In the last few years, content marketing has evolved more than anything else on the online and inbound marketing landscape. That means the rules have changed as well – rewarding businesses that know what works, and punishing those that don’t.
If you’re not getting the results and ROI you expect from your content marketing efforts and investment, it could be because you’re making one, some or all of these fatal content marketing mistakes:
1. Your Quality isn’t Good Enough
On the disembodied automated interwebs, it’s very easy to forget that there are human beings on the other side of your content -- not machines. And so, it really doesn’t matter if your content management system accepts the content that you publish (frankly, it doesn’t have a say in the matter). And the fact that Google indexes your content isn’t the full story, either. Google isn’t your customer. What matters is that you engage, inform and impress your target audience with consistently good content. There is no other way.
2. You Aren’t Publishing Content on a Consistent Basis
Next to quality, the most important thing on the content marketing landscape is consistency. Publishing a flurry of content and then doing dark for months (or years) at a time is not just bad strategy, but it’s counterproductive. Indeed, few things say “we’re too busy to pay attention to details” than a blog where the last post was from a year ago, or when the gap between posts is inexplicably long. What’s more, Google is very interested in consistency, and you simply won’t make a meaningful SEO dent unless this aspect is baked into your approach. Generally, posting 3-5 blogs a week is the standard. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
3. You’re Ignoring Off-Site Content
If you’re publishing a consistent stream of quality content to your blog, as well adding new web pages to your website, then take a bow: you’re ahead of the crowd and on the right track. But your work isn’t yet done.
You also need to produce quality off-site content, which is (usually) articles that are posted on various websites that have high domain authority, and backlink to your website. In addition to potentially helping you attract leads and generate traffic, strategically publishing off-site content can do wonders for your SEO. Just make sure that you handle this very carefully and follow all best practices. Publishing low quality content to the wrong websites and mishandling the backlink/SEO strategy will harm rather than help your efforts.
4. You Aren’t Targeting Personas
Prospects care about solving their problems and achieving their goals. But if your content isn’t mapping to these objectives and aspirations, then you aren’t giving them what they want – and they’ll bounce away.
As such, before it’s created and published, all content ideas on your proverbial drawing board (or mind map, spreadsheets, etc.) must answer the questions: Who are we trying to reach? Why will they care? What do we want them to do next? In other words, your content needs to align with your buyer personas. Otherwise, it’s not strategic and tactical. It’s spray and pray.
Learn More
If your content marketing efforts and investments aren’t giving you the results you expect – or were promised by smooth-talking consultants and so-called experts – then contact the Leap Clixx team today. We’ve been around a long, long time. When it comes to content marketing success, we know what works. And just as importantly, we know what doesn’t!
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Topics: Inbound Marketing, SEO
