Content marketing seems like an easy task, right? Well, it’s not really that simple. In fact, most novice traders and business owners make stupid mistakes that could have easily been avoided if they had known about them. These are the most common mistakes that content marketing beginners make.
No Prior Plan or Strategy
One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is not having a plan or strategy beforehand and jumping straight into the action without knowing what they are doing. You may think that creating content is the same as content marketing, but that is not true. Content marketing is always based on a strategy that you follow throughout your campaign.
It is very important that you sit down and make a plan for your content marketing. You need to have an idea of who your readers and customers will be, as well as who you are and what your business is about. Once you know this, you can build your strategy around this information.
No Understanding of Who Your Audience Is
Another very common mistake first-time marketers make is not understanding who their target audience is. According to an IBM study, 63% of customers do not feel understood by the brands they like. These are the consequences of companies not conducting proper research to find out who their target audience is.
Once you’ve collected enough data on your prospects and analyzed it, you’ll need to create buyer personas to help you better understand your customers. You need to know everything about your readers, from their age to their location, interests, and needs. Do your homework correctly!
An Expectation Of Instant Success
Many marketers think that content marketing will start to produce results after the first month, but this is not always the case. In fact, overnight success is only really possible when a content marketing element goes viral. Most content marketing strategies take a few months to gain momentum, and it may take a while for potential customers to start showing up.
What’s important to remember is that content marketing is like SEO – it requires an initial investment, but it can continue to generate leads long after the content has been developed, uploaded, and paid for.
Not Concerned With Quality Of Content
Again, it should be emphasized that content marketing is not about posting content just for the sake of posting. Anyone can develop content elements for a content marketing campaign, but whether that content will resonate with the target audience will largely depend on the quality of that content and how the content differs from other similar content offered by the competition. Contrary to popular opinion, it’s better to post quality content than 10 lower-quality items.
Lack Of Content-Type Variety
Another misconception about content marketing is that it’s about blogging. While the humble blog post is an important informational component of content marketing, it is certainly not the main point.
One mistake content marketers make is not including variety in their content marketing mix, which can lead to content fatigue after repeatedly posting the same type of content. Make sure to include a variety of videos, podcasts, downloadable content, etc.
No Brand Voice or Inconsistent Brand Voice
One of the main objectives of content marketing is to consolidate as a company. You want to project an image of your company and send a message to your audience. You want to give your brand character. To do this, you need to know what your business is about and develop a brand voice that stands out from the crowd.
Also, that brand’s voice needs to be consistent with all the content it produces, whether it’s on its website, its social media profiles, its emails, or elsewhere. Whether you create content in different languages or translate it with the help of an online translation service like The Word Point, you need to ensure that your brand’s voice is the same in all languages.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, if you try to avoid these mistakes, you will have a better chance of success with your content marketing campaign. Get started with the tips provided in this article, and you can eliminate all the possible ways your campaign could go wrong.