5 Common Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

1
5 COMMON CONTENT MARKETING MISTAKES TO AVOID

• Content marketing is without a doubt one of the
  most effective marketing strategies out there. It
  brings your website invaluable organic traffic
  over a long period of time. In fact, 53 of
  marketers believe that blogs are one of the best
  ways to generate inbound traffic. However,
  theres a flipside to content marketing. It is a
  very, very crowded field. Every day, more
  than four million blog posts are published
  online. Does this mean you shouldnt invest in
  content marketing and stick to advertising and
  other marketing techniques?
• The answer is a resounding no. Content marketing,
  if done correctly, can help build your brand and
  reputation like no other marketing activity. But
  this extreme competition means you need to be
  very smart in your approach to content marketing.
  The key to this is identifying the most common
  and costly content marketing mistakes and avoid
  them from day one

2
NOT PUTTING YOUR AUDIENCE FIRST

• Surprisingly enough many content marketers make
  this mistake while starting out. its one thing
  to have a vague understanding of your audience,
  and another to really solve their problems
  through your content. most content marketers use
  prestigious publications or competitor blogs to
  find topics to write about. and then find
  themselves with very little traffic.
• Another common mistake happens when you have a
  limited understanding of your audience. once the
  content is ready, you have very little idea about
  how to reach out to prospective readers.
• Its important to use the first-principle
  approach when it comes to understanding your
  audience. use tools like the Facebook ads
  manager or epic beat to get insights about your
  audience. these tools have detailed insights
  about audiences. see what they like, what theyre
  interested in, what content they read and share.
  use this information to define what your next
  content piece should be and how you should share
  it. you can even do a group discussion or
  one-on-one with a few audience members to
  understand where theyre coming from.
• Just remember that a whopping 55 of people say
  that they receive content from brands which they
  dont find relevant. make sure you dont belong
  in this group

3
(No Transcript)
4
NO FOLLOW-UP

• Some content marketers believe their job is done
  once the article has been written and shared.
  However, it is a long journey from content
  consumer to customer and marketers need to enable
  that. Experts say that it takes 7 exposures to go
  from being a website visitor to a customer.
• Setting up a follow-up campaign takes time but
  its the only way to go for a truly effective
  marketing strategy. Luckily, there are some great
  marketing automation tools like active
  campaign, sharp spring, and leads quared that can
  do the heavy lifting. Your role is to understand
  the customer journey and create a follow-up
  strategy accordingly.

5
USING ONLY ONE FORMOF CONTENT

• One of the biggest mistakes todays content
  marketers can make is to stick to text-only blog
  posts. Even the usual blog post with 2-3 images
  is not enough today. As users spend more
  time-consuming content, especially on hand-held
  devices, they prefer more visually appealing
  content. Infographics and videos have both made
  enormous headway in popularity.
• They can even bring in a whole new audience that
  doesnt usually consume long-form content.
  Infographics are especially useful because they
  are low-hanging fruit. It doesnt take a lot of
  effort to repurpose a blog post into an
  attractive infographic. You can use tools
  like justwords and piktochart to design your
  infographic fairly easily.

6
NOT HAVING ENOUGH EVERGREEN CONTENT

• Evergreen content is content that literally stays
  evergreen. In other words, its not based on
  recent news or trends that will get outdated
  soon. Evergreen content is centered around topics
  that have been relevant for some time and will
  continue to be relevant in the near future.
• Having evergreen content on your website is a
  very important aspect of content marketing.
  Creating content that will still be relevant 5
  years down the line means that you will get
  long-term website traffic. You can search for
  specific keywords on google trends to see if they
  can qualify as evergreen content. If so, you can
  focus on creating content around them.

7
NOT GETTING ENOUGH HELP

• One of the biggest mistakes you can make as a
  content marketer is to try and do everything
  yourself. There are several kinds of people who
  find themselves donning the content marketer hat.
  You may be a blogger who has tremendous writing
  talent and wants her blog to reach a huge
  audience. You may also be looking to grow your
  business through content marketing. Or a
  professional content marketer setting up or
  scaling the content marketing efforts at your
  company.
• In every case, doing everything yourself is a bad
  idea. If you have great writing skills, focus
  your energy on creating valuable content that
  your audience will love. Outsource the audience
  outreach to an expert. Similarly, if your skills
  lie in audience outreach but youre not a writer,
  find a talented writer who matches your brand
  voice. If you dont have either of these skills
  work with individuals or agencies that do.
• When you try to do it all yourself, your mind is
  easily diverted and the learning curve is steep.
  You will most likely end up giving up on content
  marketing without giving it a real chance. Stick
  to your strengths and hire experts as soon as you
  can.

8
(No Transcript)