(Part of a four-book set that includes three others on the business subjects of organization, public relations, and selling)
Author: Justin Champion
Publisher: Wiley – 222 pages
Book Review by: Sonu Chandiram
The recent approval by Federal Judge Richard Leon of the merger between telecom giant AT&T and multimedia content leader Time Warner proves one aphorism that has been stated recurrently by marketing executives: “content is king.”
Time Warner Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes, who has headed the multimedia firm for 10 years, told the judge, in support of his decision to combine forces with the AT&T to grow the business: “If our channels are not in distribution, we lose lots of money (from lost subscriptions and advertising).”
Time Warner’s revenues of $29.3 billion in 2016 grew $1.9 billion to $31.2 billion in 2017, whereas AT&T’s revenues slid $3.2 billion from $163.7 billion to $160.5 billion in the same period. Why did that happen? Why did a company merge with another that is about 20 times its size? Because compelling content and large distribution channels are both important for continued and sustained growth. You cannot cap with one hand
This book by HubSpot marketing guru Justin Champion not only reemphasizes the content-is-king lesson that many marketers have learned over the years, but also provides the strategies, techniques, and tools “to create content that will attract the right people, convert those people into leads, and help engage them to become customers.”
The book also “details the proven marketing processes that highlight the creation and distribution of the valuable, relevant, and consistent content,” as described in its inside front cover flap.
Champion writes that essentially, content marketing is about:
- Knowing your audience well
- Learning what they value
- Building trust with them
- Finding and delivering content that can help educate and entertain your audience
These imperatives are different from the usual purpose of marketing and advertising, which is to sell products. Content marketing is more about knowing and then, providing things of value to your defined audience(s) as well as constantly learning more details on what types of content they value the most and the least, in an almost hierarchical way.
The author describes about developing a content marketing program for:
- Identifying campaigns
- Setting timelines
- Reviewing and editing content before it goes live
To give you an overview of the content of this book on content marketing, we name its 12 chapters below:
- Building a Content Creation Framework
- The Power of Storytelling
- Generating Content Ideas
- Planning a Long-Term Content Strategy
- Becoming an Effective Writer
- Creating a Blog Post
- Extending the Value of Your Content through Repurposing
- How to Effectively Promote Content
- Measuring and Analyzing Content
- Developing a Growth Marketing Mentality
- Creating Topic Clusters and Pillar Pages
- The Results: Where to Go From Here
There are now more than 112,000 (and growing numbers of ) people who have passed the required final examination, and received certifications in content marketing from HubSpot Academy. This fact alone points out the importance of this subject to any marketer, including heads of companies.
Author:
Justin Champion is a digital nomad, creating value from anywhere he can find a wireless connection. Justin has been a digital marketer since 2009, and currently serves as the Content Professor for HubSpot Academy. Justin created that organization’s Content Marketing Certification, a globally recognized course. Hubspot Academy’s purpose is to educate and inspire people so that we, together, transform the way the world does business.
