Neal Schaffer Blog

• What Is a Marketing Consultant? The 2026 Guide to What They Do, What They Cost, and When You Actually Need One

  

  Here’s something most “what is a marketing consultant” articles won’t tell you: the role doesn’t really have a single definition. It spans everything from a freelancer running your Facebook ads for $50/hour to a senior strategist embedded in your leadership team for $15,000/month. Same job title, wildly different work, wildly different price tags. And the […]

  What Is a Marketing Consultant? The 2026 Guide to What They Do, What They Cost, and When You Actually Need One appeared first on NealSchaffer.com

• 25 Content Marketing Tools I Actually Use and Recommend in 2026

  

  Let’s face it: content marketing is hard, and it ain’t getting any easier. Every business, from decades-old establishments to enthusiastic startups, is fighting for attention online. Original, engaging content is in demand more than ever, and every successful content marketer must find that sweet spot between understanding their audience and creating content that will attract […]

  25 Content Marketing Tools I Actually Use and Recommend in 2026 appeared first on NealSchaffer.com

• Longtail Keywords: The SEO Asset That Quietly Beats the Big Words (And Wins You AI Citations Too)

  

  Most SEO budgets are pointed at the wrong end of the search demand curve. According to Ahrefs’ analysis of its U.S. keyword database, roughly 95% of all unique keywords get fewer than 10 monthly searches. Most marketers see that number and shrug. Why chase keywords nobody is searching? Here is what they miss. In any […]

  Longtail Keywords: The SEO Asset That Quietly Beats the Big Words (And Wins You AI Citations Too) appeared first on NealSchaffer.com

• How to Write a LinkedIn Post That Actually Gets Seen in 2026

  

  I’ve been publishing on LinkedIn since the platform was small enough that you could recognize most of the active voices by name. Three books later, a decade of running social media training at Rutgers Business School, and somewhere north of a thousand posts on the platform, the question I get asked most often by clients, […]

  How to Write a LinkedIn Post That Actually Gets Seen in 2026 appeared first on NealSchaffer.com

• LinkedIn SSI: What Your Social Selling Index Score Really Means in 2026

  

  While most marketers spend their budgets chasing attention on mass-market social networks like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, sales professionals have always known something different: LinkedIn is where the action is. When I speak on social selling at conferences and corporate events, I am still genuinely surprised by how many sales pros have either never heard […]

  LinkedIn SSI: What Your Social Selling Index Score Really Means in 2026 appeared first on NealSchaffer.com