A mistake can provide insight into what to avoid in the future. To get insight for your content marketing you need to know the content marketing mistakes.
“Content marketing is like a first date. If all you do is talk about yourself, there won’t be a second date.” – David Beebe, Vice President, Global Creative + Content Marketing, Marriott International.
In a recent AMA session on GrowthHacker’s community, the VP of marketing Hanna Abaza from uberflip was asked an interesting question about the most recent marketing mistake she made.
What she answered is quoted here-
“Dear John,
You’re receiving this email because you were the unfortunate target of every marketer’s worst nightmare.
That’s right…
We sent an email to the wrong list :disappointed:
We committed the ultimate faux pas. We made an oops. We Mondayed on a Tuesday. And for that, we are truly sorry.
Thanks for understanding :hearts::hearts:,
The Uberflip Marketing Team”
Luckily, making a mistake when creating your content marketing campaign won’t lead to an internet-shaming campaign. These types of mistakes can easily be corrected, even on content that’s already been published.
This list of “don’ts” can help you to fix some of the more common mistakes content marketing experts have seen and perhaps even made themselves!
(GrowthFunnel_Code)
1.Ignoring your own voice
One of the most common content marketing mistakes people do but failed to identify is to determine own style.
“Are you making content or making a difference?”- Jay Baer, Inspirational Marketing Speaker, and Best-selling Author
To establish your content voice……..
- Stick to your central topic
- Give straight message
- Don’t confuse your visitor
For Example, you run a food blog where you don’t like to create or publish posts like ‘Horse Riding Tips’. Wandering off topic makes weak your authority on the subject as experts say.
- Write in an informal but knowledgeable way
- Don’t be jargon-y to make your user grab a dictionary
- Make it accessible to everyone
For example, Content creators shouldn’t be shy….
- To relax their language in blogs
- To use the first person
- To talk directly to the readers
To put out original thought in your content you need to dig deeper in your planned topic.
Content should be
- Thought provoking and
- Inspiring.
Determine your tone and style before you publish. Believe in yourself and be brave to be different.
2.Not working on Headlines
On average, 8 out of 10 people will read headline copy, but only 2 out of 10 will read the rest. This is the secret to the power of your title and why it is so highly determined the effectiveness of the entire piece.
You just got few seconds to strike the mind of your reader. If you can convince your audience that you can offer them what they are looking for you can get a good traffic for your content.
3.Less focus on Quality Content
If you were a general audience would you read and share your content? If you wouldn’t then why should you expect your audience to? It may sound harsh but consider it for your own good.
Use it as a motivational and a yardstick to define the kind of content you should create. Because the overabundance of content we’re dealing with, it’s time to stop publishing ‘filler’ content.
4.Wrong targeted Market
“Marketing should be thought of as a filter, not a magnet. -Doug Kessler, co-founder and creative director of Velocity
Doug says being incredibly honest about what your product can –and can’t –do is better than trying to be something to everyone. To reach the largest audience with your content, you need to precise your focus and mark the people who truly need your product.
To fix this content marketing mistake get clear about your audience to get the best result.
5.Ignoring the Planning Phase
This is a vital content marketing mistake people often do . But trust me you shouldn’t skip this phase.
“The reason we struggle with content marketing is because we haven’t started with a ‘why? …Customers don’t care about your vanity metrics. Ask them ‘How can I help?’
-Kristina Halvorson. CEO and Founder, Brain Traffic
‘Random acts of content’ is common which most of the content marketers practicing. But you know, having a strategy works.
According to a report (Content Marketing Trends- North America) by Content Marketing Institute and Marketing Profs for B2B marketer, in 2016 more than half of the most effective marketer had a documented content marketing strategy.
So buckle down to increase your probability of success and hush out an effective content marketing strategy.
I learn from my mistakes that every post created and published not only engage and capture audience’s attention but also to attract Google’s attention.
Marketing is now an art and science. The art? Copy and creative. The science? Technology and analytics- Jeff Bullas, Author (Jeff Bullas.com)
6.Not promoting wisely
A lot of businesses just expect people to find their content. Some think that showing up on Google is the only way to do it. Another content marketing mistake.
In reality, there’s plenty of ways for your content to be found. The reason it might be frustrating is that there’s no “one-size-fits-all” solution. Each industry or company requires a remarkably different approach.
Let me give you an example here. I have a friend of mine who runs an online pet shop in USA and sells jogging strollers for dogs. He used to get traffic only from google. Now, he gets lots of targeted traffic from social media and generates more revenue.
You can research what channels your prospects engage on and distribute there. Try searching industry phrases on social media like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, etc.
Look for public groups that are engaged. You can be sure to find people who would be interested in your content.
You have an existing email list, distributing to them via email is another effective way of delivery. It gives you an opportunity to send a more personalized message with your content and ensure that it’s being delivered to a relevant audience.
7.Don’t overlook calls to action
A content asset should have a call to action. Which means providing access to the next step. It’s essential to remember the old sales mantra- if you don’t ask for the sale, don’t expect to get it.
Providing a call to action doesn’t mean having a “Download now” button at the bottom of each post.
Determine what additional information is needed and provide it. It might be an eBook, video or link to a tour sales page.
Related article: Effective Tips to Create a CTA Button
8.Neglecting the schedule
You know you have to create good and quality content. But you also need to publish it in a regular timeframe. People are the habitual creature. They like getting the things they want according to the plan they have in mind.
If you said you were going to stick to a daily, weekly, or monthly publishing schedule, you better keep the promise.
