65 Content Marketers List the 45 Content Marketing Agencies Crushing It (Plus 70 Tips & 74 Myths Dispelled)

A man leans against a brick wall holding a coffee mug and his phone with a search bar reading “Content is King” superimposed across the image.

Digital marketing cannot be ignored. We live in a world of internet ubiquity, and, while some traditional marketing techniques like print ads, flyers, and print magazines can still be profitable, the landscape has shifted to be heavily reliant on digital strategies. 

And with ad blindness and the use of ad blockers online increasing by the day, there is one area of digital that counteracts both. That is content.

According to Forbes, “Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

The bottom line is that most people don’t want to be “sold” by an ad anymore; they want to develop a relationship with a business that earns their purchase by offering invaluable content. And this can’t just be your run-of-the-mill, 300-750 word article due to the explosion of content now available on the web. More than 4.4 million blog articles are being published every day.

Stop and ponder that for a minute; then think about whether your content truly stands out against that backdrop...

When it comes to content creation, using AI content marketing tools can save you considerable time. You can create a blog post, product description, image, video, and audio content automatically and quickly, but you should make sure you are still able to create quality content. This where hiring a marketing agency can be a way to skip the learning process and execute more rapidly + get faster business results.

Many businesses hire an agency for their content marketing needs, and the first question they ask is always: Which content marketing firm is the best for them? The answer to that depends on your goals, budget, etc., and the best agencies know how to tailor their solution to yours and your prospect’s needs.

We asked 65 content marketers who they would vote as the top agency dominating the content marketing field, and we got 45 different answers! The biggest bonus is that these experts also shared their greatest content marketing tips and advice, including the truth behind some common marketing myths.

What will I Learn?

What are the Benefits of Content Marketing? 8 Stellar Ones...

But before we get into the list of best agencies, it’s important to discuss why content marketing is important to all businesses and nonprofits. From winning more customers or donors to elevating your brand’s identity and prominence as a true expert, there are loads of content marketing benefits, chief among them are these 8…

  1. You are able to position yourself as a true thought leader in your industry, separating yourself from competitors.
  2. Leads to higher search engine visibility through stronger online authority (links and social shares).
  3. Content marketing helps your site drive more traffic and increases conversions, giving you more followers and potential customers.
  4. Enhances your brand reputation and awareness. People don’t want to be sold; they want to be wooed. Ad blindness is real…
  5. Strengthens relationships with your existing customers and helps you cement trust with them, encouraging them to stay.
  6. You are able to reach a specific (even niche) market through targeted content topics centered around the challenges (think pain points) of your audience(s).
  7. It has a lower cost-per-lead-acquisition than paid traffic when viewed over the long-term (2+ years).
  8. Content marketing grows sales. Most customers are interested in your content first (how much you know about their pain points) before purchasing your products or services. Then once you’ve earned their trust, they are all in.

Disclaimer: This article does contain affiliate links. If you purchase a tool through one of my links I will receive a small commission at no additional cost to you.

The 45 Best Content Marketing Agencies According to Expert Content Marketers

A man wearing a patterned button-up holds a coffee mug and reads a book entitled Expert Secrets.

1. Hubspot

HubSpot does an excellent job of reaching people through personalized customer-centric content marketing. They also offer a variety of helpful and educational tools that integrate well with other leading tools for free. They are on top of the latest trends in SEO, SEM, and copywriting strategies. They somehow manage to engage with their audience consistently by constantly putting out articles, infographics, and other valuable content. And this doesn’t just apply to content marketing; they do it in sales, too. 

2. Neil Patel

Neil provides constant value to his readers through amazing, long-form content with tons of strategy built into every post.  One of his techniques that never disappoints is creating content from general to specific, as detailed as is needed.

3. Why Stuff Sucks®

Miles Anthony Smith is more than just a concert violinist with a killer beard. His agency has more than two decades of content marketing experience and the case study data to demonstrate his ability to help companies and nonprofits achieve new levels of marketing success. The Why Stuff Sucks® brand offers detailed advice on how to take the seemingly hard things in marketing and technology and demystify them, using a wide range of marketing consulting techniques. He knows that content is king when it comes to marketing, content distribution is queen, and is determined to help others up the ante in their marketing game.

4. Siege Media

Siege Media provides an outstanding content marketing service by combining a data-driven approach with genuinely exceptional creativity. They have a full team of designers, videographers, writers, and other qualified individuals who focus on providing not just any service, but the best service

Siege Media stands out from the rest by innovating the way they create their content. With a team of talented marketers, amazing creatives, and SEO experts, they create content that stands out in an industry overloaded with content publication.

5. TopRank Marketing

TopRank Marketing has been doing innovative and impactful work with interactive content and B2B influencers for huge brands like SAP, Dell, LinkedIn, 3M, and Oracle for more than 18 years. By using influencer marketing, good people, and top-notch writers, they always strive to be one step ahead of the competition.

6. Ogilvy

Ogilvy always thinks outside the box. They are very engaging, creative, and different, not to mention, exceedingly high-quality. They are the choice of some of the most recognizable brands around, and it’s easy to see why. They have been marketing masters since the beginning of direct response and haven’t let up.

7. Imaginasium

Imaginasium logo written in white on deep blue background.

In order to create quality content, you must have a clear understanding of your clients and their message. This is what Imaganisium does best. By clearly understanding their customers, including their message and expectations, they are able to provide an exceptional customer experience.

Their inbound marketing service is among the best due to its use of strategic evergreen content, which drives significant organic traffic from Google and turns it into leads to be nurtured by email marketing automation.

8. Contently

Contently is among the market leaders when it comes to content marketing and content strategy services, according to recent reports. With a focus on quality storytelling, their content is insightful, engaging, and read by people worldwide.

9. Brian Dean/Backlinko

Brian Dean’s content is amazing. His pieces are informative, actionable, and, most importantly, replicable by other brands when coupled with their personal content-tone. Numerous digital marketers and trainers practice and teach his proprietary SEO blends, which have helped countless students and clients worldwide.

10. Agent3

They combine an ABM software platform with agency services to help clients master account-based marketing at whatever level they hope to achieve. A deep understanding of ABM in B2B is Agent3’s super-power.

11. Social Chain

Social Chain is agile and able to evolve according to what’s happening on one of the best marketing platforms today, social media. This London-based agency knows how to climb the social ladder, in the best possible way.

