Content marketing: you are doing it wrong!

Running content campaigns is not easy and its worth knowing where you might trip.

Some people are so stubborn in pursuit of the failure that a normal person have no other choice than to stand and watch as they fall. There are few industries in which this statement is as true as in Internet marketing and especially in content campaigns.

Since you can’t always be there to watch I have decided to gather some examples of mistakes and failures in content marketing.

First mistake: focus on conversion

Some people make mistakes at the level of setting strategy. They assume that content marketing is no different than AdWords ads. And if so the only true measurement of success are conversions. Sales, enquiries, the value of orders and so on.
Do not get me wrong. Naturally the ultimate goal of any marketing activity are sales. However, you must remember that the path to this goal is winding and varied. A potential customer has a long way to go before he or she will type in a specific, sale phrase in a search engine and see our advert. Content marketing is usually one of the firsts steps along this way.
Good content should be a value itself. As I write this article, I do not think that maybe in a few weeks, one of readers will send an enquiry to Pogo Digital. I just want it to be interesting and valuable.

Second mistke: focus on offer

There are also those who accept the obvious rights of content marketing, but are not able to control themselves. They remind my of the dog of my friends who got hold of birthday cake. He was not hungry, but ate and ate. In the end we had to take him the vet.
Apparently, dogs can not control it, but from people we require a little bit more. Surely, most traders are happy with their offer and would like to tell others about it and probably thats why the flood their Facebook pages with leaflet scans and entries starting with “have a look at our offer…”. Content marketing strategy, however, is more subtle.
A client should be lead all the way throught the purchasing process. W need to focus on what problems we might have and how can we solve them. A place to convince to offer is elsewhere for example on landing page.

Third mistake: focus on the lenght

There is a lot of people who think that the longer the better. Long esseys are good, but when too long you loose patience, focus and interest.
Perhaps I’m a bit oldfashione but I think that the guidelines of printed magazines have a lot of sense. When the text is taking too much space, you have to shorten it – leaving only what is most important.
And that’s what it is all about – get to the point instead of creating a book full of beautifull and meaningless sentences.

Fourth mistake: focus on quantity

Some people get way too attached to the quantity requirements. They set goals like to publish a certain number of articles per month and try to reach those goals at any price. This results in pointless and meaningless publications.
Shallow text are useless for users, they may obtain a backlink to your site but is one backlink worth loosing clients interest?

Fifth mistake: focus on presence

The truth is that many companies start content marketing campaigns and than forget about them. It is in a way the reverse of the situation described in the above point, entries show up irregulary and they stop having any meaning for users.
I understand that some companies don’t have time to publish new entries, posts or articles for example once a week, they can however afford some level of regularity, which will allo their clients to be certain that once a month or once per quarter they will receive a comprehensive report on a specific subject.
Regularity is also very important when posts, entries and articles are showing up very often, this type of strategy are used by various types of organisations, think tanks etc.

Sixst mistake: focus only on writing

For me it is very difficult to say this, as I am a big fan of written content, but in some cases or recenty in majority of cases a picture is very important and as per saying a picture is worth a thousand words.
This simple truth have been widely understood because of the recent events in France.

A successfull content campaign must contain graphics. They can be simple or not, the point is that the graphic needs to be present.

Seventh mistake: focus on short time effect

People often loose their patience and interest in content marketing campaigns too quickly when they to achieve goals they have set for themselves in short time. They cut budgets, shut campaigns, while content marketing is a long term investment.

How can we help ourselves? Set out realistic goals and focus for example on a number of blog readers or Facebook posts reach. Taking it slowly but with determination will eventually bring profit and success.

About the author

Pogo Digital

Digital Marketing Services at Pogo Digital Marketing

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