Content marketing is one of those phrases that you hear and think, "Yeah, I do that, a little, I think... what exactly is that again? Just to be sure we're talking about the same thing?"
Content marketing, for me, is the ongoing process of creating writing, video, etc. for the intentional purpose tied to some larger objective. For example, if I am an author and I want people to buy my new book, I may start writing short stories or poems on other blogs that link back to my book. If readers like the story or poem, they may check out my novel.
This week I've talked about objectives, audience and author platform as critical parts of planning your approach to marketing a self-published book. Once you've found the people you want to talk to and where you want to talk to them, the next step is thinking about what kind of "content" to create. Essentially, you want to create content not just that readers will like, but that will entice those readers to come to your blog, check out your book and ideally buy a copy and tell their friends.
So how do you do that?
Here are the top 3 ways I've seen work.
1. Guest Posting: This means writing a blog post or story on someone else's blog. It's ideal because that other person has an audience that you can reach, and you have the added legitimacy of being hosted on someone else's site, rather than talking about yourself on your own site.
2. Friend Shares: This is on any social media channel. I frequently see authors gain followers and readers when friends or colleagues post about them. There's something about that second degree of separation that makes you, the author, the right balance of known and mysterious.
3. Your Writing: Nothing beats a good piece of writing that leaves the reader wanting more. The forms I see that work best are a PDF or an eBook that you can give away for free with a call to action inside of it asking readers to come check out your website.
Have any of you used or see a good content marketing approach by an author?
Image courtesy of neonihil via flickr
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