6 Content Marketing Misconceptions That You Need to Stop Believing

Through the years, content marketing is becoming an increasingly popular strategy. A lot of businesses see the major benefits that competitors are enjoying from publishing highly valuable content, and some are looking for ways to do the exact same thing themselves. Promoting high-quality content is quite difficult than expected and companies that have now started with content marketing often have unrealistic expectations for the kind of results content marketing will provide, as well as how quickly the results will come. Content marketing comes in both ways, but you’ll find that it’s well worth a shot in the long run. If you want to succeed, you need to come up with a clear vision and a detailed strategy laid out before you can launch any marketing campaigns.

Content marketing is a fundamental technique for businesses these days. With content marketing, companies have now been able to develop brand awareness, increase leads, and elevate their reputation in the market. Despite those number of benefits, there are still content marketing misconceptions that need to be addressed immediately.

Misconception #1: The longer the content, the greater the results

Nowadays, it has become a trend to focus on producing extremely long pieces of content than shorter ones. There is a valid reason for this. Generally, long content is more informative, covers a topic more thoroughly, and gives the readers a source of information that they can keep coming back from time to time. In addition, Google and other search engines will surely address longer form content. However, it is essential to know that not all topics require thousands of words and loads of infographics to add to that. It would be much effective if they were broken down into pieces and published separately.

When it comes to creating conversions, know that long-form content doesn’t always convert better than shorter ones. Longer content may work better when you’re trying to sell something big, but they can also confuse your readers and may drive them away from your website. Rather than sticking with longer content, you’ll want to test various styles separately to see which one works best.

Misconception #2: Content Marketing can drive more revenue quickly

Content marketing is a long and continuous process. You certainly won’t be able to see the type of results that you would hope to achieve in a single day. There are those companies that are just getting started with content marketing, and they spend a lot of time promoting new content as they do in creating it. There are actually various reasons for this. For some, it helps businesses drive initial traffic and get an idea of the type of strategy they’ll use in their next marketing effort. Additionally, it sets the right expectations and direction on what the next step will be.

You can post a number of great content every day, but if you are not out there actively promoting it, you’ll have a difficult time getting anyone to take notice of it, and all your efforts will be wasted. It may not show you the results immediately, but all will be worth it once you get the hang of it.

Misconception #3: There’s no need for a social media presence

Too many brands neglect their online social presence for a variety of reasons, but the unfortunate truth is that you need to promote your content regularly to create that visibility. While paid traffic and organic search are valuable ways to draw attention to your content, they aren’t always the best methods to engage your customers. To get the most out of your content and build the trust needed to earn conversions, then you must be active on social media.

A lot of businesses believe that their customers aren’t always using social media, thinking that only younger generation are active on these particular sites. But the truth, of course, is that almost everyone is now engaged in using social media, and you’re losing a lot of potential customers if you haven’t started yet. Some people believe that social media is only a wasted effort, but if you actually want to your business to get noticed out there, you’ll need to engage customers through social media.

Misconception #4: Copying successful content marketing strategies will make your brand successful

When it comes to content marketing, it is a common belief that an approach that works well for other companies will work for your brand as well. Many brands try to copy the successful campaigns of businesses with unrelated industries, which rarely works out as well as they thought so. Unfortunately, finding the perfect content marketing strategy is going to take a lot of time. Every customer is driven by a lot of different factors, so you’ve got to know what they’re into before you can even think about increasing your conversions.

Before you launch out a content marketing campaign, answer as many questions about your target audience and their buying processes as you can. Use this valuable information to create an effective strategy that’ll  effectively convert them from visitors to buyers.

Misconception #5: Publishing more content means more reach for your business

Many companies still think that the more content that they can produce, the larger their reach will be. While this is true in some cases, choosing quality over quantity is actually going to be a problem for your content marketing efforts. Don’t publish lots of content on a daily basis just for the sake of doing it. One blog post that reaches thousands of people is always going to be more valuable than creating hundreds of blog posts that reach only a few people each.

For those businesses that are new to content marketing, you should do it slowly and plan ahead of time. Often, a blog post can be enhanced upon if you spend some time researching on the type of audience you’ll target, and the way they are searching for a particular information. You could adjust the headline or provide some additional information, which in the end could present you with thousands of people discovering your brand.

Misconception #6: Content Marketing is going to be an easy task

Estimating the effectiveness of your content marketing strategy isn’t always going to be that simple. Obviously, you need to improve conversions, and many different factors need to be taken into consideration to become successful. For example, you’ll want to observe and examine the number of visitors, click-through rates, and what the audience will search for. This data will help you assess what type of strategies and demographics convert best for your brand, and which can ultimately help you optimize your content marketing strategy to convert higher sales.

The conversion rate is apparently one of the most important factors you’ll be concentrating on, but some other factors play a significant role in measuring your campaign’s success. Try to be as specific as possible while testing so that you can make clear decisions on what your marketing campaign will be.