create an Eisenhower Matrix in Microsoft’s note-taking tool OneNote.
Step 1: Set up each axis
Label the page “Eisenhower Matrix.” On the first line, label your x-axis, typing “URGENT” and “NOT URGENT.” Make sure to leave space for the y-axis labels (to be added next) and in between the two x-axis categories, so you have space to add the tasks under each.
Next, label your y-axis, typing “IMPORTANT” followed by “NOT IMPORTANT,” leaving space between each to write the tasks.
Your resulting screen should look something like this:
TIP: Use headline style font for your axes labels so they’ll clearly stand out from your tasks.
Step 2: Label the quadrants
Now, you can identify each square. In the same line as IMPORTANT, label a text box underneath URGENT as “DO” and under NOT URGENT as “DECIDE.”
Move to the NOT IMPORTANT line and add a text box under URGENT as “DELEGATE” and under NOT URGENT as “DELETE.”
It should look like this:
Beneath each quadrant label, right-click and choose the “Tag as To Do” function. (It’s the icon with a red checkmark inside a square.) Now, you can read your to-do checklist for each.
TIP: Use heading two style for quadrant titles.
Step 3: Brain dump your tasks
Write down all your tasks in your first quadrant. Yes, put all of them under DO for now. Pull them from the myriad notepads, sticky notes, and paper scraps on your desk. Pull them from your phone’s notes, lists, and various apps. Add everything you can think of – as long as they are tasks for which you are personally responsible. For example, if your team is tasked to create a blog article and your responsibility is to proof it, you would list the task as “proof blog article” because that’s all you’re responsible for. This is your personal repository.
Here’s an example of my to-do list with 15 tasks, ranging from checking emails to deciding on a new digital asset manager.
Step 4: Move your tasks to the quadrants
Move your tasks from the DO placeholder to their appropriate quadrants. Don’t prioritize them within the quadrant; just move them to their rightful place. For the tasks that will stay under DO, think about what you can complete now – today and only today. Consider how many meetings you have and other responsibilities you have today. It’s possible you could only have one DO task to work on today, and that’s OK. It’s why the task list under DECIDE and DELEGATE will likely be longer. Don’t be afraid to move things into DELETE. It’s there for a reason.
After writing all your tasks, move them to the proper quadrant – DO, DECIDE, DELEGATE, or DELETE, says @thatgirlrandi via @CMIContent. #Productivity Click To Tweet
Here’s how my example looks – three items under DO, seven tasks under DECIDE, four things under DELEGATE, and one task under DELETE:
Step 5: Prioritize the quadrant’s tasks
Organize the tasks in each quadrant from most to least important. You may realize some tasks should move to a different quadrant – that’s perfectly acceptable. For example, if something on your DO list can’t get done by you today, you must move it to DELEGATE. Delegating tasks helps you elevate to a higher level of productivity.
Here’s how my matrix looks with the ranked in priority order. For example, under DECIDE, the No. 1 priority is to check emails, while the No. 2 task is to present winter campaign ROI results to C-suite with the sub-task (which originally was listed as a separate task) underneath it – calculate winter campaign ROI.
TIP: List the interdependent tasks consecutively, then use the tab button to indent the sub-tasks underneath the main task to denote the order of operations.
Step 6: Take action
Herein lies the beauty of using OneNote to create the matrix – the ability to add tags. Right-click on a task and pick the box with a checkmark and gold star.
A few of my favorite task-management tags are:
- To-do priority No. 1
- Discuss with <person A>
- Discuss with manager
While those tags come in the programmed list, other tags can be customized. For example, you could create a tag replacing <Person A> with a colleague’s name or update a project tag with a campaign name. Add tags to denote clients or platforms. Do whatever works for you.
I also take advantage of the flags feature, which is especially helpful for tasks in the DECIDE quadrant. It lets you date the tasks, from generic labels like “tomorrow” or “next week” to calendar dates. You can sync these tasks to your Microsoft Outlook calendar and set reminders for their completion.
