How to Become a Content Marketing Rock Star [Book Review]

What's better than taking something you love and combining it with something else you love? It usually creates something even better than the two on their own. Kind of like "You got chocolate in my peanut butter" and "You got peanut butter in my chocolate" (that’s from a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial for those that don’t know that reference). Is there anything better?

For me, take a little bit of rock music and combine it with content marketing, and you've not only got my attention, you've got me screaming for more. I've written about this crossover before (read it here). Nobody is doing it better than Jason Miller (@JasonMillerCA), senior manager of content marketing and marketing solutions for LinkedIn (and rock photographer and blogger at Rocknrollcocktail.com).

If you've had the pleasure of seeing him speak, you'll know that no one matches his enthusiasm. He attacks the stage like your favorite band's lead singer and gives you every hit you want to hear. And by hit, I mean face-melting marketing knowledge (to steal his description) that he breaks down so you can apply it to your strategy.

Jason’s new book, Welcome to the Funnel: Proven Tactics to Turn Your Social and Content Marketing up to 11, is like a written version of his presentations. What comes across loudly is his drive and passion. He's worked hard to get to where he is and explains how we can replicate his success.

Become Hybrid Marketers – Learn All the Instruments

Jason begins with explaining the concept of "hybrid marketers." (Side note: This is a concept that is also a point of emphasis to Paul Roetzer (@paulroetzer) and PR 20/20 (@PR2020). Read Paul’s article, Hybrid Marketing Professionals: The Next Generation of Talent and download Evolution of the Prototype Marketer for his thoughts on the subject.)

As hybrid marketers, the five areas we need to understand are social, content, email marketing, SEO and analytics. Jason argues that while we don't have to be experts in all areas, we need to be able to know how each works and the roles they play in comprehensive content marketing strategies.

Build the Big Rock

The rest of the book is divided into "sides" of an album: Content Marketing, Social and All Together Now. With no lack of band examples, he guides us through some of the bigger content projects he’s created in his career, including the concept, promotion strategy and results.

The most notable concept is his "big rock." A big rock content campaign creates one major piece of gated, or downloadable, content (i.e. ebook, whitepaper, etc.). Then, the “big rock” is broken up into smaller pieces of content (i.e. email, blog, social media posts, etc.) that fuel your content strategy for the next few months. Think of it as a band putting out a new CD and using the hit singles to fuel its sales.

This book is a fun read and very relatable. His successful track record speaks for itself, and the best part is, it's not intimidating. These are real-world lessons that you can apply. So if you love marketing as much as I do, and are a fan of bands like Kiss, Judas Priest and Guns N' Roses, you need to get this book now. What are you waiting for? This one goes up to 11!

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Image Source: Jeremy Bednarski (@jeremybednarski)