Exposing Myths About Content Marketing
So, if you decide to enter content marketing, be mindful not to fall prey to these shared expectations.
Myth 1: For Content Marketing To Succeed
Even though businesses with impressive and innovative content marketing strategies usually boast larger teams and budgets to support them, content marketing remains an effective tool for smaller businesses as its far cheaper than conventional outbound strategies.
Given its potential to drive lead generation and brand recognition increases, 60% of B2C small business marketers plan to increase the budget for this form of promotion this year. Set realistic goals for both your team and your budget. If you work as an independent content producer for your brand, dont compare yourself with larger firms in creating content.
Myth 2: Lets Create Content With Viral Potential
Content that goes viral is exciting. Viral posts typically gain exposure through social sharing and quickly dominate public consciousness for several weeks or months, while regular articles struggle for recognition in an ever-increasing internet cluttered with noise and clutter.
But what type of post goes viral? Usually, luck plays the leading role.
Buzzfeed and Upworthy have become adept at producing viral content, which now seems part of their routine operation.
But not every publisher wants their material to become an internet phenomenon--some, like The Verge, advise their writers not to even glance at traffic statistics while writing.
Content marketing serves multiple goals, from raising brand awareness and increasing leads for stakeholders to establishing a brands voice, tone, and personality - with viral videos often not meeting these requirements.
Myth 3: Content Marketing Involves Producing More Frequent Updates
Content marketing may initially seem simple, as adding more articles and pages on our website would qualify. Not so.
Content marketing efforts involve so much more. Hubspot conducted a study that revealed that increasing blog posting frequency can significantly boost website traffic levels, though not every case followed these figures.
Increased website content alone cannot ensure a successful content strategy or improved business results. Sites that had produced irrelevant, low-quality, and keyword-stuffed material suffered greatly as Google implemented its Panda Update filter, which attempts to filter out thin or low-quality results from search engines.
Prioritize quality over quantity. Do you possess the resources needed to produce large volumes of quality content? Relevancy, timeliness, context, and utility should all be top of mind when creating it; focus on realistic goals while keeping an eye on quality over quantity when developing type of content for your team.
Myth 4: Content Marketing Can Easily Be Executed Successfully
Content goes beyond blog articles. Please take into consideration all forms of media your target audience prefers when planning out content strategies for them.
Though not everyone enjoys reading blogs, valuable content remains valuable. Visual formats such as infographics can resonate well with specific individuals. In contrast, others might prefer webinars or white papers for specifics.
So avoid solely relying on one form of media: broadening to include written, visual, video, and audio elements can reach a much broader audience.
Myth 5: To Maximize Output Numbers, You Must Supplement This With Some Lower Quality Output
Short of time or staff, it can be tempting to produce low-quality content simply to meet output targets - and all too often, this occurs.
Many marketers assume developing novel and exciting blog topics is impossible because everything has already been done, but that is far from true.
A full sixteen percent of Google queries each day are brand new. Why not speak to employees who respond to daily customer journey inquiries as an effective way of discovering potential customer interests for blog post ideas? If that becomes your solution, simply talking with sales or accounts teams will yield meaningful suggestions that resonate with target audiences for content creation efforts.
Myth 6: Why Spend So Much Time And Energy On A Single Piece Of Content When It Already One Life?
Once youve spent hours crafting the ideal blog article, it can feel like an enormous waste of your time only to produce one piece thats instantly forgotten in a matter of days or weeks.
But that is precisely why so much potential lies within one great piece - through one post alone, you could generate multiple forms of media for use across various forms on the web.
Imagine This: After conducting outstanding research on your topic of choice, use some of your findings to create infographics, whitepapers, and blog posts (thats three pieces already.).
You could also present any leftover research to bloggers or trade publications for coverage - they may ask you for guest blog contributions that will increase publicity while providing backlinks to your company.
Once completed, modify it so it fits within another blog that explores related subjects; use comments left by readers on your three pieces; conduct similar research a few months later to see if anything has changed; publish any findings related to that content; in addition, other bloggers and publishers could pick up on it and write their pieces about it, increasing PR and SEO potential for your brand.
