10 Content Marketing Myths that Pose as Best Practices

Content marketing is an essential part of your marketing strategy. Broadly speaking, it means creating and distributing content to improve your brand image and gain more customers. While this form of marketing has been around for many years, myths surrounding the best practices still circulate. We’ve busted 10 content marketing myths to help you carry out your content marketing strategy in the best way possible:

1. Content marketing isn’t for my business

The Truth: Small or large businesses can benefit from content marketing. The reason is that every business has information to share, be it images, blogs, newsletters, or other forms of content. The web is full of ideas for topics in your niche you could get inspired by.

2. The competition in my niche is too strong

The Truth: While some niches are more competitive than others, this doesn’t mean you can’t rise above it. How you do that is by creating better content than your competitors. Keep a close eye on what your competition is doing and mimic (not copy) them. Get inspiration from what your competitors are doing best and avoid what they do badly.

3. I can’t afford content marketing

The Truth: In reality, you need a good plan for spending money on marketing. But content marketing strategies are available for all budgets. For example, you can start by outsourcing your images and blogs and see if your customer reach and sales increase. Then extend your strategy to newsletters, videos, and so on.

4. People won’t read my content

The Truth: Think about it, what do you do if you want to learn something? Most likely, search on Google. We read about a lot of stuff on the web. This means that you can certainly reach people with your content. However, don’t create content just to throw it out there. Create only quality content that will help people.

5. It’s hard to find content marketing resources

The Truth: Only looking at the Google results for “content marketing resources” proves that this content marketing myth is not true. You can find countless free resources on the web for starting your content marketing plan. For instance, use WordPress if you need a website, MailChimp for newsletters, and dozens of free image editors online.

6. Content marketing will bring great results in the first few months

The Truth: Gradual growth is the name of the game in content marketing. Sometimes it takes years to truly benefit from content marketing. But results will come faster if you create exceptional content and market it well. Just be consistent in your content marketing efforts.

7. Great content doesn’t need marketing

The Truth: Once you have great content, you need to market it just as well. Customers won’t be able to find it if you’ve not optimized your content in terms of SEO. Ensure you’ve sprinkled your targeted keywords in your content. Also, use the right channels to market your content, such as email marketing. Good content requires a good content marketing strategy.

8. More content means more reach

The Truth: The old saying – quality over quantity – rings true here and is enough to bust this content marketing myth. Just because you put out a lot of content doesn’t mean you’ll reach more prospects. Focus on making quality content in a consistent manner. Your content must attract readers, and better content does just that.

9. Video costs too much

The Truth: Video is a key tool you should use in your content marketing strategy. Videos might garner more leads and customers than written posts. While some believe that videos should be professionally made, this is not always the case. For example, everyone can make videos on their phone! This works for how-tos, live videos, presentational videos, and so on.

10. Success comes from shares and likes

The Truth: Shares and likes don’t mean much in terms of ROI. Those who share or like your content might not turn into customers. Use metrics like website traffic, conversion rates, and sales to measure your marketing success.

Remember, the goal of your content is to increase brand awareness, send traffic to your website, and build relationships with prospects. Leads and customers will follow naturally.

Speaking of content marketing myths, we’ve also debunked web design myths and misconceptions about digital marketing. Feel free to check them out.