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Common Small Business Content Marketing Myths

By Snap Agency June 27, 2017

As content marketing has become more popular, some myths have become more familiar. Content marketing is when you take some form of content, whether it’s written, video or audio, and promote that around the web.

It’s a great way to share your brand across the internet. It usually results in traffic to your website, links and brand awareness.

With more people talking about content marketing than ever, you end up with a lot of false information. It’s important that you try to ignore those with an unqualified opinion and reject the myths:

Content marketing is expensive

This myth is the most common attack that traditional advertising managers throw at the content marketing world. They claim that content marketing is expensive and that most companies can’t afford it.

The truth is that content marketing doesn’t need to be expensive. In fact, it’s far cheaper than most traditional forms of marketing.

All you need is a piece of high quality content and somebody to spend their time reaching out to publications who might find it interesting.

It takes lots of time

Another myth that we hear all the time is that it takes too long. For some reason, people seem to think that creating a piece of content will take hundreds of hours. If you’re looking to create a written guide that you can promote you can outsource that for a few hundred dollars and have it set up within a week.

Only the biggest brands can do it

This myth originated because the big corporations are the ones who do the most content marketing. SMB’s are less aware of it and don’t have the competency.

Every company has a story and some information to share. For example; if you’re a local gardening company you might be able to write the world’s best resource on caring for plants in Arizona.

You can promote this guide across a huge range of gardening websites, and your company can benefit. Creating the content to advertise is about having a piece of knowledge that other people will find interesting.

Whatever business you run, you have specialist knowledge that most people don’t. No matter if you are a small or a large company, if you have something interesting to say about your industry, you can do content marketing.

It’s useless

A general lack of understanding has caused some SMB’s to believe that content marketing is pointless. This myth does come from some little truth, and that is that some content marketing is useless.

If you employ the wrong people to do the job, you might end up with little to no results. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater! Content marketing is a powerful strategy that thousands of companies have used to grow.

Take a look at Dollar Shave Club. They created a video to explain their product, and they promoted it across the web. They compete in an incredibly competitive market, full of ancient companies. However, they recently sold for over one billion dollars.

Content marketing has the potential to skyrocket your sales, but you need to do it in the right way.

My industry is too boring

Once a company decides that they want to start content marketing they’ll begin to brainstorm ideas. A lot of people get stuck at this point.

Eventually, they might come to the conclusion that their industry is just too boring.

This belief isn’t true. Companies have used content marketing successfully in industries like; petroleum, rodent extermination, plastering, pottery and drug rehabilitation.

Coming up with great ideas is the hardest part, but that barrier to entry is why this is such a powerful method.

Even if you think your industry is boring there are people out there who will find parts of it interesting.

If you’re in a visual industry, then look at video or images. If your industry has a DIY community, then write a guide for them.

Content marketing is easy and free

Some SMB’s think that content marketing is expensive, but many think that it’s easy and free. This myth can make them resistant to paying the prices that agencies charge.

It’s important to realize that while it’s not expensive, it’s not cheap either. Content marketers spend a lot of resources to research your industry and to create the best marketing strategy that they can.

Great content marketing takes commitment, but the payoff can be huge.

Conclusion

Every industry has its myths, and the content marketing world is no different. Fortunately, they are easy to dispel. There are thousands of companies whose growth is almost entirely as a result of content marketing.

As with any marketing strategy, you can use it well, or you can use it poorly. But to ignore content marketing completely is a great mistake. It’s one of the most effective methods for small companies to use because it doesn’t have to cost anywhere near as much as traditional advertising.