12. T Brand Studio

T Brand Studio logo with white writing on black background.

Aside from partnering with big brand names, T Brand Studios uses their authentic, journalistic storytelling approach to create custom content that is as compelling and fascinating as the rest of their journalism. They excel at including visualizations and sound for a more immersive multimedia experience for their clients.

13. Content Marketing Institute

The Content Marketing Institute excels in research and predicting trends. They are one of the sought-after marketing agencies for content marketing research by well-known brands worldwide.

14. Velocity Partners

One thing that makes Velocity Partners stand out from other agencies is that they aren’t afraid to get interesting, creative, and bold in B2B marketing. They have also established  strong relationships with other amazing B2B marketing teams, such as Sprint, Amazon, and Netsuite.

15. Animalz

Many content marketing agencies spread themselves too thin, attempting to tackle numerous facets of digital marketing and mastering none. Animalz is as pure as it gets in its approach. They’re content marketing through and through, priding themselves on well-researched, high-quality pieces for incredibly niche clients. It’s easy to create quality content for a fun lifestyle brand, but far more difficult to tackle a piece that captures a technical or other B2B audience.

16. Marketing Labs

Marketing Labs helps clients understand the industry of digital marketing via in-depth guides and easy-to-digest posts about all things digital, including Google and WordPress. Need proof? Check out this article by Mike McManus of Marketing Labs.

17. Hollywood Branded

Hollywood Branded logo with black writing and red “Branded” stamp.

As far as agencies go, Hollywood Branded does a solid job of creating content for themselves.  Despite being a relatively small agency, they still manage to have a blog read by more than 25,000 people monthly, a weekly podcast series, e-books, e-learning classes, surveys, and more.

18. Express Writers

The content offered by Express Writers explains the tactics and strategies required for companies to succeed at content marketing in a detailed, yet simple to read and understand, manner. They write in plain English, and they do not over-complicate what can be a quite technical subject.

19. Moz

Moz is extremely SEO-based and laser-focused on data. They use a scientific technique to reach people that consists of link building and getting on Google’s good side. They have a wonderful “white-board” approach to teaching their audience the ways to build Google traffic organically.

20. Epic Presence

Epic Presence uses influencer outreach as a tool to reach audiences through content marketing. They tag experts, industry leaders, bloggers, and social influencers in their content and then reach out to let them know they were featured, encouraging them to share with their large audiences. It’s a win-win for both clients and influencers as they both build organic traffic through sharing.

21. Krypton IT Services

Unlike other agencies, Krypton IT Services doesn’t complicate the process. They focus on the quality of the content based on what the audience needs. Simple, yes, but also effective!

22. Weidert Group

Weidert Group logo written in navy blue.

Everything the Weidert Group learns about their client informs their initial marketing plans, from web improvements to SEO and social media strategies to editorial and content. Recognizing that learning never stops, their process includes quarterly road mapping with clients to pause and reflect on what’s working, what’s not, and what’s missing. Their game plans are re-optimized using data and judgment of the prior 90 days, in the context of what they know is happening today and about to happen in the next 90 days. 

23. Nemorin

Video is the medium of the moment, and Nemorin knows it! They specialize in making effective content stories in the form of branded videos to help clients expand their reach.

24. Growth Tools

Growth Tools employs a unique strategy to create content by tackling a sought-after topic and adding new sections weekly. Each subhead is in-depth, and by the end of the month, they have a monster piece of actionable content. Taking your time to build a blog post that people will continue to anticipate for weeks is a genius way to maximize your content and continue promoting it over time!

25. Sujan Patel

Tarek Dinaji thinks Sujan Patel is one of the top marketing professionals today. According to Noah Kagan, the CEO of SUMO, Sujan is half mad scientist and half content master. What you’ll like about him: he uses numbers to drive decisions.

26. You (In-house)

Sometimes the best content comes from those who know your product or service best: you. Some companies choose not to use an agency because they believe no one knows their product and the space in which they operate as well as they do.

27. Zen Media

Zen Media emblem and name written in white on purple background.

The founder of Zen Media, Shama Hyder, is a trailblazer in content marketing and one of the most knowledgeable people in the industry on leveraging blogging and social media to drive inbound leads.

28. Grow & Convert

This company does just what their name implies. They focus on leads and sales as an outcome, instead of content pieces, to grow the reach of their clients and improve their rates of conversion.

29. Dcustom

One of the strategies that makes Dcustom excel in content marketing is creating an overall content marketing strategy that integrates content on multiple platforms. Using a formulated blend of publishing, blogging, social media, videos, and podcasts, they provide their clients with a wide range of content for a more expansive reach.

30. Uncommon Content, LLC

Uncommon Content knows the importance of standing out from the crowd. They use content thoughtfully and deliberately to tell one of the most important stories the audience needs to know: the client’s story.

31. Codrut Turcanu

Consultant, copywriter, coach. Turcanu wears many hats and knows his stuff when it comes to B2B marketing. His results speak for themselves. He provides incredible value for his clients in the form of expert content creation and promotion. 

32. Idea Grove

Idea Grove logo written in black with three green trees.

To produce better content for clients, agencies need to be good listeners. And this is where Idea Grove excels, listening to the needs and wants of customers to deliver customized content. The more your agency knows about you, the better equipped they will be to help you succeed.

33. Digitas

Digitas has perfected two of the most important skills an agency must develop in order to provide excellent content marketing service: listening to their clients’ needs and understanding their business. Their goal is to help brands better connect with people and realize their most ambitious outcomes.

34. Social Charlie

Using data as their main guide, Social Charlie uses a paid ads strategy to promote content that has been differentiated for the size of each business. Their success backs up what any good marketer will tell you data is now the world’s most valuable resource.

35. Marketing Huddle

Two words: Authority Positioning. Mark Saunders knows the power of establishing brand authority and designs a strategic online marketing blueprint for each client to make sure their content resonates powerfully with their target audience. When your audience recognizes you as an expert in your field, your sales will reflect it. 

36. Co-Schedule

Why do companies like Co-Schedule’s formula for content marketing? They take a less traditional view of content marketing, seeing it more as content hacking. Following their 10X marketing formula, you will be able to write better content and stand out in a sea of content marketers.

