Having changed 8 apartments, 4 cities, and 3 countries within the last 7 years of my life, I’ve learned to adjust to different living conditions. 

Studio or two-bedroom, high floor or ground floor, old furniture or modern design — the circumstances change, but one thing remains the same. 

It’s plants.

Wherever I live, I make sure there will be room for some plants. Because nothing makes a place cozier than a potted ficus tree or a jar of begonia cuttings. 

With the luxury of a backyard in my current apartment, my gardening opportunities have expanded significantly. Actually, there are lots of things I want to try this season. As I devote my evenings to meticulous planning, I’ve found myself drawing parallels between my gardening hobby and my content marketing work. It turned out the garden holds a lot of valuable lessons about content marketing. Let’s take a look at them.

#1 Practice Makes Perfect

I often hear people say I have a green thumb. While there could be some truth in this, I must admit my early gardening attempts were pretty sad. The first time I got myself a few houseplants was back in the spring of 2017, and none of those plants ever made it to their first birthday. But the following year, I had much more luck — which was basically a result of more research — and that’s when my real gardening journey began. 

Gardening — pretty much like content creation or marketing — is a craft, and having a talent for it is not all it takes to succeed. You must also constantly educate yourself and cultivate your expertise through trial and error. Then, embrace failures, apply the lessons you’ve learned and try again.

#2 You Don’t Have to Be an Expert

Wait, what?

I know this may sound counterintuitive, but let me explain.

In the world of gardening, you don’t need to be a tomato expert in order to grow and harvest some decent tomatoes. What you do need, though, is to know what conditions are vital for these plants and try to create those conditions. The best part is that you build your expertise in the process, so the following season your tomatoes will be even tastier. 

In the content marketing world, a lack of confidence in one’s knowledge and expertise is a common issue, and I know firsthand how paralyzing it can be. In fact, I have to constantly remind myself that one can’t know everything. I once heard someone say that knowing something better than someone else should be just enough to start, and I’m sticking with this idea. After all, learning and growing together with the audience can be a lot of fun.

#3 Experiments Can Yield Unexpected Results

For gardeners and content marketers alike, planning and researching are crucial parts of the process. But sometimes, developing and carefully testing out new strategies is not an option.

Last summer, I got really excited about container plant combinations. There was a vacant spot near my porch that received so little sun that I didn’t really want to invest a lot of gardening effort in it, as I was almost sure nothing would thrive there. Still, I thought I’d give it a chance, so I combined a few new-to-me plants with some leftover petunias and actually did zero research on whether they all could do well together. To my surprise — and delight — this worked! I mean, they were leggy and chaotic, but they did grow and bloom.

See for yourself:

Both gardening and content marketing are things you hardly ever get right on the first try anyway, so rather than following a stone-hard plan with each of your ideas, be agile — make your best guess and put it out there. Your experiments can yield unexpectedly good results. And in case they won’t, you will thank yourself for not investing all your effort in them.

#4 Don’t Chase Uniqueness

Every gardener wants their garden to be unique. The idea of growing new varieties and unusual plants is definitely appealing. Still, there’s nothing wrong with adding a good old petunia here and there. Or coleus. Or begonia. These are some of the most popular and easy-to-grow plants, but a lot of gardeners tend to avoid them, thinking they’re overused and too basic. 

The same tendencies are common among content marketers. It’s easy to get carried away in a search for unique ideas, avoiding topics or techniques that might seem overused. Yet, the fact that someone else has already done something similar — and perhaps even done it really well — doesn’t mean you can’t try, too. You may have your own insights on the topics everyone writes about. And simple, tried-and-true marketing or writing techniques may show much better results than the intricate ones you’ve come up with while trying to sound smart and unique.

#5 There Will Always Be Racoons

Or rabbits… Or slugs… Or aphids… And all the other animal pests that can ruin your diligent efforts in the blink of an eye (or, even right in front of your eyes — like a neighborhood cat that yesterday dug out my freshly sown lettuce container while I was sipping tea right in front of it). No matter how hard you try to keep them out, some things are just out of your control, so the best thing you can do is accept this and learn to adapt. 

Just like gardeners have changing seasons and external circumstances, writers and content marketers have seasonal content, Google algorithm updates, bad reviews, pandemics, and economic recessions. In such a fast-paced environment, staying flexible and adapting your strategies based on consumer behavior, market dynamics, and unforeseen personal challenges is crucial.

Conclusion

Gardening and content marketing share more similarities than one might think. Both require careful planning, patience, creative thinking, and diligent work. Yet, in return, they both offer rewarding results.

If you need help with your content marketing efforts, feel free to reach out.