In my experience, the benefits of hopping on the content marketing train are so obvious, most people are eager to get started. The problem is that many business owners get demoralized when they don’t see the results they expect. Content marketing does work, and it is extremely cost-effective, but, your results will suffer if you’re making any of the following content marketing mistakes.
Mistake #1: Developing Content from Your Perspective
You’re so familiar with your products and services that it may be hard to step into someone else’s shoes and see from their perspective. Still, if you want your content marketing investment to pay off for you, you simply must truly understand how your ideal customers see your offerings.
What is the problem your ideal clients are trying to solve? What are they struggling with? What matters most to them? Make sure your content focuses on your customers’ needs, not your own opinions.
Mistake #2: Dull Content
There’s plenty of snooze-worthy content around. Do your homework. If you want to see what’s working well, sign up for BuzzSumo and discover content that actually performs best.
Mistake #3: Developing Content No One Is Searching For
If you’re creating content for a website that depends on organic traffic, be sure to find out if anyone is searching for that content. A helpful free tool that I recommend is Answer the Public (ATP). With this tool, you simply type in one or two words related to a subject you intend to develop content around and ATP shows you relevant questions people are typing into search engines.
To take your content marketing to the next level, I highly recommend investing in a professional content research tool. My favorite is ahrefs, which helps you easily discover relevant keywords, understand total search volume and the difficulty of ranking for various keywords. IT will also help you identify content that’s ranking well as well as monitor how well your website content is ranking on Google.
Mistake #4: Failure to Engage with Content Users
If you’re creating content and posting it on a social platform, don’t forget to be social. Encourage discussions. Answer questions. Offer helpful comments and suggestions.
Mistake #5: Expecting Results Too Soon
Content marketing is a like planting perennial seeds; you can’t expect to see flowers overnight. With care and nurturing, over time results will come. The better the content (and the better you become at finding your ideal audience), the more your content will be shared, yielding even better results in the long run.
Mistake #6: Off-Brand Content
There needs to be continuity in the content you develop. Every item you create needs to reflect your brand’s values and identity. This ensures that users will immediately recognize the content as yours, helping you build brand awareness and authority across all your content.
Mistake #7: Visually Unappealing Content
You don’t have to spend a fortune to develop content. Tools like Canva, PicMonkey, and Designrr allow you to create professional-quality visuals on your own, even if you’re on a shoestring budget. If you’re graphic-design challenged, then spend a little more by hiring an agency, virtual assistant, or freelancer to help you.
Mistake #8: Inadequate Content Promotion
Imagine creating a piece of content that’s absolutely spectacular and then only telling one person about it. Doesn’t make sense, right? If you want a lot of people to know about your content, make sure you promote your content multiple times in multiple places.
Mistake #9: Underestimating the Importance of SEO
If you’re creating content for your website, then you need to understand how Search Engine Optimization (SEO) works.
Implementing good SEO techniques will improve your visibility in search engines. This in turn increases the odds that people who are searching for what you offer — but don’t know about you — will find you.
Brian Dean of Backlinko created a free online SEO tutorial that teaches you everything you need to know about SEO fundamentals. Even better, it’s free.
Mistake #10: Failure to Include a Call-to-Action (CTA)
What do you want your content users to do after they’ve consumed your content? Perhaps you want them to sign up for a free trial or call you for a complimentary consultation. Maybe you want them to subscribe to your YouTube channel or start following you on Instagram. Perhaps you want them to look at related content offerings.
Wise content marketers keep their users engaged by offering a strong CTA — which in laymen’s terms means telling your prospective clients what you want them to do next. Keeping your readers engaged is key to landing big sales.
Mistake #11: Failure to Track Results
You can waste a lot of time and money by creating content that fails to capture your ideal audience’s interest or attention. That’s why you need to track and measure results. Be sure to set up appropriate tracking codes on your content and review measurable results such as ratio of leads to conversions, audience growth, number of views, and cost per conversion. [Read 14 Content Marketing KPIs You Should Be Tracking]