Don’t Make These Content Marketing Mistakes
Content marketing – helping your target audience to learn about you through great online content – is one of the best investments a company can make. It increases traffic, creates and reinforces brand awareness, and brings in business! Content marketing mistakes can result in missing these and other opportunities.
Content marketing is challenging. Many businesses are sharing content, making it hard for you to be seen. Marketers have to get it right in order to achieve optimal results.
Here are five of the biggest content marketing mistakes, and what you can do to avoid them.
One and Done Approach
Creating quality content requires time and resources. You are creating an asset, and you need to maximize the mileage from that asset. Content should be repurposed.
- Repurpose a blog post into an infographic or video
- Aggregate several pieces of related content into one post or page
- Update content to add or remove key points
Content should also be used across more than one platform. Make sure that you edit and optimize to fit each platform, and that you space out publication dates at least two weeks.
Assuming All Readers Are Invested
There are many phases of engagement with your target, from introduction to customer and beyond. Don’t assume everyone who sees your content knows who you are or is ready to act on everything you present. Provide content for people at all stages of engagement with your brand.
Expecting Content to Promote Itself
Content marketing doesn’t stop when you click post or publish. You have to help people to discover your content. Yes, you need to market your content marketing!
In fact, spend more time promoting your content than creating it. Many suggest the 80/20 rule: Spend 20% of the time creating content and 80% to promote it via social media, blogs, email, and other channels.
Discounting Content that Isn’t Your Own
You are not the only source of content about your industry, area of expertise or even your own business. In the social media age, anyone can create and publish content.
Resist the temptation to ignore all content that isn’t your own. Engage with content created by others. A simple “like” will do. Comments and shares are even better. When you participate in the larger conversation around your area of expertise, it elevates your connections online.
Anecdotal (or No) Measurement
One of the biggest mistakes is not taking time to review the performance of your content. Measurement is more than counting likes and direct feedback. Without looking at the data, there’s no way to know what is or isn’t working.
The data will tell you what content performs well and what isn’t worth the investment. There are tools that give you measures on individual platforms as well as across platforms. Engagement metrics like page views, social media shares, and the time visitors spent looking at pieces of content can help you improve the impact of your content.