37. Silverback Strategies

Silverback Strategies logo written in black and blue beneath the outline of a silverback gorilla.

Silverback Strategies’ multifaceted approach to marketing targets audiences from various angles using a wide range of products. The services offered range from SEO to analytics and web design. Their work produces results because they focus on accuracy, quality, and details rather than volume. 

38. Seeker Digital

A hands-on agency invested in the success of their clients, Seeker Digital arranges biweekly meetings to monitor the progress of the content marketing strategy for each client. They are always online and available for help, providing clients with clear marketing reporting.

39. & 40. Digital Marketer and Ryan Moran

An agency and individual that both deliver content relevant to the target audience, they also know how to provide useful information using an approachable and personal tone. Their authentic demeanor paired with quality information results in effective messaging. 

41. & 42. Hawke Media and Orbit Media Studios

Hawke Media logo in red and grey beneath a red hawk.
Orbit Media Studios logo in orange next to icon of an object in orbit.

Modern and media-focused, these agencies are known for producing content and solutions based on their customers’ wants and needs in a unique and effective way. 

43. through 45. Spear Marketing, SmartBug, and Outbrain

While each of these agencies have different strengths, they all excel at developing solid content strategies. They employ techniques like content development, email marketing, creative branding, and more.

65 Experts Weigh In With 70 Tips, 74 Myths, & Other Content Marketing Advice

Three men in business suits pose like superheroes wearing capes and masks to show their expertise.

Aside from naming their favorite content marketing agency, we also asked the experts three questions aspiring content marketers worldwide are dying to ask. Here are the 3 questions:

  1. What is your number #1 tip for developing and defining a solid content marketing strategy?
  2. What myths are there about content marketing that need to be dispelled?
  3. Any other content marketing advice you recommend?

Here are their much anticipated answers! Don’t miss the opportunity to utilize the valuable input so many contributed!

1. Lee Odden

  1. In a word, empathy. There is no substitute for clarity about what the customer wants, how they want it, why, and where.  A content marketing strategy that can align what the brand is selling with specific customer needs through useful content in the formats buyers want and in the channels where they spend time has a much greater opportunity to be a successful program.
  2. One myth for me is that creating unique content for a matrix of each stage of the buying journey for each distinct customer segment is simply not sustainable for most companies. Another one is “salesy content” is not the same as the content that can inspire sales. Lastly, SEO keywords as the only source of inspiration for content ideas miss huge opportunities for personalization and relevance specific to a brand’s buyers.
  3. If you want your B2B content to be great, invite your community to participate. Develop a community around topics of mutual value, identify experts, influencers, customers and prospects as potential collaborators to co-create content that they will be proud to be a part of and share with those who would become your customers. 

2. Joel Klettke

  1. Talk to your customers. Get away from just doing keyword research and looking at what already ranks. When you intimately understand your target audience, you know how to give them what they’re looking for, and what they’ll be interested in. 
  2. That the default, the best content marketing approach is blogging. Not every company should be focusing on a blog right out of the gate. In many situations, it makes far more sense to focus on fewer, more evergreen resources and assets instead of trying to constantly feed the content marketing machine. 
  3. Pay your writers and creative team well. Creating something exceptional is not easy. Most companies completely undervalue the crafts that they supposedly believe to be so important to their growth. 

3. Anthony Gaenzle

  1. Understanding your audience is critical. This should be the core of any solid content marketing strategy. If you understand the needs of your audience, the content distribution channels they prefer, the problems they face (that you can solve), and generally what makes them tick, you can develop a well-defined content strategy to really connect and have an impact on your business.
  2. One of the biggest myths is that you need to be a big business with a big budget to do it. Effective content marketing relies far more on creativity, understanding your audience, and having a solid strategy that it does on the size of your budget. Small businesses can succeed by developing fewer focused, high-quality content pieces tailored to the specific audience. If you do this right, you don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands (or millions) doing it. 
  3. Set measurable goals. If you fail to set goals and measure whether or not your content marketing helps you achieve them, you’ll never know if it’s working or not. It’s really important to understand why each piece of content is being created and what you hope to achieve through its creation and ultimate promotion. 

4. Christoph Trappe

  1. Figure out your sweet spot of content expertise for your specified audience. That is truly half the battle. Knowing what content you can share and how it helps the people who might buy something from you. 
  2. One of the most common myths for me is that results can happen fast. Content marketing does work, but it takes time and a lot of work. 
  3. Stay real, and share the stories that matter and don’t give up.  

5. Doug Kessler 

  1. Start with the audience. Get embarrassingly close to them. Work backward from there.
  2. That content is only a demand generation play. Some of the most powerful content is really brand-level content. It does make a real impact on demand gen, but it’s less easily tracked, so often left out of the strategy.
  3. Build an audience that subscribes to your stuff. It’s a high bar but raises your game in everything you do. 

6. Miles Anthony Smith 

  1. Start with the audience. Get embarrassingly close to them. Work backward from there to create content that will resonate strongly with them.
  2. It’s a myth that you must crank out tons of content every day/month to satisfy your audience and Google. Rather, fewer articles with proper keyword research and a laser focus on content distribution will put you ahead of the pack in SEO traffic and email lead generation.
  3. Start your content marketing journey with longform content, using advanced SEO techniques to set those articles up to succeed; then attach lead magnets to those articles and get them in email funnels where you send them more content through email marketing automation. It takes time to build a following, but over time, this is the best way. And if you not seeking Google rankings, check out this article on Amazon SEO here. 

7. Jennifer Radke 

  1. Understand the needs and goals of your audience, not the business goals. Too many organizations focus on their need for additional sales and leads, but we need to remember our content strategy needs to help fill the needs and goals of the people we want to do business with. 
  2. a) That more is better. It needs to be about quality content. b)That you have to put content out on all possible channels for maximum benefit. The truth of the matter is, businesses need to understand the channels their audience is on and want to consume content on and do a good job there.  c) That your intern can manage your content strategy. Businesses need to ensure that their content strategy is aligned with the overall business objectives and that the team managing the strategy and tactics understands not only why they are doing something, but how to utilize each channel to distribute content effectively. 

8. Phil Parkin

  1. Spend as much time understanding the audience as possible. 
  2. That Content is King! I don’t think this is any longer the case, I think the Campaign is now the King, and without a strategic plan to distribute, most decent content won’t have any effect at all. 
  3. Always ask clients why they want your help. And plan in social media ad budgets from the beginning!

