As we are closing the year, we see so many opportunities for the next 12 months.

What’s better than a Best-Of list to close the year and start a new one?

I’ve been sending you this weekly email for close to 5 years now (it all started in April 2012!) and once in a while, I allow myself to refer back to a previous subject or article. And it will be the case on today.

I’ve compiled the articles that seem to have resonated the most with you through your clicks, your comments and your shares.

So without further ado, let’s start this journey through the last 12 months, with a Top 5 of the past year:

  1. The 10 rules of content marketing (e-book) – It’s our very first e-book that sits at the top of this chart. We got excellent feedback on it, its content, the fact that it reads very quickly but still has rules that can be applied in many business contexts.
  2. Monetizing content: how this personal blog generates 20M$ in revenue – The question of monetizing content was all the hype this year (and will still be for a while). It’s the main challenge of today’s media (and yesterday’s also, who are transitioning to new content consumption realities). In this example, where “The Penny Hoarder” starts as a small side project on financial literacy, we have the demonstration that a well thought-of media can generate enough revenue to create sustainability.
  3. Netflix to spend 6$ billion on programming and content – If you opened up Netflix during the Holidays, you will have noticed the enormous amount of original productions they now offer. These big-budget productions are part of a global strategy where they create an offer based on all the data they collect from their users’ actions on the platform. They are able to push into production series and feature films that consumers really want to watch.
  4. How to create memorable content: the brain science – My favourite subject for this year. How can we produce content that our audience will really remember. Carmen Simon bases her findings on neuromarketing principles and research. A must watch (and a must-read if you get the book).
  5. Content marketing: objectives, tactics & reality – To close this Top 5, we find the survey we sent you so that we could know you better, but also to create a global overview of the state of content marketing, both from the brands’ point of view, but also from the agencies’. I also still invite you to complete it if you hadn’t done so, it is still open and extremely relevant for us so that we can keep on sending you relevant content every week (see point #3 above). 🙂

To close this post, from the entire team at Toast, we wish you a most excellent year 2017, filled with superb projects and success with your content!

Happy New Year!