Good content marketing is hard. Marketers must stay current in an ever-changing environment online. You can make things easier by avoiding these content marketing mistakes…
Guest post by Lorenzo Gutierrez
Content Marketing Mistakes Examples And How To Overcome Them
Marketing has undergone several transformations in recent history and now we find ourselves in the digital era where marketing has taken a more refined approach than ever before. Now, marketing is more content driven addressing common questions or providing solutions rather than promoting a company.
What is content marketing?
Online there are many articles on how to develop a good content marketing strategy. Here in this article we discuss what not to do — i.e ten content marketing mistakes to avoid so you can meet your content goals.
1. Lack Of CTA (Call To Action)
The lack of a proper call to action will weaken a good marketing campaign. A proper call to action must include imperative terms such as:
- Call now
- Visit our store today
- Learn more
To invoke the curiosity of the audience towards a product or service. In turn, providing the necessary channels through which one can reach out to the respective product or service team.
2. Failing To Understand The Audience Pulse
Without ascertaining the likes and dislikes of the audience one cannot plan and develop a successful content marketing campaign. Content marketers must know their audience and develop and market the content in accordance with this criteria.
This requires proper research and execution of findings. The ultimate goal is to develop crowd pleasing content that will boost traffic and generate more leads for the product or service.
Content Marketing Mistakes Tip: One must note that each content creation is a custom process and requires different techniques and strategies to achieve the desired results.
3. Ignoring The Importance Of SEO
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, plays a key role in ranking the content favorably in search results. Search engines like to be told what the page is about and this is done with proper search engine optimization including:
- URL structure
- Correct keyword density
- Including your keyword in the title
And other SEO techniques.
Content Marketing Mistakes Tip: According to an article in Junto about SEO stats, the average first-page result on Google consists of 1,890 words. This means that search engines like Google are favoring long form descriptive content.
4. Not Prioritizing Evergreen Content
The content will be most successful when it is relatable to the audience over a sustained period of time. The audience must be able to relate with the content both during the present as well as into the future.
Evergreen content will help drive substantial traffic to:
- Products
- Service pages
- Your website
And help in ranking the content on search engines for prolonged time periods. Here is a case study by Moz that explains more.
5. Inefficient Content Promotion Strategies
The channel that a marketer utilizes to promote his content plays a vital role in its reach and success. This is an important aspect of content marketing.
Understanding which channel holds a large portion of your target audience and designing the content in a simple and engaging manner will cost effectively help you to achieve your desired results.
6. Not Publishing Multiple Forms Of Content
The digital era has opened new horizons for content marketers to reach a wide range of audience. Following only one form of content marketing like blogging, webinars or videos will restrict the reach of the content and cater to a smaller and repetitive audience.
Content Marketing Mistakes Tip: Planning and developing unique content for various channels will help rake in more leads and favorable atmosphere among the audience.
7. No Internal Linkage
The overall search engine optimization value of a website is strengthened by internal linking. Internal linking helps connect one page of a website to a different page on the same website.
Content Marketing Mistakes Tip: Utilizing internal linking will allow you to be more aggressive with the types of keywords you use in your anchor text.
8. Miscalculating Your Limitations
Many times, in order to create hype, content marketers tend to develop and exhibit content which push the boundaries of social and cultural acceptance too far. The drive for innovative content forces marketers to think beyond normal trends. This can lead to numerous problems.
A content marketer must know his or her limitations and work accordingly to avoid friction with the audience or authorities. This includes avoiding contents bearing controversial campaigns commenting or referring to social, economical, religious and cultural sentiments.
9. Not Knowing The Statistics
What can cripple an entire marketing campaign? Not checking your analytics!
You can monitor metrics such as:
- Click-through rate
- Bounce rate
- Average time spent by the audience on your content
Google Analytics. This tool can help you discover any improvements you may need to make to drive more traffic to your website.
10. Trying To Be An All-Rounder
Have you heard of the phrase, “Trying to be all things to everyone?”
This is a common mistake in trying appeal to a large number of audiences as an all-rounder. It’s better to be an expert in your field by creating informative content that positions you in a specific way. Try creating guides, how to’s and case studies about your niche.
Conclusion
Content marketing is becoming more and more difficult. In this era you cannot publish a generic piece of content and expect it to gain any search engine visibility or social engagement.
This is a sign of growing trend where businesses and individuals have begun to understand the use of content as a tool to drive in leads for their business activities.
By avoiding these content marketing mistakes you can create better content to serve your audience for years to come.
Author Bio
Lorenzo Gutierrez has over a decade of experience in digital marketing and search engine optimization. With a MBA in Strategy in Management he focuses on digital strategy at his San Francisco digital marketing agency for mid to large size businesses. Connect with him on LinkedIn and follow him on Instagram.
