Book Review: Epic Content Marketing

At Twist Agency, we like to keep up with our craft and that includes reading books from industry influencers. We just finished the book, Epic Content Marketing by Joe Pulizzi and boy do we want to get out there and start writing some epic content for our clients.

This book has taught us some very important key points in understanding content marketing. The most important is – you must sell less in order to sell more. That is the key statement when reading this book. Prepare yourself to think differently in terms of marketing, as things aren’t the same as they once were. Marketing has shifted to the customers needs more than ever before. Joe writes, that we must provide content to the target audience with the sole purpose of engaging them to cause them to react – purchase, like, follow, share.

As a business, you must create information that your target audience wants, needs, can’t live without. If you give your audience what they want, they will surely give you back what you want – sale, like, follow or whatever your end all goal is.

We learned the big difference between traditional advertising vs. content marketing – traditional advertising is used to make people aware of the brand, to demonstrate the brand. Content marketing is used to bring living proof of the brand to its customers in the form of video demonstrations, interviews, educational webinars, case studies, white papers, blog insights and advice. It allows you to tell potential customers what you are about; it prequalifies customers.

Think of this: consumers no longer buy a brand’s products/services; they buy into the brand’s approach to solving their problems. Companies incorporating a successful content marketing strategy are understanding the art of service and conversation should be incorporated into their marketing.

Content marketing is storytelling. To be a great storyteller, you must seek out the information that your target audience is searching for.