In addition to using tags and flags, I use brackets to make notes, such as to whom I need to delegate a task or who needs to respond before I can complete a task. Though I use the “Discuss with <Person>” tag, my bracketed notes let me see who without hovering my mouse over the task’s tick box.
Here’s what this looks like in my matrix:
TIP: If you find it helpful, use color codes to distinguish themes or consistent elements, such as a project or colleague.
Step 7: Make and follow your rules
To keep my matrix manageable, I follow a few simple rules:
Keep all tasks visible on a single page
If my task list creeps off the screen or page, I have too many tasks. Too many tasks mean it’s time to revise the tasks in quadrants, particularly DELEGATE and DELETE. I know what you are thinking: “What if I have five top priorities? There’s no way I could keep all my tasks above the fold.”
If you reach that point, you’re not prioritizing properly. You really can only do so much in a day.
Limit your priorities to three a day
Put no more than three priority tasks in your DO quadrant. Yep, I said three. Sure, you have other items in your DO quadrant each day, but only three should be top priorities. Also, a task in my DO quadrant does not mean it will be completed that day. Its placement means I prioritize working on it today.
TIP: If you must complete a task today, move everything else to DECIDE and DELEGATE. Let your peers know you are not available to work on anything but that top priority. Block out the day’s calendar so meetings are not added.
Move delegated tasks off the matrix
Once you delegate a task, move it to a separate page called “delegated” and check on its progress. For me, daily check-ins are a bit much, but every other day keeps communication flowing without being intrusive.
By following my rules, my matrix now has no tasks under DELEGATE, only three tasks under DO, and a few more tasks added to DECIDE:
My delegated tasks page includes the four tasks along with the names of those handling them:
Create a wins page
Tracking my wins – completed tasks – is the best result of my matrix. Any completed task gets moved to the win page. It serves as informal documentation of your work. I like to view my wins page when I feel I haven’t been productive and find proof that I have completed tasks.
My wins page is a bulleted list of tasks copied and pasted from my Eisenhower Matrix when I complete them. I add the completion date to each task line. Occasionally, I make a note in brackets. Here’s what that looks like for seven tasks completed in February:
That’s my system. It may seem like a lot at first, so KISS it first – Keep It Simple, Silly. Don’t worry too much about adding flags and tags until you’re comfortable moving and adding tasks to the matrix. You’re creating this tool to help you – customize it to what works best for you and knock those tasks out of the park.
All tools mentioned in the article are identified by the author. If you have a tool to suggest, please feel free to add it in the comments.
Want more content marketing tips, insights, and examples? Subscribe to workday or weekly emails from CMI.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
MARKETING
B2B SEO in 2023: What’s New and How to Adapt Your Strategy for Success

The author’s views are entirely their own (excluding the unlikely event of hypnosis) and may not always reflect the views of Moz.
In the fast-paced digital landscape of 2023, having a strong online presence is crucial for B2B companies to drive traffic, generate leads, and stay competitive. SEO is pivotal in achieving these goals. This blog post (and its accompanying comprehensive guide) aims to provide B2B marketers, SEO specialists, and business owners with the knowledge and tools necessary to create a successful B2B SEO strategy in 2023. From understanding the latest trends and challenges to implementing effective keyword research, on-page optimization, backlink building, result analysis, and staying up-to-date with SEO trends, let’s discuss what actually “moves the needle” in B2B SEO.
Understand the B2B SEO landscape in 2023
The SEO landscape is constantly evolving, driven by updates to search engine algorithms, changes in user behavior, and the increasing influence of voice search and AI. To create an effective B2B SEO strategy, staying informed about the latest trends is essential. Some key trends in 2023 include:
Mobile-first indexing
With the majority of internet users accessing websites through mobile devices, search engines like Google prioritize mobile-friendly websites in their rankings. This was rolled out years ago, but it is the case across all industries. The B2B industry usually does have a slightly larger audience that views content and websites on desktops (due to the target audience usually being at work when they are researching companies or vendors). However, many still do check their email, conduct research, and view websites on their phones and tablets just as often.
