14 Common Misconceptions About Digital Marketing
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Demystifying the misconceptions of digital experience platforms
The new connected consumer poses a challenge for brands and digital business pros. Understanding how your customers connect across devices, platforms and channels and mapping your portfolio of experiences so that you’re present where your customers are is no trivial endeavor.
With that shift in behavior and higher consumer expectations, it’s no surprise that interest and search for Digital Experience Platforms (DXP) have accelerated by 300%. Much of this growth is driven by marketers looking to overcome the limitations of their existing content management systems and keep up with the changing consumer behaviors. But as interest is growing, so is the confusion that is surrounding the DXPs.
Learn more about how you can get there by joining Joe Cicman, senior analyst at Forrester, and Jeana Garms, vice president of marketing at Arc XP, in an informative MarTech session. They set the record straight on the myths and misconceptions surrounding DXPs.
During this session, you’ll be able to differentiate between the myths and realities of digital experience platforms and understand how an effective DXP enables good digital experiences.
Tune in and get a better understanding of the role DXPs play in supporting today’s customer experience journey.
New on Search Engine Land About The Author Arc XP is a cloud-native digital experience platform (DXP) that helps enterprise companies, brands and retailers, and media organizations create and distribute content, drive digital commerce and subscriptions, and deliver powerful multichannel experiences. Built for flexibility, integrate the content management, commerce, and fully hosted front-end experience tools you need into your existing tech stack or leverage Arc XP as your full-suite DXP.15 content strategy myths debunked
Marketers, SEOs, employers, prospects, and even content strategists all have been taken in by content strategy myths they’ve heard or read and now believe.
Some people think that it’s all about coming up with new ideas for content. Others believe that it’s a one-time task.
But there’s a big difference between creating content for the sake of creating it and developing a content strategy that will help you achieve your short- and long-term business goals.
This article will debunk 15 content strategy myths that are flat wrong.
1. Content strategy means content marketingMany people believe that content marketing and content strategy are the same. The term “content strategy” is often used interchangeably with content marketing.
Content strategy is about creating a plan for how you will produce and distribute content across your website and other channels.
But while the two fields share some common goals and tactics, there are important distinctions between them. While content marketing is essential, it’s only one part of a successful content strategy.
In short, content strategy is a plan, while content marketing is a part of that plan.
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2. Content strategy is about topics and keywordsThis is one of the biggest misconceptions.
A prospect questioned our content strategy services. Why? They believe content strategy is only a list of topics and keywords and don’t need any service provider. And we lost the lead.
Coming up with a list of topics and keywords is just one small part of creating a successful content strategy.
A content strategy would include (depending on the goals and targeted platform),
A sample of what a content strategy’s first part would include apart from topics and keywords
So if you meet anyone saying the content strategy is about topics and keywords, show them this list and help them debunk their myth around content strategy.
3. You need content strategy only for blogsThis is another big misconception about content strategy most SEOs have, and I had that too, which got busted after a few years.
I used to create a content calendar to support SEO, which used to work well for my employer and clients. So I started believing that content strategy means a blog calendar.
This is how most SEOs or marketers manage blog calendars, including me (obviously in the past).
Eventually, when I started working on lead magnets to drive MQLs (Marketing Qualified Leads) and SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads), I had to plan everything from the different types of content to the amount of content we needed to plan, create, promote and track.
When it became about combining my content marketing efforts with content planning and using them across all the marketing channels, I realized content strategy is for blogs and every type of content we wish to push out for marketing purposes.
Your content strategy should include planning for every type of content – be it a blog, video, infographic or another content type or format.
4. Content strategy can only help in SEOMost of the time, people thinking of content strategies are SEOs. Why? Because no content strategy is complete without a list of keywords.
Each piece of content we plan has at least some audiences searching for them on the search engines, branded or non-branded keywords.
For example, I wrote a Twitter thread on what you should write instead of “conclusion,” “wrapping up,” etc., in a blog.
