Is Content Marketing Making You A King or a Jester?

We’ve all heard the phrase “Content is King.” Coined by Bill Gates in 1996, the theory behind the phrase is that content marketing (like blogs, videos, social media posts, etc.) contributes significantly to the success of your company and your online traffic – which ultimately would result in sales to your business.

 Similarly to ‘Content is King’ we hear “All Press is Good Press” – which we’ve come to learn over the course of the years that this simply isn’t true. So we come to bear the question at hand: is your marketing content making you a king, or is it making you a jester?

The importance of content

There’s lots of reasons why content marketing is important in any marketing strategy, but the primary reason is because it connects you with your customer. Take for example a travel agency. A travel agency’s purpose is to help you plan great vacations, and there are many travel agencies to choose from. So how do you pick which agency to go with? Chances are, you’re doing a lot of research ahead of time – like learning what vacations they specialize in, incentives they provide, and whether or not they provide emergency services (need we mention Covid?). Eventually, you pick the agency who you think will you give you the best vacation at the best price, right?

All of this research was based on CONTENT – and it helps your customer determine if they go with your business or another’s. The more information you have, and the more content you publish establishing yourself as an expert, the more likely a customer will land on your page than your competition’s.

Not all content is king

Like most things in marketing, every tactic has a time and a place. And with the amount of content being produced on a regular basis, it’s important to make sure your content marketing strategy stands out amongst your competitors without clogging your customer’s inbox or social feed with too much irrelevant content (we all hate the daily emails from the same company, so why would you do the same thing?).

Great content marketing will enhance your brand awareness, but bad content marketing will give people a negative view of your company. Take for example Abercrombie & Fitch, whose CEO said their clothes were only for ‘cool kids.’ This content strategy received so much backlash that celebrities like Miley Cyrus publicly threatened to boycott the store. Similarly, in 2017 Logan Paul filmed a video of himself and a crew in Japan’s ‘suicide forest,’ appearing to laugh at a recent suicide. This marketing content resulted in an online petition forming with over 500,000 signatures demanding that Logan have his Youtube Channel cancelled.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Content Marketing

A study by Label Insight shows that 94% of consumers prefer a brand that is transparent in their content marketing, but like we saw with the ‘dark side’ of content marketing, there are some unspoken rules when it comes to a successful marketing campaign. Make sure you follow these do’s and don’ts to really make your content shine.

DO: MAKE IT RELEVANT

If you’re a pest exterminator, the relevant content you should be posting should be about all things pest-control, right? Your content strategy should be all about what your business is about, and who you are trying to target. Snapping pictures of success stories, publishing how-to articles, and giving demonstration videos are all great ways to make your content relevant and show your legitimacy in your industry.

DON’T: MAKE CONTENT JUST TO MAKE CONTENT

A lot of people think they need to post multiple times, daily, in order to get their content strategy to kick off. But really what you’re doing is annoying your audience and clogging their feed – making them more likely to click ‘unfollow’ or ‘unsubscribe’ before ever giving you their business. Make sure you make and publish your content strategically, so that you stay top of mind to new and existing clients.

DO: TRY OUT DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONTENT AND SEE WHAT STICKS

You don’t have to stay married to one channel when it comes to marketing. There are all sorts of (free) medias that you can promote your business on to increase your brand awareness. If you’ve had good success blogging, try making YouTube videos that cover the same topics – remember that some people require visual aids in order for the message to stick.

DON’T: KEEP REPOSTING THE SAME CONTENT OVER AND OVER AGAIN

Did you know that duplicate content can decrease your Google indexing score? Duplicate content – or reposting the same content – can easily be found by Google’s ‘spiders,’ and will rank your website lower than other’s because of the redundancy and irrelevancy of the content on your site. You can learn more about this ‘don’t’ here.

DO: PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS & SUCCESS

You’re a small business owner – be proud of that! Remember that lots of individuals have ‘big business ideas’ that they’re too afraid to take off the ground, and you’ve already made that leap. Be proud of your business and the accomplishments you’ve made – and use these to your advantage. By posting pictures of jobs you’ve completed, customer testimonials, or case studies, not only are you promoting your business, but you’re also showing others that you have had clients who are happy with your work. This is even more important once you learn that most consumers read at least four reviews before buying a product! 

DON’T: GIVE UP TOO QUICKLY

Believe it or not, most social media influencers didn’t become a superstar overnight. You’ll find that many individuals who are expert solo content marketers started off with little to no followers, and continued creating relevant content until one post helped their brand skyrocket.

While there’s no one-size-fits-all formula, the generic answer to how long it takes for your content strategy to start gaining traction is three to four months – and that’s with consistent, relevant content being posted on multiple platforms. In a perfect world, we would spend all of our time creating content to promote our business, but shoot for realistic goals. Content marketing strategies are designed for long-term success, not one-hit-wonders.