Developing content that attracts, informs, and nurtures users is a great way to boost your digital marketing strategies.
But is your content marketing achieving the results you expected? Are you experiencing the right return on investment from your content marketing strategies?
If not, it could be because of a few common but easy-to-fix mistakes. Let’s look at the top mistakes made:
1. Releasing content haphazardly
Releasing a piece of content here and there, with big gaps in between, makes it difficult to engage your users, while jumping from topic to topic with no coherent theme also makes engagement hard to achieve. Imagine you were speaking with a client face to face, and you started speaking about topic A before pivoting at random to topic Z — what would they do? Well, they’d be confused at the very least, and would probably walk away.
How to avoid this
Draft a content schedule. Decide ahead of time which seasonal content pieces you want to release. Identify key themes and build on these themes across a series of blog posts.
2. Not talking to the user
Are you crafting content for you or your users? If it’s the former, this can be a major content marketing mistake. Your users don’t necessarily want to read something just because you want to write about it.
How to avoid this
Put yourself in the user’s shoes. Consider what they want to see, what they want to know, and how they need to be supported. Make sure that all of your content is crafted with these intentions in mind.
Think about what you want to achieve from each piece of content, too — perhaps a sign-up, an increase in authority, or an immediate conversion. Find a balance between these two aims.
3. Trying to outwit the algorithms
Google’s algorithms are incredibly sophisticated. With the latest updates, Google is able to identify relevant and irrelevant content and make accurate judgements on the value that each piece provides to the user. If you are trying to rank for an unrelated keyword, for example, or if you are reusing the same content across an infinite number of different location pages, a penalty could result.
How to avoid this
This one is easy — simply be natural and honest. Use keywords sparingly, but choose them carefully and make sure they align with your content theme. Don’t reuse content with a few changes here and there; spend time crafting unique pieces that provide genuine worth to the user. Doing so will not only avoid a penalty, but it will also help increase your standing on Google.
4. Being too serious
Finally, being too serious. There is a great deal of content out there, and if your users get bored, they will head elsewhere.
How to avoid this
You need to be true to yourself and engage with like-minded people. Inject a bit of personality and individuality into your writing. Obviously, you need to consider your industry and your audience as you do this, but most brands can benefit from livening up their content.
Easy fixes bring big results
All of these mistakes are easily made, but — thankfully — they are easily fixed too.
Hone your content skills with these tips and see serious results from content marketing.
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