Every marketing expert, guru, and website has repeatedly told you that content marketing is one of the best ways to give your business exposure online. So, you build a blog, share information on social media, and even begin creating videos in order to put yourself and your business out there to the world.
But content marketing can be tricky especially to a newcomer. Since the internet is just one big piece of content, standing out in a sea of information is tough. There are a ton of mistakes you can make when executing a content marketing plan. Those mistakes waste valuable time, energy, money, and other resources.
To make sure you are you are getting the most out of your content marketing, here are 5 of the most common mistakes to avoid making when you launch a content marketing campaign.
Your content isn’t good enough
Yes, it’s true that we entrepreneurs have a problem with perfectionism. But some entrepreneurs go in the exact opposite direction and don’t take the time to create content that is above average. If you don’t produce content that is valuable enough to grab people’s attention you’re never going to get the exposure you need.
Content is a commodity online. In order to stand out from the crowd, you must take the time and energy to create videos, articles, and images that are unique and encourages your consumers to engage. Great content also helps your business website rank higher with the search engines like Yahoo and Google. The higher you rank, the more people will find you.
If you are producing a video, make sure that it doesn’t look like everything else that is on Youtube and Facebook. If Twitter is your primary marketing platform, be sure that you are sharing your best work and are not just delivering generic tweets to your followers. Even your Instagram account should be unique and dynamic enough in order to differentiate yourself from the herd. Make sure that your content is unique, helpful, and keeps the consumer in mind.
Your blog posting isn’t consistent
A sure fire way to reach any goal is to be consistent in your actions. Whether it’s weight loss or your marketing strategy, effective and consistent actions will yield results. The problem is that most entrepreneurs are not consistent with their marketing activities.
According to Curata, 70% of marketers lack consistency in their content marketing. That’s a huge number! No matter how good your marketing plan is, it will fail if it is not well executed. If you are running a blog, having a posting schedule is the key to ensuring that your readers have reasons to keep coming back to your blog.
Your social media profiles should be updated frequently in order for your followers to remember you. The lifespan of the average tweet is 20 minutes. That means you should be tweeting at least once a day in order to be in the forefront of your reader’s minds. Whether it is blogging, email marketing, or social media posting, be sure to be consistent in all of your actions.
Your content lacks variety
Video is becoming the hot format when it comes to content marketing. However, it is too early to know if the trend towards video will eclipse text and image marketing. Even though 85% of Youtube and Facebook users watch an hour of video per week, many people still prefer to consume content via the written word or through infographics.
The key is to give people a variety of options. Mixing video, text, and images will ensure that your audience gets to choose how they consume the content you deliver. Keep in mind that you must still keep the level of quality consistent no matter what type of content you are sharing.
You’re not repurposing your content
One of the obstacles that most content producers face is the question of what they should post. It can get exhausting trying to produce new content for your followers daily. That is why it is a good idea to repurpose your content periodically in order to save yourself some time and effort.
The article you produce for your business blog can also be shared on Linkedin and a blogging platform like Medium since those platforms respond well to text articles. You can also create a video of yourself discussing the topic and post it on Facebook and Youtube. You do not need to write new content, you just need to offer a video version of the article you’ve already written.
You may also want to share old content with your new followers. Twitter is a great platform to do this on. Like I mentioned before, tweets have a short lifespan if they do not go viral. Because of this, you may be able to share the same blog post, video, or message several times per week especially if you have a growing audience.
Your headlines need work
You may have awesome content, a mix of video and text, and even a consistent posting schedule, but if you do not have compelling headlines, no one will care. Having a dynamic headline is the key to clickthroughs and engagement.
Think about all of the times you clicked on an article because of the headline or opened an email because of the subject line. If you need help coming up with a headline, using tools such as The Impact Blog Title Generator from BlogAbout or The Blog Title Generator are a good place to start.
It is, however, very important that you don’t produce clickbait headlines. Be very careful not to mislead or consumers into clicking a piece of content and not meeting their expectation. This will not only cause them to immediately click the back button, but it will tarnish your credibility for future posts.
Pingback: Is a Business Major a Good Idea? - BS/MD Admissions by College Admissions Partners
Pingback: 7 Things An Online Business Needs To Grow - StartUp Mindset