Content marketing has become an increasingly popular strategy for businesses to interact with their customers. However, unlike other kinds of marketing which primarily focus on selling, content marketing is more about providing the target audience with relevant and helpful information. Once their attention has been captured, it is then easier to convince them to take the desired action.
Here are some of the major content marketing mistakes you need to look out for:
- Focusing on quantity instead of quality
Many content marketers focus on generating as many backlinks as possible without taking quality into consideration. This is a big mistake. Content marketing should be about providing valuable information to your readers, thus encouraging them to engage with your site or business. Offering content which is poorly written or not helpful will have an adverse effect on your brand reputation. Ultimately, you will end up losing your target audience.
- Not knowing your audience
If you don’t understand your audience, you are likely to create content which is irrelevant or unhelpful. Therefore, it is very important to carry out some research to get conversant with the people you are targeting. What is their age? Where do they live? What are their likes and dislikes? What questions are they asking? Having this information will help you create content which is beneficial to your audience.
- Failing to promote content
Posting well-written content with useful information is useless if no one sees it. You should therefore find ways of promoting your content to increase visibility. After posting content on your blog, take time to promote it through different social media channels. Retweeting, sharing or pinning content will make it visible to many more people. In addition, you could consider placing guest posts in other popular blogs which have a good audience. Remember to include a link pointing to your site within the content.
- Not adding calls to action
The aim of content marketing should be to get your audience to take a certain desired action. Such actions include joining a mailing list, buying a product or subscribing to a newsletter. This is why it is very important to have call-to-action buttons such as ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Sign Up’ appearing prominently within your content.
- Not varying content
Some online marketers only think about content in terms of blog posts. However, there are many other kinds of content that can be used for marketing. This includes eBooks, podcasts, YouTube videos, infographics and slide presentations. Offering content in various forms will keep it fresh and interesting, thus keeping visitors engaged. You could choose to re-purpose one piece of content into several forms. For instance, if you have an eBook, you could break it down into a series of blog posts or transform it into a podcast.
- Poor content placement
While the quality of your content is vital, where the content is placed is equally important. Posting your content in sites which have poor metrics or a negative reputation will not be beneficial for your marketing campaign in the long run. Therefore, before placing your content on any site, take time to ascertain its quality and trustworthiness. Only associate yourself with sites which will add value to your content marketing effort