Buyer personas have officially moved from a “nice to have” buzzword to an essential part of any marketing strategy. In a 2013 case study, MarketingSherpa found when companies incorporated buyer personas into their content strategies, their B2B leads increased by 124 percent. You probably want a piece of that lead generation pie, don’t you? Mm. Pie.

It's been a big week. We announced some pretty big news — a new San Francisco office (read below for more information). We are also recapping last week's InfluenceHR event and hitting the ground at a dead sprint for the fall. If you missed anything this week, check out the recaps below and don't forget to subscribe to announcements about the InfluenceHR Marketing Awards — you don't want to miss it. 

3 Things You Must Know About the InfluenceHR Marketing Awards — Do you consider yourself an in-house, HCM marketer who "gets it?" Enter to win in one of the eight open categories and get recognized for your great work. 

Remember when content marketing was the Wild West and just doing it was innovative enough? Just publishing regular white papers and e-books, “being on the Twitters,” and updating your blog once a month meant you were ahead of the pack. Today, the bar is at a whole new high, where your buyer is bombarded with information and entertainment from the majority of your competitors and it takes more to stand out.

Chances are, if you’re out reading blogs, you’ve moved past the haphazard “see what sticks” model and into something fairly strategic.

But if you think your content could stand to see some improvement, check out these 5 keys to buff up your strategy in 2014: