Content marketing is a popular term today. One of the reasons we have seen such growth with this strategy is because it provides valuable information to customers and prospective customers. To our knowledge, content marketing is not going away, at least not anytime soon. As it gains more awareness in the marketing world, people have come up with ideas of what they think everyone should be doing. However, things may have gotten somewhat distorted in the process. There are many misconceptions about content marketing and we want to set the record straight.
What myths and misconceptions should you be avoiding? Here are 7 content marketing misconceptions.
1. Content Marketing and Social Media are the same
Content marketing and social media marketing are similar but have a clear distinction. Content marketing is a form of marketing where you create and share content that educates and informs in order to gain and retain customers. Content marketing focuses on building relationships by consumption. You want to build trust, gain awareness and focus on branding. There are many different types of content that form with a content marketing strategy. What are these types of content? Blog posts, podcasts, photographs, videos, presentations, social posts, email newsletters, and much more! Content marketing uses these communication channels to influence their audience.
Social media is a community where you can engage in conversations with others. You share photos, articles, and videos with your audience. Social media is a communication and distribution channel that allows participation. Essentially, social media marketing is a subset of content marketing. You can use social media to distribute content. After all, what would social media look like without content? We need content to fuel our marketing.
2. Content Marketing is Inexpensive
Because content marketing is still a fairly new approach, it tends to cost more. You can hire cheap writers, but that sometimes can backfire and actually lower your results. You get what you pay for, right? Content marketing can require that you spend more money on either utilizing your staff internally or hiring freelance writers and designers. Talented freelance writers and designers are a valuable resource. Content marketing requires commitment and an on-going budget. It is worth the investment if you can add this expense to your budget.
3. Content Marketing Doesn’t Take Time
Any kind of marketing takes time and effort to plan a strategy. Content marketing is no different. It takes time to develop a strategy, research, create content, distribute and promote, and finally analyze your outputs. It can take months to see results from your content marketing efforts. Let’s say you decided to create a blog for your business. You will not see results overnight. It can take months to see a difference in traffic and lead generation. Content marketing is a different beast than traditional types of marketing where you see instant results. Be aware that all good things take time.
4. The More Content You Post, the Better Your Reach
How often have you heard quality over quantity? The same is true with content. You should focus on your best work and distribute that across a variety of platforms. If something was well written months ago, you can always repurpose that content. Just because it is older, doesn’t mean it loses its value. Think of different ways to showcase the content. Not sure what content repurposing means? Read our blog about content repurposing.
More content doesn’t always mean it will reach more people. It is important to know that if you post too much on places like social media, this could have a negative affect on your followers. You only want to post quality information that holds value to your audience. You need to consider the peak times your audience is on social networks and post during those active times.
Content marketing is also more about consistency. Are you committing to your strategy? If so, continue working and publishing on the same day at the same time. However, you need to be careful with this because if the content is not ready, you should hold off. Only post content that it is error-free and polished for publication.
5. Ignoring Negative Feedback
Part of a brand’s job is to make sure the customers have a positive outlook. However, an upset or unsatisfied customer can leave negative feedback on a blog post or social media. Your audience is watching your every move. You should never ignore negative feedback. Instead you need to respond quickly and professionally to your customer. We know that we can’t make everyone happy. In fact, some people just complain to complain. Your job is to show customers that you care, that each individual matters.
6. Short Content Wins for Attention Grabbing
We know that today’s society is always on a time crunch. So does your audience have time to read your 800-word blog post? Is it better to write short blogs? Truthfully, it is about the information you distribute to your audience. It is not always short content that gains more attention. People will read your content if it educates, informs and entertains. However, content that is broken down into sections such the use of numbers, bullet points, pictures, or graphics help make things easier and more enjoyable to read. Your content should use a variety of those items.
7. Content Marketing Is Just About Creating Content
There is more to content marketing than just creating content. However, there is some truth to the myth. Some of it does actually entail more content than what you did with your previous strategy. It is just a different approach. Content marketing concerns distribution, communication, relationship building through interaction and engagement. You should produce quality content to satisfy the needs of your customers and connect using your brand. Are you connecting with customers? Are you offering valuable information to your customers?
What are some of the other misconceptions about marketing that need to be exposed?
