Content DNA by John Espirian: a book review
Summary
A content marketing book without the gumph: no buzzwords or magic formulas here.
A book about being authentic in your content, not gimmicky.
John writes from experience, describing how he uses content marketing in his own business.
A book that advocates a 30-month mindset. The latest version includes an updated chapter on this.
An easy, fun read that's well organised and avoids reader overwhelm.
A relentlessly helpful guide to content marketing if you're already sick of reading books about it(!).
What's Content DNA all about?
John Espirian is well known as a LinkedIn trainer and as a technical copywriter, as well as one of the organisers of UpLift Live. I've attended webinars by John about building a LinkedIn presence and network and found them far more helpful than most. But, despite his LinkedIn experience and knowledge, he's also not someone who'd describe himself as any sort of LinkedIn 'guru'.
This book isn't for you if you're looking for a self-proclaimed expert promising quick wins and results from social media marketing. It is for you if you want to learn more about content marketing but don't want to have to spend weeks learning about algorithms and formulas, or supplant your personality in the process.
But don't just take my word for it. This is from the book’s blurb:
How can we compete in today's fast-moving market? There are more platforms, more users and more content than ever before. How do we stand out? What can we do to make ourselves noticed, remembered and preferred?
Content DNA provides the answers. By focusing on two key elements - consistency and congruence - you'll learn how to define a recognizable "shape" for your business.
You'll discover the building blocks of your brand and get clarity on expressing your value through a short, memorable tagline.Finally, you'll understand how to create content that builds authority and establishes trust, based on the author's 10+ years of experience as an independent business writer and consultant.
Being on social media without being overwhelmed
I'm sure I'm not the only small business owner/freelancer to often feel overwhelmed by social media. There are lots of different channels, and the feel and atmosphere on each of them differs. At the same time, a lot of content is being pumped out blindly across all these channels, while we all feel our attention spans reducing.
As a freelancer, my marketing department is just me, so it's unrealistic to imagine myself having time and energy to be fully engaged in more than one or two social channels at a time without losing my mind (not to mention not having any time left for client work). Happily, John recommends choosing one social media channel and focusing on building your network there. Naturally, John has chosen LinkedIn. In my case, I've also chosen LinkedIn, but l also share occasional business-related posts to Instagram and Bluesky. But I also use both of those for more personal posts; so I often wonder how I should approach that.
More and more, I realise that my personal profile isn't so different from my professional profile. If it's important to show up as myself, I'm comfortable with the line between professional and personal being a little blurred. I'm not a big corporation; I AM my business and my professional and personal interests and voice massively overlap.
John talks a lot about the same shape everywhere, which means deciding what you want to be known for and who you want to engage with, and then always staying authentic. But being the same shape everywhere is not the same as being everywhere. Your authenticity could become diluted if you try to pump out content on multiple platforms at once. This was reassuring for someone like me who is more sporadic on my other social networks.
Building a strong online identity
Hands up if you heard marketing experts talk about brand identity, but come away feeling that the idea remains a bit of a nebulous concept?
If I had a pound for every time I've completed a branding or positioning exercise, I'd be able to register that as a side hustle. I have had varying degrees of success with it, depending on the word list. John makes an extensive word list for the brand values exercise available on his website, entirely for free. There's that relentless helpful brand identity again!
The methods in the book for homing in on your brand values were similar to ones I'd seen before, but also offered some more creative and original ways to establish the building blocks of your brand identity. For example, there's the 'celebrity voice' method, where you pick a famous person in whose voice you imagine yourself speaking in your content, as a starting point. At last, my opportunity to channel Michelle Obama!
Content DNA offers plenty of recommendations for online presence that could be put into practice quickly and easily, for example tools that could help you connect better with new customers, tools for hashtag inspiration, the importance of having one clear CTA for every blog post (note to self), and the genius idea of creating a manifesto. The manifesto idea is about building trust by offering customers a set of promises about your values, and publishing them on your website.
John talks a lot about being the same shape everywhere, which is really just about being authentic and not a 'douche canoe', in his words. In a time when we're all seeing plenty of cookie cutter content that is grey and samey (some of it AI-generated), authentic and distinctive content gets our attention.
