There’s no denying that content marketing is challenging. You can’t simply build a website and expect customers to come flooding through your doors or start ordering products from your online store, nor can you just share newsworthy articles on social media to gather a following of readers that you could eventually turn into leads.
Unfortunately, many people are unwilling to invest in digital marketing services, either because they’re out of touch with the modern world or don’t truly understand the potential of online advertising. However, even those who take online marketing seriously and invest a lot of their time into trying to make it work often realise very few benefits, but that’s usually because they’re using outdated tactics or making mistakes.
This article intends to shed light on some of the most common mistakes people make when trying to create and deploy a content marketing strategy so that you can avoid doing the same. With our help, you can feel confident that your content marketing campaigns will yield a return on investment.
Getting your facts wrong
One of the main purposes of content marketing is to boost your credibility and establish your business as an authoritative voice in your industry, improving your reputation while expanding your reach in the process. Therefore, if you publish misquotes, inaccurate or outdated statistics, your credibility will take a hit, as will your business’s reputation. When you market content, you need to be seen as a trustworthy advisor, so always make sure you can back up your claims. Earn the trust of your readers, and your content marketing campaigns will bring a return on investment in the long run.
Being too convoluted with your content
We live in the new age of content consumerism, which means people have neither the time nor patience to read long articles full of fluffy language and irrelevant information. People want to find the answers to their queries quickly, so be concise with your writing and avoid going off on tangents.
Try to provide clear and succinct overall answers to general queries in the first few sentences of your blog posts before delving into more specific information in the body of the article. If you can get readers hooked with your introduction, you boost the chances of encouraging people to read everything you have written. The more trust you build with your content, the more successful your campaign will be.
Failing to be consistent
Why do companies print their logo on all their products? It’s because they want to make their brand memorable, and you should be employing the same tactics with your content. Develop a style of writing that will make people recognise your company via numerous channels. Don’t create content that looks as if it belongs to somebody else. If you use images or infographics, try to be consistent with themes, designs and colours so that you can make your brand stick in people’s minds. The last thing you want is to be perceived as unprofessional, unorganised or uninteresting.
Attempting to do everything without help
You might be the brains of your business, but that doesn’t mean you’re an expert on content marketing. Some managers want to handle every little business task without help assuming they know what’s best for the future of their company. However, while you undoubtedly know more about your product or service than anybody else, you may not know the best approach to creating content that appeals to your target market. An SEO company knows how to research your target market and create topics that will entice them to listen to what you have to say. They also know how to optimise your website so that it ranks highly on the search engines.
Forgetting to write CTAs
It’s true that the primary purpose of content marketing is to attract interest in your business by providing your target market with valuable information. However, you also want the readers you entice to become leads, which means you need to add a call to action to most of your blogs. CTAs don’t need to be entirely focused on sales.
For example, if you produce a blog that teaches people the intricacies of social media advertising, your CTA could simply tell people to get in touch with you to learn more about social media – you don’t necessarily need to push people into paying for your services. Get people to interact with you, bolster your online reputation, and you’ll soon realise significant financial rewards.