An Ode to Art: Why the Human Spirit is Essential to Creative Expression
From prehistoric cave paintings to digitally-enhanced images, mankind has come a long way in art production. Creative expression, an exceptionally human trait, is one that makes us stand out among all living things. Yet, in our modern era of increasingly AI-generated content, it’s easy for artists to start feeling a bit disheartened. Because is AI […]
How Creators Create: A Q&A with Figurative Artist Delpha Hudson
If there is such thing as the law of attraction in art, that is how I became interested in Delpha’s timeless tapestry-like paintings. A pale, ghostly female peering out from the darkness is what initially drew me in. And then the contrasting patterned curtain the floating figure held onto. The painting was titled Consider the […]
Not Your Average Advent Calendar: 24 Days of Advice to Cheer Up Your Content Strategy
Advent, the period beginning four Sundays before Christmas, has come to a close. But the season of giving and transformation is far from over. In true holiday spirit, this December we’ve put together a fun advent calendar using CBA Content advice and expertise to inspire you and future content creation. Middle English borrowed the word […]
How Creators Create: A Q&A With Contemporary Landscape Painter Gareth Edwards RWA
The wood burner was ablaze and fresh paint glistened from canvases on the wall. Gareth leaned in to check a drying drip of colour, seeing if he should flip the canvas around. Satisfied with gravity’s work, he left everything to rest while we settled into our conversation. Originally from London, Gareth Edwards moved to Cornwall […]
Content Quiz: CBA Content’s Ultimate Tool for Refocusing Your Digital Strategy
With countless marketing channels at our fingertips — many of them free or inexpensive to use — it can be difficult to keep your content strategy focused and effective. Blogs, email marketing, social media: how do we cut down on digital noise and create meaningful content that connects with like-minded people? That’s where our Content […]
Out With The Old, In With The New: Autumn-Inspired Business Guide
As the color palette changes outside, as the mornings get brisk and the nights draw in earlier, we begin to feel her presence in the air — Mother Nature’s wise and graceful daughter is on her way. Autumn nudges us to button up our cardigans and relish the cozy bookworms’ season. She comes bearing gifts: […]
How Creators Create: A Q&A With Ceramicist and Digital Business Owner Anne McCrossan
Walking up to Anne McCrossan’s pottery studio at Gaolyard Studios, I am greeted by the excited tail-wagging Tufty, Anne’s adorable and affectionate companion. After settling in, Anne confirmed my suspicions about her studio: we were sitting in what once was a prison cell (“gaol” is the old English spelling of “jail”). Despite the eerie history […]
Witchcraft and Wizardry: Value-Based Marketing Lessons from Hogwarts
Do you believe in the magic of marketing? Whether you’re a Witch, Wizard, or a Muggle, with your acceptance letter or without, welcome aboard the Hogwarts Express! In this blog post, we’re visiting the most famous school of magic to teach you how to create enchanting content, put a spell on your audience, and charm […]
How Creators Create: A Q&A With Cornish Artist Jason Lilley
To talk with Jason Lilley about his art and passion for observing and recording the world around him is to understand that there is much more to painting than meets the eye. Beginning with his mother’s artistic ability and encouragement, Jason’s creative path, like his paintings, has been anything but linear or one-dimensional. His story […]
E-volve: 3 Content-Driven Ways Your Museum Can Grow Online
We’ll play Captain Obvious for a second and say what’s on many museum workers’ minds: there is no stopping the rapid evolution of the digital world and our marketing strategies need to keep up. We know it can be overwhelming and discouraging at times so today we’re stripping what we know down to three essential […]
