The Content Marketing Playbook:
42 Ways to Connect with Customers

STOP! Don't go any further with social media
until you think about your content strategy

We all know that the rules have changed. Shouting for attention - the old model of traditional advertising - brings little more than customer indignation.

The new model - or new rules of social media or marketing or whatever you want to call it - brings people who are actively looking for something: information, insight, solutions to their problems.  If you have that special something, you can attract that special someone - the customer.

Skip all this and download the Playbook PDF now!
Go to the Chapter List to See Your Favorite Chapter in HTML.

But these new rules of attraction require a shift in direction. It's not about "pushing" your message, but "pulling" in your customers. And the way to pull is to publish content.

In the book Joe wrote with Newt Barrett, Get Content Get Customers, content marketing is defined very simply. It's worth repeating:

Content marketing is

the art of understanding exactly what your customers need to know and delivering it to them in a relevant and compelling way.

That's it. That's the beating heart of content marketing. But the body of your content marketing strategy will take on its own unique form based on a number of factors: your specific goals, what your audience needs, the expertise you can share, learning-style preferences, available resources of time and money, and other factors.

And that's where The Content Marketing Playbook: 42 Ways to Connect with Customers comes into play. Inside, you'll find a smorgasbord of content options: long and short, textual and visual, simple and sophisticated. The idea is not to present a comprehensive review; content marketing is too big and evolving too quickly for a "definitive" summary.

The goal, rather, is to open our minds to the possibilities. To explore, ponder, imagine and daydream. Then, once inspired, to take action.

Because this is the key take-away from The Content Marketing Playbook: perfection isn't necessary. Don't delay participation in anticipation of a future day when you'll be able to get everything "right."

Instead, dive in now. You have 42 excellent choices in front of you. At least one of them will make sense for your business. Act on it. Learn from your successes and your failures. Then revise and act again.

Because publishing content your prospects want is the best way to attract and retain the customers your business needs.

How to Best Use the Playbook

Thanks to Brian Clark, we liked his eBook concept for Authority Rules so much that we stole it. So, you can enjoy each of the 42 content initiatives in chapter format (here's the Table of Contents)...or, you can download the eBook in PDF format. The choice is yours! All this is free and ungated (hat tip to David Meerman Scott ).  All that we ask is that you pass the word along and share the Playbook with your colleagues and through social media channels.

Don't Forget the Content Strategy

This Playbook is not about content strategy...it's designed to help you with ideas to execute the strategy you have.  So, if you don't have a content strategy, first review these content strategy articles:
-- 20 Questions to Ask Before You Launch Your Content Project

-- The B.E.S.T. Method for Content Strategy (what comes before executing the ideas in this Playbook)

And we recommend two excellent books on content strategy, our own Get Content Get Customers and Kristina Halvorsen's Content Strategy for the Web.

Special Thanks...

Goes to Hanley Wood Marketing, who graciously offered to sponsor the Content Marketing Playbook. Hanley Wood Marketing is a Junta42 Certified Vendor and a great partner.

So, please...enjoy these 42 tasty content morsels. I know we enjoyed putting them together.

Yours in Content,

Joe Pulizzi

@juntajoe

joe[at]junta42.com

Jonathan Kranz

@jonkranz

jonkranz[at]kranzcom.com

P.S. The Content Marketing Playbook is a work in progress. Have a suggestion for an additional content type? Just shoot us an email at add[at]junta42.com and we'll get right on it.

Chapter 1 - White Paper