6 Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid in 2019

Content marketing has become a key factor for businesses to gain credibility and enhance their image in the target market. Today, nearly 80% of consumers research the products or services they want to buy before making a decision. Research shows that advertising is not their preferred source of information. Most people are savvy with the internet and are able to absorb information from online articles and customer reviews. Therefore, there is a direct correlation between credible content and growing your customer base and revenue.

A wrong content marketing strategy can backfire and you could turn this valuable resource into a hindrance, ultimately driving potential consumers away from you. To help you use content marketing strategies effectively, here are some common mistakes that you should avoid in your content marketing strategies.

Mistake #1 – Not targeting the right audience

Knowing your audience is crucial. You should conduct detailed research to find your target audience, focus on their needs, and fill that gap with your product or service. This will also give you ideas for content creation - educational, entertaining, humorous, or other types of content. Once you’ve created your content, make sure it reaches them. Remember, don’t wait for other sites to repost or republish your content to find the right consumers for you.

Mistake #2 – Not Having a Proper Content Strategy

Once you’ve found the right audience, your content strategy is the critical next step. Don’t be too general. Simply developing content to cover all audiences is the wrong approach and it won’t bring any results. Here are some things you should consider when developing your content strategy:

(1) Does the content help shape your brand?

(2) Do you plan to share your content on social media?

(3) Which format of content do your users prefer? Video blog, live stream, text, infographics, or a combination?

Your content should be able to answer the following questions:

(1) What does your target audience need?

(2) Which channel’s content best connects you with your audience?

(3) What is your purpose in creating this content?

(4)What message do you want to convey to your customers?

You should make full use of user-generated content (UGC), aggregate this content on your website, and use it to grow your audience. Additionally, you can use content marketing editing and publishing tools to ensure that you publish high-quality content on a regular basis. Releases should be scheduled at least a month in advance so you can be prepared. There should be consistency in the release of content so that your audience regularly follows your brand and knows when to expect new information.

Mistake 3 – Not doing enough data analysis

You should know what activities or information your audience is engaging with so that you can use this information to create more effective content. If you post a link, metrics like click-through and purchase rates from your audience will help validate your efforts. Therefore, you should use the right data to support your strategy.

Mistake #4 – Not creating content relevant to your consumers

The worst way to develop content is to focus primarily on driving sales. Granted, the purpose of all these efforts is to increase revenue and improve user engagement, but blindly pushing your product or service to customers can lead to content fatigue, which can reduce your brand’s appeal. The focus of your content should always be on your customers, not yourself, so you should spark their interest and make them want to buy your product or service, which will bring you sales and brand-loyal customers.

Therefore, your strategic marketing strategy should be to create valuable content that is relevant and consistent, and that answers specific customer questions. For example, consider reverse engineering as an answer to the Google search algorithm.

Mistake #5 – Using buzzwords

You need to be careful about using internal buzzwords; some buzzwords may mean a lot to internal stakeholders but mean nothing to your customers. Content should always be created with your audience in mind, what they need, and what they will understand.

Mistake #6 – Not understanding the difference between content marketing and SEO

In order to get higher rankings on search engines, many websites focus on keywords and phrases in their content in an attempt to optimize for SEO. This practice, called keyword stuffing, is extremely stupid. Such content not only affects the readability of the article, but search engine algorithms like Google will also penalize the website for it and sometimes even blacklist them.

In summary, make sure your content is well-researched, has a CTA message, is not endlessly repetitive or has punctuation and spelling errors, so that your content can achieve the desired effect. But remember, content marketing is not a quick solution, it takes time to accumulate and settle. It can be said that content marketing is a long-term tactic to shape you and your brand.

Source: Hugo.com