Content marketing myths which we still believe in

The best content is only for your blog

Imagine, you search the material, make a исследования, collect the small pieces of useful content to make something vulnerable, and the marketer says that you should publish it somewhere else, not on your own platform. Why? It seems unfair. But the thing is, content marketing is about information dissemination.

Why should you publish good content out of your website?

Just think about how much more return would be from such an article if you place it on a top resource, with traffic tens or hundreds of times more than your blog.

Or think about companies. If you heard about guest posts, you know what powerful marketing tool it is. Now think how much more audience the company had by publishing it. The simplest example, Adobe blog allows you to create guest posts, and Adobe is a multinational computer software company with millions of users.

When you choose if to publish content ‘abroad’, think about the goal. Are you interested in increasing the audience, collecting email databases, or increase the reach and distribution of your content to increase conversions/sales and profits from content distribution? Don’t think no more. 

Good content will promote itself

The great mistake. Yes, the good content may get a good return, but as the practice shows, it’s only 1% of all generated content. Content needs to be distributed. But there is a question: how? Firstly, find a place where your target audience is. It may be:

1. Social networks
2. Popular sites
3. Media
4. Search engines
5. Email newsletters

Note, the content distribution is not a one-time promotion, it’s a long, regular journey.

How to find the right platform for content sharing?

The easiest way - browser search. You may have simply googled the phrase: ‘Best platform to share video’ or ‘Top 10 platforms to publish an article’.

Also use the combination: Keyword + blog/channel/group (in Facebook)

When you find several platforms check the attendance, visibility in search, and activity (social factors, comments).

Content marketing is not for all types of businesses

Doesn't matter what type your business is. The matter is how and what type of content you provide. 

Even if your business is about sunflower oil or nut keys development, you can create worthy content. For example, 100 best cuisine recipes which you may publish for 100 days or architecture ideas in which a nut key is an essential tool.

Remember, your content should be not just about your product. Read about the core of the content here.

Several articles/videos make a difference

If you target constant growth, I hate to ruin it for you, but even 5 good articles won't be enough. To grow your business constantly, you need to constantly be visible, and remind about your brand. It applies to absolutely any area of business.

Want to be visible - live in Groundhog Day:

1. take a systematic approach to content marketing
2. do it constantly
3. increasing quality and expanding reach of the potential audience
4. test new content delivery formats

More words bring better result

Well, it depends. If we are talking about search engines, then content volume matters. It simply provides a better conversion. But content is mostly about:

1. value
2. answer to user question
3. help the user solve it task/problem

Always start from value and benefit rather than volume. Or combine it for a better result.

Here we also may debunk the myth that more content better than less. Let’s make it clear. We are already talking about the amount of content. We say that two pieces of content are not enough, but let’s answer the simple question. What do you think will be the best return:

1. 10 pure-written articles
2. One, but the sensible guide, in which everything is painted inside and out

I know you know the answer by yourself already. Quality is always a prerogative. You may publish the content once a week or a month if it’s what the content creation process required, but make it systematic.

Quickly result

As I said before, content marketing is a long way around. You can’t wait for the fast results when working with content, especially writing. In my experience, the quickest results are YouTube. But as with the blog, it works with the condition that you'll regularly spread the content or your content is a unique piece of art that is desirable. 

How long to wait? It takes from a year to 3 to create an environment where your audience will find you, not verse. Why so long? Readers/viewers' trust is hard to get. It’s never enough 10 articles and 5 videos in a year. The simplest reason for it is that you may be forgotten or replaced after some time. To reach ‘your’ audience requires a lot of effort, mistakes, and time.

Text-based content is enough

If you are about to create a blog, no matter the topic, you must understand that the visual part is almost as well important as writing content. Our brain builds in such a way that it is better taken in the information which delivers for us in different ‘state of aggregation’: written, visible, motion, etc.

At first, you may use free stock pictures that are easy to find on Unsplash, Pexels, iStock, Shutterstock platforms.

If you have some experience with Photoshop you may also try to create pictures/info-graphics/tables by yourself. Statistically, the author's images make the content more professional looking and trusted. 

Anyone can generate quality content

This mistake concerns the business owners, not an author’s. Dear authors, never doubt your abilities to create. You can rock it! 

A little lyrical digression, now back to the question. Well, technically, anyone may do that, but then you must ask about the content level you wish to see on your corporate blog and what results you desire. You may ask your developer to write an article to publish on your blog. It will be extremely professional, but will it be written by LSI canons? Will it be ‘seeing’ by Google’s analytics spiders? Will it be available for a fresh year engineering student? Will it be interesting to read and share? Hardly.

Important to understand that great content or copy requires great experience and effort. It's not the best tactic to have your app developer and content creator/copywriter in one person. 

That’s it for today. Share in comments what kind of content myths you know and which of it I should expose in one of the further posts.