9. Veronica Stoddart 

  1. Identifying and defining the target market and their needs and desires so the content can serve them strategically and effectively. Without that, the content will be too broad and unfocused to be successful in reaching your desired audience and increasing profitability.
  2. That it’s purely promotional. The best content marketing tells authentic stories that inform, educate, inspire, or entertain the target audience. It’s not necessarily about the client’s product or service itself.

10. Greg Linnemanstons 

  1. Commit to knowing your target personas. Know their motivations, pain points, how they make decisions, the situations that most often lead to their need for help and the professional subjects they’re most passionate about. In short, everything that can make you the most helpful and inviting business partner possible!
  2. Some myths I often encounter are (1) That there’s so much content being distributed today that it’s impossible to win the lead-attraction battle; (2) That there are businesses and industries that can’t benefit from a customer-needs focused content strategy to attract more and better opportunities; (3) That there are businesses without compelling knowledge to share that could be deployed to help and attract prospects into conversations and relationships.
  3. Great content marketing represents a commitment to aggressively offer valuable help and advice with no strings attached. To be successful, you first have to have the confidence that the knowledge and experience you’re willing to share is in fact better than other alternative sources. You have to be really good at what you do since you’re becoming much more transparent than you ever have.

11. Donna S. Duncan 

  1. It needs to be realistic, aimed at the right audience, and helpful. 
  2. That you don’t need to pair it with SEO to achieve the results you’re after. 
  3. Like SEO, content marketing is a process, not a quick fix. It takes a while to discover what works best for your particular business and audience. You must commit to the long-run and be willing to experiment, measure, and adjust as needed. 

12. Patti Podnar 

  1. Make sure all content is directed to the right audience at the right place in the funnel and make sure it all serves the organization’s goals. Content with no purpose just takes up space.
  2. That you need a subject matter expert. You only need an SME if you’re writing for people who do, regulate, or fund what you do. If you’re writing for people who buy what you do, you need a business expert. Subject matter expertise is useless if it doesn’t help drive sales.
  3. Watch out for the curse of knowledge: talking over your customers’ heads. It happens when experts forget what they didn’t know before they were experts.

13. Richard Lorenzen 

  1. Since we’re a public relations agency that focuses on earned media, we’ve seen firsthand how integrating owned content and earned content can become a powerful combination for driving traffic and leads. The key is bringing your entire team to consensus on consistent brand identity and messaging, and then translating into both powerful owned-content and powerfully communicating it to other stakeholders such as the media to multiply the reach of your content.
  2. The two biggest myths are that content can bring overnight leads, and that quantity is more important than quality. Focus on producing valuable, high-quality content consistently for a long period, and it will bring dividends.

14. Jeremy Lawrence 

  1. Know your audience and where they’re going.
  2. That it is not worth paying a lot for. This field will only grow more critical to success in business. 
  3. Always spend time researching and making sure it is a priority. 

15. Hannah Kuenzi 

  1. Be sure to know what you’re trying to accomplish with your content and have an understanding of your brand’s identity (or what you’re aspiring for it to be) before beginning the content creation process. Not all content, social platforms, and trending conversations will be appropriate for your brand – and that’s okay!
  2. One myth for me is that business to business marketing content is dry and boring. It’s fun, and it forces you to be the most creative person you can be.

16. Mary Ellen Slayter 

  1. Stop copying other people’s best practices and focus on expressing your unique ideas in unique ways.
  2. That you can succeed at it just by following checklists and other people’s best practices. That if you can’t track a piece of content to specific sales, it was a waste.
  3. Focus on identifying the core, differentiated idea you want to share in the world; everything else is tactics.

17. John Shieldsmith 

  1. Don’t base your entire strategy on swinging outside of your weight class. Too many companies shoot for keywords they have very little chance of ranking for. Instead, focus on long-tail terms that are relevant to your audience but attainable. Over time you’ll land some nice small wins, making those bigger wins more and more attainable. Everyone wants that 50k SV term, but to get there you’re going to need a ton of links and a lot of smaller rankings. Dream big but think small, and you’ll get there eventually.
  2. There are way, way too many myths to count! Some of my favorite myths that I continue to see out there are: (1) Quality is no longer king: Quality continues to be a driving force when it comes to rankings. Sure, DA and links help, but if your content is total garbage then your bounce rate will reflect that. (2) DA is everything: Yes, a higher DA will make your life a little easier. Still, your DA is respective to your industry or niche, so don’t get discouraged if your DA is low. You can still rank for some killer terms if you do the right research and write quality pieces. (There’s that q-word again.)
  3. Be original, authentic, and realistic. It’s easy to do competitor research and simply imitate what your competition is doing, but that’s only going to get you so far. Look at your audience’s needs, see what intent still isn’t being met, and find some long-tail terms that meet their needs. There’s always an angle your competitors haven’t thought to tackle. 

18. Mike McManus 

  1. A solid content strategy requires solid foundations around which creativity can flourish. This foundational bedrock is made up of defining broad topics and sub-topics for content to be created around. This structure longterm helps the consistency of content produced twinned with the ability to drive Expertise, Authority, and Trustworthiness (EAT) in your industry.
  2. Business owners and digital agencies need to stop focusing on the number of words when writing content! Quantity of content produced should never be a metric – it is quality that should override. The size of content produced should depend on the strategy of who you want to outrank or what traffic you want to attract.
  3. The single best piece of content marketing advice is to not copy your competitors. Be original when producing content as it is creativity that cannot be replicated easily. 

19. Stacy Jones 

  1. Understand your targeted demographics and lean into what help and insights – and value – that brand can provide. The ame goes for our agency, we use an educational voice for all of our content to help people better understand our market and opportunities.
  2. One major myth is that you have to have a massive audience. You don’t. You will get higher results by appealing to a niche target audience than trying to appeal to everyone.
  3. Just do it. It’s easy to put off content marketing, creating blogs, pulling resources off of other projects to create a voice around your own social and digital content. But if you dig in, you will develop an inbound marketing system that reaps rewards as your targeted buyers will begin to come to you on their own.

