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Welcome to another episode of 7-Minute Marketing with Pam. My name is Pam Didner, and I love sharing a little dose of B2B, digital and content marketing, seven minutes at a time.

Some listeners may know that I am writing my 2nd book. I have to say writing is hard. The hardest part is to structure 50,000 – 70,000 words in a logical manner so that you can share a unique point of view and flow in such a way that readers want to flip from page to page. Not only do you need to offer a compelling and unique point of view, but you also need to tell a great story.

Writing my 2nd book is like raising a 2nd child. You learn what worked well the first time and what you need to do better the 2nd time around.

There are three things I make an effort to do differently this time around:

  1. Incorporate others’ point of view: when I wrote the first book, I mostly drew from my own experience. I talked about my experience first, then shared case studies at the end of the chapter as a separate call out. I used case studies to validate my point of view. This time around, I incorporated case studies throughout the chapter. I showcase other people’s know-hows, then share my thoughts after.
  2. Topic-driven chapter: For my first book, I created a framework to provide structure for the book, such as the 4 Ps of Global Content Marketing. For this book, it’s very much topic-driven. I discuss each relevant topic in-depth.
  3. Think about your book launch while writing: When I wrote my first book, I was buried in the writing trench. I didn’t think about my website, positioning of the book or launch content until the book was published. I was scrambling to do all of that after the launch and with almost no budget. This time around, I allocated budget aside and started working on a launch plan as I am writing. While I am writing, I also think about the content that I can use for blog posts, speaking materials, and copywriting for the new website.

If you think about it, that’s no different from content marketing. While I create content, I need to give some thought to where the content will reside and how the content will be promoted. It gives me some ideas on how to repurpose the content into different formats. If I create an 18-page white paper, I can break that down into 4-5 blog posts or podcast episodes, create several infographics, and even develop 2-3 presentation slides. Treat the long form content as a mini-product launch.

We all learn from experience. Writing is still hard. It’s even harder, given that my experience in sales enablement is not as comprehensive as global content marketing. The bright side is that I have a plan to tackle it and lessons to draw on from my first book.

We all tend to do our job the same way day in and day out. It’s important to sit back and reflect on what we’ve done to see if we can do it better. So, what is in your regular job that you can do it a little differently? Feel free to share your experience and lessons learned with me.

Now, back to my writing. Let me know if you need more B2B book writing tips.

Send me your marketing questions here or via Twitter @pamdidner

Be well. Until next time.

What can Pam Didner do for you?

Being in the corporate world for 20+ years and having held various positions from accounting and supply chain management, and marketing to sales enablement, she knows how corporations work. She can make you and your team a rock star by identifying areas to shine and do better. She does that through private coaching, keynote speaking, workshop training, and hands-on consulting. Contact her or find her on LinkedIn and Twitter. A quick note: Check out her new 90-Day Revenue Reboot, if you are struggling with marketing.