Are You Thinking About Getting Into Content Marketing? Here Are Some Things That Other Marketers Won’t Tell You…
There have been a lot of Internet Marketing fads in the last 20 years or so, and regardless of where you are in the IM game you’re familiar with a few: spamming links and manipulating Google through questionable SEO are a couple of the most popular examples.
One type of marketing has survived all of the other methods though, it has even prospered where others have failed. You know it as content marketing, and up until today you’ve probably looked at it as an idealistic, pie in the sky way of making a business last.
You only see it that way because you’re looking at it through the wrong lens. Now is the time to change that. Once you know what to do, becoming a content marketer won’t be something that you’re “kind of considering”, it will be the clear path to your success.
Content Marketing Isn’t As Easy As It’s Made Out To Be…
Content marketing is often confused with bum marketing. Back in the 2007 heyday of Ezine Articles, content marketing was explained simply as “putting articles up, getting a keyword in about 5% density, and waiting to top the Google rankings.”
That method worked for a few people (for a short time), but it inevitably died. Along with it the respect for content marketing died too.
Content marketing never died though. While all of that was going down real content marketers were still working in the background, doing their thing and making money. Here’s what they knew (and know) that others don’t. Content is all about VALUE, nothing more and nothing less.
…But That’s A Good Thing
Very few can deliver that value. It’s not so much a matter of talent as it is a matter of commitment. To be a content marketer is not an easy life. It takes up front work that many are not willing to face.
The results, if you are strong and push through in the beginning, are well worth the effort though. There are content marketers out there pulling thousands of dollars per month in from a piece that they wrote ten years ago. How does that work? They wrote a piece that was designed to help a customer, and to do so for the foreseeable future.
To be a content marketer is to sacrifice the short-term (jumping on a bandwagon, spamming and hoping for the best) for gains that never cease. The very fact that you’re reading this article indicates that you have a shot to be one of those chosen few, that you care enough to build something that will last.
You NEED An Education And A Plan
Content marketing is not the kind of venture that you can just jump into. If you’re not a long range thinker by nature, then you’re going to have to learn to change the way that you approach your business. Every piece that you write, every video that you shoot, every podcast that you record needs to be crafted to serve a much larger purpose.
Taking a haphazard, childish approach is a surefire way to fail as a content marketer.
Fortunately, you don’t have to stumble in the dark when looking for an actionable plan that you can follow. There are countless marketers who have made their mark through the content that they have created. You just need to seek them out and find a way to learn from them.
There will be two different approaches to that goal. There are content marketers who have explicitly outlined the processes that they use to be successful. They’ll have books, seminars and systems that you can use to become an expert in the craft.
There are others who do not have the gift or desire to teach though, can you still learn from them? The answer is an unequivocal YES, you just need to be a bit more creative and observant. Observe the practices of these content marketing whizzes, see what is working from them and emulate/improve.
The Time To Start Is Now
So what are you waiting for? The path to content marketing success has been explicitly laid out before you. You know exactly what is going to be expected of you by your target audience, your contemporaries in your chosen niche, and the marketers that you want to be like.
Find your first mentor to learn from. Take in all of the information that you possibly can. Craft a long-term content plan that you can always look back to.
Then execute that plan!