The attention swirling around content marketing these days is really something. It’s like everyone finally figured out that the world wide web was designed to be a web of information and ideas!
Everywhere you look, people are offering content marketing advice. However, there’s a lot of MIS-information out there.
There are a ton of content marketing myths being passed around, but these three are the biggest. Fall for any of them, and it could ruin your business!
1. “Any ol’ writer will do.”
If you’ve chosen to hand off your content writing tasks to someone else, you need to be careful about your choice. There are countless content writers who will make big promises, but they might not have the skills to deliver!
Writing isn’t something that just anyone can get the hang of. I’ve seen content writers advertise that they’re “experienced” because they like to read. That’s like saying you’re qualified to work as an Executive Chef in a restaurant because you like to watch the Food Network!
Take a quick spin around the web, and you’ll see that there is plenty of terrible content to go around. Unless you want to be grouped in with all of the junk, you’ve got to hire a writer that can walk the walk, instead of just talking the talk. Find out what their qualifications are. Ask to see some samples. Read their own website very carefully. After all, if they can’t write well when it comes to their OWN business, they’re never going to write well for YOURS!
Buy into this myth, and people will associate YOU with terrible content. After all, your name is being published at the top — not your writer’s. YOUR reputation is on the line every time you hit “Publish”.
2. “It’s all about quantity.”
OK, so you can’t expect to take the web by storm after publishing ONE article or blog post. You need a constant flow of great content to truly show your target audience everything you’re capable of.
The key word here is “great”. Just like you can’t hire any ol’ writer, you can’t publish any ol’ thing. When you publish every single piece of content, you have to imagine someone seeing your writing for the very first time. If you cut corners on an article simply because you think you have to publish SOMETHING today, those first timers will think you ALWAYS cut corners.
Personally, there have been times when I’ve let my blog sit a little longer than I would like because I couldn’t think of anything great to publish on it. I’d much rather wait to update it with something great, than to publish something I felt was only so-so.
Bottom line — content marketing is about publishing a lot of great things. Without the right mixture of quality AND quantity, you’ll never succeed. Fall for this myth, and you’ll miss out on a lot of loyal customers, simply because they’ll have a poor first impression of you.
3. “There are tools/tricks/techniques that can streamline my content writing duties.”
Unfortunately, when content marketing became the buzz term du jour, the snakes came out of the woodwork. You know, the people who seem to have a “trick” for everything. I’ve seen people selling everything from automatic content topic generators, to talk-to-type software, to ebooks that will teach you how to research and write an article in five minutes.
Here’s the truth — NONE of these things are going to give you a successful content marketing strategy. Why? Because none of them address what writing great content is all about! It’s not about typing as fast as you can or pulling topics out of thin air. Instead, content marketing is about sharing valuable knowledge with your target audience. It’s about establishing yourself as an expert in your niche. It’s about setting your business apart.
When you start relying on tools/tricks/techniques, you start cutting corners. And guess what? Your readers are smart enough to figure out when you’re not giving your all. Even worse, if you’re cutting corners with something as important as your web content, where else are you cutting corners? Buy into this myth, and you’ll wind up with a target audience that thinks you’re lazy.