One idea can spark multiple long-form pieces of content; dont give up if it takes hours to hone your craft; take pride in it and share it.
Another Myths About Content Marketing
Its Simple To Produce Excellent Content
As much as we hate to disappoint anyone, imagining yourself producing "amazing" content marketer without prior experience in content marketing may not be feasible.
That doesnt mean your company shouldnt strive to produce quality material; after all, this will ultimately drive profits forward. Just recognize that producing unique content campaigns takes time - take one step at a time when creating unique pieces.
First and foremost, your first task should be locating talented authors, illustrators, and video producers who will bring something extra to the team.
As with any working relationship, finding suitable contributors may take some time; you might discover that specific collaborators werent appropriate due to various circumstances, prompting redesign in some aspects.
Most business goals would benefit from taking their time when producing content creation and devoting more time to content promotion rather than forcing themselves into producing daily blog posts that meet stringent quality criteria.
Too many businesses enter content marketing only to become overwhelmed in its production phase.
Greater Reach And Content
Many businesses continue to utilize outdated SEO techniques, believing that creating more content means reaching a broader audience.
While this may be true in certain instances, sacrificing quality over quantity will decrease content marketing success. Do not just post content pieces daily for the sake of posting; there is more value in one blog post reaching 100,000 readers than 100 blog posts reaching only 1000 each.
Our advice to companies new to content marketing is taking their time and creating a plan. Spend extra time understanding who your buyer audience is, how they find information, etc., to improve blog posts by altering headlines or including additional material - potentially leading to thousands more people finding your content marketing services through search engine optimization.
It Is Cheap And Simple To Find Excellent Writers
Many businesses have unrealistic expectations regarding how much it should cost them to create great content. When looking at content mills, low-cost freelancers, or content production companies, they assume that this represents their total content creation costs when this could never be further from reality.
Compensation must be set accordingly if you want someone to devote their time and efforts to developing high-quality content for your content marketing campaigns.
Many companies initially seek an inexpensive writer who produces impressive work but soon discover their quality is rapidly deteriorating.
Paying people at non-professional rates makes it hard to retain their interest since they wont feel your loyalty in return.
Paying low rates also encourages writers who float from job to job in search of higher paying contracts as their abilities prevent them from selling themselves effectively enough and commanding higher fees.
As with many aspects of business through content and marketing, content production requires the investment of your time, talent, and effort if it will pay dividends in terms of business success and marketing ROI.
Therefore, bargain-basement content may result in a return.
Maintaining Content On Your Website Is Strongly Advised
Publishing content on your website makes sense when the goal is to attract more traffic. Yet, some of our most successful blog articles have come via guest posts on other websites or guest blogging services.
Spreading your efforts across several sources often proves more successful in traffic generation than publishing it once on one blog and hoping people come over.
There will always be more prominent brands out there than your own, and nothing prevents you from trying to have your content featured by those larger entities; indeed, doing so may even prove advantageous and draw in clients and reach new audiences.
Content Marketing Quickly Generates Profits
Content marketing can take time; desired results might not become tangible overnight. We recommend businesses just getting into content marketing to invest equal efforts into creating their new material and marketing it to reach success faster.
Due to various reasons, content marketing provides companies with numerous advantages. First and foremost, it helps drive those initial spikes of traffic and gain an understanding of its possible results; furthermore, setting appropriate expectations is paramount since even with great content, no one will read it unless actively promoted.
Conclusion
Overall, many resources exist to assist businesses with content marketing goals for themselves.
Unfortunately, most companies fail to spend enough time understanding what awaits them when publishing content, how quickly results may emerge, and the costs involved with content production. Suppose your company is exploring content marketing with the hope of seeing quick returns. In that case, We suggest shifting focus to other channels instead.
Content marketing tends to produce less immediate returns compared to PPC or email strategies but, when done well, can truly revolutionize marketing strategies.
