When you want to rank higher in search engines, content is a key factor. Your customers need to find the content you create useful and relevant.
Yet, content marketing is not easy and you have many options. We’ll be covering five common mistakes in content marketing and how you can avoid them.
One mistake: You are not using data and insights to build your content strategy
Many marketers will create content ideas. Ad hoc. Without looking at your data, however, you will not know which content items perform well and which ones are not. This could mean that you might be creating content that doesn’t resonate well with your customers and drives little results.
This is also true for customer insights. When creating marketing content, one of the greatest advantages is knowing your customers and audience. Your content strategy will be shaped by what appeals to you, what your customers are looking for, and what their problems are.
This first error is often reflected in lower quality traffic, high bounce rates and low conversion rates. These are all signs that you may need to change your content marketing strategy.
The Solution
You have a lot to choose from when measuring and Analyse the results of your content marketing campaign. You can use their performance to help you establish KPIs or SMART goals to track and guide future content campaigns.
You need to gain insight into your customers by developing buyer personas. A semi-fictional representation your customer, a buyer personality is an effective tool to target the right customers and appeal to them with relevant, meaningful, helpful content.
Make No. 2. Not having a content review process
Many businesses make the error of creating content and publishing it on their website, blog or social media channels without ever checking it.
You should at least have a colleague or peer review any content before it goes out. If you have many content contributors, it is a good idea to include them. guest contributorsIt can be hard to keep track of content being reviewed.
The solution:
The tone and voice of your brand should be reflected in the content you publish. You can make sure that your content matches your brand and correct any errors.
A content management or project management platform can help you manage your content review process. You can find many free platforms that you can use to track content creation and development.
Consider these platforms:
- Asana
- Basecamp
- ClickUp
- Monday
- Trello
Make No. 3: Repeatedly Using the Same Content Type
This content marketing error could happen whether you are updating your blog with new posts or sharing the same content over and over on social media.
This applies to reusable or evergreen content as well. Content that is always relevant and current for your readers is called evergreen content. It continues to drive traffic long after it has been published.
The content that is Not evergreen:
- News features include company news and product launches.
- Data and research findings that are no longer relevant
- Content that is seasonal, such as Christmas or summer.
- Trends that are likely to fade
You can also make use of reusable content to ensure you don’t restrict your content types. You can publish reusable content in many formats. You might have a blog post you want to rework later into an infographic.
The solution:
You can avoid repetition in your content strategy by using different content types next time you create content.
There are many content types you should consider:
- Infographics
- Videos, including short-form social media videos
- Case studies
- Social media interactive posts
- Guides and e-books are examples of content that you can get.
- Podcasts and audio content
- Images and visual content
- User-generated content (UGC).
Make No. 4: Don’t Create Content for Every Stage of the Buyer’s Journey. Do not create content for every stage of the buyer’s journey.
It’s a mistake similar to the last one: if you’re not using a range of content types, you’re probably not.
You could be wasting valuable leads. You can create content that effectively attracts new information, but there needs to be something to motivate those ready to convert.
The Solution:
- Awareness
- Consider the following
- Make a decision
At the awareness stage, you must provide content that educates and informs buyers.
At the consideration stage, you must develop content that solves the customer’s problem.
Branded content can be used at the end to persuade the customer that you’re the best choice.
Make No. 5: Avoid creating promotional content
You’re making another mistake in content marketing if the majority of your content promotes products or brands. It is not a good idea to try and sell every piece of content you create.
It is ineffective and can lead to lost followers and leads.
The solution:
Your business and the services you offer customers should not be the focus of your content. The content should be about customers and the benefits they will get from it. When creating content, think about whether it will be of any benefit to the customer.
To limit the number of promotional posts, use the 80-20 rule. Your content should provide value and be useful to your customers in order not to bore them. 20% of your content can be promotional.
Are you guilty of any of these mistakes? Recognizing these mistakes and solving them will help improve your content marketing, increase traffic and convert more customers.