It makes me even more excited to share some cool insights on content marketing, which set out to achieve several goals and objectives. There are several myths and the correction of some incorrect ‘best practices’ regarding content marketing that many people seem to take for granted. 

Content marketing myths:

You’re too late for blogging and can’t be found for high-competition keywords anymore

One of those common myths is that it’s impossible to launch a blog and achieve a decent search engine position in this day and age. Why? The real “strong” online media, big blogs have become, don’t allow you to. And there is too much content (a truth but not a reason you can’t start now or rank high anymore). That’s a blogging myth and a content marketing myth (or in fact, both). 

First of all, let me answer the objections you might have.

• “So what? No one checks page 7- 8 of Google”. Not entirely true, but you have a point. There are several blogs on the keyword content marketing that comes with approximately 1,170 billion results. You will find an endless list of marketing blogs that exist for over five years and often write about content marketing but still unable to make the mark. It is due to the proper placement of the keyword in the blog or a piece of content.
• “Yeah, but it requires a big team to do it”. The truth is it does not require a big team to do so, but an expert or quality writers and a lot of time and patience. One can only deliver quality content if writing is its hobby and loves to so, which will help achieve the desired goals. Oh, and that’s what we are specialized in!
• “You must have a lot of content”. Forget it, that what most people think and even before starting the content, they tend to give up on investing in content marketing. It’s not about quantity but the quality piece of content. And we at COMAAG, make sure to never emphasize more on the words but on time invested in building a masterpiece.
• “You received lots of backlinks because you’re connected”. Everyone needs some juicy backlinks to rank higher on the search engine, but all the backlinks are either created with the content or came spontaneously. Just focus on creating the quality content that your READERS would love to read instead of what you like and rest all will follow.
• “You should have a good social media presence: That is very much TRUE, but that is not all it requires to succeed! Today social media is the best media to find potential customers that too completely free. But the key to success in social media strategy is to have social media-specific content and infographics.
• “You need to be a blogging and SEO expert”. Forget it. It only requires to know the essentials of SEO and blogging (the good ones, at least), has no programming skills and doesn’t know about the search engine marketing ‘secrets’. It is always recommended to hire content professionals who focus only on content and specialize in content marketing.
• “Good content requires a lot of money “. It not the same with everyone if you are lucky enough to hire the right content marketing agency.

Content marketing myths arise when you focus on form, format, noise and channels too much. But if your only focus is to “BRAND YOURSELF OR YOUR BRAND IN THE MARKET, ALL THE MYTHS CAN BE EASILY BURST.”

OK, enough of myths for now. Let’s take all the questions popping in your mind as much as you want, I’ll answer.

Do you want to know the secrets? OK, brace yourself:

1. There are none secrets as such, but I’ll give it a try.
2. 20% is the gut feeling and experience, common sense and ignoring best practices and being a critical thinker, something most of us have unlearned it seems. 
3. 25% is knowing you stand alone, doubting and believing you can do it if you want (and then doubting again, etc.).
4. 25% is giving and sharing.
5. 20% is testing and trying.
6. 15% is copying what others do (to dispel some other myths, not as a strategy).
7. 25% is about being consistent, customer-centric, channel-agnostic and use what you have built and the experience you have to focus on what people want.
8. 20% is about sticking to your guns and being you. I know, it sounds fluffy, but it is what it is.

Don’t make an infographic out of this: if you paid attention, you noticed the sum is over 100%, but it does give an idea.

All the above will prevail if the content is given proper time, knowledge, technical know-how, and best practices to make it SEO optimized to create a masterpiece content.

• “The (content marketing) process must be infused into both our new and traditional methods”. No comment: it’s more than search and whatnot, it’s integrated.
• “Most agencies are less concerned about strategy than they are about execution”. It’s not just the agencies, though.
• “Most SEO agencies don’t know jack about content marketing”. You can say that for many search engine marketers and social. It’s ALWAYS ABOUT INTEGRATION and a customer-centric view and always has been, including the earliest digital marketing tactics. And about being social but not in the social media sense, trust me.

And we are content marketing experts as COMAAG only focuses on creating content of all types be it for BLOGS, ARTICLES, PRESS RELEASE, SOCIAL MEDIA, VIDEO CONTENT and much more. I know what customers want and how digital works.

But if anyone tells you that getting started with a blog or focusing on high-ranked keywords nowadays is impossible as many “experts” say or that you should only focus on visual and snackable content (have you ever noticed one Slideshare presentation we made or any short post except for some tests here?), be critical and test. 

More content marketing myths: the obsessions over content and visuals

This way I just dispelled a few more myths: about being everywhere and visual stuff and snacks (and again it’s about form, format and channel over strategy, noticed?). I’m not saying these tactics and formats aren’t important and I’m not saying they don’t work (read more about that below). I’m saying you can succeed without them (and do them to succeed, even more, we might go there too except for the snacks, that’s why we use curation channels).

Be critical and make your case. I dare you to dare yourself. 

But you have to believe. And that’s where most execs go wrong: they rely on the noise instead of on smart and hardworking people who can prove something, often those sitting very close to them.

The point? Some conclusions and content marketing thoughts

I want to emphasize that the myths I tried to dispel are this article are just small pieces of the content marketing puzzle that’s strategic in the first place, some of the so-called myths might work for you if you use them in a smart, customer-centric and strategic way.

Final tip: Work, give, share your experiences, be critical, and do content marketing smartly. Content marketing is much more than search, blogging and social marketing.

Was this too deep? I don’t think so, but you might perceive it as such. But trust me, content marketing is much behind this, vast and dense. Something new always comes in the market and all it boils to the offering or a piece of content be it in written form, video or a normal image. There is no self-serving, call-to-action, and you know where to connect with us for your masterpiece content.