I’m sure everyone feels like there are a lot of myths about their industry that just need to go away. However, when it comes to content marketing it seems like there even more than should be expected. Maybe it’s because it’s a newer discipline, or maybe it’s because there’s a lot of bad information floating around out there, but whatever the reason, I hear misconceptions regarding this highly effective form of marketing all the time. Really, this blog post could have been titled “35 Content Marketing Myths that Drive Me Bonkers,” but I doubt anyone would read something that long. So instead, I’ve boiled it down to the top five myths about content marketing. And now, without further ado…
1. We Don't Need It
Business owners seem to have this nutty idea that they don’t really need content marketing because they’re doing other content-type things and investing in other forms of marketing. They point to their social media pages, technical SEO efforts, and online ads and assume that that’s good enough. But the reality is that each of those individually isn’t enough. In fact, having all of those still isn’t enough if you don’t have a firm content strategy to organize and execute your content marketing efforts effectively. It’s kind of like baking and only using some of the ingredients that the recipe calls for, or not following the directions listed in the recipe and just mixing everything together and hoping for the best.
2. It's Too Competitive
Some businesses understand that content marketing is a popular strategy, and they even see the value in doing it, but they feel like they’re too late to the game to be successful. These business owners lament that it’s become too competitive in their industry to try to get their content noticed. While it may be true that some industries have seen a dramatic jump in content distribution, the idea that your audience is suffering from information overload to the point of ignoring all content is untrue. People will always need content! Your audience wants to see resources that will help inform purchase decisions or keep them up-to-date on topics that they care about, which means that there will always be an opportunity to provide content that adds value.
3. It Requires Extensive Resources
Some companies are really winning the content game, and these companies are typically big companies with a large staff devoted to whipping up engaging content that works seamlessly across all channels. But just because big companies do it well and they have extensive resources doesn’t mean that you need deep pockets or a dedicated in-house team to do content marketing correctly. All you need is a willingness to invest in your content to tell your brand’s story. You can either recruit existing employees to create content based on their skillsets, or pay a professional copywriter or marketing agency to do it for you. Either way, you’ll be investing financially in your content, but it’s probably a lot less than you might think. (For a full list of our affordable content services, please visit our SEO Services page.)
4. It's All About Blogging
The term “content marketing” confuses some people – they assume it’s just a fancy way to say “blogging” because blog posts are such a popular form of content. In reality though, content can be in the form of tutorials, white papers, videos, webinars, case studies, help articles, industry studies, research reports, infographics, mobile apps, ebooks, podcasts, email newsletters, online educational resources, and so much more! If you think about it, your business probably has at least some of this valuable content already, which is why you need to be open to the idea of content marketing. You should be getting the most out of the content that you already have and sharing it with your audience in a way that’s valuable to them.
5. ROI Can't Be Tracked
Because of the myths surrounding what content marketing is, people tend to also incorrectly believe that it can’t be effective (or at least that there’s no way to know whether it’s effective). But content marketing can be tracked – it just requires advance planning and an understanding of what you’re looking for in your analytics. Just like any other marketing effort, you should sit down and identify your marketing goals and KPIs before getting started with a content strategy so that you can plan for how you’ll track what matters most. Once you have that information, you can set up a sales funnel, look at where traffic enters the site, analyze where traffic is lost, examine conversion data, and determine how well your content is contributing to revenue.
Kate Pierce is the owner of LionShark Digital Marketing LLC, a West Michigan internet marketing company. Her areas of expertise include Paid Search, Search Engine Optimization, Business Blogging and Web Copywriting. She lives in the Grand Rapids area with her husband and son and enjoys cooking, watching sports, and spending time together as a family. Like a true digital marketing expert (i.e. geek), she loves talking about current marketing trends… so don’t say you weren’t warned!
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