Why myths of Content Marketing is 1 of the 7 Deadly sins

Myths are woven into our DNA.

Content marketing is hot. It’s got buzz. It’s got venture funding. And it’s got the attention of more and more brands, with bigger and bigger budgets.But like anything with real heat, it’s gotten a bit distorted.

Content marketing is becoming increasingly popular with each passing year. Businesses see the benefits that competitors are enjoying from publishing highly valuable content, and are looking for ways to do the same themselves. Churning out great ideas of often more difficult than anticipated and companies that enter content marketing for the first time often have some unrealistic expectations for the type of results it will provide as well as how quickly those results come.

Myth 1: Content Is Just Earned Media

There’s a temptation to think of content as earned media. Avoid this at all costs.

You may have noticed that today’s information ecosystem–i.e. the Internet–is a noisy place. The blunt reality is that if you want to stick out, you have to support your content with media budgets, perhaps tapping providers like Outbrain and Taboola that will help get your content in front of the right audience.

BMW is one brand that’s making paid media support a priority.

Myth 2: Anyone Can Write:

Truth: Although everyone can write, it requires knowledge and experience.

Generally, it can be said that anyone can create content, but whether it’s an engaging and high-quality piece can definitely be a concern. Content creation requires knowledge and the understanding of how you can create valuable and relevant content for your readers.It’s important for the content writer to be knowledgeable about the industry and SEO. By understanding SEO, writer’s can create content that can rank for specific keywords.Apart from deep research and core analysis on the topic, the writer needs to keep readers engaged with the content. Your writing needs to ensure that the readers are able to easily understand the message you’re trying to convey. In addition, it’s important to write with emotion and use examples. This way, you can connect with your readers on a more personal level through content.

Myth 3: Copywriters Only Write:

Truth: Copywriters do more than just that and have different tasks as well.To be frank, this is not completely true. Writing is a profession where you need to be knowledgeable of the topic and understand the steps in creating valuable content for your website. As a matter of fact, content marketing involves other tasks that complement a high-quality piece of writing, such as the following:

Keyword Research

Topic research for supporting facts and quotes

Understanding your target audiences

Competitor research

Content optimization

Proofreading

SEO word checks

Image source and optimization

Outreach and distribution

Also, there are many ways to create shareable content, including infographics, videos, and slides. A skilled content manager or copywriter can create various types of content that can bring excellent ROIs for your business.

Myth 4: Content Marketing and Blogging Are Equivalent

Truth: Content marketing and blogging are two different things.This is false. Blogging is a strategy within content marketing, but content marketing is not blogging.Blogs are part of a content marketing strategy that can help your website rank on search engines and generate traffic as well. Content marketing encompasses a variety of strategies, such as product descriptions, service pages, FAQs, and location pages.A website is filled with content and information that helps users understand your business and website. These information and keywords help Google to crawl your website and showcase your business to relevant searches.

Myth 5: Content Marketing Is Only For B2C

Truth: Content marketing isn’t only for B2C but for B2B and other types of businesses as well.Content marketing is not a strategy that can only be implemented for one type of business and not another. In fact, any industry, whether you’re a B2B or B2C company, can implement a content marketing strategy.Your about us page, contact us page, services page, and product descriptions, are all part of your website’s content. They can all be optimized to help you rank on search engines for the specific keywords related to your business.

Myth 6: Content Marketing Is A Trend

Truth: Content marketing is a strategy that has been around for a long time.Many entrepreneurs may think that content marketing is a trend, but it is not true. Content marketing isn’t a marketing strategy that is only working now. In fact, it has been proven to generate positive results over the years.Content marketing may not be a trend, but there are trends within content marketing strategies itself. Like any other strategies, content marketing strategies will encounter changes and improvements to better suit the needs of searchers and readers.

For example, video marketing has emerged with the popularity of micro-moments and an increasing amount of searches on YouTube.

Myth 7: Old Content Does Not Need a Refresh

Truth: Content marketing should be updated and refreshed to stay relevant.Businesses tend to believe that content marketing is all about create new content for their website. With this idea in mind, old content tend to be ignored and never refreshed.Evergreen content on your website can continue ranking for your website a few years down the road. When your content is relevant, they can remain resourceful for the long-term. That’s why it’s important to refresh old content by adding relevant information.Sometimes, you need to create new content for your old blog posts that aren’t relevant anymore. If you don’t want to create completely new content, you can always update old content with relevant statistics.

Myth 8: Content Marketing Can Be Automated

Truth: Although it can be automated, the results and quality will not be the same.Computer generated content can never be compared to human created content. This is because humans can tap into the emotions and empathy of their readers. They can create content that can connect with humans and their stories.Computers and machines, on the other hand, are unable to provide that “human touch” to connect with readers. However, automation of content is a good method only to monitor alerts and manage content. Therefore, your computer and content software should be viewed as complementary resources to help with your content creation.

Myth 9: Content Marketing Has No ROI

Truth: Content marketing can increase engagement, generate leads, and encourage action on your website.Content marketing can actually generate conversions and leads for businesses. They help generate traffic to a website, which in turn, can prompt visitors to fill out forms on your page.Many businesses have experienced positive ROIs after implementing a content marketing strategy for their business. In fact, content marketing can bring many benefits for your company.Some of these benefits include:Blogs can establish your business as an authority when you’re sharing relevant expert tips and information to your readers.Content marketing strategies can help to generate leads effectively and traffic to your website.Blogs can be used for your social media strategy and to promote your brand.Content is evergreen can remain competitive and help you rank on search engines in the future.Various content formats like case studies, white papers, and eBooks are great ways to generate leads for your business. For example, HubSpot has a library full of content, eBooks, and marketing resources available for download. However, it requires visitors to fill out a form to download. This is a great way to encourage visitors to give you their emails.

Myth 10: Content marketing is more about search engines

Google’s mission “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” has sometimes lead to an abomination or two in content marketing strategy execution. Their motto “don’t be evil” is maybe something that good content marketers should embrace.Writing content that is just written for search engines should be made a sin.Write for humans, touch their emotions and your content has a much better chance of being shared with viral velocity.

Myth 11: People don’t read anymore.

Wrong. People still read. They just don’t read garbage anymore. Quality content that is valuable, informative, solves a problem, and is not promotional will get read by your audience.

Myth 12: Results happen fast.

Content marketing is a process that takes a lot of time and trial and error. Everything from conducting research to actually creating content to analyzing its results could take months - even years. Just because you just published the greatest article ever written doesn’t mean that it’s going to take the world by storm overnight.

Conclusion: 

High-quality content is critical in driving traffic to your website. There are different content marketing strategies to implement for a business and it’s always important to understand what the true facts are. Be aware of the following mistakes and avoid them at all costs if you want to convert your visitors into loyal customers.Read more blogs by Parishmita on https://reportgarden.com/blog/

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 Content Marketing is a COMMITMENT, not a CAMPAIGN  - Jon Buscall