Book Review: Content Code, by Mark W. Schaefer

I suppose it was Mark Schaefer’s responsibility to write this book after he set off the earthquake that was his original post about “content shock” last year. He terrified huge swathes of marketers who were happily cranking out useful, relevant content and hoping for the best. After all, what can a small business or entrepreneur do when they’re up against big brands with agency resources, editors, and video crews?

According to Mark’s newest book, The Content Code, the secret is that content marketing doesn’t end when you create the content. That’s only the beginning.

Mark is, at his heart, an excellent teacher, and that shines through in this very approachable book. Each chapter lays out one of the ways you can “ignite your content” and crack the code.

He explores concepts like how to differentiate your voice, get attention for your brand, and be the go-to resource for your customers.

He has actually lived through the experience of cultivating his own community and successful consulting business, so he is speaking from direct knowledge, not from hypothetical concepts.

Here are the six factors of the content code:

• Brand development
• Audience and influencers
• Distribution, Advertising, Promotion, and SEO
• Authority
• “Shareability” embedded into each piece of content
• Social proof and social signals

There are so many concrete ideas for you to implement, but here are a few great ones just to whet your appetite:

• Get emotional. Find a way to weave inspiration, laughter, awe, or entertainment into your next blog post.
• Don’t abandon your older content. That great thing you wrote two weeks ago is still relevant and engaging, and useful to your customers, right? Build in a mechanism where you can re-share older content down the road, and watch it get shared more! Go one step further and re-share content that accrues lots of shares the first time you post it.
• Comment on new research or ideas. Many of your readers want to share your content because it makes them helpful to their own readers (double karma). Be the one who reads the whole trend report for your industry and makes incisive commentary first.

I strongly recommend this book for anyone involved in marketing, regardless of where they are in their career. There are tidbits in the Content Code for the new marketer as well as the seasoned veteran.

Get the book now, before your competitors do.