Optimize!

Book review:  Optimize - How to attract and engage more customers, by integrating SEO, Social media and content marketing by Lee Odden

We read a lot of new marketing books at Smart Insights since we like our advice to include different perspectives and we enjoy seeing how different writers explain what works and what doesn’t. We have had a few requests that distilled reviews of books would be useful and it would be useful to hear more from the authors. So here we are.

I’ve started our series of reviews with this book by Lee Odden since Lee will be talking at our next webcast on Creative Content content marketing and I thought it would be a good way of introducing Lee if you don’t know his acclaimed TopRank online marketing blog already.

You can register free for the webcast here.

A review of Optimize

Some marketing books annoy me since they jump straight into the how of the tactics without explaining the why. Social media books are often the worst culprits, starting with Facebook, then going onto Twitter for example. Lee Odden’s book starts where any marketing plan should start, with planning and the customer.

Phase 1 Content marketing tactics

The first part of Optimize focuses on planning and specifically understanding consumer preferences and behaviours.

Overall, the book is great for marketers and bloggers who are not content marketing or SEO specialists since it explains the basics, avoids the detail you don’t know, but recommends tools the reader can follow-up on to review their approach if they are following a digital approach.

• 1. Start with understanding customer needs and behaviours
• 2. Use Intelligence and Insight before you create a plan
• 3. Create a plan with specific objectives

This part of the book focuses on strategy, but does give practical advice also on how to write for search engines - not through a geeky explanation of on-page optimisation, but a straightforward explanation of effective online copywriting. This would suggest the book focuses on the tactical, but I like the way it blends more strategic advice. The Action Items at the end of chapters are often key strategic questions.

Phase 2 Content marketing tactics

In the second part of the book, Optimize looks at where a content marketing strategy fits with other activities, questioning the need for separate strategies for SEO, content marketing and social media and asking how these can be best integrated with overall marketing strategies.

It them goes into more practical details of how to implement content marketing. Lee is clearly a fan of using customer personas to help achieve this integration.He’s clearly a fan of using customer personas to help achieve this integration. Optimize has a useful summary of a process to create and use personas. As you progress through the book it layers on more detail, for example in creating target keywords lists, performing a content audit and reviewing types of content to include in a content plan.

Phase 3 Processes and training

Having great ideas for content marketing isn’t enough. A process is needed in the company or agency to sustain a stream of quality content. Optimize covers processes which work in companies of different sizes from small to large reflecting Lee’s practical experience at an agency.

The book is strong in covering editorial planning and looking at the editorial planning gives examples of the type of content editorial calendars you need.

Review summary

Considering the book overall, you will have gathered from the sub-title that the firm focus is content marketing and it gives a great primer on how to introduce this into a company through integrating with Social media and SEO in particular. I had expected it to be a little broader, from the main title, for example, considering how content marketing can support AdWords and link with Email marketing and link through to conversion to sale for different types of business, for example with some landing page optimisation examples.

I’d also prefer more examples of mini cases, although there are lots of interesting anecdotes I would prefer more examples with screengrabs showing different ways of delivering content within a blog. Which are good examples of the hub and spoke model that Lee talks about in practice for example.

The tight focus on content marketing and SEO does make this a great practical manual to review your approach in specific areas of content marketing like keyword targeting, content curation using the Oreo cookie approach and options for gaining coverage through PR.