Content Marketing Institute

Overcome Camera Fear Simple Video Tips for Beginners!

What’s holding you back from creating videos?

Heike Young, LinkedIn marketing rock star, shares three essential video tips for beginning creators

How B2B Can Build Trust by Showing Authentic Proof of Work | Rose-Colored Glasses

AI has made efficiency so universally accessible that speed and automation no longer feel like unique advantages. When "ease" signals cheap and disposable, how can B2B brands stand out and earn trust? Robert Rose argues that the answer lies in operationalizing “proof of work” — revealing the friction, conflicts, and stumbles along the way to the final product. Read this week’s Rose-Colored Glasses to learn why transparency, imperfection, and the human touch can lead to more meaningful brand experiences.

📣So what do you think? Do you believe showing the messy, human side of your brand can help differentiate it in a crowded market? How would you implement this in your own strategy? Share your thoughts in the comments!

👀 Related: Move Over "Authentic AI," Real Beats Perfect in Content and Marketing
https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/audience-building/move-over-authentic-ai

⭐️Sources: https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/series/rose-colored-glasses
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_goodttps://www.figma.com/blog/the-linear-method-opinionated-software/

Influencer Partnerships That Drive Real ROI | Live With CMI

In the age of AI and unreliable algorithms, brand building can be harder than ever.

That’s why many are turning to influencer marketing to reach new audiences.

🎯 Tune in Tuesday, February 24, at 1 p.m. ET for the latest Live With CMI episode as Amanda Subler sits down with Brianna Doe, Founder & CEO, Verbatim, for a tactical conversation on building profitable, performance-driven creator partnerships.

Learn what a modern influencer strategy looks like, including identifying the right influencers, structuring partnerships that scale, and measuring REAL results that matter to your bottom line.

How To Build Agentic Workflows That Support Your Content Strategy [VIDEO]

Irritated by the conversations that treat AI like a magic wand for content creation?

Think you’re the only one hitting a wall when using agentic AI?

You’re not alone.

“You have to go above and beyond to create really good content, which means it’s going to be frustrating,” says Amy Balliett, senior fellow at Material and author of Killer Visual Strategies.

The problem isn’t that you’re “bad at AI.” It’s that you treat AI as a tool, not a system supported by structure, memory, and oversight. In her Content Marketing World presentation, Amy shares how marketers can move beyond one-off AI assistance and build agentic workflows — systems of narrowly focused agents connected by clear roles, shared context, and intentional human oversight.

Read on to learn Amy’s advice for supercharging your content strategy practically with agentic AI workflows. You also can watch her Content Marketing World presentation, which includes technical demos applying these practices: https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/ai-in-marketing/build-agentic-content-workflows

Brand Trust: Why Authentic Reflection Beats Perfection in 2026 | Rose-Colored Glasses

As AI gets better at generating polished, error-free content, perfection has become synonymous with synthetic. Now, audiences are viewing AI-generated and human-written content with the same degree of skepticism and distrust. To address this paradox, Robert Rose suggests telling conflict stories rather than success stories. Read this week’s Rose-Colored Glasses to learn how his pratfall protocol — a strategy that embraces relatable flaws, mistakes, and tensions — can humanize your brand’s competence and increase its credibility.

📣So what do you think? Do you believe admitting flaws can build trust in B2B marketing? Have you tried this approach in your own brand strategy? Let us know in the comments.

👀 Related: Winning B2B Brand Trust Part 2: How To Earn Attention One Room at a Time
https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/audience-building/brand-trust-earn-attention

⭐️Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_trust_paradox
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pratfall_effect
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costly_signaling_theory_in_evolutionary_psychology
https://www.aseonline.org/News-Events/ASE-News/Press-Releases/are-bachelors-degrees-losing-their-value-in-the-workplace

What If Your Audience Could Talk Back? Custom GPTs Can Help? [VIDEO]

Forget a little birdie on your shoulder. What if a customer sat next to you?

Imagine how that instant feedback could improve your content results. The target audience member might say things like:

“That topic doesn’t matter to me.”

“You’re missing my real pain point.”

“I can’t relate to that example.”

That scenario is almost impossible to do with humans at any volume. But using AI as a conversation partner, not a content generator, makes it possible.

Ali Orlando Wert, director of content marketing and brand at Databox, and Emily Peet-Lukes, marketing content specialist at Appfire, explain the why and how in their Content Marketing World 2025 presentation, If Your Audience Could Talk Back: How AI Can Research, Validate, and Refine Your Content.

The duo shares how AI can help teams turn surface-level personas into responsive audience insights. Watch the video for all the details or read on for some helpful takeaways.

Ready to organize your content for AI? [VIDEO]

Search isn’t dead; it’s just growing up.

Artificial intelligence overviews (AIO) and large language models (LLM) have reshaped how people seek information. Instead of scanning search engine results pages, audiences increasingly ask complex questions of these AI-driven tools and expect them to source information, summarize it, and contextualize answers instantly.

“Traditional search engines are now becoming answer engines,” says Caerley McShane, global SEO lead at SAP.

Caerley joined Martha van Berkel, CEO and cofounder of Schema App, at Content Marketing World to explain what this shift means, why content structure could be your competitive advantage, and how you should start implementing it.

How Bookstagram Creates Obsession — and What Your Brand Can Steal From It [ VIDEO]

Romance books get a bad rap. They're seen as unserious, cringe, presenting unrealistic depictions of men, women, you name it.

They also dominate conversations on Bookstagram, a corner of Instagram that talks about books and where marketers can learn a lot, regardless of your reading preferences.

Bookstagram members don’t just talk. They scream in all caps about fictional men. They form friendships over shared favorites. It is messy. It is emotional. It is chaotic.

Bookstagram isn't successful because of the books. People don't come for recommendations. They come to connect with people who feel the same way they do. They aren’t just consuming content; they’re connecting through it. And that’s something brands, especially B2B brands, struggle to achieve.

In her talk at Content Marketing World 2026, Ashley Baker, Founder, Coastline Marketing LLC, shares her Bookstagram secrets with B2B marketers.

Beyond AI Slop: B2B Brands Can Win Attention in the Rooms That Matter Most | Rose-Colored Glasses

B2B marketing is undergoing a major shift as the one-size-fits-all messaging approach loses its edge. To adapt, brands must get comfortable telling the same truths in different ways to connect with distinct audiences in their own spaces. Robert Rose says brands like e.l.f. Cosmetics are winning trust and creating deeper resonance by tailoring their expressions to the unique dynamics of niche communities. Read this week’s Rose-Colored Glasses to learn how to adopt this approach and establish meaningful connections in the rooms that matter most.

📣So what do you think? Have you tried connecting with distinct audiences in their own spaces to build trust? What challenges or successes have you experienced? Share your thoughts in the comments!

👀 Related: How To Get Audiences To Invite You Into Their Universe
https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/strategy-planning/attract-an-audience

⭐️Sources: https://www.nylon.com/eyes-lips-face-music-video
https://www.twitch.tv/elfyou
https://www.glossy.co/beauty/e-l-f-cosmetics-makes-its-roblox-debut/
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DT-ntqygJuL/