And because it got viral, I’m writing a blog on it. Why? Because someone asked on Twitter about where she could find it.
Though today, people would not be searching for this kind of topic. Tomorrow, it might have excellent search volume.
That’s why it’s easy to get into the trap of thinking content strategy is for SEO. But, it’s not limited to SEO.
Let’s look at how it can be for every marketing platform and not just for SEO.
Content calendar for email marketing segmented from overall content strategy
Similarly, here is the email content planner segmented from the overall content strategy
I’m not showcasing the social media content strategy because that’s what I’m going to cover in the below point.
5. Content strategy = social media content strategyNo. Content strategy is not equal to social media content strategy.
We have met and seen some marketers and business owners have this misconception, especially in the e-commerce domain, as they largely depend on social media for business.
When you talk about content strategy, it’s an overall plan that includes auditing, researching, planning, developing, executing, managing, distributing content and measuring its performance to achieve business and marketing goals.
A social media content strategy is a segmented part of the content strategy. Once you know what needs to be promoted on social media, why and how, you can prepare a social media content strategy to achieve what you’ve set for social media.
For one of our clients, we created a calendar targeting different audiences for different platforms because they have the targets to achieve for both audiences.
While creating their social media content strategy, we separated the messaging, timings, designs, and goals, considering the audiences active on the respective platforms.
One part of the calendar targeted the Talent audience on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, who would sign up on their platform to seek remote jobs.
Another part of the social media calendar targeted the Companies as the audience on LinkedIn who would sign up on their platform to seek remote talent.
For such detailed social media content strategy creation, you need social media strategists or marketers who would take care of this. But, you cannot have social media strategists create the overall content strategy targeting holistic marketing goals.
If you still have this myth around content strategy, you would hire the wrong talent, ultimately impacting your ROI.
6. The content strategy emphasizes creationContent strategy is not content marketing; it’s certainly not content creation.
While working as a consultant, whenever I used to ask the marketing teams to develop a content strategy, they would share with me a list of topics to be written and all information around it.
Honestly, it’s also about content distribution. Here is what your content strategy’s content marketing/distribution section should look like,
Content creation is a part of the content strategy. But if the emphasis of your content strategy is only on creation, you’re missing out on generating content ROI.
7. Content strategy is not for my businessI discovered this content strategy myth while conversing with e-commerce and SaaS founders.
During the discovery calls with SaaS prospects, we go through a detailed understanding of their audience, product, and business model. They don’t know what their product should be called most of the time. Let me tell you why.
They could be startups trying to solve a problem. If they are solving a unique problem, their product would also be unique and even challenging to be attached with an existing keyword having a decent search volume.
For example:
So they don’t feel the need for a content strategy as they want to create content only for the bottom funnel of the customer journey. Well, even if you target conversions, you need a content strategy.
If you create conversion-focused content without the proper distribution process, creating that content is a wasted effort.
Some niche e-commerce businesses wrongly think investing in content strategy is a waste of money. It isn’t. But you’re wasting money if you’re creating content without direction.
The content strategy gives direction to what you want to achieve – why, when and how.
The more niche you go, the more you need a content strategy as you need detailed research on how you’re going to bring your audience into the customer journey and convert.
8. Content strategy is one-and-doneAny successful website is the result of a content strategy.
This is especially true for sites looking to rank well in search engines or generate leads and sales through any marketing channel.
Your site will likely struggle to attract visitors and achieve its goals without planning what kind of content to create and how to promote it.
Unfortunately, too many businesses treat content strategy as a one-time task. They develop a plan, implement it, and then move on to other things. I would call it not just the myth but even the mistake you make around content strategy.
If you want your site to continue performing well, you need to keep your content strategy going indefinitely. If you lose track, you might have to invest more to achieve marketing goals, resulting in low profits.
9. Content strategy is only about the short-termYes, a content strategy involves thinking about the short-term. But that’s not all it’s about.
