Your business is your passion. That doesn’t mean you have a lot of time to spend marketing it. You could talk for hours to someone that comes in with a problem you know you can solve, but writing a formal blog post seems impossible. Here’s the thing, though – content marketing is the most effective way to reach your customers.
In a survey conducted by Kapost, it found that dollar-for-dollar, content marketing produced 3 times more leads than paid search methods. So, while you can pay for your ads to display on Facebook or Google, it’s content that’s going to drive home the customer to contact you. More so, content marketing has lower upfront costs to you, too. And, it continues working for you long after that paid search campaign ends. That makes it a solid investment.
The problem is, many small business owners make key mistakes that cost you business. Investing in a bit of help from a freelance writer can help alleviate that. Take a closer look at the most common content marketing mistakes small businesses make that lead them towards missing this big return on their investment.
#1: More Is Always Better
That’s not always the case. Having a consistent amount of content coming into your website or blog gives you the fuel you need to keep customers learning about you and your brand growing. That doesn’t mean you need to purchase 50 to 100 pieces of content to get results. Instead, focus on really good content that people benefit from every time they read it. Aim for having a new piece of content every three to five days to encourage steady growth.
#2: It’s All About the Keyword – Stuffing That Is
This is one of the most worrisome of all mistakes small business owners make with content marketing. If you know you need content, but you really want to target a list of 20 keywords, your message is going to get lost, and the search engines will hit you with a lower rank. That’s not beneficial to you at all. Instead, work with your freelance writer to create a keyword that’s a bit longer than normal and more on-target for the piece. Don’t overuse it, either. Write for your human audience with a sprinkle of keywords mixed in. This gives you the right recipe for attention.
#3: Social Isn’t Important with Content Marketing
Remember, this is content marketing. As a form of marketing, you need to position these pieces to get in front of your client base. The problem – you may not see the value of social media marketing. Did you know that 11 new people join social media every second? Or that a 13 percent rise in social media use occurred in 2018? With 70 percent of North Americans using social media, according to Hootsuite, you can’t afford not to be here to reach your customers. That means creating a formal social media account across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn (depending on your audience) to position your content. Just putting it on your website isn’t enough.
Treat it like a sample at a grocery store. Putting a product on a shelf isn’t good enough. You need to give them a sample so they learn about the product and come back for more.
#4: Automating Content Marketing Is Good Enough
Social media is important, but it is more than just launching a piece and stepping away. You also need to massage that piece and interact with your followers to get them to discuss it with you. That means stepping away from automation just a bit. There are plenty of tools to help you bring in leads and to get them onto your email list. But, this type of interaction with your customers is also important.
#5: A Fast, Short, Piece Is All I Need
How much you put into your content is what you will get from it. Traditionally, about 500 words is a target length for content. Recently, a push for longer content of 1,000 to 2,500 words is occurring as the search engines seem to view these pieces as valuable. What’s right for you? That depends on what you want to do with the piece. For example, if you want people to link to it, then a larger, 2,000-word article is likely to perform better than a short piece. However, a bunch of fluff and no-good content doesn’t help at all.
Content marketing is an important component to the success of any business. If you are not using it fully, you are missing key opportunities to reach customers and to build your brand. You can see the ROI it brings. Now, you need a freelance writer to help you develop topics and content that help you achieve your goals. We can help you with that at WriterAccess.
Sandy B. is a full-time, professional freelance writer and copywriter with more than 10 years of online experience. She is also a published author of seven, top-reviewed, in-print books on Amazon. These focus on financial topics such as retirement planning, bankruptcy, business finance, estate planning, and personal credit health as well as organic gardening and clean living. She’s ghostwritten content for hundreds of clients on topics ranging from health to finance, business services, online and offline marketing and much more.