Swing Into Marketing: Creative Campaigns, Original Strategies, and All That Jazz
It don’t mean a thing, if it ain’t got that swing! Today we are drawing upon the wisdom of JAZZ. Considered the first American art form, jazz originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, among African-American communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It then gave the roar to the roaring 20s and birthed R’n’B […]
How Creators Create: A Q&A With Abstract Artist Shelley Thornton
Attracted by the vibrant light and beauty of St Ives, Shelley Thornton moved down to the Cornish coast to raise her children and pursue her passion for painting. Today she is known for her abstract and geometric style along with the use of bold colours and textured paste. Recently, we had the privilege to sit […]
By the Book: 4 Ways Libraries Can Improve Your Social Media Strategy
A library, which can be a museum or an art gallery in itself, is a goldmine for inspiration and storytelling ideas. As an owner or a manager of a cultural space, in a library, you may find reflections of your own artifacts and artists, and connect the dots between your creative organization and its history, […]
Fear Your Content Nevermore: Edgar Allan Poe on the Unity of Effect in Brand Storytelling
Artists and marketers unite! Unite in the unity of effect. Sounds mysterious? It’s because today’s wisdom comes from the one and only Edgar Allan Poe – the architect of the gothic tale, the father of the horror genre, the progenitor of early science fiction and detective story, and the master of the macabre. With his […]
A Christmas Carol: Content Marketing Lessons from Dickensian Ghosts
Stave One: The Spirit of Christmas Joy to the world, it’s that time of year again! Christmas is here, bringing good cheer, and all sorts of incentives for reflection, planning, and resolutions. It’s a unique point in the 12-month period when one chapter is nearing its end and another one is about to begin. This […]
Conquering Writer’s Block: One Marketer’s Quest to Live Out the Hero’s Journey
Her third cup of coffee was getting cold. Sat at the typewriter, slightly apprehensive of the blank page staring back at her, she knew it was already judging every word that was about to stain its purity. Some say, there’s no such thing as writer’s block. Why, then, did it seem like an impossible task […]
Halloween Marketing Guide: Grave Mistakes and Spooky Good Advice
Imagine you’re a witch brewing a potion. It’s perking and bubbling in your cauldron, you keep adding bat wings and spider legs, whatever deemed worthy lands in the mixture. Since losing your grimoire some 90 years ago you’ve been pretty much winging your recipes. Sure, the potions’ potency has diminished and they lack in taste […]
4 Years, 4 Lessons: What I’ve Learned and Where (I Hope) To Go From Here
Last Friday on October 8th, 2021, I had the serendipitous opportunity to attend the Virginia Woolf Society of Great Britain’s study weekend in St Ives, Cornwall. The reason I’m telling you this is because it relates to everything I’m about to share with you around starting and growing CBA Content over the past four years. […]
How To Tell Your Art Gallery’s Story in a Personal and Engaging Way
When you’re online, it can often feel like there is just too much information. Whether it leaves you meticulously researching the news or mindlessly scrolling through social media content, it usually leads to the same place: feeling overwhelmed. Instagram, newsletters, emails, advertisements… as an online user, all of these add up to demand your attention. […]
The Art of Social Media Marketing: 5 Successful Museum Campaigns To Help You Create a Sensation Online
Social media moves faster than you can blink – so it can be hard to keep up with what you should, or should not, be posting. Heightened by the pandemic, social media as a channel of engagement has become more important than ever for creating and maintaining an invested audience. However, it can feel like […]
Content Planning is Like Learning to Surf. Here are 3 Ways to Ride Your First Wave.