A good content strategy is also about understanding what your audience needs, taking into account the whole customer journey, from first contact to post-purchase follow-up and then giving it to them in a way that’s engaging and easy to consume.
By thinking about your content in this way, you can create a more holistic and practical approach that will benefit your business in the short and long term.
It’s clear why so many people are confused about content strategy. I have met employers and prospects who think – “what’s in a content strategy? I don’t need someone specialized for that.”
10. Content strategy? SEO can handle itSEOs are the perfect people because they understand how search engines work and what users are looking for.
SEOs are uniquely qualified to handle both tasks simultaneously. But SEOs also have more complex things to look at, such as,
Honestly, creating a content strategy is a huge task because the one who creates it has to consider business goals, marketing goals, and segmented marketing goals to be achieved through the power of content at the right time, right place with the right marketing message.
Miss this and you’re wasting resources on content strategy and marketing.
11. Content strategists only create calendarsThat’s a big misconception business owners have for content strategists.
They are often thought of as just calendar planners. While that is a significant part of the job, there is so much more to what they do.
In reality, their role extends far beyond simply putting dates on a calendar and making sure things get published on time.
Content strategists help brands create a plan for their content that aligns with their overall business goals and establishes a strategy for achieving them. They think about the audience they are trying to reach and develop formats and topics that will resonate with them.
They also ensure that all of their content is aligned with the overall marketing strategy, helping to drive traffic, leads, and sales.
This may include auditing the existing content, creating or sourcing content, ensuring it is designed per the expectations, optimizing it for search engines and social media, tracking how well it performs, and making notes for the next planning round.
12. The content strategist must be in-houseSome businesses have said this to me and came back to me when I launched my agency.
Content strategists can be in-house but don’t necessarily have to be. Whether to have them in-house or outsource them, you need to think of the following,
The answer to the above questions would help you understand when to hire a content strategist in-house or outsource it.
13. Content writers should build content strategies“Can you come up with content topics as well?” I’m sure most freelance content writers often receive this kind of requirement, as I also used to get it before my agency.
The thought of a content writer coming up with a content strategy may sound like a good idea, but it’s not. Here’s why:
A content writer writes articles, blog posts, web copy, etc. A content strategist is responsible for planning, creating, and managing all types of content (text, visual, audio, etc.) to meet the specific needs of their company or client.
Content writers are great at creating interesting and informative pieces that help businesses achieve their goals, but that’s usually where their skill set ends unless they are content strategists already.
A true content strategist has a deep understanding of the bigger picture of marketing and how each piece of content fits into the puzzle.
So, stop having this myth that content writers can create content strategies and stop asking them to do so. It will impact your business.
14. You can automate content strategy creationWHAT? HOW?
I mean, today, everyone in marketing thinks of automation. But content strategy? Certainly not.
Some tools and techniques automate a lot of content strategy activities to streamline your efforts, such as:
But, you still cannot automate some tasks while creating a content strategy, and they are:
Content is at the heart of any effective marketing campaign and requires a human touch to create and optimize effectively. So, you cannot automate content strategy creation. Stay away from such a myth.
15. Measuring content strategy performance is impossible“It’s easy to track the performance of the content but not of its strategy. How would we know if we have hired the right content strategist with no performance tracking?”
Business owners looking to hire content strategists for the first time always think they cannot track the performance of the content strategy and hence, don’t know if their content strategists would do any good. And that’s another big content strategy myth.
If your content is driving results, your content strategy is working.
After all, the content strategy had the content topics, goals, marketing message, platforms, timing, and distribution process that made it drive results.
So, if you want to measure the performance of the content strategy, think of comparing the results of your content with the previous period and see how you’re progressing.
Don’t let your myths around content strategy affect your marketing ROIThe purpose behind highlighting these myths is to create awareness around content strategy, which it lacks.
We all know that content is king, but you need the right approach, strategy, and talent to make your content king.
