Content marketing is considered to be one of the best investments that any brand can make. It is known to increase traffic, drive sales and help with lead generation. According to the 2019 report by Content Marketing Institute, about 93% of the most successful B2B brands are very committed to content marketing. [1] Along with this, a vast majority of marketers from prominent organisations such as P&G, Cisco and Microsoft, as well as small businesses are using content marketing to reach their marketing goals.
As brands continue to understand the importance of content marketing, they are doing everything in their power to maximize their return on investment (ROI). With the market being highly competitive, marketers have very little room for mistakes. Therefore, in the process of getting it right and reaching their target audience, they have to deal with all the challenges efficiently to deliver optimal results.
To help content marketers across the globe, we have compiled a list of the most common content marketing mistakes that must be avoided along with a few measures to ensure that.
1. Not Creating Content According to Audience’s Interests
Not understanding what your customers want is one of the biggest mistakes in content marketing. While many marketers focus on reading blogs from credible online sources such as Adweek, Hubspot and Content Marketing Institute, to get ideas for creating content, it is important to realise that similar topics might not work for their audience. According to a study by Rapt Media, 55% of people receiving content from different brands say it’s not relevant to them.[2] Adding to this, the younger generation of consumers is not interested in irrelevant and inauthentic content that’s available online.
According to the same survey, 63% of consumers would be more interested in brands if their content was more valuable, interesting or relevant. Therefore, creating a personalised feed based on the customer’s interests will help influence purchase decisions and also drive brand loyalty, especially for millennials. It also acts as a catalyst, improving trust and engagement, and provides a valuable content creation experience.
2. Not creating content throughout the sales funnel
When it comes to the buying life cycle, there are numerous stages in the sales funnel and as a marketer, it is crucial for you to identify and address each of these while creating content. According to Content Marketing Institute, the content creation process can be divided based on four goals – Building brand awareness, securing leads, nurturing leads and converting leads. Therefore, marketers can’t afford to miss out on creating content that caters to each stage.
By mapping out the goals in each stage, marketers can plan their content better and use it to their advantage. In this way, they can focus on creating content that will help them reach different goals with ease and experiment with different formats such as blogs, infographics and case studies.
3. Not Creating Reusable Content
When it comes to content creation, a ‘one-and-done’ approach might not be the right way. Many content marketers just focus on creating a big rock content. Once consumed, this often gets forgotten or lost in the feed of endless posts. While a lot of time and resources get invested in creating that piece of quality content, it does not foster brand recall or get read again by your audience. Therefore, it is important for marketers to understand how to maximise the ROI with the same content.
The best way would be to plan everything bottom up. By reverse engineering the whole marketing process, we can use the big rock content to create many small and snackable bits of information which can be shared to give a callback. Repurposing your long-format content into infographics and creatives is a good way to improve reach. 40% of marketers credited illustrations and infographics as the best content formats to help them reach their marketing goals.[3] This is a simple and easy way to get more traction from your existing content.
4. Not Paying Attention to Measurement and Testing
You are employing all your resources in creating high quality content but how do you know if it is making any difference for the business? As a marketer, you must observe and analyse the data to draw insights. If you fail to do this, all your efforts will go to waste.
Using the data, you might be able to actively monitor your content and promote it. For instance, if it’s underperforming, the data might help you pinpoint the potential reasons. Once identified, you can use the insights to make changes or use tactics to improve its performance. By testing and measuring the results, marketers like you can continuously improve the content and deliver the best results.
5. Not Adding a CTA or Following up
Your content is supposed to drive traffic to platforms you are targeting so that you can grab the attention of potential customers and help generate leads. However, one of the most common mistakes is leave out a proper call to action (CTA). Without a CTA or a good follow up plan, your audience will not get the impetus to follow through. Be it a contact page, a newsletter or a form asking for information, your CTA will guide your potential customers to take action.
By keeping these factors in mind and planning carefully, you can relook at marketing challenges. From understanding your audience’s interests to reusing and monitoring your content, everything will help improve your content marketing process right from the get-go. By doing content marketing right, marketers and brands can enjoy the benefits of creating quality content.