Have you ever noticed a gang? It could be any gang; either for heists, for exams, or for solving mysteries. If you notice, every gang has a specialist, one who takes risks, one who does the research, and a leader who binds them all together among other members. In content marketing, branding, and other marketing plans, strategy is that leader.
The strategy brings together your brand’s image, persona, communication style, formats, platforms, and frequency, keeping in mind what goals you are looking to achieve. If the strategy is not strong enough, the gang has a high chance of falling apart, and if it turns out to be effective, get ready to soar with success, little at a time. Just like the gang leader, this strategy is also driven by its characteristics such as effectiveness, efficiency, consistency, relevance, and more. When creating a strategy, here are the red flags that you must avoid to ensure it becomes an ideal leader:
Trying to be everything
Niche, target audience, and brand personality are the three must-know of your brand before you set up a strategy. You cannot cater to everyone as your audience, be part of numerous niches just because you are speaking with a huge audience, or portray multiple communication personalities. Doing so will hamper your brand recall and the achievement of your brand goals.
Being monotonous
The key purpose of having a strategy is to be able to switch things up every now and then, but carefully. Having the same strategy all along the way makes your content predictable and will end up boring your audience. What should they come back to your page for? So, stir up your strategy, and create fresh and engaging content that will keep your audience coming back to your profile.
Not exploring enough
Yes, staying relevant is necessary, but don’t let this idea hold you back from exploring new ideas, experimenting with new concepts and trends, or trying new formats or platforms to connect with your audience.
Failing to create reusable content
With the evolution of content creation and consumption, you would be far behind in the race to create one-time consumable content. No, not every piece of content needs to be evergreen, but ensure that you occasionally create content that can either be reused on other platforms, is relevant for a longer duration and across generations, or can be repurposed when clubbed with another content piece.
Ignoring your consumers
When engaging with your content, your consumers are leaving behind hints for you about their content choices. If you wish to step up your content marketing game, you must pick these hints, i.e. insights, and implement them in your future content pieces. Ignoring them would make them feel less important to you, resulting in you losing their loyalty and even attention.
Underestimating consistency
If you think consistency is overrated, you are wrong! Consistency is a tried and tested formula for successful communication. From the communication style, and design, to the frequency of uploading content, consistency can be a changemaker in your branding strategy. However, do attempt a trial and error to understand what suits your brand and its audience.
Not befriending data insights
What content your audience is following, what is trending in your industry, to what content of yours your audience is reacting to, it is essential for you to keep a tab on it all. To know it all you must make it a practice to analyse your content regularly. Moreover, integrate the results of the analysis to build a stronger bond with your audience.
Being sales-driven
Not every piece of your content should aim to drive sales. Instead, create content that educates your consumers about the industry, makes them more aware of your brand, and encourages them to engage with your content and share their thoughts with you. The aforementioned content buckets help you build a bond with your audience which will eventually lead to their loyalty towards your brand as well as its products and services. This is a key way of ensuring not only sales but retention of these consumers who will keep your sales constant.
When the gang leader - the strategy of your branding is strong and organised, all your plans will fall in place and give you more effective results.
Psst! This blog was made with 💛 and created after some thought by a real person. #NoGenerativeAI