There are loads of content marketing myths out there that could keep us awake at night. If we believed everything we heard, we would be too scared to do anything! There is a lot of misinformation out there that scares businesses into not performing, or even trying for that matter.
Who ya gonna call? We’re here to clear up a few common myths about content marketing.
Myth 1: You need more content
Truth: Just like many things in life, quality out-performs quantity every time, even more so when it comes to content marketing. When creating content, you should never sacrifice the quality for quantity as it will come back to haunt you in the long run. (Yes, that was another Halloween reference – get excited people!)
You will see much better ROI than producing numerous pieces of crappy content. Instead, you should spend some time creating a few pieces of quality content that will engage and provide value for your audience. Then you should think about distribution and how you can repurpose.
Optimise the quality pieces for SEO and create a strategic social media distribution plan – do you want the content to be gated or not? A mix of both is ideal, providing you have great landing pages designed for them.
And then you must remember to repurpose it again and again. Some great tips for repurposing content include looking at what’s been your most popular pieces over the last year. You could turn a guide into a few different blog posts or create a video or podcast with them.
Myth 2: Creating content is really easy and inexpensive
Truth: No, it’s really not! This is probably the biggest misconceptions about content marketing in 2018 and one we need to eliminate before 2019.
Sure, anyone can create content but if you want quality over quantity, then you need to take it seriously. It’s just not good enough to produce mediocre content that is generalised and vague. You need to spend time creating a precise content strategy that targets your audience at every stage of the buyer’s funnel.
It will require a thorough understanding of your target audience and the power to create an engaging and powerful story that will resonate with them.
Catch up on our webinar – Content Marketing Like a Boss
Myth 3: Content marketing doesn’t work for B2B
Truth: We can safely say that yes, it does. It’s the backbone of our digital marketing strategy. Content marketing is an impactful tool that can be used for both acquisition and retention.
Yes, the B2B sales cycle tends to be longer than B2C but that shouldn’t be a negative. If anything, it just gives you more time to nurture them with the valuable top of the funnel content.
The B2B Content Marketing 2019 survey: Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends in North America, revealed some interesting facts about B2B content marketing.
“B2B marketers say the top benefits of a documented content marketing strategy are that it aligns the team around a common mission/goals and makes it easier to determine which types of content to develop,” it stated.
“96% of the most successful B2B content marketers agree that their audience views their organisation as a credible and trusted resource.”
The report also revealed that a documented content marketing strategy is often a key indicator of content marketing success. And another interesting fact was that 70% of B2B content marketers say their organisation’s content marketing is ‘much/somewhat’ more successful compared with one year ago.
Myth 4: Content marketing must drive sales and earn ROI quickly
Truth: Nope! Obviously, we want to see ROI, but you cannot expect results overnight. Content marketing takes time, and you will see results drip in over a longer period of time.
However, that doesn’t mean you can’t measure the success of any content your team has created. Some KPIs that you can use to measure might include conversions, retention, page views, downloads or time spent on page. You’ll also want to look at subscriptions, leads gained, paid versus organic, social likes and repeat versus new visitors.
When used properly, content marketing will allow you to develop long-lasting relationships with your target audience. It might be a slow process, but with effective nurturing, you can turn prospects into loyal customers with active content marketing.
If you need any help creating content, check out our previous blog on ‘What kind of content should I be producing? A quick guide on content marketing‘.
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