Content Marketing Myths You May Not Realize Are Ruining Your Campaign
Content marketing comes with a lot of formulas, advice, truths, and myths, all ready to lead brands down sometimes questionable pathways. Like other marketing channels, content marketing a la articles, blogs, guest blogs, social media content promotion, email content promotion, etc. is evolving. If the value your content brings isn’t immediate and aggressively apparent, you’re done.
Over the course of decades, in this evolution, many myths and misconceptions about content marketing have crept in. Old ideas have faded or outlived their usefulness, while others are hanging on waiting for any day now when they lose effectiveness. Here are some common content marketing myths to watch out for as well as advice on how to maneuver around them.
More is better
The more content you put out, the more noise you’re creating but noise isn’t always good, especially when it’s just noise. Go for quality over quantity. If you’ve got more content to put out, absolutely do it but be smart about when, why, and what. Don’t inundate your audience with massive amounts of low quality, generic content every day. Instead of investing all resources towards shoving out content after content, develop strategically chosen articles released on a schedule.
There’s no point in trying to rank for SEO
Keyword stuffing, amassing low quality backlinks, and other SEO strategies that no longer work might suggest to some that organic SEO rankings are a waste of time as a content marketing objective – wrong! Search engine algorithms are still very much responsible for what content is seen or ignored. Get yourself an experienced SEO team ready to elevate your content with engaging content approaches, properly written code, keyword optimization, and more. SEO is not a digital strategy to be forgotten about.
When someone clicks, they’ll read to the end
There’s no guarantee a user won’t click on your content and click off immediately. Because of this, make sure every line you use, every opening line in a paragraph, every image, and every headline’s giving reason to the person reading to continue. Optimize EVERYTHING! Assume your reader’s waiting for a reason to abandon your content. The window of opportunity to capture attention is short. In a matter of seconds, they could click off. A few quick tips is to ensure a user doesn’t have to search hard for the information they’re expecting to find when clicking on a link, ensure the call to action is easy to find, and to use images sparingly to engage.
Content marketing is all writing and text
Whoa, whoa, hold up! So much of content marketing’s focus is on text but from a consumer perspective, they want more than paragraph after paragraph. They want presentation – i.e. images, video, GIFs, infographics, or otherwise. Be diverse. Keep attention by illustrating what you’re writing.
All you have to do is write it and they will come
Content doesn’t just have to be written and created. It has to be promoted. If your content’s failing to resonate, it doesn’t automatically mean you’re not a good writer or that there isn’t enough content under your brand out there. Content marketing does need to be written well however this isn’t the sole decider of what succeeds or not. Content marketing must be supported, amplified, and distributed across multiple digital marketing channels. Even the best content fails when it doesn’t have any other channel working for it.
Content has got to be timely and relevant
This one’s a little tricky because it’s not entirely wrong but it’s also not entirely right. You do want timely, content, newsworthy content that’s current to what’s happening in the cultural conversation at any given moment. You also want what’s called ‘evergreen content’ which is content you can use again and again, that can last for years and still be accurate and relevant. Look at the content you’re producing and think of it like expiry dates. Some content will expire within weeks, others may expire in a decade or longer. Combine content that’s meant to pop a rating in the immediate with content you know you can republish and re-share for months.
Well-written content with promotion will always connect
Sometimes, even the best written content can struggle to find an audience. Even with time and research, things don’t always pan out. That said, if it doesn’t, find out why and pivot. Look at analytics. Why is your content marketing not resonating with an audience? Is it a problem with subjects you’re developing content on, an issue with promoting or sharing your audience, or alternatively a case of you not knowing your audience as well as you thought you did? What is your audience’s interests, how do they spend their time, and what are their values and motivations? These questions all deserve answers.
You don’t need a content marketing strategy
You may think to yourself, “My brand, product or my services are so good. They don’t need content marketing to publicize and share it.” Just because you’re the best at what you do, if consumers don’t know about you, how are they going to find out? No, you’ve got to promote. Content’s got to draw attention. It’s got to bring eyes to you. Keep that in mind when creating content marketing. Thankfully, there are plenty of digital channels to get you noticed by with consumers waiting for something that resonates them. Take advantage of it!
Facebook’s a dead digital marketing channel
Facebook’s received a lot of bad press in the past two years – young people have switched to Instagram, organic reach on Facebook has virtually disappeared, there are privacy concerns, and it’s not the most advertiser-friendly environment. No doubt about it, that’s a lot of bad publicity. Even so, Facebook’s the largest social media network to this day with almost every business connected to Facebook in some way. To spread word of your content marketing, Facebook’s a social media goldmine and a lack of presence on the site could equate to consumers thinking less of your brand.
Only certain types of businesses need content
Time and time again, it’s shown that in any industry and for any business, content marketing has got a purpose. A basic website and social media presence isn’t going to cut it. Even with limited resources or finances, a brand should have the backing to turn out a website blog at least once monthly. This can help get eyes on your products or services, give you awareness on search engines, give you a reason to put out a social media post, and more. Be it a construction company, a drone company, a lawyer, a waste management company, or otherwise, every brand that’s actively competing in the business marketplace should have a content marketing plan.
Long-form content’s the only type of content to create
Long-form content is the most valuable content marketing there is, with content at least 1,800 words ranking the best on search engines like Google and Bing. That said, not every subject is going to require 2,000 words to explain. Some may only need 500 words. In addition to the longer content you produce, using smaller articles that don’t waste the time of your reader can be equally important. Get these out on occasion to your audience. Don’t feel restricted by the minimum word limit of 1,800 words or higher. Do what feels right.
Content marketing must produce a sale
Content marketing strategies are created for many objectives. From a ROI perspective, they do not necessarily need to produce a sale. This doesn’t mean they aren’t worth investing in. A well-written piece of content can help create brand awareness, help SEO, help email marketing, increase your social media presence, and more. There’s a lot content can do. Unlike other strategies, it’s not always success by sale. Sometimes, you’ll find your best return comes from alternative channels.