20. Tara Lynn Thompson 

  1. Great content marketing is really a study in empathy. It’s stepping into the place of that potential customer and hearing what they’re saying, not what you or your client wants to hear. It’s finding within yourself a way to connect, to understand, and to figure out what your customers feel and think. Then offer honest content that offers real, not perceived, value. You either learn how to get outside of yourself when developing great content or stick to marketing to people exactly like you. Anything else will ring hollow.
  2. Big and different in content marketing is agnostic. It can be good, it can be pointless. Content doesn’t need to make a splash, go viral, or redefine to be valuable content. Many times, the viral campaigns become known, not for the brand they promote, but the hoopla they created. Consumers may remember the hype, but still not able to recall the brand. Or they may recall the brand, love the creativity, but remain unmoved to spend a dime. Why? Because the campaign served to entertain, but not to sell the product. 
  3. If you want to create great content, seek selflessness. All any consumer truly wants is to be heard and valued. You do that in your content by showing you understand their struggles, recognize their needs, and sincerely want to help. Set yourself aside. Lock yourself in a pantry, if needed. Get yourself out of the way. Take on the act of being a servant. Seek to serve the audience. If you treat a potential consumer with charity, you could win the heart of a consumer for life. 

21. Angela Giles 

  1. Create a 2000-word blog posts that are packed with value and SEO-optimized.
  2. (No answer)
  3. Be consistent and follow your plan, rain or shine.

22. Sheryl Dawson 

  1. Create profiles of the audience you’re trying to reach, including their values, mindsets, motivators, and interests. Then create content that they will see as “adding value” to their lives. Then create a distribution strategy based on the profile, where are these people most likely to go for information?
  2. “If we build it, they will come” is the biggest marketing mistake. 
  3. Stay on top of all technological advances pertaining to marketing.

23. Kenny Pattie 

  1. Before putting together a CM strategy, it is necessary to understand your target audience. Too many marketers write content that looks and feels like it has been written for themselves or their peers, but not keeping their target audience in mind. An understanding of their fears, passions, needs, wants, and mediums from which they consume content are required.   
  2. It is complicated. At the basest level, to succeed at content marketing, all that is required is the ability to answer the questions of your target audience and do it consistently. Over time, your audience will begin to like and trust you and become the “go-to” resource on your subject matter.
  3. We all know that content is a long term strategy, and a mindset of 12 months+ is required for impact to be felt. That is not to say that metrics and tactics cannot be revised through that time, but I feel it vital to do the necessary research to ensure that the overarching strategy is well prepared in that it will last for a full year. A follow on from that is not to expect sales on the back of one blog post. Content compounds in value the more that is produced and the longer it is live. As time goes on, audiences will begin to engage, and finally, you will be found and liked often enough for buyers to purchase from you. 

24. Jonathan Bentz 

  1. Create blog content, at a minimum, weekly. Even if it is blog content that is simply supporting or promoting the content you want people to engage with (eBook, video, podcast, etc.), that single post can have long term impact from a search that extends far beyond the promotional cycle of the content it supports.
  2. Creating content tailored to high search volume keywords will create success. Traffic helps, but conversions win. 
  3. Produce content on your blog tailored to the needs of decision-makers in your company’s deciding journey. If you have a specific niche you want to create visibility in, even if it is small, produce blog content or media tailored to it. “Zero-search” or low search volume keyword phrases may not be sexy for your SEO team to try to rank your site for, but these smaller audiences are where the real revenue opportunities exist.

25. Caylin White 

  1. Have a plan! Make a content marketing strategy plan that is potentially a year out. Build out a strong content calendar. Use trending keywords with solid content marketing tools (like BuzzSumo), so they are relevant to your audience. Know your audience. Lastly, be knowledgeable about Google guidelines and always, always lift others. 
  2. That always talking about yourself is the best way to relay your content! If you talk less about yourself in a public relations style and more about others, their expertise, and how you can educate your audience on what they are searching for, the better your content. This comes in the form of journalistic, educational style content. 
  3. I believe in something I affectionately call “The Trifecta Affect”. It’s not just one thing that will make content marketing strong. It’s 3.  (1) Strong consistent, content with influencer outreach. (2) Strong social media outreach plan. (3) And promotional marketing/paid marketing peppered in.  With these strategies, I feel you will have a strong content marketing game. 

26. Maureen Joyce 

  1. At the core, stakeholders of a company need to define their company’s mission, values, offerings, and strengths and weaknesses. A company’s compelling brand positioning statement is one that distinguishes your company from competitors and should be shared and understood by all employees, resulting in a confident staff that offers rich customer experience and more robust sales. From there, you can identify your customer’s biggest problems and desires. Next, understand the distinct tone and style of your audience and speak their language, and be present on platforms that they frequent. 
  2. A myth that I often encounter is that content marketing is a fast process. Converting prospects into customers and customers into repeat buyers takes time.
  3. Make your content sparkle. Customers are unlikely to align with your brand or pass it along to decision-makers if it appears dated and confusing. Employ a team of designers, photographers, videographers, and illustrators to stay consistent with your brand and strategy. 

27. Heidi Medina 

  1. Relationship building is the key to the success of content marketing. Posting high-quality content is absolutely essential, but engagement with others is just as, if not, more important. We no longer live in an age that posting and running are acceptable. If you want to be successful in content marketing, you have to engage with not just the people who engage with your content, but the content of others, as well.
  2. Content marketing works well but is not an overnight solution. It’s a long-term game. 
  3. High-quality content is more valuable than just posting stuff. If you don’t have something that adds value, don’t post it and instead, go engage with others. Engagement is the most underused strategy I’ve seen when it comes to content marketing strategies. 

28. Eva Hatzenbihler 

  1. Know your market! Your content will not hit the mark if you’re speaking to the wrong group of people. This is where you should devote 80% of your project time.
  2. Cute and creative only work if they are drawn in by the words. You can have the cutest mascot, but if your message is off, you will not stick in someone’s memory.
  3. Meet your audience when they are in the buying cycle. If your message is meant to attract, give them value at that level to bring them closer to engaging and learning more about you. This will build the trust to buy from you, and you will delight them with your product and service. Following-up regularly after the purchase will endear you to them, and you’ll retain them as repeat customers.

29. Lynda Keleer 

  1. Gaining solid knowledge about your own field, especially the gaps you can contribute. 
  2. That results can happen fast. Content marketing is no magic, it is a mixture of art and science, which takes time to bring results. 
  3. Rely on the research, not the tools. 

