Content Marketing has become a huge part many companies’ business-to-business marketing strategy. It can help build your brand, establish your reputation and even provide valuable information to your potential customers that is easy and even, if done correctly, fun to digest.
There are a lot of companies out there, however, who are trying to leverage the benefits of content marketing but who are making a few common mistakes. If you suspect your company is one of them, it’s not the end of the world: there’s still time to make your content more effectively than ever. Here are some of the common mistakes that companies make in their content marketing strategy and the ways to fix them.
SEO Problems
Search engine optimization is an important tool to help get your content properly indexed and moving toward the top of search results. If you neglect SEO, you will find yourself missing out on potential customers, but you don’t want to become too focused on it either, or you will ruin your content.
If you are too focused on SEO, your content will suffer. You will be looking for too many “keywords” or trying to jam unnatural-sounding sentences together in order to satisfy whichever SEO toolkit your company uses. This is a big no no. Remember, while you want your content to do well with the search engines, you are still writing that content for real people, so you want it to sound natural and unforced. Try limiting your keyword to three or four uses per post: longer word counts allow for more keyword usage.
But don’t neglect SEO. You should find a unique keyword for each post and use it correctly so the search engines will rewards you. This will help you find new audiences and increase your presence.
You’re Not on Enough Channels
While it’s all well and good to email your posts directly to your clients and subscribers, you can’t afford not to post your content across as many channels as you can. This will help you reach a wider and more eclectic audience, increasing your chances of gaining new customers.
Social media has been one of the best places to share your content for a while now, and that shows no signs of stopping. Posting to Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites is a great way to increase your audience. But don’t just post and run: your company needs to be present on those channels. Make sure that you post something on each site of your choosing every day, and interact with those who interact with you.
Your Goals Aren’t Specific
Before you can accomplish something, you need to know exactly what it is you want to accomplish. This is no different with content marketing: what specific purpose does each post serve?
If your goal is to gain one thousand new subscribers in a month, then each post should have that goal in mind. Think about all of the different reasons people will need to subscribe and give it to them with your content. You will need you content to be interesting and information at the same time, piquing your audience’s interest in wanting to learn more.
No matter what your goals are — increased revenue, finding new customers — you need to make sure that your content reflects those goals. Otherwise, you are probably wasting your time and no matter how interesting your content is, you will never reach those goals.
Your Content Isn’t Actionable
So your business posts new content everyday to various sites, but you’re not really seeing any real responses. This could be because your content isn’t actionable.
What is actionable content? It’s content that asks for or provokes a response from your audience that will help you achieve your goals. Some prime examples of actionable content include clickable buttons that ask your audience to “Read More Here” or “Subscribe.” These are quick, easy things you can slip into your posts after teasing your audience with interesting information.
But not all actionable content requires a click. You can also get a lot of comments at the end of a post by simply asking, “What do you think?” This give your readers incentive to respond because you invited them to do so, and comments not only give you insight into what your audience in thinking, but is also helps your SEO ratings!
If you need help with your content, companies like appiloque.com can help you fix your problems quickly.
Joey is the Founder and Managing Director of Appiloque Pte. Ltd. Being a serial entrepreneur and tech investor based in Singapore, he has built Appiloque to become his most successful business to date. With a team of 32 savvy digital marketers and being at the forefront of innovative technologies, Appiloque aims to help businesses take over the digital world with marketing efforts driven by user-centric experiences and data-enabled strategies. Joey also strongly believes in helping his clients achieve more without breaking the bank. In his free time, Joey is a true-blue Singaporean foodie and enjoys exchanging ideas on the topics of innovation and investment.
