Content marketing can be effective if you do it properly. Just like many other forms of advertising, publishing any content to a targeted online audience can be a hit-or-miss proposition. There are plenty of theories on what works and what doesn’t—and plenty of companies out there willing to charge you an arm and a leg for it.
While what works for your business might vary, there are some common misconceptions that you’re better off knowing before you try your hand, or hire someone to try It for you. Here are five common myths about content marketing.
Quantity is most important. Comedian Dennis Miller once talked about a two-for-one sale at a discount retailer and said why it wasn’t such a good deal, after all. “Two of crap is still crap,” he said. He might’ve been talking about cheap shoes or stale crackers, but it’s just as applicable to your marketing posts. More isn’t necessarily better, if you are posting a lot of non-relevant, non-engaging posts. Content matters more, even with today’s search engine algorithms.
With that said, don’t expect your one good post to stay relevant forever. Post regularly, just don’t overwhelm your audience.
You need to be everywhere. It seems like a new social media platform is springing up every month and, with it, comes the need to put your business on it. After all, you’re trying to reach a younger, media-savvy audience, right? Not necessarily. First of all, most new platforms don’t have as many users as the older, established ones. And just because it’s there doesn’t mean it will be a good fit for your brand. You’d be better off finding one or two different platforms and excelling at them.
A blog is all you need. Blogs are an important marketing tool for your business, because they can supply evergreen content for your social media pages. They are not, however, the only tool you’ll need. Successful businesses need a variety of marketing avenues, including boosted Facebook posts, advertisements through Google Adwords, traditional print and more. Email newsletters are a good idea, too—they are one way to ensure not only control of your message, but delivery, as well.
Great content is the most important. It sounds like we’re contradicting our first point, doesn’t it? We’re not. Great content is, in fact, more important than frequent content (unless you’re talking about Twitter, which operates at a speed all of its own), but great content alone won’t get you noticed. It will help, because your audience is more likely to share it with their audience, but chances are if you don’t advertise, your followers will not see your content to begin with. Facebook has continually altered its newsfeed algorithm to emphasize content from users’ friends and family. You’ll need to spend a few bucks to overcome the trend.
One size fits all. Let’s face it: most of what marketers are telling you is theory. The only way to create an effective content marketing plan is to customize it. That means working with a company that can show and explain analytics and really get to the audience that’s important to you.
What other content marketing myths do you know? Let us know in the comments!