There’s kind of a mad genius you should know. Andy Crestodina, Principal and Strategic Director of Orbit Media. I gave you a toolbox in my last post for creating visual content so now I’m going to point you in the right direction to get a excellent grasp on content marketing and writing: Crestodina’s book Content Chemistry. For the past 12+ years, he’s conversed with businesses and deployed websites to attract and convert visitors, so he’s broken it down in a lecture and lab format. It’s practical, intelligent, entertaining and exciting.
Getting it Down to a Science
If you or your company are thinking “let’s just feed the content monster,” I can relate. But you must think about what works for your audience. Your website is a primary attraction that will get them lining up to access your content. If you have a mind blowing white paper, it might not get found because of a lousy homepage. In the words of Andy:
To be successful, websites must do two things: 1. Attract visitors, and 2. Convert those visitors into leads and customers. In order to do this, web marketers must do two things: 1. Create content, and 2. Promote it. Content makes the difference between success and failure on the web.
He opens this precious piece of work with a lecture behind the history and theory of web marketing. Then he shares the story of a Libby, who like me and others, needed to figure out exactly how: traffic leads to conversions and leads, then factor in ‘time closing rates’ which all equals profit! You’ll have to read to find out the specific formulas. It’s an educational narrative at its finest.
Periodic Table of Content
A section following the lecture I found particularly intriguing is when he breaks down content particles (Tw, Ne, Vi) into what makes up your marketing strategy and describes the various forms these particles can manifest into. For instance, you could atomize a case study into several newsletters. And we know most of them: tweets, newsletter, videos and so on. It’s a neat periodic table, but what awesomeness would it be without elaborate advice and coaching, right? So he takes it further by providing you strategic directions and examples for, but not limited to,
- How to research keywords
- How to write effective articles and website copy (I especially found the section writing for each stage of the conversion funnel valuable).
- Email Marketing
- Guest blogging (on your site and others)
- Social Promotion!
Content marketing is a topic I’m consistently learning and tweaking best practices but it does get annoying rummaging through blogs despite their quality. Sometimes that’s just how I run and I bet a lot of you can relate. I like a book or hub that can help with a spectrum of things that share an ultimate goal. Content Chemistry does that. It literally is a breath of fresh air and relief.
I once heard, you can’t write good software without good humans (and emotion). This is what I think of about Andy’s message: you can’t write or market content well if you just think about the robots (search engines) without your human touch, but we’re getting closer to befriending the robots with Andy’s book.
This book is a lab success. Content Chemistry go kaboom! :-) I hope you become a fellow owner of this book!
@AnneReuss
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Anne, great piece. I think the illustration speaks nicely to the key elements of being successful with social. It really cuts through all the BS and gets it. Another one I am going to have to put on the reading list. Thanks for sharing
You're welcome precious pal. It can be a solid weekend reading then you're ready to spice up your marketing on Monday! :)