You might have heard a few things about content marketing lately. Good and bad. Some folks praise it, some others will tell you this is the dumbest thing you would ever do when trying to make money online.
But what’s the truth? Is content marketing a lucrative method in 2020, or is it just a scam? Should you invest your time and money in content marketing, or should you rather believe those gurus who claim you can make 6 or 7 figures without ever writing a blog post?
I’m not only giving you the answer to these questions, but will explain why some folks are trying to eagerly convince you about the disadvantages of content marketing.
How To Make 6 Figures With One Ad
The other day I saw an internet marketing guru claiming he had made 6 figures with 1 ad in just a couple of days. He went ahead and added that he would never use content marketing because he had this very lucrative system of multiplying money with ads.
This was pretty interesting. Who wouldn’t like to make even just $1K that easily? If he claims making 100K, and only 1% is true, I could easily make a thousand bucks. So I went ahead and read the whole article.
The case study was indeed interesting, and I even got the answer to the question how did he make it? Or to be precise, I got an answer that sounded interesting at first. It turned out that he had spent between $20K and $30K on an ad, and that ad generated him 6 figures.
Interesting, But…
Spending 20K or even 30K on one ad, and making 100K sounds good. In fact, if this is true, you could make a living just applying this system. But here comes the trick – or actually tricks – we tend to forget when reading this type of articles:
- Do you currently have 20K or 30K to spend on ads? Most people trying to make money online don’t.
- Even if you have spare 20K to burn, do you exactly know where to advertise, what ad will perform the best, what group of people to target, what bidding strategy to follow, etc.? Or will this money just really be burned without earning you a dime?
I guess you already know your answers to both of these questions, and chances are at least one of the answers is no. But before getting to the point, that is, why these gurus warn you against content marketing, let’s see what content marketing really is.
What Is Content Marketing After All?
We all want to make money online, don’t we? So what is this content marketing thing from a money making point of view?
Content marketing is reaching out to your target market via free online content.
Traditionally content in this sense is a blog post (like this one you’re reading right now). But it can be a YouTube video, or even a Facebook or Instagram post, or any other type of online content. The important distinction is that content in this sense is not an advertisement, and it gives some value for the reader without making them to pay.
Content Marketing Doesn’t Have To Be Free
Now how does this make sense? The readers don’t have to pay for the content, but it doesn’t have to be free?! Let me explain this.
Content in content marketing is free indeed for the reader. But just because they can get useful information without paying for it, you still can drive paid traffic to your website if you know how to do that effectively.
The real difference between content marketing and making money with ads only is that in the former case we don’t aim to make money right away on every visitor. And if this sounds like a bad solution at first, let me explain you the benefits of content marketing and why this is working 100% of the time.
The Benefits Of Content Marketing
- Passive flow of visitors
I think this one should convince you alone to start using content marketing. Once you’ve built up your content online, it will drive you constant traffic. Even if you’re not working on your website. Even if you’re not paying to anyone. Even if you’re sipping you cocktails at the beach.
- Build credibility
One of the main reasons people wouldn’t buy online is the lack of credibility. Content marketing, just by allowing your target market to see you several times, is one of the best ways to build up credibility.
- Build an online brand
If you’re able to build an online brand, it’ll become much easier to sell, I guess you already know that. But this is where content marketing can help you. Just by offering free and useful content to the reader, building up your credibility will also help you building a strong brand online.
- Sell to those people who have no buying intent right now
What about those people that are just looking for information? We don’t want to buy something all the time we are online. And content marketing is the best way to get in contact with those people who are just looking around right now, but obviously willing to spend their money at a later date.
- Learn online marketing
Content marketing is the best way to learn about your target market, their interests, and learn how to reach them. And the best thing, it doesn’t costs you tens of thousands of Dollars.
- Creating new demand
In marketing, you either satisfy an existing demand or create a new one. Content marketing is the way to create demand that’s not existing yet.
- Free list building opportunity
The money is in the list. Ask every online entrepreneur and they’ll tell you this. No matter if you just starting a blog or working for a larger company. By using content marketing to acquire visitors, you can build an effective list at no cost.
The Only Drawback Of Content Marketing
The only real drawback of content marketing I see there is that it takes time. You need to put a lot of energy (and obviously money in some form) of building enough content, and wait for the results. Months at least. Sometimes even a year.
In this sense, using ads to drive qualified traffic and selling them right away looks more promising.
But my question is, who is able to run a successful ad campaign right at the first try? Wouldn’t you need a whole lot of money and time to experiment with the ads to make them successful? How much do you need to spend on ads just to break even the first time? $100? 1K? 10K or more?
I tell you, making 100K from a 20K ad is a great job. But other then the initial investment, you need an enormous amount of data and experience just to know how to run such a lucrative campaign.
So Why Would Then Some People Warn You Against Content Marketing?
Content marketing is working. It is the way a lot of online entrepreneurs – including me – have built their business and keep on generating income every month. It is the way to learn how to reach out to people online.
So why would then some “gurus” tell you not to do it? Why would they tell you it’s not working?
The main reason is because they don’t understand it. They’ve never tried it, or tried it once or twice and failed. But just because you fail once or twice doesn’t mean that thing is not working.
In fact I can guarantee you’ll fail when starting out with content marketing. But you’ll fail when playing with ads, or any other methods of making money online. That’s just the way things work. You might have had failed when learning to ride a bike. But does that mean that bicycling make no sense?
You should never listen to anyone who’s failed with or given up on something.
Go ahead instead and find someone who is successful in that field – content marketing this time – and learn from them.
Should You Use Content Marketing?
In my opinion, you definitely should. It is not only the perfect way to drive constant traffic to your website in a passive way, but it is the best way to learn how online marketing works.
These are the steps you should take to start working with content marketing and understand online marketing in general. And these steps will help you getting real results – even if it’s your own site or a client’s website – and start making real money online.
- Start a blog.
- Make a keyword research and find out what people are looking for.
- Start publishing using SEO copywriting techniques.
- Find a way to monetize organic traffic.
- Repeat 2 and 3, and refine 4.