Having recently moved to Cornwall, up the road from a surf school, I’m beginning to appreciate how much preparation goes into surfing. From the wetsuit to the weather forecast, surfing requires a lot of prepping and planning – much like content creation. Between familiarising yourself with the wave conditions and keeping the momentum going once […]
CBA Content is Looking for a Freelance Content Creator to Join the Team
Are you a writer and creative thinker with a passion for telling stories and making meaningful connections? Do you love museums and exploring the diverse cultural heritage all around us? If this sounds like you or someone you know, then read on for an exciting opportunity to join me, Celeste, the director at CBA Content! […]
5 Hashtags Creating a Buzz in the Museum and Heritage Community (and How To Start Your Own)
Hashtags are like puzzle pieces – they represent a small part of a bigger picture, idea or conversation. Each hashtag has its own shape and fits together to create a coherent message. Used across social media – on Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest – hashtags are an effective way to bring like-minded people together. They lead discussions, […]
How to Attract Visitors to Your Website – and Keep Them Coming Back (An Illustrated Guide)
As an art gallery, museum or heritage centre, creating a website and online experience that attracts visitors – and keeps them coming back – is the ultimate goal. Though getting to that point doesn’t come without its challenges. All of your cultural centre’s objects, stories and resources might be racing through your mind right now […]
3 Ways to Put the Spotlight on Your Audience
Mardi Gras looks a lot different this year. Typically a weeks-long carnival celebrated in New Orleans from Twelfth Night to Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras has effectively been cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. If it weren’t for the city’s unwavering spirit and creative residents, the celebrations might have been completely thrown out the window. But […]
Christmas at Jane Austen’s House: A Most Wonderful Delight
Jane Austen’s historic home and museum in Chawton, Hampshire, became the centre of a tragic tale this year. Like many museums all over the world, the museum was forced to close in March due to the coronavirus pandemic. This meant the house where Jane Austen lived and wrote Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility […]
How to Make Giving a Core Part of Your Mission
Thanksgiving has a beautiful way of slowing us down and helping us see all that we have to be thankful for. This year in particular, when it feels like so much has been taken away, it’s important to focus on what you do have and what you can still give to others. Giving not just […]
Behind the Scenes at CBA Content: Autumn 2020
A lot has been going on here at CBA Content. We might not be able to meet in the office or go on cultural days out as we had planned, but we’ve certainly been hard at work creating some awesome content from home. Since it’s been a while since our last update, we thought it […]
Content Marketing For Arts Charities: 5 Ways Kazzum Arts Is Doing It Right
Money is often cited as a barrier by arts charities and smaller cultural businesses to having a winning content marketing strategy. The truth is, you don’t need to be a big flashy company with a sizable marketing budget to grow online. In this post, we’re showing you how impactful marketing is not about the amount […]
What It’s Like Visiting London’s Museums Again
After nearly four months of being closed, museums and galleries across England were able to reopen their doors at the beginning of July. While it took the CBA Content team – me and Rachael – a month to book our return visits, it was well worth the wait. To follow in our footsteps and see […]
How to Make the Most of Your Content (Without Reinventing the Wheel)
Keeping up with your business and personal wellbeing is particularly overwhelming at the moment. It’s a constant challenge to try and be productive, stay connected to colleagues, clients and customers, and come up with fresh content ideas. Today, we’re here to help lighten the load by making that last to-do item – content creation – […]
Why Marketing is Indispensable (and How to Show its Worth)
Marketing is undeniably human. It’s based on ideas, creativity and lateral thinking, on understanding people’s needs and wants, and how they think and behave. For this reason, marketing teams are an irreplaceable asset to any business in the museum, arts and cultural heritage sectors. Effective marketing helps identify visitor demographics and audience trends, improve engagement […]
5 Art Galleries With The Best Digital Content Strategies
As museums and galleries prepare for reopening on July 4th, we think now is a great moment to take a look at the best digital content strategies in the gallery world. Since digital content will continue to enhance cultural experiences outside of physical exhibitions, it’s important to keep your online audience top of mind. Because […]
Your Museum’s Online Story Is More Important Than Ever. Here’s How To Get It Right.
In London, there has been a 22.5% increase in web traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic. The British Museum has seen a 120% increase in traffic to its website compared to last year. People have more time to spend online during lockdown, and the data shows that they’re using that time to connect with art, culture […]
Experiencing Art and Culture in Lockdown: What’s Changed and How Will We Adapt?
