What you don’t know about content marketing can hurt you—or at the very least, hold you back.
At Grammar Chic, Inc., we are constantly talking with small business owners about their own content marketing endeavors—and are sometimes surprised at the sheer number of businesses that have yet to really jump on the content marketing bandwagon. What’s frustrating is that the reasons for holding off on content marketing are usually pretty flimsy—based on myth rather than fact.
Let us give you some examples of what we’re talking about here.
All your content has to be long, thorough, and highly polished.
We’ve all seen the companies whose blog entries top a thousand words, and come loaded with compelling, original images and videos. That’s an intimidating standard to reach for, and the good news is you don’t have to. Just think about your content marketing goals. Are you trying to educate your readers on a specific topic, and can you do it in 400 words? Then that’s really all you need. A nice image is a plus, and video never hurts, but if you think every blog post has to be a magnum opus then you’re simply going to be paralyzed when you really need to take action.
I don’t know enough about content marketing to make it work.
Believe it or not, content marketing doesn’t require a high level of technical expertise, especially not if you team with a company like Grammar Chic, Inc. Yes, it’s good if you know the basics of social media and analytic reporting programs, but what maters most is that you have a clear understanding of your business and of your customers. If you can identify their needs, and the solutions you can offer, then you’ve got the crux of a good content marketing plan.
Content marketing will eat into all of your time.
It’s true enough that content marketing takes a real time commitment—but it’s just as true that you can organize your campaign with an editorial calendar to ensure maximum efficiency; that you can outsource the work to seriously cut back on your needed involvement; and that you can actually do much to boost your content marketing efforts in just 90 minutes’ time!
You won’t be able to measure the ROI of your content marketing.
This is one of the oldest content marketing myths in the book. You likely won’t see an overnight result from your content marketing, but over time there will be many measurable, discernable benefits—increased website traffic, more social media engagement, and—most significantly, albeit most esoterically—clients and customers who are better educated and more trusting of your brand.
So now you tell us: What’s holding you back from content marketing? We’d love to talk with you about it, and to offer our services however we can. Reach out to us today at www.grammarchic.net, or 803-831-7444.
Amanda E. Clark founded Grammar Chic in 2008. She is a graduate of Eastern Michigan University and holds degrees in Journalism, Political Science, and English. She launched Grammar Chic after freelancing for several years while simultaneously leading marketing and advertising initiatives for several Fortune 500 companies.