What brand identity really means
The book includes several quotes from Mark Schaefer, and this is a particularly good one:
‘People don’t have short attention spans. Brands have short interesting spans’.
For freelancers, having a brand identity is not all that different to the way bigger businesses have a brand identity. In John's words, it's about a 'small handful of truths' demonstrated 'all the time and everywhere'.
When talking about brand values and identity, the book asks 'What do you want to be known for?'. It also asks pertinent questions about the reader's industry, to help identify areas where something different could be offered that could go against the status quo, and in a way that could benefit customers, making their lives easier.
You could argue that, for freelancers, because we show up as ourselves, it is easier to be sincere and authentic. But that's not always the case. We can get distracted by what we feel we 'should' be saying and how we should be saying it. We sometimes dilute our voice and personality to satisfy whom we perceive to be our audience or the latest trends.
The advice in Content DNA is refreshingly different. It reminds us that we're not here to please everybody, we're here to serve and engage with a core group of people. You might not be everyone's cup of tea, as they say, and that's OK. In fact, it's a very good thing.
'Think of a room containing 100 people. You could be a vanilla people-pleaser in an attempt to do business with most of the room. But if you can have a more distinctive shape to your presence, you might be of strong interest to five or ten people. The rest of the room won’t be interested at all. Sounds nuts? Think about that small number of people being your fans. They’re the people who’ll sing your praises and do your marketing for you'.
A great analogy used in the book is to think of your business less like a supermarket and more like a one-dish restaurant. Focus on serving the best dish you can. Others have emphasised the importance of niching, of knowing your value and purpose, rather than trying to be all things to all customers. But I found John's tangible, visual ways of expressing that idea very digestible.
Writing content for online readers
The book dedicates a few chapters to writing, repurposing and promoting content. For actually getting down to writing content, the book provides content creation tips that are not formulaic, and which are more appealing to creative thinkers. It also recommends digging into the 'goldmine' of our inboxes to find the golden nuggets of conversations with our customers, as well as answers we have provided for them and which we can reuse as educational/informational content.
'We have to create an offering so tailored, distinctive and memorable that we become the top-of-mind option for our customers'.
But it's not all about using our marketing, our content, to attract potential customers; it can act as a filter as well as a magnet that helps prevent engagement with the wrong-fit customers.
One way the book's advice differs from most tips on online presence was John's caution about using 'gated content'. On John's website, he offers a few free resources without requiring sign-ups to a newsletter. This is something rarely seen now, and I think it reflects strong conviction in the value of that free content – that people may decide to sign up anyway, without having to take the 'carrot' of the free download.
Online content writing tips
Remember that people have short attention spans: put key info up front in the same way as reports use an executive summary.
Help the reader with good signposting.
Don't trick people into becoming part of your audience with gimmicks.
Avoid too much scheduling and automation of content.
Give readers ONE main takeaway, not multiple ones!
Being on social media without being boring
In 2025, there's a lot of content out there (understatement of the year). And there's also a lot of advice flying around about content marketing and social media marketing. Unfortunately, a lot of it is instantly forgettable and frustratingly hard to implement. What's worse, if we did follow some of that advice, those 'winning formulas' could lead us into a world where all our content is generic and we all look the same. Yawn.
LinkedIn has become a bit like that. If you're not careful, all you see in your feed is self-congratulating and/or cold, soulless, corporate posts that leave you feeling uninspired and cynical. This is where the 30-month mindset comes in. If you take time to build and curate your network and remember to have a conversation, rather than just pumping out posts, you will find yourself in a better, more valuable place.
When the book talks about being 'the same shape everywhere', it's talking about being your shape. Others have emphasised the importance of niching, of knowing your value and purpose, rather than trying to be all things to all customers. But I found John's tangible, visual ways of expressing that idea very digestible.
Summing up
John's down to earth tone of voice meant that reading this book felt like having a friendly conversation with a colleague. It was fun to read, and John is true to his values by being honest, helpful and authentic throughout. The book offers no magic formulas for content marketing, but that was what I liked most.
Read this book if you're looking for a book about content creation with a fun, authentic tone of voice and tips that are easy and realistic to implement. You can buy it here.
For transparency, I was kindly given a review copy for the purpose of this article. My review is entirely my own take on the book.