Content Marketing: 5 Things to Ignore

(Disclaimer: Profanity.)

Most content marketing workflows fail to deliver meaningful results because the professionals running them are stupid. 

The plethora of digital marketers are too concerned with the things that are unrelated to creating content that your audiences will care about or distributing it on the platforms where your audience loves to spend their time.

And I know why. It’s because they are lazy, corner-cutting losers.

They are far too busy copy-pasting someone’s hack that worked once ten years ago, while being obsessed over the minute details under the guise of improving the content. In reality, all they do is slow down the content production and publication process.

If they worked hard and ran some experiments themselves, they would’ve first-hand information and wouldn’t be spending hours lurking on LinkedIn to comment “growth” on some retard’s engagement-baiting post that promises the perfect content marketing playbook.

Anyway, I’ve tried to fix it a bit by addressing what you should entirely ignore while planning and executing a content marketing strategy.

1. Keyword research

Keyword research is for impostors in the content marketing industry. Plenty of “content marketing specialists” will throw a fit when they hear this. The truth is that the folks who rely on this outdated practice that polluted the web are absolutely ignorant when it comes to persuasive communication.

The first reason is that the keyword data, peddled by companies like Ahrefs and Semrush that feed on FOMO, is a consequence of the technology. The technology in question is search engines themselves, where you can only search for broad terms.

If you can only search the keywords, you will end up with keyword data. The keyword search volumes reveal nothing about the search intent. Over time, this destroyed the internet because everyone started hacking it by writing extra-long generic crap about popular topics and building backlinks to hog search engine rankings.

Not too long ago, for anything you queried on Google, each article would appear as the average of five other articles on the first page of search results. None of them was any different whatsoever. 

All of this happened due to the limitations of the technology — the search engines. 

Thankfully, with AI-powered search tools like Perplexity and ChatGPT, keywords will soon become irrelevant. People will use LLMs to do real research and use search engines to find instant information, such as the weather and sporting event scores.

Rather than starting your content marketing workflow with this copycat process that promised a shortcut victory toward tangible organic growth that will earn you a pat on the back and an annual bonus, you need to begin with your central message.

Initially, it will be one sentence. Something as simple as “buy our stuff” or “hire us for X,” which can be later expanded into an article or a series of social media posts. Just before publishing, use any of the free keyword tools available to glance at the popular search terms that are relevant to your message.

If possible, include them in the title, meta description, thesis statement, transition statements in-between the sections, and the conclusion. That’s all the on-page keyword optimization you need to do. And yeah, you can mention the primary keyword in the hero image’s alt text as well.

Keywords need to be an afterthought. You only need to spend 5-10 minutes on this at most after the article is drafted and approved. Anyone who tries to convince you otherwise doesn’t understand the point of content marketing — being unique by speaking your truth.

2. Article perfection

Changing a sentence here or inserting a phrase a couple of times won’t magically transform your article from trash to gold. Similarly, if your content is already good, these minuscule edits will seldom impact your reach.

I’ve dealt with multiple clients and fellow marketers who are concerned with proving their contribution in the writing process through these irrelevant and irritating suggestions. And they justify it by emphasizing the importance of ticking every box.

As long as the draft makes logical sense and contains accurate information in the context of your brand to deliver value to your audience, it’s gonna perform. Focusing too much on the word choice and the tonality will get you nowhere if your content is keyword-stuffed, generic slop.

After you reach a threshold of quality, which is easier than you think, obsessing over the decorative aspects through a biased and ego-driven perspective is simply pointless work.

If you do have extra resources, spend them on creating more content. For instance, if a content writer in your team has an extra couple of hours at the end of their day, ask them to produce a couple of LinkedIn posts or design a simple infographic.

It will get you more content while upskilling them. In that journey, you will learn more about your audience’s preferences, spot more areas of improvement in your creative process, and deepen your own understanding of your products and services.

The broader point I am trying to make is that the perfect content marketing process or article doesn’t exist. Stop looking for it. There will be some pieces that will exceed expectations, and there will be others that disappoint. That’s life.

3. Best writing practices

This is a tricky one because there are a handful of content writing best practices that are obvious tips. For instance, pointers like “avoid fluff” and “use bullets wherever possible” are apparent guidelines that enhance the readability of your blog posts.

