8 content marketing myths that are holding your business back

Content marketing is evolving quickly and this makes it susceptible to outdated ideas and myths. Content marketing works only for certain businesses, anyone can write some content, content marketing is all about quality content, our prospects and customers probably aren’t on social media, all content should be about my business, creating more content should be my top priority, quality content means long pieces of content, and email is obsolete. If any of these have been creeping into your content marketing, it is time to uproot them and give your business strategy a fresh start.

1. Content marketing works only for certain businesses

Let’s say you run a company that is a supplier of photolithography systems for the semiconductor industry (machines to make chips). You think you are in an industry that isn’t exciting enough to generate content about, and here is your first misstep: content marketing has nothing to do with exciting, it boils down to being relevant and useful to your personas, the ideal customers you want to attract.

Once you know your personas inside out, you will be able to create content they want to read, listen to, or watch because it will answer their questions, help them solve their problems, and it will be in the form and on the medium with which they engage the most.

In fact, 91% of B2B companies say they use content marketing in their overall strategy. And why wouldn’t they? Content marketing has countless benefits among which conversion rates that are six times higher for companies using content marketing than those that aren’t.

Content marketing isn’t industry specific – any business can produce content that taps into their prospects’ and customers’ needs, answers their questions, and solves their problems.

2. Anyone can write some content

Yes, any business can successfully integrate content marketing in their business strategy. But that doesn’t mean anyone can create relevant, valuable content that resonates with your buyer personas.

To save yourself time and resources you should hire a professional writer, and I don’t mean “the professionals” on freelance platforms (which are a race to the bottom). I mean an actual professional who knows the ins and outs of writing – as writing requires a specific skillset honed over a long period of time.

Make sure you do your due diligence before you hire someone and always check writing samples. Don’t go for the cheapest option because you are going to get what you pay for: why compromise on quality when it comes to your business?

You have to ensure your content is always on point. Research indicates that 81% of customers conduct online research before purchasing, so they will be checking you out. Take your time selecting a professional writer who will be responsible for all your content and remember: once you find your perfect match, build a long-term relationship as working with different freelance writers over time can spiral to dissonance in your content.

3. Content marketing is all about quality content

I come across this statement more and more often: “Create quality content and create as much of it as possible.” That is quite problematic especially because a lot of businesses claim they publish quality content but they can’t define what quality stands for. Remember that to a big extent the quality of your content is measured by how much it serves its main purpose: meeting your prospects’ and customers’ needs.

You need to:

• prioritize your buyer persona’s needs over your sales and promotional messages

• prioritize answering a customer’s question or meeting a customer’s need over churning out content of no use to your prospects or customers.

However, in reality content marketing isn’t about content. For a successful content marketing strategy, you need to think about a competitor analysis, implementation, distribution, user experience, and performance monitoring.

What’s more, you need to define your KPIs (key performance indicators). What numbers are important to you? For example, converted users, social media engagement, email conversion rate, traffic, customer retention, among others. Track and evaluate them and when something is not performing as effectively as it should be, adjust it on the fly.

4. Our prospects and customers probably aren’t on social media

If you are like the small business owners who think that:

• social media doesn’t work for their industry

• only younger or tech-savvy people are active on social media

• social media is just a waste of time because if a prospect or customer is really interested in their content, they will actively search it out and eventually find it on Google,

it is time you changed your thinking.

To begin with, it is much more difficult to build a solid relationship with your prospects and customers if you only interact with them on your website. Consistent posts on social media that provide them with the information they need can soften them up for future conversations and earn their trust more easily.

Second, the truth is social media usage is one of the most popular online activities, and you are shooting yourself in the foot if you haven’t incorporated it in your content strategy. In 2019, an estimated 2.95 billion people were using social media worldwide and this number is projected to increase.

Third, if you want your content to get visible, you need to actively share it. People won’t just hear about your business by accident: you need to make that happen. While organic search is a valuable way to draw attention to your content, this shouldn’t be the only tool in your distribution arsenal.

No matter how much time and care you put into building your strategy and creating content, the success of it also depends on its distribution on your social media channels.

5. All content should be about my business

One of the biggest complaints consumers raise is that some companies that market to them are too promotional. The power in using content in your business is to lead the conversation your audience cares about, not be the subject of it.

Are your company blog, LinkedIn page, and Instagram feed streams of company news and updates? If you only talk about your recent achievements or new product launches, you are missing the real purpose of content marketing: that is being useful not promoting your products or services.

