Lazy But Efficient Content Marketing [Book Review]

A Review of Master Content Marketing by Pamela Wilson

Partway into the prolog of Pamela Wilson’s Master Content Marketing, there’s a section with the following heading:

“My Lazy (But Efficient!) Approach to Content Marketing”

As soon as I read that heading, I knew that I’d found a content marketing and writing soulmate. My life goal is to be lazy but efficient – anything that helps get me there is golden.

The book did not disappoint. It is a terrific guide to the nuts and bolts of content marketing – specifically, business blogging with a purpose. I wish that she’d written it years ago.

This small package packs a ton of practical, actionable advice on creating the content that fuels successful content marketing, including:

• A crystal clear, non-nonsense explanation of business blogging strategy – what you write
• Solid advice about writing process and habits – how you write

The combination is a one-two punch for writers looking to be more effective. Writes Wilson,

“When you combine solid content structure with habits that will help you develop lifelong writing skills? Well, watch out, world!”

Demystifying Effective Business Blogging

The online world is littered with lonely, inconsistent, or ineffective business blogs.

Many businesses and entrepreneurs realize that they need to maintain a blog, but don’t know how to populate it with great content. So they toss up random posts every month or so, and wonder why blogging doesn’t work for them.

This book covers the whole business blogging process, from creating a strategy and finding topics to churning out posts consistently. This may be one of the best explanations of business blogging that I’ve ever read. I learned a few things and will have to up my game now.

The Habits of Effective Content Creation

How we write is almost as important as what we write. To create consistent, high-quality content in a busy, interrupt-driven world, we need to form habits that protect the work and our sanity.

This is the “lazy-but-effective” part of the book’s pitch, and it’s terrific. Writes Wilson,

“Content creation is a habit you form. Part of the process is setting up your physical environment for success — carving out a space and laying out your tools. The other part of the process is withholding judgment on the outcome.”

Preach it, Pamela!

Wilson divides the work of blogging into four phases, spreading it across multiple days:

• Day 1: Build Your Article Backbone
• Day 2: Fill in the Details
• Day 3: Polish and Prepare to Publish
• Day 4: Publish, Promote, and Propagate

In The Writer’s Process, the writing recipe calls for dividing the work into its different steps. This book offers another approach to that same advice.

This Book Is For Anyone Who….

… wants to consistently create blog content for business purposes. That includes:

• Content marketers (the title is a dead give-away)
• Authors marketing their books. Blogging is a powerful book marketing strategy: through blogs you can provide useful content that converts strangers into acquaintances.

… currently maintains a blog. You’ll find tactics for making the content creation process easier and your blogs more effective.

… is new to business blogging. I can think of no better way to start than with this book in your hand.

Check it out and let me know what you think.