An effective content marketing strategy involves more than just writing articles and posting them on occasion. In fact, if you aren’t careful, you can make one of these common mistakes that can actually backfire on you and hurt your marketing campaign.
Not producing enough content. It’s a common mistake for businesses to post a few blogs and forget about it, especially when they don’t provide immediate results in terms of traffic and sales. A good content marketing strategy takes time, however, and consistently posting content is the way to build a following and increase awareness.
Not producing engaging, interesting or useful content. You can publish mass amounts of content, but it won’t do your business any good if it isn’t interesting enough. The idea is to get people to click on the link, read it and be encouraged to share it. You want to write about topics relevant to your target audience pertaining to your niche, but also write it in an engaging or entertaining way.
Not familiarizing yourself with your target audience. Don’t produce content with your needs in mind. Instead, seek to find what motivates your target audience and speak to their needs. Study the demographics. Use Google Analytics, Facebook Insights and other tools to generate data and study it to see who is searching for specific keywords and how they are doing it.
Not knowing which avenues to use to attract your target audience. This ties in closely with knowing your audience, but takes it a step further. Study their viewing habits. Once you know their viewing preferences, you can adapt accordingly. If you attract younger viewers who tend to use mobile devices, you can’t reach them by posting lengthy articles, for example. Short pieces, interactive social media posts and a responsive website design make it easier for mobile users to view your content.
Not cross-linking. It’s not enough to simply post content on your blog or website. You need to promote it. One way to do this is to cross-link your sites. When you post a tip, comment or idea on your social media pages, be sure to include a link back to your article. Social media marketing is a great tool for driving traffic to your site. Otherwise, your content may be hard to find, even for those looking for the information you’ve shared.
Not measuring the results of your content marketing strategy. You can’t tell if your strategy is paying off or how you need to adjust it if you don’t look at the data. Usually when we talk about results, we look at how many visits, shares and comments our content gets, but the real purpose of the entire plan is to make more money. Dis you campaign accomplish that goal? Monitor your success in terms of increased revenue to see if you are getting a decent return on your investment.
To learn more about how Content Marketing can transform your digital strategy, visit Mogul Media.
