When you consider viral content, the Jenners dressed up because the Avengers for the premiere of “End Game” on Instagram with over 13 MILLION likes may come to mind.
How the heck can your company ever be on par with that?
You publish like crazy. You’re on every social platform known to man. But no one’s biting.
So what gives?
You may be succumbing to at least one of those content marketing myths that are killing your conversions.
Myth #1: Content Marketing is All About Selling Your Company
Though content that creates your company, walking the walk and talks the talk is important, it’s even more important to supply informative and interesting content that doesn’t directly sell your brand.
Gasp!
Shocking, right? Hear us out.
This might hurt to hear, but your customers don’t actually care about you personally as much as they care what you can do for them.
If you want your target customers to care about what you have to offer, you need to put their needs front and center.
The goal is to offer the maximum amount of educational and valuable content within the sort of how-tos, guides, ebooks, infographics, and videos that will provide answers and solutions to your audience first before you sell yourself.
Providing creative solutions to difficult problems makes you an authority in your field and also builds trust with your audience.
Consumers don’t want to be hard sold anymore. Instead of trying to sell yourself with content, spend longer trying to interact and entertain your audience with authentic conversations.
We love this quote that sums this section up, “Traditional marketing talks at people. Content marketing talks with them.” @dougkessler
Focus on: Solving your consumer’s needs and crafting conversations instead of pitches.
Myth #2: Anyone Can Create Content
Yes, anyone can indeed create content, but that doesn’t mean anyone can create high-quality content. For example, you could shoot a few home videos for your business, but those videos would really wow your customers if a professional videographer created the clips.
High-quality content takes expertise and much of your time (and yes, money). Unless you or your staff have considerable experience, it’s best to let the professional photographers, videographers, and writers create your content.
Focus on: Hiring talent which will take your content to the subsequent level.
Myth #3: Photos and Text-based Content Is Enough
People are visual learners. We tend to connect through photos than over text. A single good photo can say a thousand words. But does one know what works even better than pictures?
Videos.
People consume videos quite the other content on social media platforms. Since 2017 video engagement skyrocketed to 71%. On average, consumers watch video ads five times longer than a standard ad and say videos are the simplest thanks to discovering new products.
Video is only going to continue to grow. Get in the video game now.
Focus on: Creating videos first, then transcribing videos into blog posts.
Myth #4: The More Content, the Better
Google wont to boost sites that created content daily. What transpired was plenty of cheap, thin, and low-quality articles that didn’t provide value to readers.
Cheap content hurts your brand because it depletes trust and lowers conversion rates.
In fact, when Google updated Google Panda, sites that pumped out useless content lost more than half of its traffic and received a lower SEO ranking.
Remember, it’s always better to invest in one high-quality piece of content rather than investing in 10 low-quality pieces.
Focus on: Creating fewer high-quality pieces of content and updating on a slower schedule instead of churning out a bunch of junk content for the sake of frequent updates.
Myth #5: If My Content Is Good, People Will Magically Find It
One can publish killer content, but it is of no use as no one can see or share it.
Social media distribution is a critical part of content marketing. Social media provides traffic to your content, while your content funnels the traffic into leads and sales. Without traffic, the business does not rise.
A word of caution: Don’t publish everywhere “just in case .” find out where your audience is and update frequently there.
Producing one piece of great content and strategically distributing it on the proper social media platforms are often your game changer.
Focus on: Determining the foremost strategic social platforms for your audience and publishing your content there.
Myth #6: Likes and Followers are Everything
People are more likely to follow accounts with more followers.
However, anybody can purchase followers and likes and your social media crowd knows it. While building your following is a crucial goal, you usually need to consider the standard of your squad.
Essentially, likes and followers are vanity metrics. They don’t indicate the health and performance of your content.
A hundred loyal fans are far more likely to interact with you, share your content, build your reputation, and buy your product versus 1,000 fans that are following you simply for a follow back.
Comments and shares are far more valuable metrics because they indicate how well your content builds traction, evokes emotion, and inspires. In fact, Instagram’s recent algorithm change boosts posts with higher engagement rates to supply its users with more relevant content.
More and more social media apps are making changes to undertake to form what mattered at inception important again: connecting people. It’s called social media for nothing. You actually have to be . . . well, social!
Focus on: Authentic engagement. Talk to your peeps and get them talking about you.
Myth #7: Branding Is No Biggie
Most people think of “branding” as your company logo, colors, and fonts. But it goes beyond that.
Branding is the process of creating an identifiable image for your company that your audience will remember. And that includes your brand voice — the overall tone and words you use in your messaging.
Your words and pictures together paint the experience you provide for your customers.
Branding is an opportunity to tell your story and invite your fans to participate. A story is powerful, and an honest story will always outsell a tough pitch. Learn how to craft a singular story that distinguishes you from the gang (then share it everywhere social media!).
Focus on: Determining your visual brand cues alongside your brand voice — the stories you would like to inform — to craft a memorable experience.
Myth #8: To Be Seen, You Must Pay for Ads
There are essentially two types of digital brand growth:
Paid: Just like it sounds — you pay for search engine and social media ads, paid guest spots on high-ranking publications, paid listings, etc. It’s a fast fix to getting seen, but the returns are low.
Slow-growing and diligence, but a possibility for a way higher ROI.
To grow organically, you would like to consistently produce relevant, interesting content.
To grow your social media fan base, you would like to post daily and provides your audience with what they need.
In addition, you would like to be social and have interaction conversations with other brands and groups in your niche.
With consistent content production and quality content, you’ll drive your organic reach without breaking the bank.
Focus on: Publishing consistent, relevant content to your audience and niche.
There are tons of selling myths roaming Google today.