And these myths are the roadblocks to content coronation. Hopefully, now that these content strategy myths have been debunked, you now have clarity about content strategy.
Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
New on Search Engine Land About The Author Himani Kankaria is the founder of Missive Digital, an organic digital marketing agency helping businesses multiply their organic visibility and conversions. She specializes in strategizing, creating, and optimizing content for users and SERP features like Featured Snippets. She is a speaker at global conferences and an author sharing her knowledge and experiences around SEO and Content at various publishing sites, webinars, podcasts and more.A Guide To Local SEO For Large Enterprises & Franchises
Local SEO is a pretty complex beast. There are many moving parts that are just not part of an organic enterprise strategy.
And, when it comes to franchises and Local SEO, it can get even more complex as the “who is in charge of local SEO” answer is vague at best.
In this article, we will discuss the challenges enterprises/franchises have when it comes to local SEO.
First, let’s talk about this: Why do enterprises tend to view local SEO as a grocery checklist?
In short, local SEO fails when businesses lack a well-structured plan.
Common misconceptions include, “If I complete A, B, and C, then my local presence will improve,” or “If we’re doing traditional SEO, local will fall into place.”
Incorrect!
In order for local SEO to succeed, businesses must define what success looks like and develop an ongoing plan that is scalable.
While businesses of any size can fall susceptible to this mentality, it’s the large enterprise businesses and franchise systems that have the greatest risk of falling into this trap.
5 Challenges Enterprises/Franchises Face When Planning A Local SEO StrategyRegardless of channel, large businesses have built-in advantages over small competitors including but not limited to:
While these built-in resources certainly help, if ignored, the cons of larger companies with over 100 locations will outweigh the pros – especially with respect to local SEO.
1. BudgetA common pain point I hear when in talks with an enterprise/franchise is how XYZ’s tactic is not in the budget.
So, let’s say for grins and giggles that you have a scalable, frictionless way of getting local managers/owners to upload pictures to a Google Business Profile.
Now, this is going to help solve a huge issue that enterprises/franchises have. And every time I talk to one, they agree they need something like this.
But when it comes to financing, they will not pay for it. The funds can be better spent on something like AdWords, they say.
Why this line of thinking? Simply because most SEO activities cannot be traced back to a hardline ROI where you spend $X and get $Y.
The CFO or other stakeholders would rather play it safe, keep with the status quo, not rock the boat, and let their numbers continue to look good. #politics
2. Ignorance Is BlissIf there’s never been a defined strategy across the organization, it may be difficult to earn buy-in from others. I see this in many organizations.
If they have a loosely planned strategy and roles have not been defined, a stakeholder can easily say, “I am not sure what X or Y or Z is doing and I think they own local, or part of it and they really need to decide.”
So, the buck gets passed to another person who feels the same way.
And the cycle continues.
3. Slow Decision MakingLarge enterprises are generally not as adaptive and flexible as small companies.
A simple decision gets caught up by including 10 people in the decision-making process, some of whom have nothing to do with the solution.
And then you have those #politics I mentioned.
In dealing with a large enterprise, I ran into a situation where the social media team made decisions on local… and the head of that team was related to the CEO.
Guess who called the shots but never came to meetings?
On top of that, the only person qualified to be in charge of local was dealing with other aspects of digital marketing.
Consequently, tasks that should be no-brainers – claiming local listings, hiring a new vendor, etc. – can drag on for months.
I’ve seen businesses regret not having urgency with regard to claiming listings.
Something as simple as changing phone numbers can result in local traffic falling off the map due to data inconsistencies.
In drastic cases, unclaimed and outdated listings have caused Google Business Profile traffic to plummet by more than 50%.
Then there is a simple conversation about how to be in compliance with Google Business Profiles, which if not addressed can result in account level suspensions.
Consider this real story:
A franchise had different naming conventions for each franchisee and was using home addresses for each location, so we’re not in compliance with Google’s guidelines at all.
