For those of you who have been following this blog for a long time, you know I rarely highlight a single book in a post, but I am making an exception this time, because I feel so strongly about the power of content marketing. It has been my secret to success over the last six years, and I am focusing on this topic heavy this year on my blog. To that end, I wanted to highlight a new book by my buddy Matt Mansfield, The Beginner’s Guide to Content Marketing for Small Businesses.
I read a lot of marketing books, and let me tell you: they’re not all useful. Some focus on high-level content the average small business owner is not going to be able to apply to their business in a meaningful way. But when I find a book that really digs into the “how-to,” that lets me start using the principles right away, now that’s one I can stand behind. Matt Mansfield delivers just that– marketing tips and tricks you can start using immediately.
Who Should Read This Book
If you’ve read about content marketing and have an inkling that it can help your business, this book is for you. If you can’t necessarily pay someone else to do it for you and are willing to learn strategies to do it yourself, you’ll get a lot out of this book. If you’re willing to put the time and effort into building your brand’s reputation online through great content, Matt wrote this book for you.
What You’ll Walk Away With
The thing I love about Matt is that he always knows exactly what his small business audience wants. He knows you don’t want a lot of fluff or numbers; you want proven advice you can use now.
In his book, you will learn:
- How to increase targeted traffic to your site
- How to build authority and trust that makes people want to buy from you
- How to write content your audience wants to read, share, and talk about
A Sneak Peek
Now, I’m not going to give away Matt’s secret sauce. For that, you’ll have to buy the book. But I will share a couple of things I really enjoyed.
Matt talks about the three parts of marketing content. Each piece of online marketing content, he says, has three components:
- Topic: what the content is about
- Information: the actual text, images, videos, audio, etc.
- Design: how the content is presented
These parts work together to present a piece of content that, if done right, will resonate with your audience. But how do you make sure your audience latches onto it?
Use the WIFM principle.
Matt (and other marketing experts) says that customers care about one thing: what’s in it for me? They don’t care about how great you think your products or services are; they want to know how it will help them solve their problems. If you address that within your content — without being salesy or pushy — potential customers will begin to trust you. And that’s the first step in moving them toward buying from you.
Another gem in the book is the Appendix. Here he provides valuable resources, like information on how to hire a freelancer or agency using a site like Elance. He also provides additional links for each chapter in case you want to dive deeper on any of the topics.
Once you buy this book, keep it close at hand so you can refer to it again and again as you build out your content marketing strategy.
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