WORKWEEK

Like all disciplines, content marketing has a set of common tactics: blogs, webinars, newsletters. You are seeking to attract a like minded audience––one that will need your product to grow their business and their careers. 

But content marketing goes far beyond these, of course. Some have claimed B2B companies should position themselves as media companies. And some have, like Hubspot. 

Podcasts, for instance, are a popular foray for content marketing teams––and they leave a ton of repurposing material for blogs, webinars, and newsletters, too. 

But content marketing wasn’t always this way. Before blogs, webinars, and newsletters were catalogs and books; printed material. 

The Michelin Guide. Montgomery Wards Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer. The Sears, Roebuck Catalog. 

So, should you use catalogs or books for your content strategy? 

When books have worked best for me (at BigCommerce we published this annually until I left the company) was publishing something specifically for trade shows, to start. 

Create specific pages for notes. And make the book relevant to your industry’s shows that year. And then, have your events team bring the books with them. Typically, these are the first things that fly off of a company’s booth. People like the weight. You’ll see them scanning the pages in sessions, and even using those notes pages to, well, take notes. 

BigCommerce also used the books to send to prospects: both customer and strategic business development partner prospects. They worked really well to continue the conversation, and even close. 

There is something about print that conveys seriousness––thought leadership, if you will. 

So, who today is doing printed material well? Let’s look at a few examples. 

a16z

Show me a tech founder who isn’t obsessed with a16z and doesn’t want to copy their strategy. A16z is the epitome of thought leadership, influence, and access. And they publish books that further that brand perception. 

Their book landing pages are great examples, too, and can be good inspiration for gated asset landing pages––which, why aren’t we calling these books? 

Stripe 

Stripe is perhaps the tech company that has most copied an a16z content marketing model––though heavily focused on developers. They, too, have a publishing arm, and fantastic UX to boot. 

Intercom

It was Intercom years ago that inspired me to publish my first book at BigCommerce. They’ve been doing this for so long, and at a far higher quality that I could get the budget for back then. They used to have a book section on the site that has been removed––but you can still find a few great landing pages, like this one. 

Basecamp

Basecamp’s company culture seems like a dream place to work from the outside looking in––and a big part of that is based on their content marketing efforts. They write blogs and publish books about a slower way to work that gets the same or better results. 

I specifically love the options to buy it, read it online, or download the PDF. This is exactly what we did at BigCommerce, too. 

Calm

I worked for 1.5 years at a B2C company, and Calm’s book was in several of my pitch ideas to the founder (we started down the road, but alas, 1.5 years isn’t enough time). Adding this one in here to prove that different industries can use their strategy. 

Wrapping it up 

Look, publishing books isn’t right for every content strategy or company. But, if you are a more established brand with a large library of content and you’re looking to do something different to capture your audience’s attention––look at these company’s for inspiration. And remember:

• Bring them to trade shows
• Mail them to prospects 
• Offer print, download, or read online options 
• Build a great UX experience for it

Know that books take a lot of time and effort. The one I published at BigCommerce took 8 months from beginning to publishing, and that’s fast.