You have to understand that it isn’t about you: your prospects and customers don’t care about you, your services, or products. They care about themselves, their wants, and needs.

So if you can acknowledge your audience’s wants and needs, answer their questions, and empower them with information, you will earn their trust and in the long run they will choose you over your competitors. Spend less time talking about your business and provide more value to your prospects and customers instead. Effective content marketing starts with a simple question: “What questions are my customers asking?”

6. Creating more content should be my top priority

Perhaps you have heard the mantra “more content is better”. But there is a big problem with it: your audience is already inundated with content every day, every hour, every minute. Even the smallest companies can easily publish blogs, podcasts, videos, social media posts, etc. The quantity of content published on the Internet on a daily basis is astounding: for example, 2.75 million blog posts are published each day on WordPress alone.

It is crucial that instead of posting more you should understand more: understand your audience, listen to their problems, issues, challenges, questions, and address them with your content.

Try to answer these questions:

• Does our content cover a wide range of topics our prospects and customers are interested in?

• Are we answering questions that potential and existing customers are asking?

• Does our content answer them in-depth?

Of course, if your company is capable of producing relevant and valuable content on a daily basis, go for it. However, don’t forget to be consistent: churning out a blog post every week and then disappearing into thin air for a month will do your business much more harm than good.

If budget and resources restrict you and you need to choose between production velocity and production quality, always go for quality: one well-researched and well-written content piece will always be more beneficial than ten thin content pieces.

7. Quality content means long pieces of content

Does the length of your content matter? Yes, it does. However, there is no universal rule when it comes to the “best length” because it boils down to your personas’ intent, product or service, and purpose of that particular piece of content.

Long-form content is typically 2,000 words or more. It usually covers white papers, e-books, how-to guides. Long-form content is suitable for:

• B2B sales
• high-end products and services that are on the higher end of the price scale
• early stages of marketing cycles when your audience has little to no awareness of your products or services
• technical products with complex aspects.

Short-form content is no more than 1,000 words. Social media posts, blog posts, and emails fall into that category. Short-form content is suitable for:

• ads, emails, infographics, videos
• less expensive or commonly used products
• later stages of marketing cycles when your customers are ready to purchase from you
• when your target audience is familiar with your business and trusts your products and services.

However, these are not hard and fast rules. The most important factor you need to take into consideration before you decide how long your content should be is your personas. When you know your personas inside out, you will know if a 2,000-word article will appeal to them more than a 30-second video.

8. Email is obsolete

Email remains an effective way to engage your prospects and customers, build credibility, and convert. In fact, 92% of adults online use email. What’s more, 58% of people check their email before doing anything else online even before skimming through social media and the news.

Then why aren’t your leads and customers clicking on your email messages as much as you would have liked them to? The problem might not be the channel but the message delivery.

According to research by OptinMonster, the top three reasons consumers unsubscribe from emails are: too many emails (59%); information is no longer relevant (43%); and don’t recognize brand or remember signing up (43%).

Therefore it is crucial you spruce up your emails and:

• only write content that is relevant to your subscribers – but please don’t do it every day!

• send emails only to the people who have subscribed to your emails (don’t resort to bad practices to grow your mailing lists)

• remind your subscribers who you are and what you do in every email you send

• personalize your emails: send warm greetings once they sign up for your list, use the recipient’s first name, segment your email list

• don’t ignore GDPR standards: use a GDPR compliant email marketing software

• use mobile-friendly templates: always check the mobile previews when drafting your email design

• delight with your design: use embedded videos, GIFs, beautiful infographics, make your email exciting to look at and read.

Conclusion

I know this might be a lot to process but now you need to roll up your sleeves and uproot these myths from your content marketing strategy. Just remember that:

• content marketing works for any type of business

• it takes a special type of person to create content

• your content should be about meeting your customers’ needs and answering their questions

• you should be on social media

• you should lead the conversation your audience cares about not be the subject of it

• instead of posting more you should understand your audience more

• there is no universal rule when it comes to the “best length” of your content

• email remains an effective way to engage your prospects and customers, build credibility, and convert.

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I hope you have found these tips helpful. Which of these content marketing myths do you still hold on to and why? Let me know in a comment.

Featured image: Adobe Stock.

Do you need a hand with your content? Email me and I would love to help you.