I am talking about the not-so-obvious best practices that aren’t best practices at all. In fact, they are an aspect of writing that worked too well for a business or audience, and now everyone considers it a must-follow hack.

One of the most common ones is, “write in a professional but friendly tone.” First of all, friendly means informal, which is the opposite of a professional style. Second of all, a professional-heavy approach paints you as an emotionless corporation.

Third, a friendly voice means you will occasionally overexplain things because that’s how you talk with someone you consider an ally. In such situations, it can be challenging to keep your sentences concise and to the point.

So, amid all this, the million-dollar question is, “what is the right approach?”

Find out for yourself.

Companies need to realize that it takes time to discover their own identity. It is true for us as humans. We try and fail at multiple things before the correct thing surfaces. The same holds true for content marketing.

You might write, publish, and distribute tens of long-form guides before realizing that your tone and style weren’t reflecting your brand’s values accurately or adequately. And that’s okay. Of course, you can pick some elements from your competitors, but that won’t make you unique.

Initially, especially for startups or budding businesses, there is a limbo phase where experimentation occurs. The best part is that it happens only once. After getting past this, you will find your original voice, which will help you stand out within your niche.

4. Process richness

I’ve encountered many editors, content marketing specialists, and clients who focus too much on how things are managed. The format of the spreadsheets, the workflow on their Kanban Board, and the nature of updates shared via various applications.

This happens because of many reasons.

First and foremost, these idiots prefer appearing useful than actually contributing toward the end goal. Consequently, they get in the way of professionals who know what they are doing.

The second reason is that work is ugly. Researching on a topic, brainstorming to create an outline, and grinding hard to produce a draft is hard and complicated. Why do that if you can “manage” things and take all the credit?

Third and final cause is the lack of skills. Most content marketers and writers don’t know shit about persuasion and psychology. They simply throw the buzzwords around and follow the best practices created by someone years ago.

The point I am making here is that the less time and energy you spend here, the better. As long as you have a concrete idea of what’s going on, content production-wise, you are good to go. You don’t need a meticulously designed, aesthetically pleasing content tracker.

Just focus on producing articles and whatnot. Everything else will take care of itself.

5. Vanity metrics

There are freelancers on LinkedIn who make more than many MAANG job holders. You can’t tell by looking at their followers count or engagement numbers.

Similarly, there are B2B companies that struggle to get 10K organic visitors to their website, but they are pulling six figures in monthly revenue.

However, when gauging the efficacy of content marketing, the big picture often eludes everyone, including the marketers themselves. It’s all about impressions, traffic, and engagement. On the surface, it makes sense, but in terms of business value, it doesn’t.

One of my biggest suggestions to individuals and organizations that are building an audience is to ignore such vanity metrics entirely, or at least at the start. Rather, pay attention to the things which will give you long-term gains.

For instance, the efficacy of your content production process. The rate at which you go from an idea to a published article is vastly ignored by the majority of companies and professionals. A faster content production rate translates to more experimentation, which is critical for success in the future.

Another commonly-ignored key performance indicator (KPI) is the nature of engagement. Consider LinkedIn. You will find plenty of AI-generated, generic comments from simpletons trying to “grow their network.”

Trust me, you are better off with zero engagement than that pretentious bs.

But a couple of thoughtful comments from seasoned professionals who want to have a genuine conversation with you are far more valuable. They might become your customers or help build you a stronger professional network.

The underlying issue is that the vanity metrics are too easy to track, making them difficult to ignore. Additionally, we are living in a plastic world where appearing successful takes precedent over being.

Conclusion: Ditch the crap

The information age bombards you with too much data on everything. Even if it’s something as simple as coming up with topic ideas for your personal blog. Too many optimization tips and best practices at every stage. Multiple (AI-powered) tools that “make would do it for you.”

Amid the chaos, the pivotal element of building the right communication skills and presenting key details in a persuasive manner gets lost. You must’ve seen it yourself. Most creators (marketers and writers) put pen to paper with the intention of earning monetizable applause, not to share what they’ve discovered.

And they wonder why they don’t have a loyal fan following.

Ironic.

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Next Chapter: The Goal of a Content Marketing Strategy

Previous Chapter: The Anatomy of a Content Marketing Strategy

Index (with Prologue): Content Marketing 101: For Lean and Agile Teams