5 common mistakes with content marketing
The term content marketing – the process of creating and sharing relevant media and written content consistently in order to attract and retain customers – has gained popularity in the past few years (although, in reality the process has been around for much, much longer!), so we thought we take a look at five of the most mistakes most commonly made with content marketing, and how to avoid them.
1. Me, me, me
Audiences want content that is educational, interesting or entertaining – and are savvy enough to spot thinly veiled sales pitches. Try to ensure that your content isn’t all “me” focused by providing relevant, valuable content that is likely to engage your audience – which will not only increase the chances of them reading it, but also sharing it within their social networks.
2. Quantity over quality
There’s no point publishing a new piece of content every day, if that content is of little or no value to your audience. Valuable content will build trust with your audience and encourage them to return. Interesting content will increase engagement with your audience and encourage them to share. And returning visitors and shared content means that Google will know that your content is good quality – which could help your ranking on search engine result pages.
3. Forgetting about the content
It can be easy to forget about the actual content of your content! There’s no point cramming your content with key words or affiliate links as they can distract from the audience’s engagement and experience. And remember – content doesn’t have to just be lots of text; you can include images, infographics, videos, key takeaways, graphs, tables or quotes.
4. Waiting for an audience
So you’ve written a great piece of content – it’s relevant, interesting and you know your audience will like it. You hit publish, and wait…
There are two key elements to good content marketing (and the clue is in the name!) – great content, and marketing that content. If you don’t promote your content, you dramatically reduce the chances of your audience (current and prospective) finding it.
A few ideas for promoting your content are: share it with your subscribers via a newsletter or emailer, publish it as a post on LinkedIn or use social media to promote to your extended networks and link back to your site.
5. Failing to plan
It’s essential to plan your content to ensure a good mix of topics, media and contributors. It can also help to avoid last minute panics when you suddenly realise you’re due to publish a blog post tomorrow, but have no idea what to write about! Here at Coussins, we use an editorial calendar so we know who is writing, what they’re writing about, when it’s being published and where it’s being publicised.
So there you have our top five common content marketing mistakes. Do you have any to add to the list? Comment below to tell us if you do have any to add and click here to find out more about our marketing services.
Coussins Associates have been providing outsourced marketing services for over 25 years – yikes! Our clients enjoy the benefits of an easily scalable resource, no fixed costs, no hidden overheads and a team that can not only devise solutions and manage projects, but also take on downstream work such as research, copywriting and design management. All seamlessly integrated to provide a win-win solution – in-house marketing resources with outsourced cost savings.