Before lockdown, we might have filled our Saturday afternoons with a trip to a museum after brunch with friends, ending the day in a South Kensington pub to discuss the exhibition we’d seen. Now the galleries, museums, cafes, pubs, and other weekend hangout spots are closed due to COVID-19, we’ve had to make our own […]
Get Creative and Stay Connected During Lockdown
As we find new ways to connect with our community and adjust to this ‘new normal’, it’s difficult to know how we should be offering to help. Like always, we want to provide solutions and make it easier for people to reach their goals. Only today these problems and goals look a lot different. Now, […]
3 Simple Ways to Check In With Yourself and Your Community During the Coronavirus Crisis
As the world continues to fight the coronavirus outbreak, we find ourselves adapting to new ways of life and work. Our routines look vastly different, the economy has plunged and uncertainty looms overhead. It’s certainly not business as usual, so how do we carry on? With this new space between us and our friends, coworkers […]
Why Walking in London is The Best Way to Explore Its Past
To put it simply: London is a city best explored on foot. While we have the most comprehensive public transport system in the UK, taking you anywhere in the city (more or less) seamlessly, it’s incredible how much you miss while underground or on a winding bus route. One of London’s greatest charms is its […]
Show Some Love For London: 5 Ways To Celebrate The City’s Culture
While Cupid and romantic gestures normally take centre stage on St. Valentine’s Day, we’re here to show some love for the city we call home: an ode to London, one of the world’s great cultural capitals. Whether you want to illuminate your evenings with rising stars at the National Theatre, or clear your mind with […]
The New Cork Street: 5 Reasons to Visit Mayfair’s Galleries
For Londoners and visitors alike, Mayfair retains a reputation of opulence, wealth and exclusivity. Take the dozens of art dealerships off Piccadilly, for instance, selling collectors beautiful authentic paintings with seriously steep price tags. While I certainly wasn’t looking to buy any art when I visited Cork Street for the first time, I wasn’t sure […]
New Year, New Directions: CBA Content in 2020
A new year means unmarked pages waiting to be filled with exploring, learning, growing and creating. It also represents a fresh and refocused start – a time to reflect, set goals and channel positive energy into the next phase of the business. At the end of 2019, we kickstarted our reflections and ran a series […]
Victorian Trees and Tudor Pies: Exploring Customs of Christmas Past
It’s the most wonderful time of the year: the holiday season, where we reflect on the year gone by, spend time with friends and family and inevitably indulge in our favourite traditions. During this festive time of reflection and celebration, have you ever considered how far back Christmas traditions go? I certainly hadn’t, until I […]
Like Mary Quant, Dare to be Different in Your Content Marketing
London-born fashion designer Mary Quant has gone down in history for her striking, daring and exciting takes on ordinary clothes in the 1960s. She is best known for popularising – some even say inventing – the miniskirt, and making fashion fun, accessible and practical for the modern woman. Fast forward to 2019 and you can […]
Use This Victorian Trick to Know Your Readers Better
Thomas and Jane Carlyle’s home in London was the place to be during the Victorian Era. Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, Lord Tennyson and Elizabeth Barrett Browning are a few of the literary giants who visited the writers’ home, engaging in worldly debates and friendly chats by the fire. The Carlyles moved to Chelsea in 1834 […]
A Summer of Content Adventures and Sunny Outlooks
It’s the last Friday of August and the start of Labor Day weekend in the US – the perfect time to look back on summer and ahead to the fall. These past three months have been full of travel and content adventures. Both uncovered new territory and CBA Content, in particular, benefitted from new collaborations […]
White Papers Made Simple: Their Star Role in Content Marketing
At its core, a white paper is a guide that solves a problem for its reader. So not unlike a blog post or ebook? Correct, these content types all work to solve a problem for their audience, but white papers have certain qualities that set them apart. For example, white papers are longer than blog […]
Leonardo’s Drawings: An Enlightening Exercise in Understanding Your Audience
By the end of his life, Leonardo da Vinci had drawn thousands of sketches on the human body, horses, plants, architecture, engineering, maps, forces of nature – anything that captured his imagination. 500 years later and these drawings give us one of the closest and clearest looks into the Renaissance master’s mind. To celebrate his […]
My Favorite Way for Coming Up With New Ideas (and How to Generate Your Own)
Consider these three facts: The best pizzeria in the world doesn’t use menus that’s how easy they make it for you to decide – Marinara or Margherita. Growing lavender is a gradual process that takes some nurturing if you want it to last for years. Shakespeare is the master of capturing and holding an audience’s […]
A Shakespearean Guide to Writing Killer Landing Pages
“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” The playwright behind this quote and many other famous lines of speech is none other than the Bard of Avon, William Shakespeare. Like most of his plays and poems, this quote from Hamlet still holds meaning some 400 years later. […]
