Content marketing is a great way to connect with consumers, but it has become more difficult to execute the strategy.
In 2020, the average e-commerce company says 80% of marketers report an increase in leads, but that number is expected to grow by 2022.
So what is the real value of content marketing? What are your expectations? How can you measure success? These questions and more are answered in this guide to content marketing.
Companies’ Expectations of Content Marketing When it Comes to Sales
Content marketing focuses more on creating quality content for a target audience and just as the name implies, it is content-oriented. Most of the time, brands that understand the difference between content marketing and sales create content to set a foundation—a large reach, audience interaction, consistency, etc.
As the adoption of content marketing grows wider, business owners keep preaching the gospel to those who care to listen. However, these people still set unrealistic goals, when in fact, content marketing is a lot different from sales and they do two completely different jobs. Here are some common expectations highlighted below:
1. We will always put out amazing content
I don’t mean to water down your goals or “dreams,” but if we are being honest, it’s not easy to create nice content every day consistently. Instead, you should be more concerned about the value you will be providing to your audience. You can create content that is as short as 15-20 minutes. It could be a quick video tip, a 300-word blog post, or just a post on social media. You don’t need to go ov Jier and beyond to create helpful content for your audience.
2. We will focus on content and produce it every day
Well, you could be trying to follow in the footsteps of big brands like TechCrunch and Mashable, who create content daily. This helps them generate a lot of visits each month. The truth is that you don’t need to churn out content every day to increase your reach; instead you should focus more on producing quality content. Focus on quality, not quantity. An example of a brand that failed at daily production is wiseGEEK. They had quite a number of articles but they were of low quality and this earned them a penalty by aG, the Google Panda Algorithm.
3. Our content will be shared
Love the confidence, but no! It won’t happen automatically. The fun fact is that you can put in a lot of work on the content and expect it to spread through all channels, and it wouldn’t even get an insight, especially if all you do is publish the content and not do additional promotion. You can take your content marketing a notch higher by doing the following things:
(i) Actively promote content to your audience.
(ii) Promote and boost your social posts.
(iii) Push content to your lists.
(iv) Share your content to relevant community sites like Quora, Reddit etc.
You have to keep one thing in mind though, it takes time to get your audience’s attention.
4. Our customers will surely love this
Your audience will react to your content differently. Some might love it, some might be indifferent, and some might hate it. Your goal shouldn’t be about making people love your content; it should be about getting reactions that keep them engaged. Your content can be helpful, and they start commenting and sharing or it could be controversial and provoke anger that people start responding to. Someone might decide to write a full article in response to you, starting a debate. Your content won’t be loved by everyone, and that’s okay. The main thing is to understand the different categories of your audience so you can create content that appeals to each one when it’s time to get their attention.
5. Our content marketing strategy will result in large revenues
This one here is the most common misconception and the main topic of this article. In a normal setting, you should get sales as soon as you publish content. But that is actually a rare occurrence, even for larger brands. Most of the content you create doesn’t translate to an increase in revenue, and it is not an immediate process.
Content marketing is a good way to keep a solid relationship with and build a loyal audience. As time goes on, they will become more and more interested in your content, and then eventually become customers that make purchases.
Brands that have been successful with content marketing have focused more on leads, building audience relationships through different channels, and leading them to a conversion. You don’t have to keep pushing sales on Google for every piece of content you publish. Just because you are not making sales doesn’t mean you are not doing the right thing. You need to build your brand and gain the loyalty of the audience as much as you need sales.
The Reality
No doubt, content marketing works. Just make sure you have realistic expectations based on your own goals instead of using a competitor as a yardstick.
How to Manage Expectations as a Content Creator
To avoid setting unrealistic expectations, there are some things you can do as a content creator. Here, I’ve listed some tips.
1. Let your content grow
If you create good content, you already know what this is. It’s called evergreen content, i.e., content that is still relevant long after you’ve published it, because of the topic or regular updates. As your content grows over time, it starts to come up top in search results and drives traffic to your website or social media pages.
However, you can’t only produce evergreen content. Instead, you will have to create a balance between evergreen content and fast-moving content.
2. Taking note of SEO
If you just opened a website or you don’t have enough content, then your site will rarely come up in search engines. You will need to put in twice the required level of work to create great content and correct mistakes so that your website will be one of the top ones in search results.
You will need to build your target audience and be authentic. That means you will produce high-quality content, set strict standards, and edit each piece well before posting it. Your content should be more focused on topics that are appropriate and appealing to your audience.
With top-notch content, search engines will put your website on the map, and your content will continue to help your SEO in the long run.
3. Building a healthy relationship with your audience:
Creating content is a way to build a lasting relationship with your audience. While you will have expectations, you need to know just one piece of that content doesn’t guarantee that you’ve won someone’s loyalty. You have to keep proving a point over and over that you are a master in your field.
You must demonstrate to your audience that you have extensive knowledge of the topics and issues relevant to your industry and that you can guide and educate them appropriately.
4. Setting appropriate expectations
Whether you are the CEO or the marketing expert, you have people that you report to and people that watch you( your audience). The former expects lead generation and conversions, while the latter expects quality and educational content. Now, let me explain how to handle both parties.
The people you report to might not understand that results don’t happen immediately, and that’s why your expectations should be realistic. Here are some ways to explain it to them:
a. Let them know what content marketing is, the goals you aim to achieve, and the time it takes to achieve them
b. Show them examples by using visuals. For example, you can choose a particular piece of content and track its progress for some months. You can repeat this process with similar content and get an idea of how fast or slow your content produces results. You can present the results on a graph or trends and show that the content truly produces results; it will just take a particular amount of time.
c. Lastly, an important thing that shouldn’t be overlooked is monthly reports. It will help you review your content’s performance and make adjustments. You can create a presentation and show it to your company board or whoever you report to. They will see what good your content has done over time.
In the case of your audience, you need to have a strategy. It should include:
a. Post new content: Creating content on a topic you haven’t talked about before is a good way to attract your audience’s attention.
b. Posting frequently: it doesn’t have to be every day but at least once a week. If you can, post at least one high-quality article once a week.
c. Answering Audience questions: Having a good interaction with your audience is key. It shows that you care about them and you appreciate them. It also helps to create trust, and belief in your brand and it helps drive traffic to your website.
Wrapping Up
Our final piece of advice to you? How can you get started on the right track? How can you avoid setting realistic expectations for your content marketing strategy? How can you create content that is in line with your sales goals in the long run?
Why don’t you give Hera Marketing a call today? Hera is one of the best content marketing agencies that combines the right content with sales strategies to help you achieve your sales goals.
We have worked with over 24 startups to drive conversions through increased community presence and relevant blog posts that we help distribute. To understand our process, book a 15 - 30 minutes meeting with us.
