5 Content Marketing Lies You Need to Stop Believing

Not all content is created equal. Marketing automation, social media, and the internet as a whole have lowered the barriers of publishing and marketers forget to use critical thinking and a solid content strategy when publishing content. It might be time for us to unlearn some of our bad habits, hit the reset button, and start creating real, helpful and authentic content that is actually useful.

Lie #1: Producing Great Content is The Goal

"While of course, amazing content is a big part of your goal, planning and creating the right opportunities to have that content reach your audience cannot be overstated. But, finding the right balance is difficult. Sometimes you see people trying to cram specific messaging or ideas into a channel where it just doesn’t fit. On the other side, there is spectacular content that never gets more than a few views, clicks, or shares. The intersection of the right content in the right places (be it influencers, owned or social channels, or other more traditional methods) is where the right content can hit the goals you’re looking to achieve." 

— Antoine LaFromboise, Marketing Director, Hellmuth & Johnson

What You Can Do: If you aren't creating content that can be used in multiple places, start now. Plan out a content strategy that includes distribution channels — will you syndicate your content through another website, link to it from other relevant website pages or tag a contributor on social media? Include the blogs on website pages, nurturing emails and newsletters. Make your content work for the business goals you have in place.

Lie #2: You Have to Be a Professional Writer to Contribute Content

"It does help if you have strong writing skills and a skilled editor is crucial but most people have thoughts, ideas & opinions that can help shape your content. If you can talk, you can contribute to the content marketing process." 
— Dan Tyre, Sales Director, HubSpot

What You Can Do: Content takes many forms: host a webinar, record a podcast, create a video. There are a lot of ways to create content that doesn't just add to the noise.

Lie #3: The More Content the Better

"This is a harmful belief for businesses turning their employees into production machines to create as much content as humanely possible. If you're trying to stay five blog posts, three case studies, and two e-books ahead of your competitors this is likely going to lead to unforeseen consequences. For instance low readership rates due to not devoting time to building a robust promotional strategy, as well as low-quality content due to the fast-paced pressure it's being produced."

- Margot da Cuhna, Customer Success Manager, Wistia

What You Can Do: Have a harsh editing process — ask the tough questions, if you can make something better, take the extra time. Have a clear idea of what your company brings to the table that no one else does, don't be afraid to decide that a post doesn't fit your brand.

Lie #4: You'll Get Immediate Results

"Content marketing is a long-term strategy. If you start it expecting your business to change overnight, you are going to be disappointed. There are better short-term strategies. If you want to start to position your business as a thought leader in your industry, then content marketing is an excellent long-term solution that will work over time if executed properly."

- Dan Stefaniak, Director of Account Strategy, StoryTeller

What You Can Do: Plan your content for the long-term. Create content that is helpful for solving common problems for your customers, not just easy wins or hot topics.

Lie #5: Machine Gun Marketing is Effective

"One lie that is still far too prevalent is the idea that once I've created a killer piece of content, I need to promote it everywhere, right away - just get it out there! On the contrary, marketers need to start taking a long-term approach toward the lifecycle of a piece of content. This means starting with your core audience, your most engaged customers and prospects, via email and your website. Once you know what messaging works the best, then spin up some social campaigns, paid ads, and targeted outreach, with syndication at the finish line. Your content will last a lot longer and reach a wider audience."

- Adam Hutchinson, Senior Marketing Manager, Socedo

What you can do: Know how to connect with your most engaged audience, try out your content with that group first. Don't be afraid to tweak your content if it's not working. Hitting the publish button doesn't mean your content is done. Be strategic in how you use your best content.

The bottom line is: creating content for the sake of content is not a strategy. Both Google and your customers are now sophisticated enough to tell the difference between real, thoughtful content and pure marketing speak.