Weblinx, Incorporated

What Everyone Gets Wrong About Content Marketing

Content marketing is the “it” topic in the world of Internet marketing these days. It’s not just a way to engage potential buyers, but the backbone of any search engine optimization and inbound lead generation campaign.

And yet, for all the excitement there is for content marketing, lots of business owners and executives don’t exactly understand how it works. In their minds, it’s simply a matter of posting enough articles, with the right keyword-optimized titles and lead ins, and then watching the sales opportunities pile up.

Generating blog posts and using keyword optimization are certainly parts of the process, but there’s a lot more that goes into making a content-based campaign work. To show you why, here are a few things everyone seems to get wrong about content marketing…

More Content Isn’t Always Better

The basic assumption of content marketing is that you need lots and lots of articles to succeed. This simply isn’t the case. While it’s true that you have to have some activity on your blog or social profiles to generate any traction, it’s more important to have great content than it is to generate lots of it.

Ultimately, what matters is that you can make an impression on potential customers. It’s easier to grab their attention, and build your credibility, with a few very well thought out articles than it is dozens and dozens of search-optimized blurbs that don’t add anything new to their understanding. More content is better, but only if the content you’re producing stands out.

Creating Great Content is Only a First Step

No matter how great your articles and ideas are, they aren’t going to get noticed if you don’t promote them. You can’t simply put them on your website and hope buyers will find them – you have to attract visitors through social links, guest posting, and email newsletters.

Without that activity backing every piece of content creation, you’re just throwing pasta up against the wall (metaphorically-speaking) and hoping it will stick. In today’s crowded Internet marketing environment, not many buyers are going to find your content by accident, so don’t expect them to stumble across your articles unless you have promoted them thoroughly.

Views Don’t Equal Interest

Because gaining attention is such an important second step (after creating a great piece of content in the first place), lots of marketers become obsessive about page views and other relevant statistics. But, as much as readership matters, it isn’t actually a very useful metric.

That’s because you only benefit if readers take action. So, in addition to ending every piece of content with a strong call to action, you should carefully study click through rates to see which pieces of content are drawing the right results. Views are nice, but they don’t indicate a real buying interest in the way that more substantial conversions do.

Content Marketing Really Works

Content marketing works, but only if you understand the fundamentals and execute your campaigns the right way. Simply posting new material to your website, your blog, or your social profiles isn’t going to be enough to make an impact with buyers – you have to give them material they care about and then promote it tirelessly. Are you developing the right kind of content to attract leads and sales… and are you doing enough to make sure it gets noticed online?

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