I talked to them in January about helping them come into compliance.
The conversation went on for over eight months and included six departments. At the end of the day, the CFO squashed the idea.
The solution would not have cost that much. But in month 11, suddenly 75% of the units went dark. It was an account-level suspension. This lasted two months.
That is two months of lost revenue, a few franchises going out of business, and a huge headache.
And it didn’t need to happen.
4. ‘Bystander Effect’A lack of defined roles coupled with the fact that the enterprise has many people on the marketing team can lead to the diffusion of responsibility and a lot of finger-pointing.
A common local task that falls victim to the “Bystander Effect” is review management.
Who should be responsible for responding? Customer service? Store managers? Regional managers?
The truth is, there is no right answer – pick one but make sure the job gets done. And make responsibilities clear.
One thing to point out here, franchisors have a unique issue when it comes to responsibility.
Enterprises can face this issue as well, but not as much as franchisors do as they usually working within one of a few types of franchise systems.
a. The franchisor controls marketing.
This is rare but ideal because the responsibility lies with the franchisor. You may still have the above issues of moving slow, budget, and roles, but decisions are happening in one place.
b. The franchisor sets up the GBP and hands it off to the franchisee.
The franchisee takes over their marketing from there. This causes a whole host of issues such as inconsistencies.
It also often results in inaction on the part of franchisees simply because they’re in the business of their franchise – not the business of marketing or local SEO.
c. Franchisees share a marketing pool.
The best system I have seen is where there is a fund in place for franchisees to spend on marketing.
They can make a decision and the franchisor has a marketplace of preferred vendors, where the franchisee gets a percentage discount for using an approved vendor.
5. ScalabilityVolume is arguably the biggest obstacle to overcome.
Let’s use the Google Q&A feature as an example: 100 locations x 3 questions/month x 5 minutes per response = 25 hours/month.
And that’s a conservative estimate that only accounts for one small component of local SEO.
The good news is that a well-defined plan not only overcomes the obstacles listed above but produces a successful and scalable local SEO strategy.
Before we expand on actionable local SEO plans, it’s important to point out often overlooked first steps:
Obligatory Digital Marketing Goals: Define what success means for local SEO.
Common objectives include increases in:
Establish Roles and Responsibilities: Just like any other team effort, local SEO requires a team.
Below are five local SEO practices that will help you reach your business goals. Each section has been broken into:
Basic Practices
(In most cases, these should be implemented but thought of as more of a baseline. In some sections, the baseline doesn’t exist, so I’ve listed what not to do, instead.)
Essentially, some enterprises do the basics, and either think they’re done or choose to stick their head in the sand.
(See Local Link Building, Review Management, and Citation Management in the steps outlined below for examples.)
Competitive Edge Practices
These will separate your business from competition – if for no other reason than most stick with the basic approach!
1. On-Page Local SEOBasic Practices
Competitive Edge Practices That Require Ongoing Management & Planning
a. Create and implement a plan for local content opportunities.
These can be incorporated on a blog or directly on store locator pages to help differentiate hundreds of similar store pages.
The content doesn’t necessarily even have to be about the products you sell.
In fact, focus most content around anything but selling your product.
Make it about something that’s useful and helpful to your customer/audience.
b. Take a disciplined and consistent approach to adding new content to your store pages.
Content ideas include unique store photos, videos, store manager profiles, or other local city information that is related to your business.
c. Make a plan for ongoing content production.
I am talking about blog posts, white papers, case studies, social media, GBP, and other forms of content. Make plans for local content that matches locality tones.
One simple way of creating unique store pages is by adding short localized paragraphs to each location.
2. Google Business ProfilesBasic Practices
Competitive Edge Practices That Require Ongoing Management & Planning
a. Invest in a tool like GatherUp or GradeUS.
These tools have enterprise-friendly features that enable managers to receive notifications whenever a user leaves a review, among many other local management features.
