You hear that 93% of B2B marketers are using some form of content marketing.
10% of these are reported to increase budget for content marketing this year. Looks like everyone is talking about content these days.
So you started a blog site and post “content”.
You even tweet about your posts and set up Hootsuit to schedule these on Facebook and other social media platforms.
But you don’t seem to see an increase in traffic.
And there’s not much engagement on the content you sent out. Surely, you can’t talk about conversion since there’s no traffic.
You wonder why your content is not attracting any reader, while others are reporting success.
So what do you need to put in place before content marketing works for you?
Part 2 of 4: Debunking common myths about content marketing
Research shows that only 38% of marketers using Content Marketing report having satisfactory results.
What’s missing? Should you:
- Write more frequently?
- Write longer posts?
You sort of tried doing that too, but that didn’t make much difference for you. So now what?
Let’s look at some common myths about content marketing and what needs tp be put in place for it to work.
1. Common Myths About Content Marketing
- It’s not just about having a blog and posting random articles
- It’s not just about posting on more channels
- Nor posting more frequently
- And it’s not a campaign
- This is certainly not about lining up “uniquely” written articles that pass the copyscape test.
2. Why Won’t it Work For Some?
The key is seen in the definition of Content Marketing. According to the content marketing institute:
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
For content marketing to work, it needs to have the following attributes:
- Valuable
- Relevant
- Consistent content
Value
Unless the content created is helpful to your audience, it won’t offer value. Collecting statistics and quoting influencers is great but you’ll also need to translate these into practical advise.
Blog posts that are about personal opinions and activities will not get any attention from business-minded readers.
Relevance
There are too many generic posts that do not address specific issues. For your content to raise above the noise, it’ll need to address unique needs of your target audience in a timely manner.
If you have a clear target audience, then speak to their specific needs. Selling video games to someone who is suffering and in need of medical care will not be relevant nor valuable.
Consistence
As referred to in the BFM interview below, random acts of marketing will not work. Readers are looking for a continual flow of information / education. One piece of brilliant work won’t make you a superstar.
Distribution
Content marketing is not content creation.
What has been carefully created needs to be strategically promoted and distributed. It needs to reach the right people at the right time in their buyer’s journey for it to be useful.
3. What needs to be in place for content marketing to work?
First and foremost, a strategy. Hap-hazard actions without a defined aim result in mere busy-ness, not business. Activities do not necessarily generate results.
A content strategist will be able to help you sort these out taking into consideration your business’ unique strengths or constraints.
Things to put in place to increase your success rate include:
- Having a clear strategy – a content strategist can help you with that
- Use powerful copyrighting so your content gets read
- Consistent Implementation and – how this can be done
- Monitoring (which we will discuss in another session)
Your Turn
What action item can you put in place today? What else do you think needs to be added to this list? Love to hear your thoughts. Do leave your comments in the comment section below or on Google plus. And if you need anything else just write in.
You can listen to the podcast interview here:
The radio interview was first published on Resource Centre of BFM radio, the business radio station in Malaysia.
If you have not listened to the others sessions series, you can do so here:
Part 1: What is Content Marketing and Why Now?
Part 3: Content As Your Ambassador
Part 4: Practical Tips for Implementing Content Marketing
And if you’d like to leave me a comment or a question, feel free to do so in the comment section below or join me on the stream on Google plus.
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