Writing content can be one of the most tedious and strenuous tasks a business owner can do. In my personal experience, I have found that well over 90% of business owners dread creating content, and more than a 75% of business owners I have talked to outsource the vast majority of their content. Not only does creating great content take time and effort. But making content marketing mistakes can set your business back and even hurt your bottom line. Luckily, there are many resources to help you create some amazing content. Here is a helpful article we wrote on Creating Website Content for your Business. Now let’s get into some of the more common mistakes website owners make when creating content.
Common Content Marketing Mistakes
These are seven of the most common mistakes we see business owners make. Some of these mistakes may seem so silly, but we assure you that nearly every business owner has committed at least 5/7 of these mistakes. We will start with the most basic and work our way down to the more “forgivable mistakes.” We suggest you work your way down this list as well and if you find yourself committing one of these mistakes, FIX IT NOW. Please do not wait and let it slip your mind. Please take action now and fix it. Jot down a note and be sure you are taking actionable steps to fix these mistakes.
Not Knowing Your Audience
One of the biggest content marketing mistakes you can make when targeting your ideal audience is not knowing your audience. Failing to understand and honestly know your audience will deliver poor results. Imagine if your audience is married 70 plus-year-old males who are retired and are currently looking for things to do in their spare time. Would it make any sense to market to them on Instagram or Snapchat? And would it make sense to suggest activities such as running marathons, going to raves, and looking for single women to meet? It makes absolutely no sense to do any of those things based on your target audience.
Instead, you need to know where 70 plus-year-old retired men spend their time online. And the clear answer is Facebook. With over 41% of users on Facebook being over 65 years of age. Now that you know where they hang out online, you need to create content they want to read. Examples of this can include places to travel and fun and easy hobbies to pick up.
Not Setting Clear Goals
Many business owners sit down at their computer, write up some content and publish it. While this might work for some people, the vast majority of business owners will need to craft some goals before they write up their content. Doing so is one of the easiest content marketing mistakes to avoid because all it requires is a bit of planning and patience to think about the goals of your piece.
Creating goals gives your content a clear objective and guides your writing. For example, I want my readers to identify some content marketing mistakes in this piece. Ideally, once they identify these mistakes, they can take the necessary steps to correct them.
Content Marketing Mistake – Not Writing For Your Audience
Content Marketing Mistakes – Not Writing For Your Audiencerketing plans. They fill their writing with buzzwords and stuff keywords without really worrying about the content they are producing. Now I want you to notice something. I just stuffed my keyword into the subtitle for this section. “Content Marketing Mistakes” has not been in any of the other subtitles, yet I plugged it in here. To some of my more savvy readers, that would have drawn a red flag, and they immediately would have noticed what I was trying to do.
The idea behind all content creating is engagement levels. Do not sacrifice engagement to add in certain “buzzwords” that might attract hype around your content. Focus on building a community rather than some content that generates publicity but has no substance in reality.
Forgetting Conversation
One of the most common mistakes owners make when creating content is sounding too formal. People often make the mistake of thinking that since they are writing to other people, they need to express themselves in a highly professional manner and use perfect grammar, word choice, and more. But in fact, this often leads to your writing coming off as robotic and non-personable. Write as if you are talking to someone that’s right in front of you. Of course, be professional in what you are saying. But there’s no need for a fancy vocabulary or perfect sentence structure. Write as if you are having a conversation with a good friend or business partner.
Not Being Specific
After reading some fantastic articles and blog posts, I found a few that left me wondering what the article was truly about; sure, the writing was excellent, and everything flowed. But what was the purpose of the article? This content marketing mistake ties back in with forming clear goals. Your writing needs to be specific and address some of your audience’s most significant pain points. For example, my target audience’s pain point is wondering why their content is not working as well as they think it should be. Therefore, I am writing an article addressing some of the biggest content marketing mistakes to avoid. Make sure your writing ties in with your goals. By the end of the article, your audience needs to have a clear idea of the problem you were trying to help them solve.
Quality Over Quantity
Focus on the quality of your writing. One good post a month that attracts thousands of visitors is better than four average posts that draw a few eyes to each post. Focus on writing good content that will remain important for years to come. Less is more when it comes to blog posts.
No Call To Action: One of The Biggest Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
Every single piece of content needs to have a purpose. It would help if you gave your reader direction. It could be signing up to an email list, getting a free guide, purchasing a product, or getting more information on your company. Whatever it is, you need to have a specific call to action for your readers to follow. Without it, they might think your content was great but now have no idea what the next steps are. Here are some examples of Calls to Action that work:
- Buy Now
- Limited Time Offer
- Get 50% Off
- Act Today
- Sale Won’t Last Long
- Sign Up Today
All of these calls to action are sure-fire ways to keep your customers engaged and on track to purchase from you (or at the very least keep them in your sales loop).
My Turn for a Call To Action
Well, it wouldn’t make much sense if I was telling you guys to have a call to action and then leave out a call to action of my own. If you’re struggling with content marketing and like some extra assistance, reach out to us now. We will gladly look at your website and run a full content audit to help determine where you are falling short. We will then lay out a plan to get you back on track. Our website audit includes looking at your keywords, website speed, overall website health, and content placement. These factors play a role in how high your content will rank and how many people you will get to view your content.