4 Illuminating Steps to Listening to Your Audience (and Learning to Speak Their Language)
Have you ever traveled to a foreign city without planning anything except your plane ticket? If you have, I bet you felt lost and a bit overwhelmed by all the decisions you had to make on the spot – directions, accommodation, activities, meals. Most likely though you did some research and planning ahead of time […]
The Magic of Matilda: How to Use Content to Help Others
“By the time she was two, Matilda had learned what most people learn in their early 30s: how to take care of herself.” Matilda (1996) I’ve always thought being able to take care of yourself is an achievement in its own right. So doing it while you’re learning to talk? That’s a superpower. Rewatching the […]
5 Simple Ways to Spring Clean Your Online Business
Overheard in the office this morning: “The sun’s out so I can’t complain.” After a few grey days and long months of winter, that pretty much sums up my feelings exactly. Spring has officially sprung in the British capital! Even if I’m still in boots and a jumper (hey, it’s London) the sunnier weather signals […]
Dare to be Like Dracula: The Mesmerizing Power of History & Horror
Vampires look like humans. Some so beautiful they hypnotize people. Three such mesmerizing vampires seduced a lawyer from England, Jonathan Harker, when he visited Castle Dracula for the first time. It’s not until after Harker escapes from the female vampires’ deadly spell that he realizes Dracula, his host, only wants one thing: human blood. This […]
March of the Penguins: 3 Rituals to Enrich Your Client Relationships
Emperor penguins are extraordinary animals. For starters, they return to the same stretch of frozen water every winter to mate and give life to the next generation of penguins. In between finding a mate and nudging their chick onto the ice for the first time, they endure brutal weather elements (up to -60°C / -76°F), […]
How to Immerse Readers in Your Content
When we arrived at the Music Box Village, people had already taken their seats. The film hadn’t started yet but it was plain to see that the show had already begun. We were the actors and actresses, lovers and mistresses, dancers and revellers, dressed as Voodoo maidens and Rio Casanovas. Coinciding with Valentine’s Day, the […]
Want to Get Published? Start Here.
There’s nothing like good ole practical advice, is there? No wishy-washy explanations or roundabout responses, just the useful stuff. So when last week a freelance writer emailed me asking if I had any tips on pitching articles and breaking into a niche of writing, I wanted to give her something she could act on right […]
A Bed & Breakfast Guide to Attracting New Visitors to Your Site
The sun was setting as we walked up to our bed and breakfast in Broadway, a charming village in the Cotswolds. Andy opened the door with a warm handshake and a smile, welcoming us inside so we could drop our bags before he gave us a tour of the house. Starting in the entranceway, he gave […]
The Crystal Ball of CBA Content: 5 Bright Visions
It’s only natural, or supernatural rather, to look at the year ahead each January. In the past, I kept my goals largely to myself, but now that I’m fully responsible for the direction and success of my work life, I’ve decided to spend some time reflecting on the past year and set goals for this […]
Why French Cuisine is Good for Content Marketing
“[T]hey know what to do with every scrap of hoof, snout, entrail, and skin … Because they grew up with that all-important dictum. Use everything! (And use it well.)” This is how Anthony Bourdain describes the French style of cooking in his book, A Cook’s Tour. I picked up his collection of food and travel tales before […]
How Creators Create: A Plastic Surgeon’s Love of Pottery
He credits his early creative drive to spending three years in kindergarten — the advantage of being grouped together with his older brother — and his later breakthroughs in breast reconstruction, he believes were due in part to specializing in a more creative field of medicine: plastic surgery. Given his background, pottery seems to be […]
12 Summertime Workspaces Bound to Give You Digital Nomad Envy
The air is warm, the breeze is welcome and the backdrop, spectacular — a scene fit for a seasoned digital nomad. Even though I can’t say I’m one of them (well, not near the extent of the remote workers below), I have always believed that a change in scenery has the power to inspire and […]
3 Ways Mary Poppins Can Magically Boost Your Business
“If you want this choice position Have a cheery disposition Rosy cheeks, no warts! Play games, all sort” Does that bring back any childhood memories? Luckily for Jane and Michael Banks, the qualifications set out in their Perfect Nanny advertisement brought Mary Poppins down from her cloud and into their playroom. A little magic could’ve had […]
How to Grow Your Content Strategy Like Lavender
Walking through lavender fields in south London last weekend, I was filled with happiness. The beauty, the sight, the smell was all a delight. This new experience wandering through rows of lavender got me thinking — is it possible to give your audience a similarly positive experience through content? Turns out, yes it is. Lavender […]
For the Love of London: What This Content Creation Venture Has Taught Me So Far
Keep laundry and other chores on Sundays. Set alarm clock (and get up) on weekdays. Grab a newspaper from the tube station every day. This sounds more like personal to-dos than work ones, doesn’t it? That’s because ever since I decided to go it alone and start my own content creation business, I’ve had to […]
Real Talk: What’s Content (and Why Should You Care About It)?
