For 71% of marketers, content marketing has become more important to their organizations in just the last year. But only about 29% say their organizations are getting very successful outcomes with their current content marketing efforts.

That’s according to the annual report, B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends: Insights for 2023. The research also reveals the type of challenges that content marketers expect to face in 2023:

• 61% say it’s creating content that appeals to different stages of the buyer’s journey.
• 50% say it’s aligning content efforts across sales and marketing.
• 43% say it’s developing consistency with measurements.
• 41% say it’s communicating internally among teams and avoiding silos.
• 38% say it’s differentiating products and services from competing offerings.
• 34% say it’s accessing subject matter experts to create content.
• 33% say it’s achieving consistency with messaging.

These challenges from actual marketers are indicative of an overall lack of vision or unity within their organizations on how and why to utilize marketing.

7 Marketing Myths That Could Ruin Your Success

It’s time to overcome any marketing disagreements in your company by first calling out common marketing misconceptions for what they are: stumbling blocks to content marketing success. Here are seven.

1. Marketing and Advertising, Same Thing

Marketing and advertising are not synonymous and refer to completely different things:

• Marketing is a strategic business process.
• Advertising is just one of the tactics that can move a marketing strategy forward.

All ads are part of the marketing process but not all marketing strategies include advertising as a tactic.

2. Effective Marketing Involves More Content Everywhere That Appeals to Everyone

When you produce a lot of content to entice every potential audience, you’ll end up with generic messages that don’t engage anyone. You’ll have a hard time standing out enough and getting more business from your marketing efforts.

Instead, learn more about who your ideal customers are, what they care about, and where they’re looking for answers. Then, create messages that each type of customer can relate to individually.

When you publish relevant messages consistently in places where your ideal customers are looking for them, they will start to take notice.

3. The Only Reason to Use Marketing Is to Attract New Business

You will indeed attract new business to your company with targeted marketing. But what tool do you use to keep your new customers? That’s right: marketing is also a powerful tool for customer retention, especially if you create your marketing with that purpose in mind.

4. Social Media Has No Place In a Marketing Strategy

Au contraire – your social media presence is one of the more popular and effective ways to improve brand awareness. Along with organic search engine traffic and paid traffic from ads, a presence on appropriate social media platforms will drive traffic to your company, whether it’s your website, seminar, blog content, brick-and-mortar location, and more.

5. All Social Media Platforms Should Be Part Of Memorable Marketing

This myth speaks to the opposite extreme. However, it doesn’t speak to the fact that not every social media platform and its followers are right for your company. The trick is to use the platforms that your ideal customers spend time on. Choose those platforms based on whether the format is right for your messages, such as avoiding Instagram if visuals aren’t integral to your marketing messages. Start to create a consistent social media presence on one platform first and expand gradually from there.

6. One Type of Marketing Content Is All You Need

A variety of content types will resonate with more and different members of your ideal audience. Use the specific power of each format - text-only, long-form, video, image-based, short-form, graphics, animation, and more – to enhance your marketing messages and make them more meaningful for your audience.

7. No One Really Needs a Content Marketing Strategy

Only 40% of marketers have a documented content marketing strategy, which makes their jobs a lot less satisfying–and achievable. Without a strategy, the majority can only create moderately successful content marketing. Avoid creating content for content’s sake. Spend some serious time crafting a comprehensive strategy, document it, and support it. Watch your marketing successes multiply.

11outof11 Knows Content Marketing

When you’re ready to banish marketing myths and create a content marketing strategy that’s right for your ideal audience, connect with 11outof11. Request a complimentary call with an 11outof11 expert. Contact us to learn more.