When you consider the overall picture: the opportunities, challenges, some barriers to success in your market, then you can begin to see how regular content marketing will help your publishing brand get a foothold in the market.
Firstly, understand what main facets make some marketing pieces rock.
CopyBlogger said that good, share-worthy content is:
· Useful (it solves an audience problem)
· Interesting (it’s framed in a way that catches attention)
· Audience-friendly (it has an interesting headline and it’s formatted to be readable)
· Sticky (it invites the reader to settle in, learn more, and maybe take the relationship further).
Why do we need to do Content Marketing?
Every business starts off with a burning reason for running a content marketing campaign. Often, they get disheartened with the poor results (often caused by half-baked implementation).
Just like a good dish, you’ve got to get the recipe right first, before the results are fully baked.
Here are some nice, selfish reasons:
1. To get more leads
2. To build a list of prospects to mail to
3. To gain trust, so you can sell more of whatever you sell.
These are all helped along by email marketing systems and a content marketing supporter who cares. (Please see Power of Words for more about getting a professional content marketer to help).
But, Content Marketing is Unselfish
While all the above results are possible from implementing content marketing strategically, if you start off with just that in mind, the results will be dismal. Giving away content and informing consumers needs an unselfish mindset. So how will your content help customers?
Perhaps it’s necessary to educate the business prospect or consumer before they are ready to engage your services. Content marketing with valued articles, guides, reports, or even books certainly can help the business with a complex offering.
First, they address the target person’s problem.
Then, they delve into the various means of fixing the problem.
Lastly, they mention how their solution has helped similar others to fix this problem, with nice benefits and effects.
What is the Most Impressive Form of Content?
Without doubt, the most interesting piece of content is a paperback book. This can perhaps be made from your blog posts or podcast episodes.
How To. I suggest you get a structural editor to compile the posts into a theme you have researched, compile some graphics (some can be purchased on the stock photo sites) and then get it typeset affordably. Your book cover can be designed by a designer you admire the book covers of.
If you need some help with a Product Launch, note our killer offer: Content Marketing for a Launch.
What about Catching the Trend to Video?
With all this talk about content, you might be just thinking of written blog posts, emails and free reports… but what about the massive underlying trend to watching video? It’s all part of the umbrella trend to user-requested content.
Which topics are people interested in within video? Firstly, entertainment! Next, you can see that entrepreneur interviews; creative, on-the-street videos, and ‘how to’ videos also capture large numbers of views.
While we might intend to go look for a DIY answer to a problem, most of us are agreeable to watching how a particular company’s solution works. In fact, 84% of consumers surveyed were convinced to buy a product or service after watching a brand’s video (Source: Builderfly.com).
The trick to compelling video is to tell a story and reel the mind in… they watch without being aware of the promotional aspect, to begin with. A movie creator can help you create a video that can make your video feel like a story. Authors can use videos of various types to promote their book content.
Yes, I have finally got to buying a Vlogging kit so I can record & edit helpful videos weekly.
Video in line with Business Books
People don’t just wake up and write a book that morning, whereas they can do a video quite easily. That said, why not do both?
When doing your video, be sure to mention and have a picture of your book. People often take more seriously someone who wrote a book on a topic in their space.
This is especially true if the book helps business goals. For example, the tips in my Power Marketing book can help business owners find new avenues for marketing their business without busting the bank.
Finding a balance between clients, writing business books, articles and creating videos is a challenge — but a worthwhile one because it means you are building a lifelong intellectual property footprint.
This is what the author of ‘Profit First’ and ‘Clockwork’ said about this balance:
“Owning a business is NOT about working your ass off for the sake of trying to squeeze out a living. It is NOT about making tons of money at the expense of losing tons of life. It IS about maximizing life, bettering your life and the lives of others, which, not so ironically, fattens your purse.” ~ Mike Michalowicz
If Mike realised that writing books and speaking was a priority, and that led to opportunity, then perhaps you can do it too.