30. Spero Patricios 

  1. Have a rolling plan for the content you will produce over a 6-month period
  2. That you still need to make traditional commercials to sell your products/services
  3. Plan, plan, and plan again.

31. Janette Burke 

  1. Know your message inside out.
  2. That content marketing is great for visibility but will not convert to sales unless done strategically.
  3. Don’t just post to post. Be mindful of what you are posting. Make sure that all content you create fits your brand and the message you want to say.

32. Catherine Tims 

  1. Know your audience and your goals
  2. That there’s a “secret formula” for success in content marketing.
  3. Customers need to be wary of being bamboozled by industry jargon and meaningless reports.

33. Nicole Bremer Nash 

  1. Be relevant and authentic so you can build trust between you and your readers and consumers.
  2. The most pervasive myth is that content marketing is a scam to get links. Modern content marketing is authentic and relevant, actually offering the reader something they want (i.e., knowledge, humor). 
  3. Don’t skimp quality over quantity. 

34. Kristi Porter 

  1. Consistency can’t be overlooked. It’s a great way to make sure your content doesn’t continually move to the back burner, as well as to keep your audience engaged. We all have a lot thrown at us daily, and despite our best intentions, we are out of sight, out of mind creatures. So, define a plan you can execute well and stick to it. Consistency builds trust, and you can’t convert without trust!
  2. That more is better. If you’re in a hurry to crank out content, but it has no quality, you’re wasting your time, and you’ll lose your audience. Figure out what your tribe wants, and give it to them. Be their hero!
  3. Many of my clients fail to put out content regularly because they don’t know what to say. So, I always recommend creating “content buckets” that you can easily fill. For example, put together an email newsletter that includes the same format and sorts of topics each time. This might be a letter from the founder, a few interesting third-party links, and links to your own new content. 

35. Joanna Carter 

  1. Consider content that is beyond the text, such as videos, social posts, or infographics. Everything is now part of content marketing. You need to integrate all content types into an overall content marketing strategy to create a unified approach that engages the right audience, at the right time across multiple channels.
  2. That you don’t need a strategy. Simply writing blogs or creating other forms of content isn’t enough to deliver ROI. Flying by the seat of your pants is definitely not the way to approach content marketing. Instead, you need to research your audience and create personas, so you have a full understanding of what your target audience wants from your brand and what pain points you should target, as well as what channels you can find them on. This will allow you to shape a strategy and define your KPIs, as well as how you’re going to measure success. 

36. Tarek Dinaji 

  1. My number one tip for developing and defining a solid content marketing strategy is knowing your audience. Before you produce any content, you need to know who your ultimate target audience is. Once you know who they are, you can understand what they want, where you can find them, etc.
  2. All content needs to be super long. It depends on the topic you are covering. If your topic demands a 4000-word article, go for it. But if you run out of words after writing 1499 words, do not stretch your article just for the sake of word count. The same is true for video content. If you can present all of your ideas and concepts within 2 minutes, there is no point in adding another five minutes.
  3. Content marketing is a dynamic field. You need to adapt to it if you want to stay relevant. Once there was a time when posting on social media was essential to drive traffic. Even google considered social media signals as a ranking factor. Now it is not a direct ranking factor anymore. I think content marketers should pay more attention to user demand. If your audience is more comfortable with video content, you should produce more videos.

37. Helen Bristoll 

  1. Make sure your message is real and offers genuine benefits. Don’t jump on bandwagons or memes
  2. The myth that content marketing is the answer to all business problems. Promotion develops and changes as markets and means to communicate change, always keep your eye on how clients get and search for information.
  3. Go for quality rather than quantity.

38. Alexandra Rynne 

  1. Slow down. Document and measure. Focus on strategic distribution.
  2. That more is better.

39. Mara Pylypiv 

  1. Create best practices and a refined process at the very beginning.
  2. That customers don’t read it anyway. But yes, they do! Engaging with customers and providing solid content is what keeps them coming back.
  3. Hire a specialist. Always. Content marketing cannot be done by someone in finance that kinda dabbles in writing. Hire a professional.

40. Vaishali Badgujar 

  1. Understand your customers and their problems deeply. A good content strategy revolves around topics that answer customers’ problems, making them aware of the possible solutions.
  2. That one needs to create content in large quantities to succeed in content marketing.
  3. Create content consistently but not necessarily in large quantity content that answers customers’ questions and solves their problems. Be informative rather than being sales-sy. This informative content drives new visitors, engages existing ones, and automatically helps them progress through the sales funnel. Focus more on how you are going to deliver based on your customer’s needs.

41. Shannon Peel 

  1. Know your audience and speak directly to them where they are. If they are on Facebook, be on Facebook, if they aren’t there, don’t put your energy there. Talk to your audience in a way they comprehend and engage with their posts, especially if what they post speaks to your brand’s values and core beliefs. Do not just broadcast, be a part of the community. You will find success when you engage with your audience and support them in their digital message.
  2. One common myth is that content marketing alone will result in sales success tomorrow. Content marketing is only one piece of a whole marketing plan, which needs to address all aspects of the customer’s journey both digitally and in the real world. Content marketing is about sharing a story and developing a digital relationship with your customers. It must align with your brand strategy, your mission, your values, and all aspects of your business. 
  3. Be authentic and tell the real story. If you say you believe in providing an amazing customer experience, ensure you are providing an amazing experience throughout the customer cycle. Make sure you have a variety of clear objectives for different content types and create content based on those objectives. If your objective is to sell a certain product, ensure your content is created to complete this objective by telling a compelling story about why a customer needs the product and end it with a clear call to action. Mix sales only content with branding content to ensure you don’t sound like you’re always screaming for a sale. You must also add content with the objectives to educate, evoke positive emotions, celebrate, and tell your brand’s value story.

42. Kris Olin 

  1. Write and publish only materials that you can be proud of. Don’t let quantity rule over quality.
  2. “Build it, and they will come” does not work in this field. 
  3. Whenever you produce material, make sure it is always top-notch. Once published, don’t just leave it but share it over the best social networks.

