It is never pleasant to put in a lot of effort into a project, only for it to come crumbling along the way. You may have experienced this with your content marketing. You followed the advice you were given, you set up for the entire campaign but you still do not have the desired effect and it seems like it was all for nothing.
All is not lost however, a postmortem can help you identify what went wrong and you probably could get back on that saddle and get it right this time. Here are some of the most common reasons content marketing fails and maybe you can identify a mistake or two you made.
It was More of a Billboard for Your Brand
There is nothing wrong with a little bit of self-promotion, but that is not a green light to turn content into a billboard advert. It would be better if you came up with an advert than to turn content marketing into an advertisement for your brand. Most people do not like it when they are drawn to a title but midway through they realize the entire content is just about a brand praising itself.
Content marketing needs to be a way for you to create a connection with your target audience and provide meaningful information. If you choose to promote your brand, let it be subtle and flow naturally within the content so that even without realizing it, the target is drawn to your brand and not slapped in the face by it.
You Failed to Set Benchmarks to Define Success
Imagine getting in a boat and sailing to no particular destination, it is very possible that in a month’s time you will still be at sea but you may have run out of food and fresh water because you did not plan for anything and eventually you won’t even know where you are and cannot return to where you came from. That is what it is like if you begin content marketing without setting defined goals.
It should be obvious that you need to set goals, however, a huge number of content marketers will tell you they usually do not have clear alignment between the content marketing goals and their marketing benchmarks.
If your content marketing team does not know what success should look like then they are flying blind and do not know what to target.
Your Content is Not Unique and Relevant to Your Target Audience
Another common mistake is creating content that your target audience does not care about. It is important to know your audience and what they are interested in. You may have instead put up content that you feel very passionate about but your audience does not find it of interest. Also, unique content is a very important factor.
Coming up with content that is the same with what the competition already has will make your content irrelevant and search engines too may find your content not worth promoting in search results.
It is advisable to listen to the audience, know what they would be interested in and then curate your content accordingly. Social media is a good place to listen to your targets. Many successful content creators turn to social media to know what is topical in line with their industry and come up with the relevant content.
You are Impatient
Content marketing requires a degree of patience if you engage in a campaign and expect to see results the next day, week or month, you are bound to be disappointed and call the campaign a failure. Most successful content marketing campaigns will take as long as 12 months to show tangible results. If you have set up targets that have a short time frame, it is highly unlikely that you will hit those targets.
Unlike pay per click which will begin to show results in as little as a few hours, content marketing takes a lot more time and effort, impatient people cannot manage running a content marketing campaign. You need to be prepared for days of work with a lot of content before the hard work pays off.
You Had No SEO Strategy
Your content can become like a tree that has fallen in the forest and no one knows about it. This will happen if you do not have an SEO strategy. Keywords make it possible for your content to be found, without keywords, you will miss out on tons of organic traffic to your website.
There are a number of Keyword Search Tools you can use to find the right keywords. It is even better if you use long tail keywords which you can also use for anchor texts and titles. SEO, however, is much more than just keywords. You need to carry out in-depth optimization to get the best from your content.
The Content Does not Cater for Every Stage of the Buyer Journey
There are different stages of the sales funnel and every stage needs to be catered for. Many people may only create content that will attract new buyers and then forget about the rest. A great content marketing plan will have content for the new audience, those in the middle of the funnel, those just about to make a buying decision as well as those who have already made a purchase. Every stage of the funnel should be covered or else you will be attracting a lot of traffic but making very few sales.
Do not leave anyone hanging in the funnel keep on guiding them and then maintain the relationship even after they have gone through.
In Conclusion
It is now time to go back and evaluate your own content marketing campaign. Is there any of these mistakes you made or might be making? It is never too late to make adjustments to ensure you get it right.
The potential of content to improve your sales is invaluable. Make the effort to get it right and then watch the effect.
