Content marketing is not losing its popularity, despite what some might say or think. The benefits of publishing valuable content are obvious to numerous companies and their competitors alike, so everyone is getting on board the content marketing train if they haven’t already. However, great ideas are not so easy to come up with, so most businesses diving into this for the first time have unreasonably high expectations regarding the kind of results content marketing should yield and in what time frame – especially if they hire a digital marketing agency to do it for them.
Yes, one might argue that businesses have access to a lot of information these days to learn from, but rare are those that actually take the time and effort to do so. Instead, they have their own ideas about how much time goes into the creation of quality content, what they can expect when they first start publishing it, and how long it can potentially take to see positive results. If you’ve found yourself among these lines and want to venture into content marketing for the quick payoff, then you should spend your time on another marketing medium. Tactics like PPC and email marketing are much better at driving immediate results than content marketing. But when done correctly, content marketing can be a game changer.
To that effect, these are the content marketing myths you should stop believing right now!
MYTH #1: Creating excellent content is easy
If you are only just starting with content marketing, expecting amazing pieces right off the bat is a stretch. You need a seasoned pro to write for you, to design for you and to produce videos for you. Once you’ve found that, you need to develop a two-way productive working relationship, where you allow your content creators to find their footing in what works best for your particular company. It takes time and that’s okay.
Creating content is a process. It’s something learned and perfected with each piece written and published. Maybe you are happy with what you’ve got, but the audience isn’t responding quite like you would’ve liked – what then? Then you change your expectations, or you and your marketing team change the strategy or you might even change your team. Just don’t get hung up on why you’re not seeing the positive ROI yet, and let the professionals go through their process. Quality mustn’t suffer just because you are impatient, or there won’t be any results to look forward to.
MYTH #2: The more content you publish, the bigger the reach
Many businesses have this philosophy that the more content they produce and share, the larger their reach will be. And while that may have been the case once, sacrificing quality for quantity is never a good idea. What’s more, that can only thwart your content marketing efforts.
Don’t fall into the trap of being compelled to push out content on a daily basis just for the sake of doing it. One blog post that reaches 100,000 people is always going to be more valuable than 100 blog posts that reach 1,000 people each. Let your content marketing creators slow down and plan what they want to do with content and how they want to go about it. There is no blog post that cannot be improved by adding an extra day of quality research both on the subject and the audience that is meant to read it. Consequently, adding new info into the article or tweaking the headline to suit the way the target audience search for information on the Internet can lead to more people actually finding and reading the article – and that is the point, right?
MYTH #3: Longer content guarantees better results
Recently, a trend has been developing – focusing on producing longer pieces of content instead of shorter and easily digestible ones. The logic behind it is that longer articles are generally more informative, that they cover a subject in greater detail and that they provide readers with the resource they can come back to multiple times. Also, there is some evidence that Google ranks higher longer pieces of content.
On the other hand, let’s be reasonable for a moment here. Not all subjects require 10.000 words to be covered appropriately. As a matter of fact, most of such articles would fare better if broken down into several shorter articles for easier reader digest. Also, content such as infographics shouldn’t even have only linguistic content – or at least, most of it shouldn’t be in the written form – but instead relies on visual content elements. Therefore, it stands to reason that content doesn’t really have to be miles long for it to be effective.
MYTH #4: The best content is only for your own website
It makes sense to post content on your own website and it makes sense to always require the best quality from your content creators. You want people to visit your website and you want them to like what they see there. However, there is no reason not to spread your word on other websites as well. It gives your content the opportunity to be seen and read by a larger number of people and that can never be a bad thing for your business.
Therefore, if your marketing team suggests guest blogging, there is no reason to say no. There will always be bigger brands out there, but instead of fearing them, it’s a good idea to try to get your content featured on their websites. That would expose you to a new audience, secure new opportunities and attract new clients.
MYTH #5: Content marketing drives revenue quickly
Content is king, but content marketing is a long game. No matter what your expectations are, rest assured that you won’t be able to see the results overnight. Aside from creating high-quality content that matches what you want and your audience needs, there is the matter of promoting it widely and appropriately.
There are multiple reasons for this. To start, it helps businesses to drive those initial surges of traffic and get an idea of the type of results that content marketing is capable of producing. Additionally, it sets the right expectations from the start. You can post the greatest content in the world, but if you are not out there actively promoting it, you’ll have a hard time getting anyone to take notice and only shoot yourself in the foot.
In conclusion, content marketing is one of the best long-term tactics to make your business visible, to present your products and services as the solution to people’s problems and to boost sales. However, it’s a process and a balancing act, so stop believing in the myths and let your marketing team do what they do best – bring you value.
If you don’t have your own marketing team, drop us a note and let’s talk. Contact TheIuvo today!
