Content marketing is a valuable resource that not everyone is using. In a world where social media marketing and paid search are the hot topics in the marketing world, content marketing isn’t getting the recognition it deserves. The reason may be that some people have strong misconceptions about what content marketing is and how it can help their business.
Rank Fuse is here to bust some common content marketing myths for you.
#1. Creating Content is the Same as Content Marketing
Writing content for your website is not the same thing as content marketing. Content marketing is bigger than just producing a piece of content. To call it content marketing, you would need to have a plan for the content you are creating. For example, content marketing includes a content distribution plan, interaction with your audience, and defined goals.
To be successful in content marketing, you should have a content calendar that you follow and a target audience that you are going to distribute content to in whatever means you on which you have decided.
#2. All Content is Good Content
Unfortunately, not everything that is online is considered good content. In our fast-paced world, it seems that some people are under the impression that pushing out the most content will put them ahead of their competition. To put it bluntly, that just isn’t true.
The old adage “quality over quantity” rings true here, too. Producing one amazing post that you push out in the right channels will do you a lot more good than spewing out a dozen crummy posts that nobody really cares to read.
Creating too much content also means you risk people viewing you as a spammer. This does much more harm than good for your brand.
#3. Content Marketing Isn’t Right for Your Industry
It is true that not all products and services are glamorous. But just because something isn’t pretty or fun doesn’t mean that it isn’t a worthwhile industry for content marketing. If you don’t think your industry is a good fit for content marketing, then you don’t truly understand what your customers want or need.
Figure out the information that your readers want, and work from there. Your content doesn’t have to be 100% focused on your product. Try to think outside of the box, or ask customers what they want to know more about, and get to creating.
#4. Images (and Other Visuals) Aren’t Important
In fact, images, videos, and infographics can be crucial pieces of your content marketing strategy. Not all information should be delivered in the form of an article. While finding great visual content to go with articles can be difficult, visual content can lead to quite the payoff. Google Image search may lead to additional page views that you wouldn’t have received otherwise.
Plus, everyone likes to look at a great photo!
#5. Sharing Content on Facebook is Enough
While posting your content on your social media accounts is a great step, you should really have a social sharing schedule set up. One post on social media probably won’t get you the traffic you desire. To get that traffic, you need to share your post a few different times.
First, your blog should be shared on Facebook when it goes live on the blog. You may even want to send out a second post later that day that pushes the same content with a different message. The next day, you may want to post your blog on Twitter and any other social platform you use. Schedule future posts a week, a month, and three months out. At this rate, you won’t overwhelm your followers with constant posts, but your post is more likely to be viewed.
#6. We Don’t Have Enough Time to Create Content
It is all about making content creation a priority. While it can be time-consuming to generate content for your website, it is worth all the effort. If you think that you don’t have time, reevaluate your current tasks and make content creation a higher priority. The first step is to stop making excuses for not doing content marketing.
You can also start small. Maybe the first month, you focus on getting out one great piece of content. In four months, you may be able to get out three pieces a month, because you have found your rhythm.
#7. Content Marketing is Only for SEO
Content is a great way to boost your SEO rankings, but not all content needs to be geared towards search engines. It is a common misconception that every piece of content needs to be full of keywords and targeted to search engines. In reality, you should care more about making content that your audience will find value in. Search engines are secondary to pleasing your audience.
This isn’t to say that SEO isn’t important. SEO can lead your company to more business, which is clearly a benefit. If you are creating great content that your readers value, Google will recognize your efforts. Keyword stuffing and other methods that are attempting to game the system will eventually be caught by Google.
At Rank Fuse, we know just how important content marketing can be for your business, and doing it the right way is crucial to getting the results you want. With extensive copywriting and content marketing experience, we can help you create pieces that are engaging and rank high on search engines. Our experts deliver high-quality pieces ranging from blog posts and news articles to white papers and case studies.
If you need content, but don’t want to do it yourself or want experts behind the wheel, contact Rank Fuse today at 913-703-7265.