Voice search optimization
As voice search is still widely used with smart devices and now some vehicles (such as Toyota’s new operating system for their lineup, which allows drivers and passengers to look up questions, businesses, and other information from their vehicle’s infotainment system), B2B companies need to optimize their content for voice queries. This involves incorporating natural language, long-tail keywords, and structured data markup to increase visibility in voice search results.
AI in search and marketing
ChatGPT has blossomed in popularity over the last year, reaching a new record for the fastest-growing user base in February 2023, according to Reuters. It now has over 1.16 billion users, according to DemandSage. OpenAI, the owners of ChatGPT, are said to be rolling out a business/enterprise level for organizations who want to make ChatGPT’s offerings available to employees via an encrypted platform (so they can share proprietary information that remains secure), and Microsoft plans to use its technology to let enterprise organizations “create their own” ChatGPT so information stays secure.
Additionally, Google announced at Google I/O in May 2023 that it plans on adding more AI experiences in user’s search journey on Google. This is likely the biggest development with search engine results pages (SERP) changes we’ve seen in a while.
User experience and core web vitals
Search engines increasingly focus on user experience metrics, such as page load speed, mobile responsiveness, and interactivity. Optimizing these factors improves both search rankings and user satisfaction. In 2023 and beyond, a user is much more likely to exit out of a slow page load experience within seconds, figuring they will just find the information they need elsewhere.
Continuous Google algorithm updates
Luckily for those in the SEO industry, Google has started announcing some of their bigger algorithm changes and updates, including when they are going to be taking place. To stay updated with Google changes, be sure to bookmark our Google Algorithm Update History page.
SEO, no matter the industry, is always evolving, so it’s important to regularly read SEO publications (like the Moz Blog), learn from subject matter experts in the space, and continue to stay on top of updates so your strategy can pivot accordingly
Conduct keyword research
Keyword research forms the foundation of a successful B2B SEO strategy. It involves identifying the keywords and phrases potential customers use to find products or services in your industry. To conduct effective B2B keyword research in 2023, consider the following steps:
Understand your target audience
Develop buyer personas and identify their pain points, needs, and search intent. This insight helps you choose keywords that align with your audience’s interests. It’s important to pay attention to the “curse of knowledge” and don’t assume your audience has the same level of knowledge about your product that you do. Just because you know how your products work (or that they even exist) doesn’t mean that your audience does. This is a unique opportunity for SEOs to identify the operating knowledge of their target audience so they can best produce content that answers their search queries.
Utilize keyword research tools
Tools like Moz Keyword Explorer provide valuable data on search volume, keyword difficulty, and related keywords. Leverage these tools to identify high-potential keywords. It’s also important to look at your own data in Google Search Console or Google Analytics 4 (GA4). Today’s keyword research is becoming more and more accurate when compared to search engines, and these are all invaluable tools forSEO and keyword-related research.
Focus on long-tail keywords
Long-tail keywords are longer and more specific search queries that tend to have lower competition. Targeting these keywords can help you reach niche audiences and generate high-quality leads. Most B2B product offerings serve a niche purpose, so try to go after keywords that explain the problem or solution of your product or service instead of its name.
For instance, if your company was an “iPaaS” (integration platform as a service), going after keywords around integration, data architecture, and application integration would likely get more traction than repeatedly building content around the term “iPaaS”.
In order to complete effective keyword research, you have to know where to start. Better target audience identification, high-quality tools, and a focus on keywords that users are actually searching for (which are usually problem- or solution-oriented) can help B2B SEOs get the right phrases they need to bring in more users and potential leads.
Optimize on-page content
On-page optimization involves making your website and its pages search engine-friendly. Here are some best practices to optimize your on-page content:
Meta title tags
Craft compelling, concise, and keyword-rich title tags and meta to briefly describe your page’s content and entice users to click within 70 characters. The advice on whether or not to include your business name in a meta title tag still isn’t concrete, but if you have the character space, include it at the end after a pipe: |.
