I’m guessing I read 500 headlines each day. I might skim 50 or so articles. And I go top to bottom on 5 or more. You?

Maybe we’re in the same boat. We know all too well marketing changes at the speed of screen flicker. So we’re scouring blogs and any other content we can get our retinas on, hoping to stay tuned into what’s up in digital.

But sheesh, my friend, I hope you’re not taking all these popular maxims at face value. I trust you’re able to sniff out the obvious manure, but fear you might be taking some of these oft-repeated maxims overly literally.

Allow me to lay a few of them on you -- and give my reality check.

“Visuals are more important than copy.” 

HubSpot gave you “19 Reasons You Should Include Visual Content in Your Marketing” with statistics including:

90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are processed 60,000X faster in the brain than text. (Sources: 3M Corporation and Zabisco)

The post is full of cool stats and a litany of compelling reasons to think visually. A number of experts are writing books and doing speaker tours on the subject. Interest in Instagram, Pinterest, Vine, and so on continues to soar.

We get it. Visual communication is important. People like it. It’s ultra-mobile friendly. But it doesn’t present any reason to think of a visual as a replacement for text. 

Long before there was Google and blogging, we had media properties called newspapers and magazines. I wrote thousands of ads in them. Marketers made a things called brochures. I wrote thousands of those too. When we produced these types of marketing communications we used visuals and copy.

Today, I mostly write for websites. And guess what? I still use both.

Visuals are still visuals and copy is still copy. 

I’m not saying: Don’t take advantage of visual communication.

I am saying: People are going to research your products and services by reading. If yours is a visual-first or visual-only content strategy, you will struggle to generate highly qualified traffic and convert prospects. Compelling copywriting is the key to effective marketing communications. It always will be.  

“You need to blog every day.”

I can’t help but wonder if HubSpot’s the reason people adopt this strategy. As a leader in inbound marketing, HubSpot aims to present the facts. They did just that in posts such as“Companies That Blog More Have More Consistent Sales.”

The data makes a strong case for blogging frequently. It says more posts = more sales. Numerous studies since help substantiate the claim. But if you read deeper into the article, it also says, “These results don't mean you need to blog multiple times a day to see an impact from your blog. Blogging once or twice a week is certainly better than nothing.”

I’m not saying: Don’t blog frequently.

I am saying: Don’t blog more frequently than you're able to create high quality, educational, entertaining, and inspiring content. I submit blogging ONLY for the sake of generating traffic is likely to backfire on you. If your content is click-bait clever, but back-button lightweight, you will lose opportunities to grow your audience, feed your funnel, convert prospects to customers, and win brand advocates. 

“You have to have a podcast.”

Or … you have to make videos … or SlideShares … or infographics … or have a Facebook page … or you name it.

I’m not saying: Podcasting is bad. I’m not dissing any of these content types or outlets. And I’m not saying you shouldn’t experiment with different media in an attempt to appeal to more prospects who have a great variety of media consumption preferences.

I am saying: You can’t master everything. Maybe you suck with audio content. Maybe you’re quite good, but struggle to find listeners. Don’t let the proliferation of different media and advice from those who have mastered them freak you out. Create a great blog as the cornerstone of your content marketing, and then, if resources allow, try different media and pay attention to your metrics to figure out which are working for your business.

“Follow the 60-20-20 rule for social media sharing.”

You’re probably aware of this framework, which suggests your sharing strategy (especially for Twitter) should be mixed as such:

• 60% tweets of relevant content written by others
• 20% retweets
• 20% self-serving tweets

Me no agree. Me think while it’s okay to experiment with your social content -- and even put a formula in place as a part of your experiment -- you should: 

• Do what you want
• Find what works for you
• Promote the hell out of your content 

I’m not saying: You should forgo sharing and endorsing relevant content. It’s one of the keys to building credibility, relationships, and trust.

I am saying: If (a big “if” here) you are a source of informative and useful content, you can do your followers and your company a service by sharing it often via the media your audience favors. Personally, I share plenty of content from other sources, but share my own 2, 3, maybe 4X as often. I don’t feel any less generous or sincere in doing so. I believe I create content my followers learn from and enjoy and it’s mutually beneficial for me to promote it.