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Content marketing is a booming industry and there are no signs of it slowing down anytime soon. It works and is on track to double in its economy by 2019. Because of its relative novelty, there are plenty of misconceptions out there that will hurt your business. Here are some to avoid:

Content Marketing Is A Viral Effort

The myth around content marketing is in the approach. Teams and executives tend to think of content in the short term; they develop strong strategies and tactics with the expectation that not long after viewing the content, consumer curiosity will spark a purchase. The truth is more tedious; curiosity sparks attention, and there is a difference.

Content marketing involves long-term effort. Most consumers see the content, explore more content over a period of time, then may make a purchase. They look to build memories and positive emotions that become associated with the brand. If a consumer has never heard of your product or services, there’s no reason for them to jump the gun and spend money on the unknown. Just think if that’s something you do personally, even half of the time.

You Can’t Measure Your ROI Accurately

Content marketing is no different from other aspects of your business in the sense that you need to see a return on your investment. We’ve established that this investment will be long-term, which begs the question on how to measure success. The first step in measuring your success is to quantify your success.

If you want to see how successful your weekly video series is, then your team should define how many views they want the series to reach by the 10th video of the 10th week. If you reach that defined number, you look at opportunities to expand. If you fall short of that defined number, then you look for opportunities on how to get to that number or another number. The takeaway is that you are not afraid to define the number.

This involves research on trends and other data so that you can be reasonable in your expectations, but this is a crucial first step. There are various built-in and third-party tools to help you track data on various websites like Youtube and Facebook, but if you don’t define your success then you’re looking at numbers that don’t mean anything. Set the parameters, then work from there.

Any Content Is Good Content

You’ve planned your content marketing strategy for the long term and have defined what you want to see, so let’s assume it’s time to create and release actual content… So you hire anyone with a camera to film a promotional video or anyone with 10 fingers to write or edit editorials. These tasks don’t appear too difficult, and most people wouldn’t notice a typo or two. You could google it and do it yourself if you had the time… Wrong.

If the content is representing your business, it needs to be done by people who know what they’re doing. Experts are worth the money and time you invest. You can even look into developing internships for students or professionals, which helps them in experience and learning as much as it helps you! No matter what you do, quality content is the only good content, period.

Let Michigan Creative lend our expertise to turn your marketing efforts into Marketing Machines.

– Kris Johnson

http://searchenginewatch.com/sew/opinion/2418482/5-content-marketing-myths-to-correct-now