5 Myths About Content Marketing That are Keeping You Stuck

Content marketing is cost effective, relatively simple to do, and is a proven strategy for growing your business, but you’re still hesitant to give it a try. Why? Most likely it’s because you’ve bought into one of these myths about creating content. Let’s dig a little deeper and talk about why these stories you’re telling yourself are BS.

There are people who will tell you that blogs are dead. There are others who will say podcasts are just for nerds and YouTube is just for Justin Bieber wannabes and kids who play Minecraft while people watch.

And those people would be wrong.

Content marketing – whether it be through a blog, podcast, or video show – is still a fantastic way to build and scale a business!

But maybe you’re hesitant to get started because you’ve heard some of the rumors about content marketing and wondering if it will really work for you.

I can save you the time of reading the rest of this post and tell you now that it is… but if you want a little more reassurance, keep reading.

Myth #1: Content Marketing Isn’t Necessary for My Industry

Okay, I’m going to make a bold statement here: Content marketing is an essential part of every business.

If you’re thinking that you don’t need to share content because your industry can’t benefit from it, you’re going to want to rethink that. For small businesses, blogs, podcasts, and video shows are the fastest way to be found and for people to get to know, like, and trust you. You can review this post on why great content is essential for your business for more reasons why.

Myth #2: Everything’s Already Been Said, I Have Nothing New to Add to the Conversation

This is perhaps the most common, pervasive myth out there, and to be honest, this one really comes down to confidence and mindset.

Is it likely that your audience can find the same or similar information from other people on the web? Yep. Absolutely. Does that mean you shouldn’t share it? Not at all. Your audience wants to know what you think about things, even if they’ve heard them before. They want to hear your stories and experience, even if the lessons learned are part of other peoples’ stories, too. They want your advice and guidance because it’s coming from you. You are what makes your content different and worth reading.

Myth #3: Creating Content Takes Too Much Time

I won’t tell you that you can whip up quality content in just a couple minutes, but I will tell you that the time you spend on it is worth it.

Also, many entrepreneurs are spending too much time creating new content rather than using the content you’ve already produced. In fact, writing a weekly blog or recording a podcast or video show can make creating content for social media easier and save you time. Instead of writing all your social posts from scratch, you can use your blog, podcast, or video as a foundation and call to action.

Plus, once you get a system in place, like the one I teach in Content Made Simple, you can streamline the process and produce great blog posts, podcast or video episodes in less time.

Myth #4: Social Media Can Do Everything Hosted Content Can Do

No. Just no.

Social media is amazing. As business owners, we are so lucky to have social networks available to us to meet new people, learn new things, and connect with customers.

That said, social media is not a replacement for creating content on your own platform.

Why not?

Where do I start?! Let’s start with the fact that posting on your own platform gives you complete control of your content. Do you know who controls your content when you share on Facebook? Mark Zuckerburg (et al.). That’s why your posts have an average reach of about 1-2%.

Then there’s discoverability and SEO. When you search for something on Google, you get results from YouTube, Pinterest (a visual search engine), blogs, websites, etc. You will not be shown a tweet, Instagram or Facebook post. Google doesn’t crawl those sites or index them the same way they do a webpage.

I could go on, but I’m starting to think I need to write a separate post on this topic.

Myth #5: I Need to Publish Tons of Content In Order to “Catch Up” with Others

If you’re new to producing regular content, it can feel like you’re behind others who’ve been doing it for years.

It’s understandable, but there’s no reason to be intimidated or to try to create a bunch of posts to “catch up.” There are actually some benefits to being new, not having a big audience, and having only a few pieces of content published.

First, when your audience is small you can experiment with new things and find your voice as an entrepreneur. It also provides a chance for you to get to know what your audience wants to know about. You can see what they respond to, engage with the smaller group of people on a more intimate level, and see what questions they have that you can address in future content.

Have you gotten stuck because of one (or more) of these all too common myths? If so, I hope you’re able to now see that your fears are understandable, but unnecessary. Take a deep breath, open a new post or a Google doc and get started on creating your next blog post, podcast or video episode.

Join me on Tuesday at 7:30 pm (EDT) in the Side Hustle Teachers Facebook Group for a LIVE recap, answers to your questions, and a bit about the mindset work you can do to move past these myths. A replay of the video will be posted below the Friday after the live. ↓↓↓