6 Content Marketing Misconceptions You Should Know Before You Start Writing Stuff

You know you can always consult Wikipedia or good ‘ole Britannica if you want to look up a term, but its official definition may still lose its meaning if the context shifts.

A concept may rapidly evolve to include a broader scope or transform into an entirely different thing, so if you think you know Content Marketing by the book (literally), you should do a quick spot-check.

Put into account the fact that a lot of people are currently engaged into content marketing, collating all these different approaches and strategies to eventually form a widely-accepted standard. General acceptance doesn’t mean it’s always correct, though. So how do we define content marketing?

Perhaps a more rational way to know something is by knowing first what it’s NOT.

Consider these fallacies as a guide:

1. Content Marketing is digital.
   
   If you’re a 23-year old newbie industry blogger who has never laid hands on a typewriter, maybe you may still be forgiven for suffering under the delusion that content marketing is a solely online thing. But FYI: newspapers and magazines still exist.
   
    
2. Content Marketing is writing.
   
   While this is a correct statement in its own right, it must be pointed out that content marketing is more than just producing content; it also includes understanding the processes of circulation, communication and analysis.
   
    
3. Content Marketing is SEO.
   
   Probably the most common misconception out there, this false belief takes away a marketer’s chance to maintain quality in content. If your goal is to rank high in Google search results, then you are not doing content marketing. This approach is not made for Google, but for an audience that actually reads.
   
    
4. Content Marketing is new.
   
   The fact that it’s not exclusive to digital obviously means it already existed before the dawn of the Internet in the 60’s. But content marketing goes way, way back than that; records show some people already started using it as early as 1895, a time when Vint Cerf wasn’t even born yet. (Okay, in case you didn’t know, Cerf is the “Father of the Internet”)
   
    
5. Content Marketing is a campaign.
   
   A campaign is more of an attempt to win something, which is something content marketing also aims for. But in essence, it’s more like a philosophy. A company that chooses to market using content lives by values that aim to inform more than anything else.
   
    
6. Content Marketing is universal.
   
   In the end, content marketing is still a business strategy, which means it must be tailor-fit to a company’s goals and ambitions. You may find that content creation sometimes may not be aligned with the your business’s overall marketing approach, so it’s not to say that content marketing is for everyone. It would be best to first run an evaluation to see if there’s any future using this strategy.