Master Content Marketing: A Simple Strategy to Cure the Blank Page Blues and Attract a Profitable Audience, by Pamela Wilson
“Old marketing? It was like throwing marketing “spears” at a school of fish in the hopes you’d hit one…. Content marketing? It’s like offering some delicious, nutritious bait, and inviting the fish to swim your way.”
Pamela Wilson’s Master Content Marketing promises structure and processes that will help you create customer-winning content over and over again. And she promises that her approach is a “lazy” one. She begins with an introduction to content marketing and strategy, describes a seven-part creation formula and finishes with how to stay productive in the long term.
Why listen to Wilson’s advice? In 2010, she decided to try her hand at writing and began contributing articles to Copyblogger. By 2015, she had earned Copyblogger’s lead role. She knows how to write content that converts people by the hundreds of thousands.
I first came across Wilson when she was plugging Master Content Marketing on an episode of Belinda Weaver and Kate Toon’s Hot Copy Podcast. She kept describing herself as an amateur writer but spoke with clarity and insight, so I ordered a copy.
The book is packed with advice and ideas that translate to plenty of other writing formats. Most chapters finish with a check-list. The formatting is attention-grabbing, and there are acres of white space for notes. This is a book written for action. The layout alone is a study in how to get and keep a reader engaged.
What you’ll learn
Just about every angle of content writing is covered:
- Creating a content idea library
- Writing clickable headlines
- Crafting your opening sentence to draw your audience in
- Building subheads that please readers and skimmers
- Generating a compelling call to action
- Boost readability with formatting
- Increasing your pull through image choice
- Keeping your writing momentum and adapting to business changes
- Squeezing the most out of your popular content
Plus, the appendices are bursting with extras. There’s a checklist for setting up your website, editing tips and a large section of input from other content marketers.
And Wilson understands where a beginner can get stuck. She knows you might be struggling to start writing because you can’t decide the direction you’ll ultimately take. Or worried you’ll change your focus in future. She also discusses how to split your writing between targeting newbie, intermediate and advanced readers.
The lack of discussion of SEO is refreshing. There’s just one page on keywords and keyword research. Instead, you’re encouraged to study the words and phrases your target audience uses in your site’s comments and on social media. Because, of course, that’s what your potential customer will type into Google.
Creating content faster
Wilson describes creating an article in a series of short sessions over a four-day period. From writing your piece’s “backbone” on Day 1, through to publishing and promoting on Day 4. Her suggestion is to squeeze in any research you need on Day 0. It sounds simple but I suspect you can double that if your audience expects fact-heavy content.
I had a couple of niggles. The book’s focus is structure and process. It won’t deliver complete “content mastery” if your writing skills need work. And I found the cute owl graphics throughout an odd choice. After all, this is a book that offers serious marketing advice and the potential for hefty commercial benefits.
Wilson is an excellent writer and an even better teacher. She explains that “lazy” means efficient and smart, and that’s exactly the approach she offers.
This book will help anyone create a content strategy that “has fish swimming your way”. Even a seasoned content writer is bound to find some valuable tips and perhaps a more efficient writing approach. And Wilson’s energy and pragmatism will enthuse anyone to get on and start writing.
Buy a copy of Master Content Marketing and keep it within easy reach on your desk. There are a dozen ways it will inspire you if you’re facing the Blank Page Blues.
Master Content Marketing: A Simple Strategy to Cure the Blank Page Blues and Attract a Profitable Audience, Pamela Wilson, © 2016 BIG Brand Books, ISBN 978-0-9978754-0-9