For those of us unsure of the term, "content marketing" is marketing that is “helpful, interesting or entertaining.” According to the authors, starting with a compelling story to get the attention of the audience, rather than trying to focus immediately on a product or service, is a best practice. Once the audience is interested and attentive, marketing the product or service is the (easier) next step. With the proliferation of internet advertising, traditional ads have become so much less effective than content marketing (known earlier as inbound marketing) that the latter is increasingly preferred when trying to get the message across.
The content in this book is relevant both to marketers wanting to better understand the engineering side and for engineers wanting to be better marketers. Even (or especially) for those not interested in marketing, the book can help the reader tell better stories to connect with their audience and keep them interested. Given the increasingly critical role of technology, the authors dedicate separate sections to different channels, from the more traditional (press releases) to the more technologically advanced (virtual and augmented reality). In a comprehensive fashion, the book covers a range of communications means where ample planning is possible (and highly recommended) but also deals with crisis communications, for those times when things go wrong.
The book is rich in examples of content marketing, many from photonics sellers. The authors use helpful analogies and include interviews with a variety of professionals that illustrate the theoretical concepts with practical anecdotes. For example, in discussing how to write a good press release, they highlight that distribution (who you send it to) is less important than adoption (who is actually going to adopt it). True to its goal of teaching how to tell a story with multimedia, the book includes ample imagery, both in its figures (many in color) and in the vivid descriptions in the text. As an interesting twist on an image-related cliché, the authors point out that while an image is worth a thousand words, the right word can evoke a thousand images.
Conspicuously absent from the book are references to humor or jokes, which are well-known as attention getters and ice breakers. In a humorous note in the acknowledgements (the authors thank an Irish distillery for the whiskey that provided them with inspiration), the authors set the expectation that similar humor might be used or recommended as a technique in the book. But the text is rather serious, although without being dry. Still, humor remains a valuable technique the authors could or should use more.
In terms of navigation aids, the book includes only a brief list of references, mainly with online resources (websites and articles), not books. A helpful (but brief) list of acronyms is also available. Probably not intended as a textbook, the book does not include problems or exercises, as is typical for textbooks. Still, it could certainly be used in a course on content marketing by assigning projects that develop content following the advice in the book. Even if not used as a textbook, this book would be useful for any engineer wanting to know more about marketing or any marketing professionals who needs to better understand the technical aspects of their business.
Review by Bogdan Hoanca, University of Alaska Anchorage, USA.
The opinions expressed in the book review section are those of the reviewer and do not necessarily reflect those of OPN or its publisher, Optica