6 Best Content Marketing Lessons to Learn from Marketing Gurus

Content marketing isn’t the most difficult thing in the world, but you will be lucky to get it right on your first try.

It may take a couple of trial and errors before you start getting your desired results, but you can jump the gun by learning from the missteps and successes of people before you.

Trust me, taking a page from already successful marketers and entrepreneurs will prove to be golden for you, especially if you don’t have the time and resources to figure content marketing out on your own.

The shortcut is to learn from people who used to be exactly where you are now.

In this article, I will show you 6 best content marketing lessons to learn from marketing gurus.

1. Outsourcing content works

If there’s anything I have learned from the most successful content marketers, is that your content production must be massive if you want to reach out to a lot of readers.

Think about the different platforms you need to create content for. How’s one person supposed to create social media posts, blog posts, landing pages, emails, and newsletters?

Well, you are not.

LinkedIn Technology Marketing Community reveals that 51% of B2B marketers lack the time to create their own content.

Image source: Slideshare

Content marketing requires a whole lot of skills and knowledge to be left for one person, so even if you have all the speed and time in the world, you will still be missing out on some quality.

You may not know this, but some of the marketers whom you admire so much outsource some of their content to other people.

How do they maintain quality?

It’s a matter of knowing the type of content they want and what to outsource.

At the end of the day, they access the ROI of the aspects of the content they have outsourced to see how effective it has been.

2. Identify your content goals on time

Content marketing is usually a means to an end.

Whatever you are trying to achieve will determine the type of content that you will need to produce.

For example, if you intend to launch a new product, you will want to create buzz around that product since your audience may not have heard about the product before.

In that case, creating tutorial-style content may not work because you don’t yet have the product. The best way to draw attention will be to create content that explains the product value.

As your audience becomes more familiar with the product, you will attract more interest when you launch.

In situations where you have a limited amount of time before the launch, an editorial calendar will come in handy.

Image source: Hubspot

Know that your content goals will evolve as your business grows.

After the product launch, you will want to shift towards creating content that will promote sales and marketing shares.

3. Content marketing isn’t always slow

Don’t get it twisted, content marketing isn’t to be rushed, but that doesn’t mean that it is always slow.

Image source: Groove

Of course, good content takes time to be produced and thousands of people aren’t just going to trickle in your blog after you hit the publish button, but you don’t have to wait for months to get traction either.

One notable brand that enjoyed an enormous amount of growth with its content is Groove.

In fact, they received more than 100 comments under their first blog post after it was published and crossed the 1000 subscribers mark after that single post.

How did they achieve this?

Two things:

1. They created good content
2. They promoted the heck out of it

One of the factors that were responsible for their successful promotion was their ability to identify and connect with relevant influencers and it paid off.

4. Transparency is key

Successful marketers like Pat Flynn are big on the idea of transparency and content marketing going hand in hand.

Readers like to feel like they are part of the writer’s journey, so it makes sense to show your successes to them exactly how it happened.

Image source: Smart Passive Income

However, it is not only your success that your audience wants to see. You must have certainly hit some setbacks along the way and your readers still want to see those.

These kinds of vulnerabilities do not necessarily dent your image. If anything, they add more value to your content, especially when you show your challenges and how you overcame them.

5. Quality is not negotiable

Some marketers preach that creating an enormous amount of content will get you noticed faster.

Well, that’s not always the case.

There are millions of people that are hungry for new content and they will be pleased anytime they get a notification for your latest blog post, but they will only come back for more if it’s good.

For me, I will take quality over anything else.

Quality content takes a lot of work, but isn’t that what makes the difference?

Take a look at Jimmy Daly of Vero. He uses the Brian Dean’s Skyscraper technique and he gets thousands of views and subscribers for a single post.

Even the tiniest detail matters.

For example, the best marketers that I know do not use the typical table of contents. They put more work into theirs.

Compare the table of content that Brian Dean uses for his posts with that of Wikipedia and judge the quality for yourself.

Image source: Backlinko

Image source: Wikipedia

If you show the 2 different tables of content to the same readers, they will definitely be more impressed with Brian’s.

There are many ways that you can improve the quality of your content. As long as you are putting that extra effort, you are already ahead of your competition.

6. Influencer marketing will catapult your results

Influencer marketing is marketing on steroids.

It is the fastest way for brands, whether new or old, to become very popular in their niche within a very short period of time.

Before influencer marketing became popular, a lot of blogs depended on finding and convincing readers themselves. While it worked (and still does), it wastes time.

Finding and connecting with key influencers to share their articles is how Groove was able to achieve so much success in so little time.

Find the loudest voices on social media in your niche, give them some sort of value, and watch your growth explode once you gain their support

Final Words

Your content marketing journey may not always be rosy, but luckily for you, others have gone before you.

If you ever get stuck, take a step back to find them and study their experiences. That way, you will reach your goals faster.