I’m the chair for the Content Marketing track at SIPA’s annual Marketing Conference, Dec. 11-13 in Las Vegas. I’m just finalizing the session descriptions now, but the subjects we will cover include social media, video, blogging, IT, analytics and SEO. My goal is that these sessions will be hands-on, so that the video session will show you how to do a video, the analytics how to keep track of who’s reading your content, and so on.

There is some great content marketing going on in the industry now that I will point you to over the next couple months, and some of that proudly comes from SIPA members. Sharing strategies and tactics with your peers has always been part of SIPA, and that tradition will continue at the Marketing Conference. For example, Real Magnet has an impressive blog that gives you actionable information and detailed strategy. Recent posts, which seem to come about twice a week, are headlined, “Which emails should include a call to inaction?” “Marketing to mobile” and “If Nobody clicks, does nobody care?”

Last week they posted an interview with senior director of deliverability, John Bollinger. It’s a good primer on the state of email deliverability:

“There has been a focus change in the email world in the last year or so at the major ISPs. They have been focusing more on engagement as a factor of deliverability. All of the old rules still apply regarding content, complaint rates and things like that, but now they’re really looking…if someone is not opening a message or they’re deleting it before they’re opening it; if they’re opening and reading it and how long they’re reading it; if they’re clicking on a link; if they’re moving things from their junk mail folder into the inbox. These are all the positive things that ISPs now bring into play to distinguish between a valid sender and what they consider to be a spammer. The more marketers can be specific and relevant to that particular subscriber, the more likely they’ll be able to continue deliverability to that recipient.”

There’s more good stuff where that came from. Across the pond, Optimus Education, a division of Electric Word in the U.K., runs a Consult the Experts page where they list questions and the date they’re asked, such as “Could you please tell me where I could find precise, written information on funding for exchange students from other EU countries?” In order to get the answers, you have to either log in, take a trial or subscribe. The questions are substantive enough so that you do get a good idea of what you will find behind the paywall.

They have seven hubs, so the Consult the Experts looks impressive, especially because the questions are recent. There is also a “News” page that is not behind a paywall. If I’m in this field, then this is a pretty good font of information that I’m going to check on at least a weekly basis. You can look at the listings by date or hub. It’s also a nicely designed website, with clear listings, easy to read titles and calls to action in many places.

Modern Distribution Management posts weekly – sometimes even more – podcasts. They call one of their features Manufacturing Revival Radio and a typical subject, from last week, was Real-Time Data’s Effect on Production. They provide Show Notes and Highlights with three bullets – “Discover how real-time collection and analysis can have an immediate impact on your production” – in addition to a short bio of the speaker.

This is another well-designed website, with banner ads that don’t disrupt, good calls to action and easy-to-read buttons. Tom Gale, the president of Gale Media, MDM’s parent, is also a track chair for Las Vegas. I’m excited by the high quality of the Conference Chairs – Adam Goldstein and Bob Coleman - my fellow track chairs and the early list of speakers that have already been selected. I’ll soon have an interview with Joel Rothstein, the keynote speaker from Marriott, who will be speaking on gamification, one of the hottest topics in the industry right now.  That alone should entice many to attend.

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Ronn Levine began his career as a reporter for The Washington Post and has won numerous writing and publications awards since. Most recently, he spent 12 years at the Newspaper Association of America covering a variety of topics before joining SIPA in 2009 as managing editor. Follow Ronn on Twitter at @SIPAOnline