You already know how important a part of your marketing strategy effective content is, it’s a vital part of any business’s success these days. Many people think of content marketing as a creation of the digital age, but in fact it’s origins can be traced all the way back to prehistoric times. Offering potential customers informative, interesting, and useful content as a platform to deliver a marketing message has always been an effective way to sell products and services.
The difference now is that virtually anyone can get in on the content marketing game for very little investment, and reach a much larger and wider audience than was possible in the past, but with a lot more competition competing for their attention. And digital technology has created a new set of rules. Online content has to be crafted and presented to appeal to the digital consumer, with their short attention spans and increasing demands on their time.
‘Knowledge is power’, as someone famous once said, and businesses are hungry for information on how to maximize their content marketing efforts in the new digital arena. The number of Google searches for the term ‘content marketing’ has skyrocketed over the last decade. Although there are plenty of online content marketing resources out there, the best source of information is to be found, as always, in books written by successful experts in the field, those who have put their education, wisdom, and insights to work and come out winners. And now they want to share their winning methods with you. Here are five of the best you should add to your reading list in 2019.
5 Best Content Marketing Books For 2019
Content: The Atomic Particle of Marketing by Rebecca Lieb
Subtitled The Definitive Guide to Content Marketing Strategy, the author goes beyond the usual advice on how to create blog and social media posts and email campaigns and focuses on a more comprehensive view, one that includes how content integrates with the other elements of a marketing strategy, as well as IT infrastructure and even company organization and staffing. The result of years of research and many hours of interviews with some of the world’s top marketing leaders, this book is a must for anyone who wants to learn how content fits into the overall picture.
Epic Content Marketing: How To Tell A Different Story, Break Through The Clutter, And Win More Customers By Marketing Less by Joe Pulizzi
This book gets back to the nuts-and-bolts basics of content marketing, including discovering your own unique niche, creating and curating your content, developing social media and email campaigns, and measuring the effectiveness of your efforts. It also takes a look at the long history of content marketing and specific case studies of companies who have used content to rise to phenomenal success, and discusses how quality content can convince and convert customers without hitting them with a sales pitch. A great read for marketing newbies and veterans alike.
Guest Blogging Goldmine by Tom Corson
The author states that he attained more than 100,000 monthly visitors in just nine months using the techniques outlined in this book. He starts with the fundamentals, how to create a business blog on a budget and monetize it, useful WordPress plugins, and how to maintain it efficiently with a daily routine. He also tells the story of his own long struggle to success, and how he used the power of authoritative guest bloggers to gain readership and achieve outstanding results.
Content Machine: Use Content Marketing To Build A 7-Figure Business With Zero Advertising by Dan Norris
Though the book’s title makes a statement that seems a bit unrealistic to say the least, the author backs it up with his personal account of using content marketing to build a million dollar business in two years while spending less than $200 on advertising. It takes the reader through all the steps of the process from generating initial ideas to creating an effective content writing team, and also provides many helpful downloads to help you along the way.
Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way To Influence And Persuade by Dr. Robert B. Cialdini
Dr. Cialdini, an accomplished social psychologist, has earned his reputation with his in-depth studies into how people are persuaded and convinced into accepting a particular point of view or opinion, with obvious application to content marketing or any type of business communication. He shows how your target audience can be prepared to receive your marketing message before it’s even delivered by controlling the focus of their attention. A bestselling and essential read for anyone who wants to make their content more appealing and effective.
Content marketing is arguably the most critical part of any marketing strategy. Take the time to learn the concepts and techniques to do it right and you’ll be richly rewarded.
Bob P is a lifelong collector of books and an avid reader with a wide variety of literary interests, but especially enjoys short horror fiction, action-adventure and history. He also enjoys hunting and fishing, finding and identifying wildflowers, edible wild plants and mushrooms. Bob is a commercial pilot and is interested in general aviation and aviation history. He also enjoys classical and jazz music and is a jazz trumpet player and collector.
