Optimize your content marketing by avoiding these common missteps
Content marketing, the practice of drawing in leads by open information sharing, has grown into one of the primary marketing strategies in force today. In basic terms, content marketing involves sharing insights, tips, tools and resources on a given topic, and encouraging prospects to visit your website to consume that content. The process helps establish you, or your company, as a subject matter expert. Your target market views you as a useful resource. Over time, you develop relationships with the members of your audience, and your company is top of mind when it comes to their buying decisions.
In today’s information-driven marketplace, content marketing works much better than many traditional marketing or advertising tactics. However, while content marketing is increasingly considered part of the mainstream marketing mix, many companies are still making some basic mistakes in their campaigns. Here are three of the most common missteps, as well as tips for how to avoid them:
Mistake 1: Confusing content with advertising
Content marketing is not a long-form way of telling customers they should buy your product. Good content is not a list of your products’ features in paragraph form, or a narrative of why your products are the best. It is not advertising.
Rather, good content should be educational, entertaining or useful. It should be geared towards your audience’s needs instead of your objectives. Think: Inform, enlighten, engage. Offer utility. Makes people’s lives easier with valuable insights. Freely share your expertise. That’s how you build a reputation as a subject matter expert and a trusted resource.
Don’t think you have any good content to offer? Think again. Everyone has an expertise in something. If you’re an accountant, you could talk about ways to avoid red flags from the IRS. If you’re a massage therapist, you could compose a piece about ways to avoid chronic back pain. If you’re an online shoe company, you could write a post about how to take better care of shoe leather. You know a lot about something. Share that knowledge!
Mistake 2: Not understanding your audience
If you don’t know your audience, then you’ll never succeed at content marketing. Understanding your audience is the essential first step in helping you write better content geared towards that audience’s needs. The first thing you should do before launching any content marketing campaign is sit down and figure out what makes your audience tick. In the marketing world, we call this exercise “developing personas.” Create an imaginary personas for the key personality types in your audience. Think about their needs, their interests, their objectives. Who are these people? What are their pain points? How can you help? Then write to those topics. Focus your content, rather than just churning out aimless blog fodder. The more you can address the needs of your audience with your content, the more successful you’ll be in your content marketing efforts.
Mistake 3: Not engaging with customers once content is published
At the end of the day, you want your content to connect with your customers so that you can build stronger relationships with them. This is why it’s crucial to ask them for thoughts and suggestions at the conclusion of each post. Engage them with calls to action, offers for more information and your contact info for additional questions. Do you have other content on a related topic? Point them in the right direction. If a customer leaves a comment on one of your blog posts, try your best to respond to it respectfully and helpfully – even if the comment is negative. Same goes for social media comments and e-mail. Engage, nurture relationships, be a resource. If you do that well, you’ll not only establish yourself as a trusted resource, you’ll build long-term customer loyalty as well.
Interested in launching your own content marketing campaign, but intimidated by the thought of producing all that noteworthy content? SMO Pros offers consultation services to guide you through the process, as well as full-service content production to take the task off your to-do list and place it in the hands of our professional writers.
Just want to learn more about how you can optimize your content marketing efforts? Request a consultation, and we’ll happily share our thoughts on what you can do to better engage your audience.
