Today we are going to look at the mistakes you must avoid in content Marketing if you want to be successful in this field.

One of the things i have always laid emphasis on in digital marketing is content marketing. Content marketing is one of the most effective ways for a brand to market itself. It’s the mode through which you can convince your audience to take action and guide them towards a specific goal.

These Content Marketing mistakes you must avoid as we have highlighted few basic ones.

1) Not Having a Content Marketing Plan

In anything you do in business or life, there is the need to have a plan. You must develop a Content Marketing plan if you wish to achieve your marketing success.

A content marketing plan will help you understand the actions you need to take to achieve your goal. However, content marketing can be a complicated and time-consuming process.

2) Not determining your purpose

For me i think there are some basic questions that need to be asked. What exactly do you plan to achieve through content marketing? For your efforts to be successful, you need to build your business strategy. Doing so requires you to have a strong idea about what your purpose is.

Are you trying to build awareness for your product or brand? Do you wish to generate more leads? Or, do you want to increase customer loyalty. When you do not have a purpose, then abuse is inevitable.

3) Not optimizing for search

The reason why you and i is on the web is to be found (sell if you are a seller). It’s important that you optimize for search engine to find you and display you when the need arises. Please note that it is a good practice not to over-optimize your page content for search engines. The worst content marketing mistake is if you fail to optimize your content.

You want to capture the attention of your audience with useful information, but you need search engines to notice your content and put you out there for all to see.

4) Not Understanding Your Target

How do you expect to generate results when you don’t understand the audience you are serving your content. You can’t just wake up and start creating content. Your content will be consumed by a particular audience.

For you to better understand what your audience need and how you can provide to meet such needs, you can employ the use of tools like Google Forms, Survey Monkey, and Wufoo to create a survey for your target audience.

5) Poor Quality Content

The funny thing about some folks is that they spend more on adverts and do not work on providing quality contents. Even when you optimize your content for search engines, that doesn’t mean you should lose focus on the interests of actual readers.

I have seen some folks who put in all their resources  solely to attract search engines. When you forget the actual readers you are doing more harm than good to your brand because it is the readers that will in turn become loyal customers.

Focus on quality and you will get both search engine and audience recognition.

6) Underestimating your Headlines

The moment you can understand how to carve out catchy headlines, the better you can get more audience to know about your content. Headlines can make or break your content. You may have published a very  interesting article but if the headline is not captivating, you may not attract much audience .

Underestimating your headlines is one of the major content marketing mistakes that most people do. Am a fan of Goal  for the quality of its content in football since i love football and what interest me most is how they coin their headlines to the point that a post i previously read i had to read it again {without knowing} when they changed the headlines few moments later. That is how powerful headlines can be.

7) Not conducting keyword research

Keyword research should be a major priority in content marketing if you wish to do well. When keyword research is not conducted, you are obviously committing a content marketing mistake.

You can end up targeting words or phrases that no one is searching for. Finding the right keywords is crucial when keeping your work smart and boosting your traffic.

8) Not Promoting Your Content

This is one of the biggest mistakes you can make when utilizing content marketing. Don’t assume your content will be discovered by your target audience. In fact, unless you are a well known brand, no one knows you have a post except you share. There is need for a content distribution strategy in place. Whenever you published a new content, share it on Social Media, emails newsletter and so on.

Nobody will know about your content if you don’t promote it. You must note that content promotion is as important as content creation. Once you have it,share it so that the desired audience may have it and use it.

9) Not Measuring Your Content Performance

You have created a high-quality content and promoted it to your target audience. So how do you know if your content is performing well?

When you do not measure the input into your content marketing, this is a big mistake. How would you know if your content is reaching the right people and making an impact?

Once you have created and posted a content, you can use a tool like Google Analytics to measure the performance of your content. Social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube now have their own internal measurement tool to access and measure your performance.

10) Not Having a Clear Call to Action

What do you want your audience to do after they read your content? Do you want them to make a purchase? Do you want them to share your post? Or, maybe you want them to subscribe to your newsletter? Another content marketing mistake is producing content without a call-to-action.

There is need to have a clear call to action on each content you create. Ask your target audience to take a specific action after reading your content.

See mobile marketing relevance to business

11) Using too many social media channels

When you do not use social media for your content marketing, then you making a hideous mistake. Not being active on social media is a mistake. Also being on too many social media channels is a mistake too.

Instead of participating in every single platform available yet you wont be effective, try focusing your efforts on the right channels. It is ok to research on the right social media for the kind of audience you want

For instance, if you’re targeting working class folks, you could benefit from focusing on platforms like Linkedin.

See how to drive traffic with social media

12) Not Consistent With Content Publishing

In a world like ours that is filled with so much challenges. It is difficult to produce quality content consistently. This is a tough job to do bearing in my other factors.

The solution to this is priority. You can outsource content if you don’t have the time to produce quality content consistently.

13) Always Promoting your Brand

If all you do is promote/ talk about your products alone without thinking about your clients, then you are heading for doom. Self promotion is one of the content marketing mistakes that folks do.

Instead of focusing on topics that interest you, produce content that your audience would like to read. Analyze social media activities, comments, consumer reviews, and queries For this will give you a clue of what your audience is looking for.

14) Expecting Instant Results

Content Marketing is an herculean task. It is a long-term game plan. The content you produce today can bring you customers in the next 10 years. This is true kos i once called someone for something he posted 5 years ago That is how powerful content marketing is.

I use coke as an example, the first year they started, they had just 25 sales. I strongly advise to play it clean and safe for that will ensure long term benefits unlike the “black hat methods to promote your content”. The benefit of a quality and consistent content is that you will definitely enjoy it with time.

15) Not having a dedicated team

Content marketing requires teamwork and a cohesive, dedicated effort. It is a big mistake if you do not have a team that is cohesive and well organized with the right technicalities.

Having the right team will help deal with this mistake.

Conclusion

I trust that after reading this post, you have learnt a lot. If you are into content marketing, i strongly advice you to avoid these mistakes so that you can be successful.

What is your purpose online? If you have questions or contributions, you can leave a comment or interact with us on facebook comment box below.

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