Content marketing, like “inbound,” “SEO,” and other buzzwords used by digital marketers, has become a buzz phrase. These phrases, while all actual and useful concepts are often employed as blanket terms to describe a laundry list of things, may be due to their relative newness. For example, “content marketing” and “social media” are frequently used interchangeably.
This may not seem like a big concern in casual conversation, but making generalization errors while developing a content marketing strategy might hurt your chances of success. Brands understand the importance of content marketing, but they frequently misunderstand what it is and how to use it. Meanwhile, firms who have had success with content marketing may be missing out on even more benefits due to a misunderstanding or carelessness.
Here are some mistakes most of us end up making and here is how to rectify them.
Focusing On Your Own Content Audience
Many commercial advantages can be gained by understanding your audience. It implies that you are better competent to:
- Improve the positioning of your marketing and content to increase the chances of it reaching your target audience.
- Create a vocabulary that your customers will understand.
- Possess the ‘know-how’ to develop valuable content
- Talk to customers with a genuine tone and voice that reflects your brand’s identity.
Your customers/users will benefit from ‘Understanding’ as well:
- They obtain the information they require when and when they require it.
- They are addressed in a way that they enjoy.
- Their user experience is superior since all of the content decisions that went into it were well-informed.
But make sure that you do it the right way and not only for your own content but also the content of your competitors.
Not Understanding Your Own Audience Properly
The best tool to help you with content marketing is MOZ. Here is how it can help you to a great extent. So what does it do?
Many commercial advantages can be gained by understanding your audience. It implies that you are better competent to:
Improve the positioning of your marketing and content to increase the chances of it reaching your target audience.
- Create a vocabulary that your customers will understand.
- Possess the ‘know-how’ to develop valuable content
- Talk to customers with a genuine tone and voice that reflects your brand’s identity.
Your customers/users will benefit from ‘Understanding’ as well:
- They obtain the information they require when and when they require it.
- They are addressed in a way that they enjoy.
- Their user experience is superior since all of the content decisions that went into it were well-informed.
Content Should Be Precise
No, not always. Isn’t it true that no one wants to read long pages of text on the internet? According to columnist John Lincoln, this type of material not only gets read but also ranks and converts well. Long-form content’s advantages in the digital environment have just lately begun to be recognized.
Long-form digital material was formerly thought to be a horrible idea, believe it or not. Many people are now understanding that long-form content’s “death” was grossly overstated, and digital marketers are learning that long-form content is incredibly useful to both users and search engines.
SerpIQ conducted a study in 2012 that included over 20,000 keywords.
SerpIQ conducted a study in 2012 that included over 20,000 keywords. Each of the top ten results had an average content length of more than 2,000 words, according to the findings. The content in the top place had an average word count of 2,416.
The average amount of words for the #10 position was 2,032.
That proof is pretty conclusive. Consider using long-form material if you want your articles to rank well. Not only do search engines appear to prefer long content, but producing a few thousand words will also provide you with an extra SEO benefit: more backlinks.
Those extra backlinks will, of course, help you rank higher in the SERPs.
Doing Cold Outreach More Often
This is another blunder that most of the content marketers have been doing since it never ends on a good note. You’ll always be at a disadvantage if your idea of cold email marketing is to select the best template and nothing else.
No matter how wonderful the template is, it will never be enough to compensate for a lack of understanding of your target audience. There is no way for a blog article (including this one) to tell you what will work best for the people on your mailing list.
If a template works for others, it won’t be long until you’re not the only one utilizing it. You’ll sound like everyone else in their inbox in no time, increasing the likelihood of being ignored or labeled as spam. Use templates as a starting point for your own efforts, but always customize them to your target audience.
Promoting Your Content More Than The Brand
Sometimes, promoting your brand is the only way you can promote your content in the right manner. Having a strong, recognizable brand with a consistent identity throughout all of your marketing operations allows you to stand out from your competition in the marketplace. This is useful when entering a market and gives your organization a sense of credibility as well as a competitive advantage.
It’s critical to follow the same brand rules across all of your marketing materials, both online and offline, in order to achieve this. If you employ the colors white and teal green in your branding and the font Lato, size 12 in white with a crown logo, you should use it throughout your marketing. This credibility and recognition raise brand awareness, which distinguishes your company from other competitors in the market and gives you a competitive advantage.
Using Only Social Media To Promote Content
Although social media marketing may appear to be a simple and low-cost approach to advertise your brand online, it must be used as part of a bigger marketing strategy to provide significant results. It isn’t enough to market your firm on its own; at the very least, if you want to be successful online, you will need a properly built website.
It’s possible that the content you upload there isn’t even yours. You have no say in which of your posts appear in your consumers’ news feeds. You have even less control over how you utilize the platform because the laws and regulations are subject to change at any time.
