THE AUTHORITY ADVISOR

A financial adviser/digital marketing guru uses a fictional story to demonstrate the importance of content marketing, or authority marketing, to attract customers and grow your business.

In a 27-page preface, Simonds, a financial adviser and digital marketing consultant, outlines why all businesses should be in the business of creating free, useful digital content in order to become a trusted “authority” that will attract today’s surfing consumers. Simonds then uses the rest of his book to underscore the importance of content marketing, or authority marketing—essentially, marketing through telling personal stories of expertise, “helping as many people as they could, regardless of if they sold anything”—by presenting a fable featuring fictional financial adviser Steve Kennedy. Steve is stressed: His radio airtime costs are being increased, and a great prospect ends up not hiring him due to his skimpy online presence. Thankfully, he then attends an inspiring session by marketing guru Dave Utley at his industry conference. Though Steve returns home to find his neglected wife on the cusp of divorce, he soon improves his work/life balance as he implements Utley’s advice. He creates a website that clearly spells out how he can help his ideal client and includes a “call-to-action” that is attractive enough for surfers to provide their names and email addresses, allowing for further prospecting. He develops blogs that offer useful content and include key words that keep pushing up his presence in online searches. A year later, Steve is a speaker at his industry conference due to his phenomenal increase in sales. Simonds, who apparently has practiced what he preaches, has an engaging from-the-trenches perspective and infectious can-do spirit that should be appealing to businesspeople overwhelmed, even paralyzed, by today’s exploding digital marketing environment. While his preface is a bit lengthy and his story could be seen as a bit too simple, Simonds includes enough compelling facts (e.g., consumers increasingly hate the “interruption marketing” of traditional advertising) and helpful tactics (Steve sets aside four hours every Friday to develop his blogs) to make this book a helpful one-two push to get started in this critical marketing arena.

Easy-to-read fable that makes a convincing case to develop a content marketing strategy.