43. David Gil Garcia 

  1. Convey a few and clear messages along the text enclosed in a meaningful story. That’s the key. We can shoot many articles, but if there isn’t a compelling story that makes us understand and embrace the message of an article, it is hard to drive readers through different stages during their journey. We’ll mainly lose engagement and probably won’t notice much impact. 
  2. Content marketing is not blogging. Content marketing has a purpose and is crafted strategically to pursue it. Creating blogs does not make a difference in content competition. Answer the real needs and questions people have out there and align it with your business and what you are trying to achieve. Avoid fluffy blog gurus whose name won’t add as much value as in-depth content.  
  3. Establish relationships with businesses you share demographics and purpose with and share marketing efforts. It’s a win-win. 

44. E.T. Carlton 

  1. Make sure you’ve identified your target audience and that your content speaks directly to your audience’s needs. Be aware that some of your audience may not yet know what it needs. Part of your job as a content marketer is to help clients identify challenges so that you can put together a comprehensive strategy.
  2. That clients or brands know how to effectively utilize content marketing. Many think they do, but part of your job as a content marketer is to help them create the most effective content marketing strategy so that they can use it to its fullest potential.

45. Jeff Possiel

  1. Own your platform and use the email newsletter. 
  2. That content creation is difficult, and it takes a lot of money to do it.
  3. Writing and sharing information is the foundation for personal and professional growth.

46. Fiona Adler 

  1. Have a schedule and stick to it! Define everyone’s roles so that it’s not left entirely to any one person. Have the team hold each other accountable for doing their parts.
  2. It’s not a quick solution, but it is an investment in your company. And it’s difficult to replicate!

47. Eddie Jones 

  1. I help authors publish books. Knowing your target readers and your book’s top ten categories are key. Once we know that, we can link your book ads to other successful authors in that genre and reduce your investment while increasing sales.
  2. There is no magic. There is only hard work. In fifteen years of helping authors publish and promote their books, I’ve yet to read any marketing book that offered a tip or tool I did not know. The Internet has turned today’s “secret killer tip” into tomorrow’s overused-tool. 
  3. The best promotion is sideways marketing. Consumers love to stumble upon a deal, new ideas, new products, or new ways of using or doing something outside of their intended use. Peripheral vision promotion turns years of long hard work into an “overnight” success.

48. Jess Tiffany 

  1. Focus on your agency’s core strengths foremost, and then prioritize the quality of work over quantity. 
  2. That whoever puts out the most content wins. If the content is no good, people will not want to read it.
  3. Spend the majority of your time and effort marketing your content. The best content for getting little attention will not help you very much.

49. Nan Price

  1. Be authentic and concise.
  2. That more is better, and any content is good content.
  3. Keep in mind hiring outside help to create your content pays off, and it helps you refine your message.

50. Robb Fahrion 

  1. When developing a solid content marketing strategy, a long term goal needs to be in mind. Content marketing is not a quick win like pay-per-click advertising. Sometimes, posts will win quickly, but more often than not, companies must build up credibility over time with quality post after quality posts. Set both micro and macro goals, but focus on the micro goals of creating great content, which will eventually help you achieve your macro goals of site traffic increases and leads generated.
  2. The myth about content marketing that needs to be dispelled is that content marketing is not important in some industries. Content marketing is the most important in all industries. The ones in which it does not appear important are the ones that lack quality content and present the most incredible opportunities. 
  3. Be sure to work with an expert copy and content writer. Their expertise can make all the difference in the results of your efforts.

51. Jerry D. Moss 

  1. Invest in researching your competitors and follow trending topics.
  2. One myth is that there is no single answer that works for everyone or everything.
  3. Take your time to make sure your content is aligned with your mission statement and target audience.

52. Scott King 

  1. You must know your buyers and understand how your product or service helps their business. If you don’t know how your service helps your buyer’s business, then you can’t create the content they need. You should map out how and why your customers buy and then create content for each step in the journey. For simple services, there could be one buyer step. For enterprise services, there are several steps with different stakeholders requiring custom content.
  2. If you build it, they will come. Content marketing is about constructing helpful content and getting your audience to read it. Just because you build it doesn’t mean it will always become popular.
  3. Developing the right content marketing strategy requires a lot of listening. Listen to your buyers’ questions. Each question indicates a need for a specific piece of content. Early questions often ask about why your service does what it does. Questions later in the cycle are about your buyer’s particular industry or business. If you hear a question, write it down and send it to the marketing team. 

53. Alex Neuman 

  1. Define your USP and your target as early as possible.
  2. That it’s about likes or engagement. It’s not. It’s about conversions.
  3. Brevity is… wit.  -The Simpsons, S03E02

54. Courtney Olson 

  1. Figure out who your person is, also known as your avatar. But make it super personal, like you have a pen pal. Then figure out what things are going on in that person’s life that would talk about together. Make that the tone of the content you’re creating with them in mind. 
  2. That it has to be professional. The best content I’ve seen lately is the most brutally bare and honest writing from the author. It really draws you in, aligns you to them, and makes you want to chat with them. This is also true in my most engaging social media content. Our people feel like they’re chatting with their girlfriends and chime in how they agree in the comments. 
  3. Be consistent. Think of content as a relationship with your customer, like a pen pal, and keep it real so that there’s some relational collateral there. It diminishes the burn and churns risk of using up your list when you offer sales or marketing content because you’ve already been talking to them and know what they need or want. 

55. Mike Will 

  1. You must offer value or information, advice, tips, and make yourself stand out so that they can’t wait for your next post.
  2. That stodgy old school types of businesses can’t benefit from this (think CPA, Insurance, Banking), to name a few. In some cases, they stand to gain the most.

56. Jessica MacRoberts 

  1. Focus on the content itself, and make sure it’s relative to your consumers, and then the most important thing, in my opinion, is the execution of the content. Are you hitting your right market? Are consumers getting the same experience across your digital footprint? Is the content cater to a specific persona? Is it being presented at the right time? 
  2. That creation of great content is enough. You can have the best content writing team in the world, but if it lacks proper execution and variety of types of content, then you likely will not be doing any disruption. Now more than ever, disruption and innovation are key to your success as a business. 
  3. The digital world is ever-growing, and the content will always be at the core of your business strategy. Ensure you are leverage the best of breed solutions to create a technology stack that allows you to execute and manage your content appropriately for your business. You can not simply put every business in a box or a suite solution. Take charge of your stack and disrupt your market, by making digital simpler.

