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Book Review: Get Content Get Customers
Turn Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing is the subtitle of Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett’s great book, Get Content Get Customers, and if there is a book to read on the subject of content marketing, this is the one. The world of marketing is changing at increasing speed. People around the world are ignoring traditional marketing conventions and experiencing a behavioral transformation. Pulizzi and Barrett have produced the content guide for those who would be the change agents for their companies and how they communicate to consumers.
In the past, a marketer’s only job was to get people to buy products or services. This is no longer the reality. Today’s buyers are smarter, choosier, and more aware of exactly what it is they are seeking. Buyers are not looking for the “wow” factor, but are seeking specific information about a product or service they are possibly going to buy. According to our authors:
Content marketing is the art of understanding exactly what your customers need to know and delivering it to them in a relevant and compelling way.
Because buyers have access to innumerable sources of information on the Internet, they are more knowledgeable and more prepared to make an intelligent buying decision by themselves. Therefore, they ignore unwanted marketing that is thrown at them in the guise of TV and radio commercials, unwanted direct marketing, or useless glossy ads in the press. Buyers refuse the “push” of old-style marketing in favor of doing their own research and only “pulling” down infomercials or other such knowledge containers that fit their purpose. Buyers no longer care to expose themselves to droning sales pitches. Instead, they now expect the vendors to answer complex questions and hard core data.
Marketers and their content writers must change their mindset and ramp up to this new evolution of buyers and the new level of information these buyers are seeking. Products and services are not selling by themselves or by way of flashy, gimmicky marketing. When products are equal, the product whose marketing content provides the buyers with the sought-after information will ultimately win. Marketing warfare now entails marketing organizations taking over from media companies and tailoring content to fit exactly to what buyers are expecting.
Like any competent guide, Get Content Get Customers provides its readers with the tools necessary for learning new strategies and how to implement them. In particular, the alluring introduction to the book recounts a brief general history of marketing and how it ended up where it is today, in the age where competitive advantage of a product no longer guarantees market leadership. Now that we think about it, when products are so easily copied and manufactured more cheaply, we see that the onus really is on the marketing organizations to get out there and draw in the market share by providing customer-centric content.
This book contains fours succinct parts, of which the introduction is the first section. Although the reader is somewhat obliged to read the first two parts linearly, the third and fourth sections are reference sections that are able to stand alone.
Part II contains the meat of the book, four chapters covering “How to Put Content Marketing to Work.” The main task of the change agent in an organization is to develop the content marketing mindset and then re-engineer the processes to match this mindset; this is the underpinning of the content marketing strategy. A pivotal process is to begin to think like a publisher by delivering relevant content that is of crucial importance to the target market.
Pulizzi and Barrett provide a memorable formula (BEST) for creating a content marketing road map:
- Behavioral
- What behavior do you want to instill? What do you want the consumer to do? How can we measure this behavior?
- Essential
- Deliver essential information that the best prospective customers really need. What media types are appropriate for each type of consumer?
- Strategic
- Your marketing strategies must mirror your overall business strategy.
- Targeted
- Understand everything the customers need and then target your content with the utmost precision so your customers get exactly what they are looking for.
It is imperative that marketers understand their targeted consumer to be able to, in turn, be understood. With an in-depth understanding of exactly what content consumers find important, marketers can then plan a strategic approach to the consumers that will bear measurable results.
Part II also provides a thorough listing and description of all the content types that marketers can use within their content strategy to reach prospective customers. The types range from print (magazines, newsletters, white papers) to online (Web sites, portals, microsites, e-books, Webcasts, white papers, digital magazines, e-newsletters, business blogs, video series, virtual tradeshows, podcasts) to in-person content marketing (road shows, executive round-tables). Each content type has a table that outlines why and when to use that type, which is a useful at-a-glance tool. In addition, the authors list points to remember and outline the key objectives of each content type, which marketers can then match with the objectives of their business strategy. The authors have succinctly covered all the content type bases.
The rest of Part II is devoted to guiding the marketer through the four steps to creating a content plan, and explaining the basic principles of content promotion.
Part III is a valuable set of 17 best practice success stories. The diversity in these different stories ensures that the reader can identify with a company that is similar in size, content strategy, and marketing mindset. The best practices reveal how companies conducted their content marketing strategy, approached their target consumers, and gleaned key takeaways from the lessons learned.
Part IV lists the top ten content marketing lessons learned from successful practitioners, and then recounts an in-depth case study of developing a content marketing strategy from start to finish. This section of the book provides valuable insights into how successful practitioners achieved their own personal revolution in content strategy, which enables the readers to begin to envision rolling out the same revolution in their companies.
Joe Pulizzi and Newt Barrett have proved in this book that today’s secret to marketing is a mélange of the worlds of public relations, advertising, and marketing. The source of marketing success is creating compelling and applicable content. This book is a must-read for any marketing professional, or even startup operation, needing to start a revolution in its consumer-centric content.
Janette,
Thanks so much for taking the time to review our book. I’m delighted that you found it valuable.
As it happens, I will be attending the Content Strategy Forum in Paris in April and hope that I will have a chance to meet you in person.
Newt
Joe Pulizzi · 26 February 2010, 19:22
Janette…thanks for your kind and thoughtful review of our book. It’s amazing how much has changed since we published it, but how relevant the art of producing great content continues to be.