Content marketing has been around for well over a hundred years, but is becoming one of the most used tactics to do everything for businesses; from getting more customers, to improving their search engine rankings. Still, many misconceptions about it exist.  Susanna Gebauer recently broke down some common content marketing misconceptions. We’ve highlighted the most popular ones here:

Content Marketing is New

Not so much. Content marketing has been around forever. Remember how engaging you found the back of a cereal box when you were a kid? Or have you ever flipped through the tips and recipes of a grocery store’s magazine? Gebauer writes, “Selling of content marketing as a new concept is truly dangerous, as it can prevent you from learning from past examples. Having a history allows you to do better in the future and hopefully build on past success.”

Creating Content is Content Marketing

Content marketing isn’t simply the act of producing content. Gebauer explains, “There is much more to content marketing than producing content. A true content marketing strategy has to include concepts for content distribution, communication and interaction with your audience. You have to have a clear idea about which goals and which target group you want to reach.” Distributing that material through social media or email marketing is a great way to grow an audience.

Content Marketing is for Google

“Content marketing is for a target audience,” writes Gebauer, “if you are creating content for Google, you are doing search engine optimization (SEO), SEO is not content marketing… Content in content marketing is created for people: your target audience. It is meaningful, interesting, informative and entertaining – it is created to speak to your audience and not Google.” Defining your audience is an important part of content marketing. A strategy targeting direct consumers, for instance, would be very different than a strategy of content marketing for business to business purposes.

Content Marketing is Not for Google

If your content marketing is taking place online, it kind of is for Google. Gebauer writes, “If done right, content in content marketing will speak to Google. If your content attracts an audience, they may share it on social platforms. They may recommend your content and rate it well. Being able to place content on high quality sites gives you the opportunity to produce high quality backlinks to your site.”

Search engines love high quality content, and producing it can raise your overall results.

Your Business is Too Boring 

“The opportunity to create high-quality content is there, regardless of what industry you serve,” writes Gebauer, “…Just because your topic is toilets (or insurance, or telecom, or stained-glass windows), doesn’t mean your topic has to be 100-percent toilet focused.”

Consider expanding to periphery topics if you need added variety or color to your content. If you’re selling paint, consider producing content on any number of subjects answering questions like ‘what are some awesome paintings throughout history’, ‘why are fire engines red’, or ‘what are the best ways to dispose of old paint’.

Content marketing is an effective way to grow your business, reputation and customer base while gaining trust and loyalty in the process. Recent developments in Internet technology have made it a hot topic lately, but content marketing has been around for a long time for a reason and has many values and lessons your business can incorporate.

What are your most effective methods of content marketing? Share in the comments.

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