Here are some of the biggest mistakes made in inbound marketing, and especially in content marketing. Some will be obvious to the more experienced but are still being committed. Others, on the other hand, are produced at a more advanced level. Avoiding mistakes in content marketing strategies is essential for them to succeed. Since sometimes it is not enough to detect where the errors are in the design, some very brief indications are also added about the direction to follow to correct these errors:
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2 – Lack of Objectives, Which is Usually Linked To a Lack of Strategy
Working without specific objectives is practically going blind, so it is necessary to set an aim following the SMART criteria: that is specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and is well limited in time. The achievement or not of the objectives will be the main indicator that shows if the strategy is working or a review is needed.
3 – Prioritize Quantity Over Quality
Currently, millions of people and thousands of companies publish content on the web daily, and it is necessary to stand out. It’s already difficult to reach audiences by generating good content, so generating harmful content is a trip to nowhere. It is possible to be tempted to publish poor quality content for the sake of meeting objectives, but it should be avoided. If quality suffers, due to the need, for example, to comply with several monthly publications, the strategy must be reformulated.
4 – Offer Little Relevant Content
The marketer must be aware of his target audience and what his business is and must offer consistent content. It is possible to think of some type of content that, potentially, can generate a lot of traffic. Still, if the type of business and the audience to which it is oriented are not considered, the traffic generated will be poor quality traffic that will remain far from reaching the end of the funnel.
5 – Do Not Think About People
When working with statistics, it is easy to forget that human beings are hidden behind each figure and that they are the reason for the company’s existence. It works for people, thinking about their tastes and interests rather than the traffic that search engines can bring. You have to develop the content by thinking about the type of audience you want to reach. The more specific the group, the more effective the content will be.
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6 – Limit Yourself To Creating Content
What is contributed to the network, no matter how good it is, does not spread alone? The publication of content must be accompanied by a good promotional campaign to reach the maximum number of users possible. A step that, of course, must also be codified within the marketing plan. For this, there are three means: their own, controlled by the company itself, which include endless resources, such as blogging, mailing, etc .; paid ones, such as ads and paid per click; and the won, which, are the mentions obtained in other places on the web, mainly, in social networks. Although all these means complement each other, it is interesting to take them into account, separately, to know which ones it would be necessary to reinforce.
7 – Give Little Importance To Titles
It is necessary to insist that content marketing operates in a territory where competition is fierce, both for quantity and quality. The target audience does not have time to read everything. Therefore, the title chosen for a post has to be attractive and hooky. You have to think about it and meditate on it to attract attention, always without forgetting the type of user sought since not all titles are suitable for everyone. It may be the case that getting an introduction or the right title takes almost as long as the content itself, but it is crucial not to miss it.
8 – Do Not Take Into Account The Phases of The Funnel
Few people are aware of the importance of adapting content to the different phases of the funnel. It helps to maximize conversions since the number of lost users along the way is reduced to a minimum. For example, the content in the upper part of the tunnel mainly seeks to attract traffic and must be purely informative or educational. In the middle zone, once the user’s interest has been achieved, commercial content can be entered that allows them to start evaluating their options. Once at the bottom of the funnel, the content is fully commercial and will help the audience make the best decision.
9 – Inappropriate Use or Absence of Calls To Action (CTA)
CTAs are very useful resources that are sometimes misused. Like everything in marketing, a call to action must have a specific purpose and objective, a what and a why. The CTA must have clear language that advises the public on what to do and convinces them why they should do it. There has to be a very clear value proposition and, of course, that the landing page’s content is consistent with the message.
10 – Bypass SEO
SEO positioning is one of the key concepts in content marketing. Most of the traffic that a web page gets is achieved thanks to SEO, and having a strategy, in this sense, is crucial. Countless guides and tips are circulating on the Internet to improve search engine positioning, and the amount of information is such that it may overwhelm an inexperienced marketer. Still, many of the important things, such as creating optimal titles or publishing regularly, come alone when quality content is published. If, in addition, attention is paid to keywords, internal links are used, URLs are optimized, and descriptive names are used for the images that are uploaded, much of the way is already covered.
12 – Obsessed With SEO
Sometimes an obsession with a keyword or being on the first page can hurt the quality of content. SEO is important, but you can’t lose sight that you have to target people, not search engines. Additionally, search engine results are difficult to predict and generally not immediate. It is advisable to be patient in this regard.
13 – Do Not Track Results
Everything that is done must be perfectly measured and controlled to know if the strategy is working or failing, and in that case, know exactly what is failing. Therefore, it is important to have a good analytical tool. Still, it would be advisable to go a little further and resort to satisfaction surveys or other ways of knowing, in as much detail as possible, the opinions and preferences of the user, always causing minimal inconvenience.
These, then, are the most typical errors. Preventing them or, if they occur, correcting them in time, the results of a content marketing strategy can be substantially improved. As has already been seen, the fundamental thing is that this strategy exists, that there is a follow-up of the actions and that it has very specific and well-defined objectives. You can find many useful tools to develop it on the Internet, from templates to idea generators. For the rest, it is as simple as focusing on producing quality content, focused on potential clients or users, and using the web tools to ensure adequate dissemination. Doing this is laying the foundation for a successful campaign. Finally, do not forget the most serious mistake: impatience. Sometimes, perspective is lost, eager for work to pay off immediately, but do not give up. Often, the results are made to wait, but if things are done well and the errors indicated above are avoided, they will eventually arrive.