You’ve heard this term, “content”, being thrown around a lot lately. “If you’re not producing content, then do you even exist?” they say. The word even makes up half of my business’s name. But really, what is it? And why does it matter to your business? Since there is no one-size-fits-all answer to these questions, let’s […]
The Royal Wedding’s Guide to Bonding With Your Readers
“She looked back at us!” “We totally made eye contact!” That’s pretty much how it went (times 100) after Meghan Markle and Prince Harry rode past my friend and me during their wedding procession around Windsor. We felt a real connection with Meghan, especially after seeing the personal and modern touches she put on the […]
3 Compelling Content Ideas to Win Over Your Audience’s Heart
The last bite of seafood pasta had been twirled onto my fork and finished off. None of us wanted to leave this restaurant, its beachy, open-air construction built right into the cliff. To remember it, we took a photo with the very friendly staff before saying ciao and grazie. It was a 30-minute walk back to the ferry, but […]
Easy as (Pizza) Pie: How to Make Your Customer Say Yes
Marinara or Margherita? Coca-Cola, birra or acqua? That’s how they take your order at L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele in Naples, what some consider to be the best pizza place in the world. Sure, it doesn’t hurt that this was the pizza Elizabeth Gilbert affectionately described in Eat, Pray, Love, but part of the restaurant’s appeal is […]
This Content Checklist Will Make More People Want to Visit Your Site
Bathing suit… check. Passport… check. Boarding pass… check. If only improving your website’s content was as easy as preparing for a trip to the coast of Italy (I may be going there this weekend and it may be consuming all my thoughts). Well, if you knew how to prep your content and had a focused […]
Put a Spring in Your Website’s Step With These 3 Revitalizing Tips
Cafe doors are flung open. City dwellers flock to the park and I’m sipping on the first iced coffee of the season. It’s only mid-April but with temperatures in the 80s (close to 30°C), London has fallen under a summertime spell. Of course it won’t stay this warm for long, but while it does, let’s […]
The Simple Art of Differentiating Yourself (and Attracting an Audience)
One of the first things you see when you exit the train station in Bath, Somerset, is an iconic British telephone booth filled with flowers. I’ve seen lots of red telephone booths, some lined with books inside, others vandalized and reeking of urine, but never filled with purple primroses and intertwining ivy. I took a […]
3 Meaningful Ways to Connect with Your Online Community
We had 30 minutes to kill before the next bus to Chatsworth, so we started making our way to a coffee shop around the corner. Before going in, I noticed a man in a big green coat and checkered Sherlock Holmes hat talking to my boyfriend. He had just arrived from Baslow, a town over, […]
The ‘This Is Us’ Approach to Evaluating Your Online Business
While catching up on one of my favorite American TV shows, This Is Us, Beth and Randall (a married couple) played a game called “Worst-Case Scenario.” It’s like a mental check they do with each other when something goes wrong. For example, when their foster daughter, Deja, is being difficult and moody all the time, they […]