It’s a new marketing age. Innovative technologies continue to change the world we live in, yet content marketing remains one of the best profit-making strategies in your marketing arsenal. Done correctly, it gets results, and that will be true far into the foreseeable future, even after the tech guys figure out how to inject information directly into the brain. Now you would think, with the Internet overflowing with content marketing experts offering loads of free advice, that everybody would be an expert and every business would be a finely-tuned content marketing machine. Unfortunately, that’s just not the case.
Anyone who’s spent any time shopping on the Internet has seen plenty of fine products and services being touted with horrible content that does little to sell the customer on the product. So, in order to help you achieve dazzling content marketing success this year, here are five common mistakes to avoid.
5 Common Content Marketing Mistakes
- Not creating and following a content marketing plan. There are still plenty of SMBs out there with no clear marketing strategy, and the ones that do only have a verbal plan with no documentation to distribute to team members. There are even rumors that there exist businesses without a website, but that hardly seems credible.
- Not using every content resource. Content is about much more than just written text, It also includes videos, infographics, cool photos, and even funny cartoons at your disposal. All can be highly effective at getting your message across, and they are easier to produce and deploy than ever before. Use all the multimedia tools you have, it will make your content more interesting, and you’ll reach a wider audience.
- Not crafting content that appeals to your audience. For example, the tendency for tech writers, medical writers, and professionals of all kinds to descend into technical jargon and business lingo that goes right over the heads of the customer. On the other hand, overly simple and poorly written content won’t hold the reader’s interest and leaves a bad impression of your business. Get to know your unique audience, and create content that speaks to them directly, but do it in a simple, easy-to-read way. After all, the whole goal of writing is to communicate, not show off vocabulary. And don’t be afraid to pay for content that accomplishes that.
- Not considering the user’s intent with your keywords. Google and other search engines have been trying to fine-tune their algorithms for years to ensure that the search results are the best match for what the user is looking for. Just researching a few keywords and dropping them in everywhere in your content just doesn’t work anymore, and if fact it might get your site penalized. Take the time and effort to learn how keywords work these days, and what Google likes.
- Not measuring your content marketing results. Obviously, you can’t know if your strategy is effective if you don’t have some idea how it’s working. But a lot of businesses still don’t have a plan in place to gauge how effective their content marketing is. Because it’s a bit time-consuming and work intensive, this is one area where partnering with an outside company might make sense.
To paraphrase somebody, content is still king. Learn to use it effectively and your business will be richly rewarded. Hire a WriterAccess content strategist to help you get going!
Bob P is a lifelong collector of books and an avid reader with a wide variety of literary interests, but especially enjoys short horror fiction, action-adventure and history. He also enjoys hunting and fishing, finding and identifying wildflowers, edible wild plants and mushrooms. Bob is a commercial pilot and is interested in general aviation and aviation history. He also enjoys classical and jazz music and is a jazz trumpet player and collector.