Next, create a few generalized templates that service reps can reference when responding to customer feedback.
b. Create a monthly calendar to use optional but helpful features like Google Posts, Product Posts, and Google Q&A.
Establish guidelines for how often Google Posts are used, what types of content to publish, and how to source non-stock imagery.
c. Upload images on a weekly basis, preferably from the location.
d. Change store hours to reflect store closings and special holiday hours.
Google Business Profiles allow managers the option to bulk upload store hour changes.
(This is usually controlled at the corporate level if they are managing listings, or via a listing provider like Yext).
e. Establish a culture that consistently analyzes the competitive landscape in the Local Pack.
Regularly check local rankings for important keywords using tools like Local Rank Tracker, MobileMoxie, or Local Falcon.
These tools are great because they allow you to check local rankings without searching a location modifier (e.g., sushi restaurants in Austin).
f. Report spam on Google Maps.
Be a tattletale on others that are spamming GBP. Common culprits are keyword stuffing or adding locations directly in the name of the business.
g. Append unique UTMs to your local directories and GBP.
Analyze traffic directly in Google Analytics. Although GBP provides data directly in the interface, I find it useful to have the data included in GA reports.
I use:
utm?source=local&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=store-nameh. Enable GBP messaging and quotes/booking/ordering (if available).
Then decide who will be responsible for this feature.
Certain tools like Podium will help you scale this. (Sidenote: Enroll in Local Service Ads, if available.)
3. Local Link BuildingBasic Practices
Competitive Edge Practices That Require Ongoing Management & Planning
a. Large brands are involved in the community but fail to maximize their involvement from a linking perspective.
Take inventory of all PR events and set up an outreach process to make sure you receive a link back.
Get involved in your community. Sponsor events. Support other businesses. Host networking events.
Most beneficiaries will gladly link back to your local branch store page, some just need a reminder.
b. Brands tend to think too big whereas local SEO is… well, it’s local!
Don’t get bogged down thinking nationally and overwhelmed by the crazy number of locations you manage.
Start small and gradually build out a process for other locations.
Better yet, once you experience success in a local market, let that local manager become your internal advocate.
c. Develop a cohesive process for local managers/owners to follow.
Explore sponsorships, scholarships, workshops, conferences, and news opportunities.
4. Citation ManagementBasic Practices
Competitive Edge Practices That Require Ongoing Management & Planning
a. Use Yext or Moz Local to create, verify, and optimize listings for multi-location brands.
These are scalable tools perfect for businesses with over 100 stores. They help push citations, clean up duplicate data, adjust incorrect data, and defend online presence.
b. Assign designated resources to actively monitor and update information.
Always look to improve the listings.
Problems will undoubtedly occur, and you want someone to be able to make the appropriate brand decisions when they come across questionable content.
c. Create citations for TripAdvisor, Yelp, or other industry-specific platforms.
Look for those that are not automatically generated with a tool like Moz Local as well as local citation opportunities like the Chamber of Commerce.
5. ReviewsBasic Practices (That too many do, don’t be one of them!)
Competitive Edge Practices That Require Ongoing Management & Planning
a. Prioritize timely review management.
Fully 78% of customers focus on the most recent reviews and 69% they’re more likely to use a business that has responded to existing reviews.
b. Ask all customers to leave reviews (without incentives).
This can be managed through an internal CRM system or automated tools like GatherUp. Review acquisition is a simple numbers game. The more you ask, the more you receive.
c. Respond to all reviews, good and bad.
Consumers expect to see a bad review here and there, but the way you respond is key. Think about how another consumer will feel after reading your response.
SummaryWhen in doubt about local SEO, focus on tasks that provide value and solve problems for customers.
That’s it.
This is an obvious point, but the underlying principle is valuable, and too many don’t do this.
In general, consumers are lazy and selfish (like we all are).
It’s our job to make their life as easy as possible.
Customers are more likely to support, seek out, and refer brands that they truly care about.
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal
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