Debunking 3 Myths About Content Marketing
BY Scribewise
May 3, 2012

We’re convinced that content marketing is not just the hot thing right now – we’re convinced that it’s the way things are going to be right up until The Rapture.

The logic is sound – marketing is changing because both media and customers are changing. The good ol’ MSM is becoming smaller and less influential in the face of the exploding media landscape, while customers – your customers – have a harder and harder time sifting through the entire Interwebs to find compelling information that has them buy a service such as yours. Nobody trusts a blatant sales pitch anymore, so marketers are left to try to build trust. And content marketing does just that, because it demonstrates that you want to educate your customers, not just get your hands on their money.

But still, some folks are resisting. They believe in myths about how it won’t work, even as examples of success continue to bloom around them. So let us debunk those myths.

Myth #1 – Our customers won’t find our content.

Well, yeah, you’re right, if all you intend to do is wave the magic content wand. This ain’t no Field of Dreams; you need to do more than just build it. You need to tell people about it through a variety of push strategies – email marketing, social media, etc. You also need to make it available in different forms – blog posts, videos, white papers, etc., so that you can reach as wide an audience as possible.

The goal is to become a go-to source of information in your industry by publishing quality, engaging content and alerting your audience to the fact that it exists. Once they see the quality, the word will spread.

Myth #2 – We’re better off focusing our resources on straightforward selling.

This is no more true than it ever has been for any other piece of the marketing mix – advertising, public relations, etc. All those old school marketing tactics are designed to warm up the audience and draw its attention to your service, but the impact of those strategies has diminished in today’s environment. Marketing in 2012 is all about being at the center of the conversation – and quality, engaging content allows you to do that… and to drive that conversation.

Myth #3 – We can’t produce enough quality content.

Yes you can. While it’s true that the principals of your company probably don’t have the bandwidth to be churning out content, content creation does not need to be a resource-intensive proposition. You might need to assign a member of the marketing team to run the content strategy, or hire outside assistance in the form of an agency or a freelance journalist or two, but this is not a bank-breaking effort. The key is to do it in a formal way – create an editorial brief to focus content topics, develop an editorial calendar (a good tool is DivvyHQ), and then feed the content into social media and email channels.

Let’s face it – content marketing is a smart wave to ride. Don’t let the naysayers hold you back.

Let’s talk about growing your company.

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