Mike Le says, “”Create awesome content.” “Deliver value.” “WOW your users.” “Master the art of storytelling.” “Users will find your content online.” “Build relationships with customers first, they will buy when they need.”

We’ve all heard it and it all sounds great.

In marketing conferences, we often hear “Brands today need to act like publishers”. At a recent event, I heard speakers encouraging businesses to hire journalists to work full-time to build “journalist-standard content.” Seth Godin, one of the finest marketing minds of our time, said “Content marketing is the only marketing left.” That’s aggressive.

But, there are some hidden problems in this picture. First, the cost to make awesome content, on an on-going basis, and the cost to promote that content, could be extremely expensive for many businesses. Second, the ROI of content may not validate the cost.

If you’re considering launching content marketing initiatives, ask yourself these four questions first:

1. How frequently will you publish content?

Many marketers write a nice blog post once in a while, add in some keywords, and hope the post will find its way to the “top of Google search” or go viral“.

The Dark Side of Content Marketing

Entrepreneur

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