If you are in lack of time to meet the deadlines of the schedules, it is better to delegate some of the tasks to people who can research, write or edit the post for you.
For example, Australian writings provide assistance by talented writers and editors. You can simply give the instruction and wait for your custom- tailored content to be ready on time.
9.Not Consistent publishing
If the content is king, then the frequency is queen, and consistency is, I don’t know, the Prime Minister? –Meghan Sullivan, Senior Consultant at Kuno Creative.
According to her…
Google search for fresh content. You will rank well because google rewards frequently publishing of quality content.
If you are working hard to share valuable content that readers will find useful, why would you frustrate your audience by being unreliable?
You know, there are plenty of businesses ready to fill the vacuum created by your inconsistent posts. So be consistent about your content publishing and don’t give anyone a chance to take your place. Otherwise, this content marketing mistake will eat up your other hard work.
10.Publishing salesy content
The main goal is to provide useful content. Focus on that aspect –
How will your content improve the lifestyle of your target audience and solve their problems?
Offer valuable advice in a piece that will be worth reading. If you publish useful, entertaining and informative content, it will effortlessly guide the readers to the purchase.
11.Not User-friendly
There are two kinds of startups-
- One believes that SEO gets money out of your pocket and derives nothing.
- The other believes that SEO is the only channel that can help and designed everything according to SEO standard.
SEO can help you grow, but you also need the complete digital marketing mix in the proper order. This means you should also invest in the other channels like email marketing, social media marketing, lead nurturing, PPC and more.
Unfortunately, some startups create SEO-friendly content on their website and completely forgot their customers. This is not the right the right approach.
Ideally, your content should be both SEO and user-friendly. Then you can hope you content will rank better for organic traffic which will hopefully convert into customers.
12.Long page load time
“User have grown used to being able to access web pages quickly, and if your page takes longer than two seconds to show signs of life, users quickly discard the page and go back to their search results.”- Julia McCoy
This is one of the biggest content marketing mistakes you can face.
There are a variety of technical issues that can cause your site to work slowly, but with tools like –
- Pingdom
- Website Speed Test
- Google page Speed
There isn’t any reason that you can’t identify and correct page speed issues quickly.
There are also CDN tools like cloudflare and others that can serve cached content from their servers, which speeds up load time as well.
You have to sure that your page takes minimum load time.
13.Not enough and bad backlinking
Another content marketing mistake which can destroy your reputation as a content writer is having bad backlinking.
Search engine rankings and traffic are tied to backlinks. If you have high-quality backlinks pointing to your content, you will get more traffic.
Make sure to get your links from authoritative websites. Don’t forget to check the existing links too; you can use SEMRush to generate a report and get rid of all broken backlinks. Don’t expect this to be an easy process. It takes a lot of time and focus, but it’s a very important part of your content marketing strategy.
Bad backlinking means linking your content to those sites where Google may find it violating the rules. One of the examples is linking your contents to Prolinkdirectories. A link directory would not carry the value of your content to the users. It’s going to benefit only your domain authority. So these sort of backlinks cannot help you in long term marketing.
14.Failed to establish connection
Engaging your customers means identifying a target audience and knowing how to reach them. This allows you to understand the specific issues and questions your audience is grasping with and provide them with content that helps to answer their questions, address their concerns and provide value.
Once you’ve determined who your target audience is, you’ll need to keep monitoring and updating it to accommodate the changes in your brand and your customer base.
By doing this, you can ensure that the content you post on social media and other online platforms is valuable, original, targeted, and engaging for your target audience. It helps you to fix your content marketing mistakes.
“Amazing things happen when you listen to your customer”- Jonathan Mildenhall
15. Not playing the long game
Viral content is typically trend-based. It may not offer sustainable use to customer or reader. To reach its pick value, potential your content needs to be able to play the long game, as well.
By dedicating yourself to creating various types of content with a wide array of goals and functions, you can provide a variety of valuable pieces to customers.
16.Not creating mobile-friendly content
This is very important now that you focus on creating mobile friendly content. Mobile visits account for 49% of all web visits, compare to desktop’s 51%. If your site isn’t mobile friendly. As a consequence, you could be losing up to half your traffic.
In future people will figure out this content marketing mistake as a vital mistake if their content is not mobile friendly.
17.Not learning from the innovator
If you are not learning from the innovator you going to miss a lot of insights, tactics, and tips that could lead you to become a leader. You need to follow them to fix your content marketing mistakes.
Some of the top content publishers in the big brand area that is worth keeping an eye on are-
- Red Bull and
- Lego
In the online publishing sector-
- Upworthy
- Buzzfeed and
- Viral Nova
In the blogging space-
- Hubspot
- Buffer and
- Kissmetrics
All these are innovative and successful in their own sector and doing great work. So don’t hesitate to learn from the great and act wisely.
Reach out to smart people in your industry and get them take on your topic. This adds tremendous value, gets you friendly with influential people, and means your content is more likely to get shared, sometimes even by them.
It’s important to identify your content marketing mistakes and more than that not to linger on them. We all are bound to make mistakes. The difference is that some learn from their mistakes, and some don’t.
So take a deep breath and move forward to make a difference. You know you can do it you can fix your content marketing mistakes. Just believe in your dedication and action.
“LEVERAGE the strength that you HAVE: THAT no one else can be you.” – Todd Wheatland
Related articles: content marketing 2017, content marketing for a b2b startup, make people love through content marketing, content marketing mistakes, e-commerce marketing mistake
