It’s a marathon.
It’s never been about who has the brightest ideas. It has always been about stamina and grit. Content marketing is not difficult but it requires diligence and is everything about hard work.
It has everything to do with SEO.
Content marketing is no longer just about writing up some article. Google’s algorithm, Hummingbird is all about semantics and apparently Google has been teaching its AI, RankBrain how to read. The better RankBrain knows how to read and differentiate between high quality content and low quality content, the better results users will get when doing search on Google. Content plays an important part in Google’s algorithm improvement.
Content doesn’t go viral.
Touching videos, memes, contests or social posts may go viral but never content articles or infographics. The main purpose of content is to educate and share information. Content alone can’t make it, but content with social media channels and a cool contest mechanic can be very powerful.
The best writers love to read.
The simple truth that many of us tend to overlook. The next time you’re looking to hire a writer to whip up some amazing pieces of content, check their hobby. Is it reading? What do they like to read? Novels, fiction and conspiracy theories, the better!
Content Shock is far from happening.
While there is a bit of a buzz on the idea of content shock already happening. Fact is, it’s far from it and hasn’t even started. Apple, inarguable one of the leading companies in the world has plans to invest over $1 billion on original content. That’s probably enough prove that content shock hasn’t even started.
Writer’s block is a real pain for content marketing.
Like it or not, content marketing comes hand-in-hand with writer’s block. If you’re a writer or your company is betting on content marketing, make sure you have a creative outlet for writers. The more relaxed, and in-tune with their muse, the better content quality you can expect from any writing team.
General knowledge is important.
Well, to write a piece that flows nicely, you do need to have quite a large database of general knowledge in your head to mix and match. Knowing something about everything is the name of the game. General knowledge in fact comes hand-in-hand with reading. If you look at the above item, that is why, ‘The best writers love to read.’
Content Marketing doesn’t work. You’re measuring it wrong.
Can you fully measure branding by conversion metrics? The same goes for content marketing which is an art as oppose to data science. The right way to measure content marketing is by taking a look at how you are attributing conversions to this channel; and at what point in the customer journey.
Content Marketing is part of the sales funnel.
Well, if you don’t know what you’re buying and how it benefits you, there’s no reason to even considering buying in the first place. While content marketing is not about hard sales, it does play an important role in the sales funnel. Consequently, a study by Aberdeen Group has found that conversion rate is much higher for companies who invest in content marketing at 2.9% vs 0.5% respectively.
Anyone can write. But not anyone can write well.
Worth it to note that anyone can probably write-up an article, but not anyone can write up really enticing pieces. Make sure to take your time to evaluate a writer’s creative thinking, language style and use, as well as structure when hiring.
If you’re not sure where to start with content marketing, please feel free to get in touch with any of our digital marketing enabler. We’d love to hear from you and share our experience.