The Story Engine: An entrepreneur's guide to content strategy and brand storytelling without spending all day writing

by Kyle Gray, Tom Morkes (Foreword)

Every entrepreneur has a story to tell, whether they’re running seven-figure startups or small personal brands. Your story is the most powerful asset you have at your disposal. It can cut through the noise and connect you with your customers. Content marketing is one of the most affordable and powerful digital marketing tools available to tell your story at scale. Maybe you’ve considered content marketing to tell your story, but instead of opportunity, you see setbacks. Creating content takes a lot of time and energy. How is it that some entrepreneurs can produce tons of content, run a business, and still have time to relax with their kids at the end of the day? The Story Engine provides you with a clear, concise, and actionable strategy to reap the benefits of inbound marketing. Inside you’ll • How to set yourself up for content marketing success early, and how to avoid common pitfalls • Content strategy for both B2B and B2C businesses • How to use content as an influencer marketing and relationship building tool • Simple metrics to understand how your content is performing • How to use brand storytelling and transparency to drive growth for your business • Simple guides to use SEO, email automation, and paid traffic to support your content strategy and convert visitors into customers • How to automate and delegate time-consuming parts of creation, and still feel secure knowing that your content fits your unique brand. All without breaking your budget. This book also includes easy-to-use content marketing templates to help you take action right away and to get the results you want.

Genres: Business, Writing, Nonfiction, Communication, Audiobook, Entrepreneurship

256 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 14, 2017

Reviews

[Spyros Tzortzis · Rating 2 out of 5]

A medium-to-good introduction to content marketing as a system. 70% of the time it felt like I was reading a long-form blog-post but in a bad way, like the ones that give content marketing the bad name.

I didn't feel too much of an expertise, master thinking or that I have changed a lot by reading this book. You might want to give it a try (I think it was quite cheap to buy) but don't gift it :P

[Greta Macionytė · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good source for marketers looking for a basic-level introduction to content marketing. A plus - an extensive list of valuable tools and access to additional resources, like guides and templates, to use in your day-to-day work.

[antony · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is about content strategy, It is not so much about how to produce content, as much as I about why to produce and what to do with it in order to create a traffic stream.

So you won't learn how to produce articles but you will get an insight into how to use the content that you create in an effective way rather than just poke it up there and hope of the the best

It is a comprehensive book and will out you in good standing about how you use stories to create layers of processes to engage people through a variety of stages culmination in making money off them

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book if you are just starting out, but if you have already started the journey you likely have learned many of the lessons already.

[Plucky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't say enough good things about The Story Engine by Kyle Gray. It's the best book about content creation _strategy_ that I've seen. Very thorough. Also includes practical tips on writers' block, SEO and back-linking strategy, how to create a style guide in the most practical way possible, and how to create efficiency systems.

Before I finished the audiobook, I decided to purchase the hard copy as well, because I knew I'd want it in my collection as a reference to leaf though. Gray shares LOTS of current resources for content management. Read it with a pen in hand for notes or in front of a computer to look up the bounty of online resources mentioned.

[Jan Carroza · Rating 2 out of 5]

Our group thought this might be a book about creating stories, but it turned out to be one with a process for smoothly developing content where several team members participate. He includes some free materials that every entrepreneur and business should use to create a set of branding and content guidelines. I'm a big believer in nailing down all the goals in a first-stage discovery process. It helps to frame subsequent business and marketing decisions, create mission, vision, values statements, save time and money by avoiding silly mistakes and even determine keywords and phrases.

Introspection and processes help businesses do better.

[Kirstie · Rating 4 out of 5]

To be honest, I misunderstood what this book was going to be about, thinking it more a writing development book. However, I stuck with it anyway because it was a relatively quick read and enjoyed it. It's a guide on how to use your personal story as part of your branding. it seems like a good book for beginners at content marketing and I'll probably use several of the tidbits in my own marketing of my author business.

[Manan Younas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Honest Writing

Good book. Author has given all his experience in a very straight forwrad and easy to understand manner. The simplicity of the work make it susceptible to being undervalued. However, it's all genuine stuff and can get anyone started in the right direction with the right tools . It can definitely save tons of money as well with it's great outsourcing advice.

[Christy Bower · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was able to glean a number of useful ideas from this book. Some chapters were clearly written for corporate settings with a team of content creators, but some of the core concepts apply to solopreneurs like myself. I took several pages of notes I can use as a guide in my content creation that will help me in the years to come.

[Maria Chow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Borrowed this from the library. Content is average. I had already learned most of these strategies from work, but there were a few takeaways. If you're new to content strategy, this might be a good read. The typos--and there were a number of them--affected my reading experience and not in a pleasant way!

[Glenn Hunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elevating Creative Skills Required Discipline

This book gave tangible guidance to creating, tracking, and managing content in entrepreneurial marketplaces. The most valuable tactics involved tools to execute discipline in developing and delivering content that helps businesses grow through storytelling and connectivity.

[Ramona Rice · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book

I've used content marketing but it's always great to get some tips and tricks to reorganize my plan. This book is great for beginners but I got a lot of useful information as well.

[Dimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great insights there - very very useful, since it does explain stuff at beginner-level. The key takeaway of the book is that the way to not "spend all day writing" is to hire other people to help. But it also outlines how to turn this into a successful endeavour.

[Tristan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a decent book for what it is, but I think it applied for a different sort of business than mine.

[Charles · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it so much I'm going to read it again while improving my processes.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great perspectives on content generation.

Helpful and entertaining. I found at least a dozen ideas and resources I can start using immediately in my job.

[Garland Vance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full of Good Insights

Filled with little and big nuggets of insight for bloggers and content creators. Great insights on both strategy and execution.

[Kyrylo Bezrukov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Only useful content

Content marketing from A to Z. Kyle prepared very useful content that is easy to apply. Enjoyed it. Highly recommended.

[Mukul Bajaj · Rating 5 out of 5]

Explained in easy language. Simple yet effective. Love this book

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'd read this if I were a beginner.

The information inside the book—you can literally find them online for free.

[Outdoors Nerd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant desk reference to writing. Well structured and organised so you can dip in again easily. It starts with the basics and contains deep experiencing learning from its Author.

[Seemy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a decent intro and primer into how to approach content marketing, covered mostly in relation to blogging - best suited to a newbie as I didn’t find it particularly groundbreaking or original

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[kiri masters · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential toolkit for novice content marketers.

As someone who has used content marketing to grow their business, I feel like I have a pretty good handle on the basics of content marketing. But when it came time to hire someone to take the heavy lifting off my hands, I knew that it would be difficult and time consuming to get them started.

Now I can hand them Kyles book which provides the perfect roadmap for scaling a content marketing operation.

This book is perfect for the novice content marketer who's eager to leverage content to grow their business. It's also perfect for business owners who want a robust toolkit to hand to their apprentice content marketers. So happy to have found this resource. Thanks Kyle.

[Andrea]

I don't know why I expected something else from this book, but as it turns out, it's a how-to manual on setting up your process flow in content marketing to ensure quality control and consistency of message. It covers everything and then some (additional resources on the book website) -- from how to brainstorm content to how to set up a content marketing team.

Even for seasoned content marketers, this is a useful reference book to browse through every now and then when you're thinking of optimizing a particular step of the process.