Meta descriptions
It’s best practice to write compelling meta descriptions, because that first paragraph on your page not only tells the reader what your content is about, search engines also pull it into the search snippet in a SERP. It is known that Google frequently rewrites meta descriptions, but it’s still worthwhile to spend about 180 characters describing the page so search engines, and search engine users have a good idea of what it’s about.
Header tags
Use header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to structure your content logically and improve readability. Include relevant keywords in your headers to signal the topic of each section. This can also serve as a table of contents if your blog article formatting allows it, improving readability for longer pieces of content (usually over 2000 words). Header tags also get pulled into the SERP and can be used in SERP features such as the ‘People Also Ask’ feature, if they are used in a question-answer format.
Image optimization
Optimize images by compressing their file sizes (for a better page load experience), using descriptive file names, and adding alt text that includes relevant keywords. This helps search engines understand and index your visual content. It also helps make images more accessible to users with visual impairments.
Site architecture
Good site architecture is essential for SEO success because it helps search engines and users find your website pages easier. By doing this, effective site architecture improves user experience, facilitates efficient crawling and indexing by search engines, distributes page authority effectively, and contributes to website speed and performance.
Meta titles and descriptions, headers, and site architecture may seem like SEO 101, but they are still valuable cornerstones to properly optimized content that is going to get indexed faster by search engines and have a longer time on-site for users. Google has preached time and time again about always doing what’s best for users and making sure content is fast, findable, and easy to read checks all the boxes.
Build quality backlinks
Backlinks remain a critical factor in B2B SEO, as they signal the credibility and authority of your website. However, it is essential to focus on quality rather than quantity. Consider the following strategies for building quality backlinks:
Create link-worthy content
Produce high-quality, informative content that provides value to your target audience. This increases the likelihood of other websites linking to your content as a valuable resource. Consider running your own research studies for new industry data that others will want to share, or create infographics, white papers, and other guides.
Split content into separate areas (when it makes sense)
This strategy won’t work for everyone, but if you are at a large organization, it might make sense from a site architecture standpoint to separate different types of content.
For example, Moz has the SEO Learning Center and Blog, and the strategy (and the types of content we produce for each) varies. Many large corporations also have a press mentions section, as well as a media/PR blog, where they release company announcements or press releases.
This helps news outlets and other organizations parse and subscribe to whatever type of content section they’d like. You can see Moz’s “News & Press” page for an example of this type of content area.
When it’s easier for news outlets and others to find your company announcements, they are much more likely to find and link to them more quickly and easily. It’s all about getting users the information they need quickly.
Partnerships
If your executive leadership team agrees to it, working with other organizations that cater to your same target audience but aren’t competitors can be a great way to get more exposure (and traffic) to your brand. Partnerships can entail sending a dedicated email about the other brand to your email list (and they do the same), or collaborating on a promotion through other marketing channels (such as blog posts, white papers, or videos) to get more leads and engagement.
Many organizations still buy backlinks, but in my experience, this is a risky and low ROI strategy. Companies that offer this can’t promise backlinks from high-quality places, and the ones that do may be using nefarious tactics (such as not fully disclosing links in the content they are sharing with the other website to get a link). It’s usually best to think of link building as an inbound strategy, rather than outbound.
Partnerships can be fruitful, but it takes it a lot of planning to make them reputable and pay off for both sides of the deal.
The end game: Optimization to drive results
From on-page optimization to working on your backlink strategy, SEO is truly a sum of its parts: it’s only as good as each component. To see where you’re making the most headway, all of the above efforts need to be tracked properly with accurate revenue attribution so you can see where SEO is moving the needle for your B2B organization. To learn more about measuring and analyzing results, visit the measuring success chapter in Moz’s ‘Beginner’s Guide to SEO’ and learn more about measuring organic search traffic quality from Adriana Stein.
Once you have a good understanding of where SEO is making the most impact, you can choose what to prioritize in upcoming quarters and long-term future planning. This can help your B2B SEO efforts compound over time, as most parts of SEO utilize one another to work more effectively. For example, a better site architecture and experience will likely lead to more users linking to your content. Make sure you have a well-rounded program to ensure better results over time.