57. Frank Bria 

  1. Create content that varies across the entire psychological spectrum of your prospects from beginner through ready-to-buy.
  2. Many feel like it doesn’t matter what the content is as long as you make it. You need a strategy to create different kinds of content that hit your audience at just the right time to address the questions in their minds.
  3. It all comes down to the offer. If you have a boring offer or aren’t giving people something they desperately want, all the content marketing in the world is useless.

58. Mike Saunders, MBA  

  1. Building your authority is your #1 priority. Have a strategic podcast authority positioning. How to strategically use your podcast show as a way to: (1) Differentiate yourself from your competition (2) Repurpose your episodes to quickly have social media, email follow up, and blog content (3) Use your podcast to overcome objections before they come up! (4) Align with Thought Leaders & Influencers to be seen as an Expert.
  2. The Timidity Trap, which is where you feel that you cannot possibly be viewed as an expert, but the truth is you can be seen as having the same level of credibility as top influencers in your industry. You just haven’t amplified your expertise to the position of prestige needed to be seen as an expert (yet).
  3. You must clearly define your competitive advantage, authority brand, and voice. Have a vibrant message to market for your brand! An Authority Positioning Portfolio will effortlessly pull your prospects through the Buyer’s Journey and easily convert them to new clients. Use your Authority Positioning Portfolio as the powerful Blue-Ocean marketing strategy  to stand out as market leaders.

59. Avil Beckford 

  1. I would recommend that people read the 10X Marketing Formula written by Garrett Moon, the founder of Co-Schedule. After reading it, you’ll never approach content marketing the same way again.
  2. One of the things I’ve always heard is to buy stock images, usually from places such as Deposit Photos. I did that but other organizations are doing the same thing. So even though your content may be unique, your image isn’t. The best way is to have your images created or use your own.
  3. Since a picture is worth a thousand words, use your smartphone to take photos while you’re out and about. This can make your content stand out because no one will have your exact image. Photojournalist Richard Lautens said taking the photo is easy, the hardest thing is setting up the shot. He recommended that before taking the photo, think about what you’re seeing and how you feel about it. After applying this advice, I take better photos.

60. Ella Houghton 

  1. A solid content marketing strategy must respond to the current trends and needs of the target audience. It must be designed to suit voice searches, for example, since this is a trending practice among web searchers. 
  2. The idea that more is better. Very often, it is the quality of the content rather than its volume that really captivates the target audience. The same applies to the use of keywords. Using more keywords can sometimes affect the quality of the content negatively and also cause it to be flagged by search engines.
  3. Content marketers should remain abreast of the current trends in the niche so that they remain relevant and effective.

61. George Fakorellis 

  1. You’ve probably already heard this a million times. Quality content is your number one success factor when it comes to content marketing. You’ll also need to be very specific with your niche. Try to develop content that answers very specific questions. This way, it will be easier for your brand to be established as an authority, which will eventually lead to higher Google rankings and conversations.
  2. In my opinion the biggest myth is that longer pieces of content are better. This is not always true. You always need to think like your potential website visitors. Sometimes you just need to answer simple questions in short articles, videos, or any other format. Creating unnecessary large content will make your posts or videos look cluttered and can even lead to high bounce rates. 
  3. A good starting point is to research your competitors. Find out what content they produce and which of their articles or videos rank better. This way, you’ll know what your audience is looking for. Now you’ll just have to create an even better piece of content that will rank first in the search engines.

62. Andrada Vonhaz 

  1. Create a storyline that will inevitably point out the most important aspects you want to follow in your content, regardless of the goal.
  2. (No answer)
  3. There will always be something to write about! All you have to do is look around you and your competition. Find your inspiration, don’t wait for it to hop into your lap.

63. Kasia Manolas 

  1. The key is knowing your audience, the questions they have, and the knowledge they’re seeking. If your content answers key questions, you’ll bring in new customers via Google Search and satisfy existing customers with knowledge at their fingertips. The best way to find out what is by information customers are seeking is by researching long-form conducting customer interviews. From there, build out your content calendar and execute regularly. Build backlinks with other key players in your field and promote each other’s content on social media.
  2. That you need to write an incredibly long article very frequently. Always focus on quality over quantity.
  3. You can’t get away with publishing fluff. Know your topic and hire amazing writers. It’s worth the price.

64. Soumya Roy 

  1. I am an SEO guy, and my all-time strategy is creating high-value content that will help my audiences and customers. I go for both the evergreen topics as well as the recent ones. Where evergreen topics give me free traffic forever, recent topics boost my link profile as those always help me acquire links from authoritative sites. The other thing that I do heavily in content repurposing. This lets me funnel traffic from multiple sources to my or clients’ websites.
  2. Many bigwig marketers demand that content creation is only 20% of the iceberg, where 80% of it is “the marketing.” I do the exact opposite, and at times, I don’t even promote my content. The point is simple if you bypass creating top-notch content and only focus on its marketing, then you are in big-time trouble. See, this may work for big companies and brands, but if you are relatively new here, you must focus on creating really good content. Or else, it is impossible. The myth is an ordinary average quality content can win the internet if it is marketed heavily. 
  3. Don’t focus too much on stats and metrics, at least in your initial days. You must give at least 12 months of rigorous efforts before you can see anything measurable out of content marketing.

65. Emily Murphy 

  1. Know your audience! To create successful content, you need to know who will be reading it and know to whom you’re marketing. Content needs to change depending on your target, so it is important to understand your audience. This can be done by collecting more intent data on your consumers.
  2. One big myth is that your content should always revolve around your business. Many consumers will respond negatively to content that seems too promotional. The goal of content marketing is to engage your audience, so you must create something that shows them how to solve their problems, rather than just advertises your solutions. N

Got More Content Marketing Tips & Myths to Share?

Illuminated light bulbs display words related to content marketing in their filaments.

Did you catch all that? 

Some of these tips, tricks, and marketing myths might have resonated strongly with you and others, not so much. Nevertheless, there’s no single formula to gain success in content marketing. After all, it’s essential to be creative and find ways to stand out from the crowd in order to set your brand apart.

This list is also not exhaustive. If you are in the know and have more content marketing advice not covered here or know other agencies that should have made the list, please share them below in our comment section.

Now that you know all the trade secrets, it’s your turn to go out there and create content that will boost your business to new heights!