My 15 Minutes of Fame: 5 Content Marketing Myths That Need to Die

In 2013 content marketing has finally progressed from a buzzword to a legitimate mainstream marketing strategy, and we can expect more such validation in 2014. If you're a brand thinking about investing in content marketing, don't fall for any of these content marketing misconceptions.

Myth 1: Content Marketing is Easy (Compared to Other Forms of Promotion)

Content marketing relies on the Know-Like-Trust factor, and as anyone who's ever been in any kind of relationship will attest, building trust is never easy. It takes a lifetime to build and a moment's carelessness to destroy.

While consumer relationships with brands may not always be this intense, building trust is usually an incremental process. Each piece of content you create adds another layer to the KLT pyramid.

In fact, advertising is much easier in the sense that campaigns are created, run their duration, and results are measured. In content marketing, though, you're essentially creating a lifetime campaign for however long your business will function and as such there's no end date, although there are plenty of milestones for measurement.

Trust, once lost, is much harder and painstaking to regain. Just ask British Petroleum.

On the flip side, content marketing proves again and again that companies who provide transparency and authenticity, both crucial factors for trust-building, may find a more forgiving consumer base when things go awry. Just ask Buffer.

No, content marketing isn't easy, but it is ever-so-rewarding!

Myth 2: Content Marketing Doesn't Take Much Time

"Lack of time" is cited as the top challenge facing B2B marketers, according to the 2014 B2B Content Marketing Trends report. And it's true. Let's briefly go through some of the processes involved in content marketing.

Content strategy development: This could include keyword analysis, market research, SEO, website audit, content audit, resources audit, and more.
Constant content creation: This is time-intensive, thought-intensive and labor-intensive.
Content distribution and promotion: This includes heavyweight time investments such as social media marketing, email marketing, and search marketing.
Content performance measurement: This includes analyzing content marketing output against success metrics.

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