Common Misconceptions About
Content Marketing
by Nicole Kohler
A super quick introduction
• Hey, I’m Nicole — from Manchester, PA
• Content Creator for WooCommerce at Automattic
• Prior experience as a content strategist and eCommerce manager (AMA about wall stickers)
• My passion = helping WordPress users and store owners find ways to grow and succeed
Why content marketing?
WordPress lends itself well to
content marketing,
but
…
There are a lot of misconceptions about what content production, and marketing that content, makes your website, business, or online store capable of.
With the recent rise in popularity, content has come to be viewed as a “magic bullet” that can give you more traffic, better search engine rankings, and higher
sales.
Three misconceptions about
content marketing
1. Content marketing improves your SEO
2. Content marketing gets you more tra
ffi
c
3. Content marketing makes you lots of
“Content marketing
improves your SEO”
Why this misconception happens
• Search engines use keywords to determine relevancy • Search engines love unique content
Reality check:
If you’re using content marketing solely to gain
leverage in search engines, you’re doing it wrong.
Google can and will pick up on user signals (bounces, exit rates), so if users think your content sucks, any temporarily improved rankings will be negated.
How you can actually improve your
SEO with content
• Focus on the user experience — Google pays
attention to how visitors interact with your site
• Prioritize unique ideas or topics you’re an expert on,
since competition will be reduced and/or your quality will naturally be higher
“Content marketing
gets you more tra
ffi
c”
Why this misconception happens
• “Google loves content! I’ll give it lots and get ALL the
rankings, and ALL the traffic!”
• Perceptions of users/shoppers seeking out content
that there might not actually be a strong desire for (did you do your research?)
You might get tra
ffi
c,
but
…
• If you don’t produce content with a call to action,
visitors will leave after consuming it
• If your content doesn’t have a strong relation to how
you’re trying to make money, it won’t help you do that (either long-term or short-term)
• If your content has nothing to do with your site at all,
How you can use content to get more
(qualified) site tra
ffi
c
• Write about topics most relevant to your site, your
brand, or your area of expertise — this ties into SEO
• Allow readers to subscribe and share
• Promote via email, social media, and other traffi
“Content marketing will
make you $$$$$”
Why this misconception happens
• Missing calls to action hurt you a lot
• Sometimes your content just isn’t compelling enough
• THE BIG ONE: we think visitors will be so impressed
by a piece of content that they’ll explore your site and
take immediate action, but the decision-making
“What a great piece of content! I
am so impressed by you, take all
my money!”
The customer decision-making process is
much longer and much more complex than
you might expect.
This is why many new content producers
fail or quit:
they expect immediate results
.
– Rand Fishkin, “The Greatest Misconception in Content Marketing”
“As a result of this mythology, a ton of people and teams who invest in content marketing fail to properly plan for the required
time and effort needed. That's hugely costly, because it means that a ton of pressure sits on […] one person or a very small team of people who all do inbound marketing together. You don't have the budget or the bandwidth or the belief from your executives or
your client to get to where you need to get to.
They fail to invest in the practice long enough, and they just give up too early. [When it] doesn't work once, a lot of the people who
would have invested in content marketing, for the long term, are out of the game.”
How you can link your content to
higher sales
• Think about potential audiences you need to target — new
visitors who don’t know what you do, shoppers who have a need for your products but don’t know your brand, those ready to
convert, etc. — and produce content targeted for those audiences and their needs
• Create content that answers questions commonly posed by
searchers with buying intent (read about Marcus Sheridan and the River Pools and Spas story)
Is content marketing right for me?
Content marketing is worth a try if…
• Your target audience is likely to seek out education
or answers prior to making a purchase
• You can commit time to researching ideas and
producing content, even if it’s occasionally
• You have something unique and of value to offer,
Takeaways
• Content can help with SEO as long as users are interacting
with it in a positive manner (poor content = poor rankings)
• It can increase your traffic if it’s on a topic that’s
sought-after — but it should still be relevant to your site
• Making money with content isn’t an immediate thing, but it
can be done if you think carefully about customer needs
• Content marketing isn’t for everyone, but if you have the
Thanks!
Have any questions?
if you think of something later,