Content marketing pitfalls

It’s safe to say that content marketing is having more than a moment in the spotlight, and is one of the most effective marketing strategies available in a marketer’s toolbox today. The definition of content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Just write a few articles and throw them up on your blog. Super simple, right? In theory, content marketing sounds easy, but it doesn’t mean implementing it will be. In fact, it can be one of the more challenging weapons in your digital marketing arsenal. Generating creative content and social storytelling is the MO for digital marketers in the modern era, but getting it right in practice is quite another slippery kettle of fish.

Before you dive head first into the deep end of that slippery kettle to tackle the task of creating your content and finding the right places where it will be eyeballed, please be aware of a few common content marketing pitfalls. Nip these faux-pas in the bud and you’ll soon be creating and sharing valuable content that attracts and converts prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers and advocates for your brand.

Pitfall 1: Any content is good content, right?
Content may be king, but only if it’s quality content. Poorly crafted content is never going to be well received. Banging out a few blog posts without worrying about generating top quality, and hoping for miracle results isn’t the answer; all you’ll end up with is a squandered budget and angry executives asking where the traffic is that you promised.

Plus, don’t waste your readers’ time with lazy language, poor grammar, and a bunch of spelling errors. This is NOT the way to impress anyone, or to create loyal customers or subscribers.

It’s common sense, but better content really will get you better results. Stick to a few basic ground rules: maintain consistent style; check your work to weed out careless typos, spelling errors and bad grammar; and always re-read your content. If you aren’t compelled to keep reading, chances are your audience won’t be either.

Pitfall 2: Your content misses its mark
If you don’t understand your audience, you risk creating content purely based on what you want to say, not on what your audience wants to hear. Identify your target audience, research them, learn to love them like family; you might not always agree with what they’re thinking or saying, but you should always care enough to listen to them.

Bottom line, decipher what they want. We’re not dealing with the Da Vinci Code here, and your insight will allow you to generate the right kind of content that is super-focused and gets the right kind of attention and engagement.

Pitfall 3: Nobody cares about your content
Poorly written articles won’t get the results you want, but neither will well written copy that has an unclear purpose and fails to answer a question, solve a problem or enlighten. Think about how people use Google and other search engines. It is often to find an answer or learn how to do stuff, right? If your content fails to fill those needs, your best efforts will remain unread. Your opportunity to attract an audience, to build a relationship, or make a sale will be lost, and your audience will just go elsewhere to find the information they’re digging for.

So, how do you improve the usefulness of your content? Immerse yourself in your users’ world. Get in their heads and pinpoint the questions they want answers to and go about answering those burning questions with your content. Unless you are speaking directly to your users and their needs, your content will always fall short of hitting its target.

Pitfall 4: Having no clue about your content’s goal
Having a clear picture of what you want your content to achieve is key. Is your latest video intended for a corporate website or landing page, or do you want it to go viral and generate buzz? The objectives of each of these scenarios will require vastly different material. If the goal is viral, the video must be more vibrant, funny, or emotive. If it’s for a corporate audience, the content can be more of a sales pitch.

Pitfall 5: Not pumping the brakes on the hard sell
Your content is not another advertising avenue. Focus on educating first and ‘the sell’ as a fortunate by-product of your content. Ideally, hold off on brand mentions until the call to action at the end of the article or video. Aim to create content that is shareable, and that demonstrates your expertise on a particular topic. Over time, this approach will go a long way towards establishing your reputation as an industry authority whom your users want to follow, engage with and trust.

Pitfall 6: Epic fail – showing the cracks in your expertise
Being an industry authority isn’t something you can fake. Know what you’re talking about, and make sure that your content reflects that you do. It’s all about establishing credibility. Would you really trust a source if their article was promoted as one about a Premier League match, but instead it talked about innings and wickets? That would be a resounding “no”!Any effort you sink into fact-checking and making sure your content is accurate and insightful will pay off.

However, if you can’t do that on your own, don’t be afraid to outsource your content needs to someone who can.

Pitfall 7: All your content has a short lifespan
Does your content’s value die within a few short days or weeks? Sometimes we’re so focused on getting that Premier League week 12 betting preview published that we forget to look at the bigger picture. That’s where evergreen content comes into its own, delivering an overview of a topic or providing information that stands the test of time, and giving readers just as much value today as in a decade or two’s time.

Write about more general topics, such as the ‘History of foreign imports in the Premier League’ or the ‘Best stadiums outside the Premier League’. These historical or opinion pieces will be accurate no matter when you decide to publish them – today, tomorrow, a week, a month or even a year from now.

Pitfall 8: Your social media content isn’t optimised
Consider the social channel that’s most appropriate for your audience and tailor your posts to it – short for Twitter, longer for Facebook and LinkedIn, and hashtag strategies for all. Content marketers today must make their content more shareable, endorse-able, tweet-able, pinable, and more “likeable” than anyone else’s. It’s basic, but by adding a social share toolbar to your blog, you are automatically making it possible for your readers to do just that and SHARE your content with ease.

Add more visual elements into the mix. An image or video link will receive significantly better lift on your posts across all social networks, not just the obvious Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest.

Create a balance of bite-sized posts and more comprehensive articles that educate and inform. Offer your Twitter audience easy to read snippets that are witty, anecdotal, fun, and that develop your brand personality.

Share your blog posts and insightful articles on Facebook and LinkedIn, where your followers can leave their comments and engage with your brand. Remember that this is a two-way conversation, so answer their comments and questions. Never leave them hanging. Finally, make sure your social content is mobile-friendly, because the reality is that as a society we are increasingly tapping into our social media accounts on our smartphones.

Pitfall 9: You ignore the cries of your SEO guru
SEO is no longer a dirty word among content creators. Your content marketing efforts should be in sync with the needs of your SEO, and these two disciplines need to work hand in hand to drive traffic and decrease the cost of customer acquisition efforts. Having a general knowledge of SEO and how it works will help get the results you want. It’s not just about shovelling the keywords into a piece of content and crossing your fingers for it to hit the top spot in the SERPs. You must mirror your target keywords in your headlines, title tags, meta descriptions, and general tags.

When done right, your content marketing efforts can transform your business and turn your website into a traffic and lead-generation dynamo. By avoiding these few pitfalls outlined, you’ll be producing well-crafted, in-depth, SEO’d content that speaks to your audience in no time, and moving them from one buying stage to the next. Ultimately, your new found credibility earned from being a consistent producer of quality content will make it easier to acquire leads, boost sales, and get future content read and shared by your growing audiences.