Content is a powerful tool for building a brand and establishing authority in your industry. But it's not as simple as creating a blog post and sending it out into the world. There are plenty of misconceptions about what content marketing is and how it should be done that may be holding you back. Here are some common content marketing myths that we hear all too often:
- To do content marketing, you need to know how to write.
People sometimes assume content marketing is for writers. They think that you need to be able to write well in order to be a good marketer. That's not true. Content marketing is all about using words, images, and videos to communicate with your audience. You can use all sorts of tools to create it, including Google Docs, Adobe Premiere, and even Canva. You don't have to be a writer or a designer to do content marketing effectively. You just need to know who your target buyer is and what they want from you — then you can create content that meets their needs.
- You need to perfect your content.
A lot of people think they need perfect content in order to create and publish a blog post or video. That's not true at all. If your goal is to encourage engagement, then you can even use text and images as long as they are relevant and interesting. You can even record yourself talking about whatever it is you want to talk about and upload that video to YouTube. The point is that you don't have to wait until you feel like you have something perfect before publishing it. In fact, if the goal is to get engagement, then publishing often will help keep those visitors coming back for more (and hopefully buy something from you).
- Content marketing places a strain on your marketing budget.
Content marketing doesn't need to cost big bucks. You can make a huge impact with simple and inexpensive content too, such as infographics or ebooks. You can also write an article about a topic related to your business niche and publish it on a blog platform like HubSpot or WordPress. Or if you don't have time for this, write an email newsletter with useful tips on how to improve their lives/businesses/profits, etc…and send it out periodically (weekly/monthly). You don't need thousands of dollars to start content marketing. You just need one idea that will generate leads and customers for your business.
- In order to get the results you want, it will be necessary to write long articles.
You don't need to write long articles to get the results you want. In fact, writing short, concise articles can be more effective because they're easier to read. If you write articles that are too long, people won't read them. They'll scan them, but they won't read every word as closely as they would if you wrote shorter articles. The reason for this is that people are busy and have only so much time in the day to read content online. If your article is longer than 1,000 words, most people will start to lose interest around the 800-word mark. How can you make sure your blog posts are short enough? Don't use filler words and phrases like "in my opinion" in each sentence of your post. You should also use bullet points instead of paragraphs whenever possible. You need to write articles that get straight to the point so that you can drive traffic, build leads and make sales with minimal effort.
- It's not necessary to write different content for each platform.
When you are creating content for your business, it is important to consider the audience that you are targeting. If you have an audience that is more interested in reading articles, then you will want to create more articles. If you have an audience that prefers videos, then you will want to create videos. The same concept applies when you are creating content for multiple platforms. You cannot always use the same type of content for each platform. For example, if you create a video on YouTube and then post it on Facebook, it may not be as effective as if you posted a different video on Facebook. When creating content for multiple platforms, it is important to remember that each platform has its own audience and its own rules.
- You need to use big words.
The first step to creating great content is to remove the words that don't matter. It's tempting to use big words and long sentences in your writing. After all, the more you sound like an expert, the more people will respect you. But when it comes to writing blog posts or landing pages that attract visitors and increase conversions, simpler is usually better. In fact, using big words can actually hurt your chances of being understood by readers — including your customers and prospects — because they're more likely to lose interest and stop reading once they can't understand what you're saying (or stop caring).
Ultimately, the goal when creating content should be to create something that truly adds value to readers. This can come in many forms: insights they might not have had before, a helpful tutorial, or just good old-fashioned information that was hard to uncover. In fact, it can even come from a creator saying exactly what they think and experiencing the consequences of that. Use this guide to dispel any misconceptions you may have regarding content marketing and use it to promote your business or brand and make an impact on the internet today!