MARKETING
WordPress.org vs WordPress.com: What’s the Difference?

WordPress is one of the best website-building tools available, but it can be tricky to figure out how to use it for your purposes best. One of the most confusing parts of using this tool is deciding between WordPress.org vs WordPress.com.

MARKETING
What Apple’s Vision Pro means for AR and VR marketing

This week Apple announced the Vision Pro headset, available early next year. Here’s what we know so far about the device and what this means for marketers experimenting with AR and VR engagement.
“Spatial computing” and AR. The use cases demoed at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) show augmented reality (AR) experiences where users interface with a digital layer on top of their real-world environment.
What this means practically is that users will be able to select and run apps from menus they see floating in their living room, office or other real-world environment. They’ll use voice commands, subtle hand gestures and eye movements to manipulate these objects and apps.
VR. Users will also be able to select virtual environments and adjust how much of their display is taken up by those environments. This means that Vision Pro users will also have the capability to plug into full VR experiences should they so choose.
Media. Vision Pro users will be able to watch movies and other streaming content. The improvement with the Vision Pro over TV screens is that these shows can take up a user’s full field of vision on their headset display. Content made or adapted for this system can also take advantage of the Vision Pro’s “spatial audio” sound, which promises to make it feel like sounds are coming naturally from the environment around the user.
Why we care. Apple has held off on getting into the AR/VR space while Meta struggled over the last two years to get headsets and the “metaverse” to seem cool and get widely adopted. Marketers remember the watershed moment when Apple’s iPhone spawned the mobile marketing ecosystem, and therefore there’s good reason to wait until Apple throws their hat in the ring.
It’s also worth noting that many AR experiences already exist using smartphone apps. The Vision Pro will make AR wearable, and if done right, will make these experiences more intuitive with natural eye moments and hand gestures.
Dig deeper: What marketers need to know about the metaverse, Web 3.0 and NFTs.
Price point. The Vision Pro is priced at $3,499. To give some perspective, that’s about half the current price of Apple’s newest Mac Pro. Back in 1984, the first Macintosh started at $2,495, which is over $7,000 in 2023 dollars.
Consumers who buy the Vision Pro will be spending three times more than what an iPhone costs. Businesses that want to equip their employees with Vision Pros will have to invest sizable budgets on par with new laptops or other significant hardware upgrades.
Consumer and B2B adoption. Being able to watch popular shows might be a gateway for consumers to adopt the new device and begin to explore AR and VR applications. Another adoption strategy is for people who use VR at work to bring the devices home. This explains Meta’s push for using their Meta Quest Pro headset for videoconferencing and other business uses.
Apple’s WWDC presentation showed how the Vision Pro uses machine learning to create a lifelike 3D model of a user’s face so that users can videoconference without their headsets being seen. This might be a more acceptable alternative to virtual meetings using cartoony avatars.
“Businesses are at a point where they want to get started with VR technology,” said Rolf Illenberger, CEO of enterprise VR platform VRdirect. “People in the office are asking about it. What’s missing is a general decision about which ecosystem to use.”
The Vision Pro inaugurates a new operating system, visionOS and a new Vision app store, where users will be able to access an anticipated flood of AR and VR apps.
AR and VR in marketing. Businesses in a number of verticals are adopting or considering VR for training and safety initiatives, Illenberger said. Widespread adoption for more general uses like virtual meetings is still several years away.
AR will likely be the first channel to get enough users to be of interest to marketers.
“There is a logical progression from AR marketing to VR marketing,” said Darwin Liu, founder and CEO of ecommerce services company X Agency. ”One needs to take off before the other one can. I expect AR marketing to really take off in the next 2-4 years and VR marketing to become important in 4-7 years.”
When enough customers are using a specific VR ecosystem, it will be important for brands to create a presence within it. This is still a far cry from an interoperable “metaverse” where users can jump from space to space seamlessly and bring digital assets with them to spend on merchandise wherever they want to. The customers that use visionOS will be within Apple’s walled garden. The price to reach them will likely be a steep one.
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