Want to Launch a Successful Content Marketing Campaign for Your Business? First, Ditch These Five Rookie Excuses

Does the thought of doing content marketing for your business scare you a little? While launching a content marketing campaign to promote your business might seem a little daunting if you’re inexperienced, such an excuse won’t get you off the hook.

Sure, content may be king, but it just never seems to jive with your overall marketing plan. You want a seamless and effective content marketing strategy that doesn’t require a lot of time and energy to implement—but you don’t know where or how to start.

The truth is, no matter how hard you try to resist the digital revolution, it’s here to stay. If you fail to upgrade your overall marketing plan by incorporating content marketing into the mix, you risk being eclipsed by more progressive and tech-savvy competitors.

To put it bluntly, it’s time to stop making the following excuses—because I have the solutions for you!

Excuse Number 1: “It’s Impossible to Be Original.”

Okay, so everything worth being written has already been written. That’s probably true. But it hasn’t been written the way you could write it. It doesn’t have your unique spin, or your specific experiences to back it up. You can bring highly original twists to unoriginal topics that your competitors can’t match.

Instead of fussing over writing something that’s never been written before, you should focus on the following:

• choose a unique stance on your industry
• craft a unique voice
• offer untraditional advice on traditional subjects

Apply these tactics and you’ll soon garner an audience for your content. People are looking for authentic, actionable, and relevant content that addresses their pain points. Deliver content of this caliber and you’ll soon be generating quality leads from your audience, and these leads, in turn, can be turned into customers.

Excuse Number 2: “I’ll Never Keep Up.”

Content marketing hasn’t stopped evolving, that’s true. There is no finish line. But assuming that you can’t keep up and therefore should quit before you start is silly. Content marketing—like the economy, your business, and your customers—is in flux. Instead of throwing in the towel, focus on creating a content marketing strategy that integrates into your day and eventually becomes so routine you could do it with your eyes closed.

And take heart: despite widespread claims that you must blog daily to be a successful content marketer, studies have shown that blogging two to three times a week actually works better than blogging everyday.

Excuse Number 3: “I Don’t Have Enough to Say.”

If you don’t have enough to say, then you probably shouldn’t be in business. If you can honestly conclude that you don’t have enough to say on the subject that people are paying you to be the expert on, then you’re a sham! Shame on you for pulling the wool over your customers’ eyes! Wait, you say? You’re not a sham? Glad to hear it.

In that case, you no doubt have plenty to say. Here are some blog post topics to get you started:

• Give explanations of your products and services (Ex: The 10 Best Ways to Incorporate a Polaroid into Your Vacation)
• Create diagnostic posts (Ex: How to Know If You Have a Broken Water Main)
• Make DIY posts (Ex: How to Create Your Own Wedding Bouquet)
• Produce personal posts (Ex: How I Got into the Business of Cat Grooming)
• Generate revelatory posts (Ex: The Secret Use of Toilet Paper)

You get the idea. Over time, as you find your voice and start digging deeper into your niche, you’ll find that you have more to say than you could ever dream of.

Excuse Number 4: “I Don’t Like Blogging.”

There are two schools of thought regarding this statement. The first school of thought holds that your distaste doesn’t matter, and that you should get over it and just start blogging. As soon as the act becomes less threatening, shows some positive results, seems less shallow, and becomes a viable part of your marketing plan, you’ll eventually embrace blogging and won’t want to turn back.

The second school of thought holds that if you really don’t want to blog…then don’t. Many business owners mistakenly assume that if they don’t want to set up a blog, then they simply have no way to market through content—but this isn’t true. You can distribute content through social media, email marketing, newsletters, or even direct mail. Whatever you do, keep a schedule, so that customers and prospects that follow you know what to expect and when to expect it.

You could also outsource your blog creation to a ghostwriter—and there are ways to have your content ghostwritten while retaining your voice in every blog post.

Excuse Number 5: “Everyone Else Got There First.”

This excuse is kind of like the “it’s impossible to be original” excuse. Sure, your competitors may already have functioning blogs and social media platforms. Your business may be “behind.”

Don’t go around thinking that you’ll never catch up with your competitors, or that you won’t be able to carve a niche for yourself in the online world—such fears are silly. Chances are good you were not the first florist or restaurant or dentist in your neighborhood, yet you’ve gotten business. Apply this same thinking to content marketing: being late to the game doesn’t mean you won’t get a slice of the delicious lead-generating pie that is content marketing.

The bottom line is, content marketing is tough to get going, but easy to keep going. There is no better argument for starting today than the knowledge that if you drop the excuses and go for it, you will soon have a viable, business-generating marketing strategy. So what are you waiting for?

Content marketing is the best way for your prospective customers to get to know you. It’s about relationship building and earning their trust to the point that they consistently choose to do business with you. Take the time to set up a viable content marketing strategy and campaign for your business, or hire professionals to get the ball rolling for you.

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