Robert W. Bly - The Content Marketing Handbook

Bob Bly does a fantastic job of summarizing all the keys to content marketing success. When you follow Bobs Silver Rule, youll be in a far better position with prospects because they will be calling YOU. I built my own business over the past 14 years using many of the same tips and insider secrets that Bob shares in his book. I recommend it highly.

STEWART GANDOLF, CEO OF HEALTHCARE SUCCESS, LLC

Businesspeople have too many hats that they need to wear. Bob Blys book on content marketing is a simple, practical, usable gold mine full of tips, ideas, and strategies that help any business owner wear the marketing hat.

JIM TURNER, PRESIDENT OF ESSE INC. AND MEDIXSAFE

With The Content Marketing Handbook, Bob achieves what many have unsuccessfully attempted. He shows businesses how to blend content and copywriting to create content marketing plans that produce bottom-line results.

KEITH A. TRIMELS, REGISTERED ENGINEER AND COPYWRITER

The Content Marketing Handbook provides a simple step-by-step approach to using your knowledge, experience, and expertise for positioning, credibility-building, and profit. As with Bobs many other books and information products, no stone is left unturned. This isnt theory; as a client of Bobs, I can tell you he practices what he preaches.

ANDREW GARDNER, OWNER OF CARE & COMFORT PRODUCTS LTD.

In The Content Marketing Handbook, Bob Bly offers marketers at all levels a deeper understanding of the difference between content copy and professionally crafted direct response marketing copy. I understand content copy specific to my field but always look to those few rare experts who know how to create that extra edge that makes all the difference. What makes this book so different (and special) is Bob lays out a concise blueprint of the inner workings of creating that extra edge and specifically how to deploy in a truly omni-present marketing manner; done so, in a way Ive never seen revealed so transparently.

MATT ZAGULA, FOUNDER OF THE SMART ADVISOR NETWORK

Entrepreneur Press, Publisher

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ebook ISBN: 978-1-61308-417-5

To Matt Zagulaa true marketing pro and master of his field

Contents

Acknowledgments

I thank my agent, Bob Diforio, for finding a home for this book. I also thank the team at Entrepreneur PressJennifer Dorsey, Corbin Collins, Karen Billipp, and Vanessa Camposfor making this book much better than when the manuscript first crossed their desk, as they have done for all my books with Entrepreneur Press.

Thanks also to my vendors, colleagues, joint venture partners, and clients, all of whom have contributed to my education in content marketing in a multichannel world. Some of the material in this book appeared, in slightly different form, in articles I have written for publications, including Target Marketing magazine, my enewsletter The Direct Response Letter, and my earlier book The White Paper Marketing Handbook.

Preface

O f the megatrends in marketing todaywhich include search engine optimization (SEO), online video, social media, mobile marketing, ad retargeting, and infographicscontent marketing is emerging as the new killer app in the marketing world.

Although content marketing has been used profitably for more than a century, its popularity has exploded in the past couple of decades: According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), as of 2017, almost nine out of ten B2B companies were using content marketing.

The CMI also says corporations spend more than one-quarter of their promotional budgets on content marketing. According to market research company Forrester, in 2016, U.S. businesses spent a total of $10 billion on content marketing. Content marketing was forecast to be a $300 billion industry in 2019.

Yet many content strategists and advocates get one part of marketing entirely wrong: They tell unsuspecting businesspeople that it is no longer effective to sell or persuade, and instead advise them to think of themselves as publishers instead of marketers.

The error in this method, of course, is that businesses exist to sell customers products and services they want and need, and for which they will pay a price that allows the seller to make a profit. Businesses purpose is not to give away free information, which is essentially what content marketing is.

Content marketing is not an end unto itself. It is a means to an endto sell products. Content is not the be-all and end-all of marketing, either. Its just one of many methods that can be used to get customers, orders, and sales.

Content marketing is most effective when its integrated with a multichannel campaign that not only educates consumers (with content) but also offers that content with various direct response methods both online and offline to generate leads, prospects, and sales. This is the approach you will read about in this book.

In this handbook, I share lessons from my four decades of experience planning and producing hundreds of content marketing campaigns. In these pages, you will discover: