Do Content Marketing for Startups? Add
These 5 Books to Your Must-Read List If you do content marketing for startups, you know
that you’re expected to wear many different hats. Sure, you need to be a great writer,
comfortable on webcam moderating a webinar or hosting a podcast interview, decent at
the mechanics of on-page and off-page SEO, fluent in the social media platforms that
matter most to your core buyer personas, and adept at the basics of project management. However, what about the soft skills and
business skills that are startup-specific? How can you ensure that your content marketing
initiatives play at a much strategic level for the startup? More like a fractional
chief marketing officer (CMO) than a marketing coordinator
or content marketing manager.
Here are five must-read books to add to
your reading list if you truly want to be a more well-founded startup content marketer. The Business of Expertise
David C. Baker If you sit still too long, even the best
content marketers will get commoditized and marginalized. David C. Baker offers a
great solution around focus, deep expertise, selecting the right niches, positioning,
and demonstrating expertise. The Win Without Pitching Manifesto
Blair Enns Content marketing agencies frequently get
manipulated into doing free consulting work as part of the sales process.
Blair Enns,
a close friend and professional colleague of David C. Baker, has a much better
way forward based on 12 proclamations. Purple Cow
Seth Godin Content marketing is really starting to
blend together. But it doesn't have to. Seth Godin's classic bestseller
provides a great refresher course on how to make your content stand
out from the pack, like a purple cow. The Sales Acceleration Formula
Mark Roberge Content marketers' most important internal
clients are on the sales team.
If you want to learn to speak the language of sales
directors and chief revenue officers, so that your content campaigns deliver stellar
pipeline building results, Mark Roberge's book — where he introduces the concept of the
thought leadership committee — is a must-read. The Lean Startup
Eric Ries If content marketers at startups want to win the
hearts, minds, and budgets of their boards and VC's, they need to speak the language. And run
content marketing like a minimum viable product, with a build/learn/measure methodology
around faster cycles and quicker learnings. Bonus Sixth Book:
Growth IQ Tiffani Bova
When leading marketing for startups, you have to be really good at explaining marketing to
non-marketers — including startup founders, their boards and even their investors. As a long-time,
highly-rated IT industry analyst at Gartner and now top digital evangelist at Salesforce, Tiffany
Bova’s book will give you tons of great analogies and examples from both within and outside tech
startups — everything from streaming music to meal kit delivery subscription startups — to
bring into your startup growth conversations.
Do you have another favorite
book that should be on every startup content marketer’s must-read
list? Let me know in the comments..
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