We all know we should avoid stereotyping groups of people. But, it happens anyway and content marketers aren’t immune. When you stereotype a group of people, you form certain expectations about them whether you realize it or not. Oops! Expectations are like assumptions and those, well, they just plain suck. I don’t remember where I saw this, but this perfectly sums up why we shouldn’t assume:
ASS / U / ME
To assume makes an ASS out of U and ME.
The digital landscape is experiencing a rapidly growing need for effective content marketing. This increases demand for brilliant content marketers to create, plan, and drive these campaigns. More businesses than ever have partnered with digital marketing experts so they can stay a step ahead of their competition.
The industry’s rise to digital stardom has also seeded a number of stereotypes about what content marketers look like and do. Like other ideas that pigeonhole entire segments of people, those associated with content marketers fall far short of accurately describing what they do in any holistic way.
- All they do is blog and write white papers. It may look as if all we do is post new, original content on our clients’, but we actually do much more than blogging or writing technically focused white papers. Some of the most prolific content marketers are former journalists, myself included. We develop and create content for a variety of platforms, such as video, email campaigns, live and recorded webinars, public presentations, web copy, and others.
- Writing content represents the bulk of their expertise. We conceptualize, develop, and implement content marketing strategies for clients. How else would we maximize potential exposure of the target audience to the stellar content we create?
- They don’t understand empirical data. As content marketers, we must collect and process empirical data about the campaigns we execute to see if the plan and tactics are effective. Otherwise, we couldn’t measure campaign success. Clients want to see an ROI and the content marketer needs to prove it with real data.
- They’re workaholics. The best content marketers strike a healthy balance between work and their personal lives – most of the time. We do have short stints where we may work “round-the-clock” on a particularly sensitive campaign, but we go right back to our Zen-balanced lifestyles. Without this balance, creativity withers. Withered creativity means boring, tired ideas for content marketers.
- They behave like those folks on Mad Men. While the Mad Men series has become a cult hit with viewers, it does not realistically depict the working culture of today’s digital content marketers. The best of us employ a client-centered business model with the clients’ success and goal achievement our main concern. Once that’s accomplished, our own success (both material and the intangible) follows. No excessive imbibing, partying all week, and subsequent drama in the culture at RTL Digital, or any other marketing company with an ice cream’s chance in Hell of staying solvent.
The best content marketers are the greatest advocates a client can hope to have. We tell your story in a way that attracts, inspires, and connects. Content marketers envision, create, plan, and execute strategies that work. And we do it for you.
In short, we unleash awesome every day. Come and get some!
Have you seen or heard any stereotypes about digital marketers? Share them with us now!
