Digital marketing is essential for any brand in today’s digital age, and in the world of digital marketing, you have to have high quality web content. That content can come in the form of written landing pages, whitepapers, or blogs. They can also come in the form of images, videos, streams, and other forms. The important thing is that your web content be engaging, informative, and relevant to your audience.
It may seem simple enough, but on such a saturated internet, content marketing has to be done right in order to stand out. The truth is that there are content mistakes that even big name brands make. Let’s go over a few so you can learn how to avoid them:
#1 – Creating Content Not Relevant To Their Audience
Big name brands have their own distinct voice and personality. That’s all well and good, but it won’t serve them well if they put it above the interests of their audience. Many content marketers, including bigger companies, make the mistake of not researching their audience thoroughly enough.
When they don’t tune in to the interests, needs, and concerns of their audience, they create content that isn’t relevant to them. That content tends to perform poorly, leading to a loss of engagement. Fortunately, it can be avoided with a bit of market research before creating your content.
#2 – Churning Out Content Regardless of Quality
Some big brands gain success by knowing how to use the algorithm to their advantage. However, too much focus on this can actually become a detriment. Part of staying on top of search engine or social media algorithms is creating content constantly — the more the better. At least, that’s often the strategy.
But this can have negative repercussions on both the content and the content marketers. Too much content being constantly churned out can lead to a sense of burnout from those working on the content. Burnout will lead to a reduction in the quality of content. When you prioritize quantity over quality, your content will not resonate as much and you’ll lose some of that needed engagement. Instead, stick to a schedule that you can handle while creating high quality content.
#3 – Not Bothering With SEO
On the other hand, some big name brands ignore SEO altogether. The reasoning here makes sense. If they have the audience, they don’t need to bother with search engine optimization. In fact, their content will probably naturally perform well because of the traffic that they draw simply from being a big name brand. But markets and audiences can shift in an instant. If you want to maintain the engagement you currently have, you’ll want to make sure you work in best SEO practices so that your website continues to perform well, even if your audience changes.
#4 – Not Looking at the Data For Content Inspiration
When you brainstorm content ideas, what does that process look like? If it’s just a matter of putting pen to paper and writing down a list of whatever comes to mind, you’re definitely missing opportunities to set yourself up for success. Instead of going off the top of your head, try looking at hard data. What content performs the best from your competitors? What content has your target audience engaged with the most? Use these as jumping off points for your own content.
#5 – Not Using a Content Marketing Strategy
What’s your strategy for content marketing? There are many big name influencers or brands who became popular because of one piece of content that “went viral” on a fluke, and the rest of their engagement rode the coattails of that moment. Before that viral moment, those content creators may have just made content on their own schedule, based on whatever they felt like at the time.
But when you start creating content more seriously, you have to have a content marketing strategy. If you continue to just work off of “vibes,” you’ll lose the momentum you’ve gathered so far. You’ll need a consistent schedule, as well as a plan for how you will order your content, who you will target, and what you hope to gain from your content marketing. Your strategy serves as a roadmap for your content marketing. It can set you up for success, as well as keep you from being too overwhelmed by it all.
#6 – Abandoning Social Media
Content marketing isn’t just the content you create for your website. You also need to stay consistent on social media. It’s a common practice for all too many brands to set up social media accounts everywhere they can, but often they end up underutilizing or abandoning most of them altogether.
Instead of creating social media accounts that you’ll never use, create a few accounts and use them regularly. Set up a schedule and work them into your content marketing strategy. Do a little research beforehand to see which platforms are the most successful when it comes to your audience.
