A successful content marketing strategy isn’t always as straightforward as you think. Promoting your blog or website by creating and publishing great content is one of the cornerstones of a good organic marketing strategy. It doesn’t have to cost a lot to do – but it really could drive the sort of traffic you’re looking for to your business. However – not all content marketing strategies are created equal – there are actually a number of ways you might be sabotaging your content marketing, and we’re going to look at them.
1. Your content doesn’t fit with your goals
Some people start their content marketing strategy by simply thinking, “Right, we need to create some content and get it published.” It’s a good start, but you need to keep track of your goals from the very start. Why are you creating content? What steps do you need to take, and how is your content going to help your business grow?
Make sure your goals are clear and precise – and that all your content marketing creating and publication techniques are tied into this. Far too many people simply ignore their actual main goals when running a content marketing strategy, and it’s a big mistake.
If you’re trying to promote an infographic design business – make great infographics and share them in the relevant places. If you run a video production company, create some great videos and share them!
2. You’re trying to sell too hard
While you want to make money eventually. Don’t take people for granted. Most internet users these days can spot a sales pitch a mile off. Most of your content should be tied in to promoting your business or at least showing what you do – but it doesn’t have to be obvious.
Every single piece of content you create doesn’t have to be trying to sell. As we’ve looked at, your content should fit your goals, and while your goal might be to make sales – think about trying to simply build your brand and spread the word about your business. It can make a sale much easier in the end.
3. You’re trying to get people’s information too often
Some content producers treat content marketing as a way of getting as many email subscribers as possible. While this might be one of your key goals – you can put people off if they think that’s all you want from them. Try not to beg for people’s info – or include forms on everything.
4. You aren’t using calls-to-action properly (or at all)
This might contradict the last point a bit – but make sure people are generally aware what do next if they want to know more. As we’ve looked at, you shouldn’t beg for their personal information or email addresses – but make it clear what the next step is if they’re interested in what you have to offer.
Use calls-to-action clearly and productively. There’s a fine line to tread between being desperate for clicks and sign-ups or not directing interested viewers to the right place. It’s a difficult line to find, but it’s one you need to try and get the hang of if you really want to take your content marketing efforts to the next level.
5. You haven’t targeted the right keywords
All your content marketing efforts should be tied to some solid keyword targeting. You should know exactly which keywords you’re trying to rank for and produce all your content accordingly.
You’d be surprised how many people simply create content and expect it to work for them without even thinking about keyword research. Don’t be one of those people.
You don’t have to just target one or two keywords, your strategy could include tons of secondary searches and alternative phrases, but make sure you’re doing something to support your wider keyword strategy.
You don’t have to bombard your content with keywords when one or two careful placements will do – but don’t ignore the importance of the right keywords.
6. Your content isn’t GOOD enough
Some people treat creating content as an afterthought – or rely on sub standard content producers while just thinking creating something is better than nothing. It’s not. Your content speaks a lot about your business and your brand. Spamming the internet with poor quality content can do more to harm your marketing strategy than anything else.
To get your message across, you want people to share your content. That does most of the marketing job for you. If you can get people to like your posts on social media, or simply tell their friends about you, you’re getting a ton of marketing done for you, for free. But to get this to work for you – you need to create great content. Nobody shares poor quality content.
The growth in popularity of social media has made it much easier for people to interact with your business and share their likes with a simple click of a button. This gives you huge marketing potential as it means your word can go viral and spread. It gives you marketing power that used to be hard to come by, and spreading your message this way won’t cost your business much. As long as you create great content. it’s an absolute must – so make sure you’re doing it.
7. Your content isn’t optimized for mobile and other types of browsing
So you’ve gone to all the trouble of creating great content but you’re losing a good percentage of visitors before they’re even really got started. Why? Maybe you haven’t optimized for mobile and other browsing methods like tablets.
More and more people are using their cell phones to browse the internet, along with tablets like iPads. While traditional browsing is still probably number one, other devices are catching up quickly. If you haven’t optimized your site and content for mobile and tablet browsing, you could be losing a decent percentage of business before you’ve even got started.
Don’t waste that quality content you’ve hopefully created by not having it optimized for every type of browser and system.
8. You don’t publish great content regularly enough
Creating great content is all well and good – but you need to make sure you do it regularly. If you want to build your following and hopefully increase people’s awareness of your brand, you don’t only want to throw something out there every once in a while at irregular intervals. If you can get people hungry for your content every week, you’ll be setting yourself apart from much of the competition and forging a loyal following. Try and publish something on the same day every week and see how much your viewership grows.
If you want to make your content marketing strategy a success, try and avoid doing these 8 things. If you can keep your goals clear and create great content that people want to share, you’ll already be doing better than many of your competitors. Don’t treat your content marketing strategy as an afterthought.
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