Welcome to the Funnel: How to Become a Content Marketing Rock Star [Book Recommendation]

What happens when you take something you love and combine it with something else you love? It usually creates something even better than the two on their own. Kind of like “You got chocolate in my peanut butter” and “You got peanut butter in my chocolate” (that’s from a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial for those that don’t know that reference). Is there anything better?

For me, take some rock music and combine it with content marketing, and you’ve not only got my attention, but you’ve also got me screaming for more. I’ve written about this crossover before (read it here). Nobody is doing it better than Jason Miller, content marketing expert and rock concert photographer at Rocknrollcocktail.com.

If you’ve had the pleasure of seeing him speak, you’ll know that no one matches his enthusiasm. He attacks the stage like your favorite band’s lead singer and gives you every hit you want to hear. And by hit, I mean face-melting marketing knowledge (to steal his description) you can apply to your strategy.

Jason’s book, Welcome to the Funnel: Proven Tactics to Turn Your Social and Content Marketing up to 11, is like a written version of his presentations. What comes across loud and clear is his drive and passion. He’s worked hard to get to where he is and explains how we can replicate his success.

Become Hybrid Marketers – Learn All the Instruments

In Welcome to the Funnel, Jason begins by explaining the concept of “hybrid marketers.” As hybrid marketers, the five areas we need to understand are social, content, email marketing, SEO and analytics. While we don’t have to be experts in all areas, we need to be able to know how each works. They each play a role in comprehensive content marketing strategies.

Build the Big Rock

Miller divides the rest of Welcome to the Funnel into “sides” of an album: Content Marketing, Social and All Together Now. With no lack of band examples, he guides us through some of his bigger content projects. He shows the concept, promotion strategy and results.

The most notable concept is his “big rock.” A big rock content campaign creates one major piece of gated, or downloadable, content (i.e. ebook, whitepaper, etc.). Then, you break the “big rock” into smaller pieces of content (i.e. email, blog, social media posts, etc.) that fuel your content strategy for the next few months. Think of it as a band putting out a new CD and using the hit singles to fuel its sales.

Welcome to the Funnel is a fun read and very relatable. His successful track record speaks for itself, and the best part is, it’s not intimidating. These are real-world lessons that you can apply. So if you love marketing as much as I do, and bands like Kiss, Judas Priest and Guns N’ Roses, you need to get this book now. What are you waiting for? This one goes up to 11!

Originally posted on the PR 20/20 blog.