Buzzwords, amiright? They certainly do wear out their welcome. But content marketing—though it’s all the rage right now—is different than the typical “learnings” we “take offline” to “socialize” further. Content marketing has actually existed all along. (Think Ikea’s catalogs, Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyers and Southwest Airlines’ blog.)
It’s just now people have 1.) developed a term for this type of marketing strategy and 2.) realized its effectiveness. So, hey, let’s all hop aboard! Of course, once you jump on the bandwagon, you’ll probably have to wade through a deluge of advice from your fellow riders—and not all of it is good. Here are five content marketing potholes your wagon best dodge:
1. Missing the Marketing
Huzzah! You have excellently crafted, beautifully prepared content. Now what? It’s called “content marketing” for a reason. Before you develop anything, you must have a strategy and goals—or else that content, sad to say, is a waste.
2. Lacking the Substance
Alternatively, you won’t be very successful if you have a strategy and goals, but no content—or worse, poorly crafted or inauthentic content. Like content without strategy, strategy without content is, again, pointless. Develop a plan and goals, then enlist writers, editors, and designers to bring the content aspects of your plan to fruition. But make sure you vet your creatives. As mentioned above, everyone is doing content marketing these days, and you want to make sure your content is original, high quality and purposeful.
3. Not Knowing Your Audience
Speaking of purpose, it’s hard to ensure your content marketing serves one if you don’t know with whom you’re communicating. If you don’t clearly define your audience, your efforts are doomed. Authenticity is crucial, especially when it comes to emotional connection. It’s hard to make your messaging resonate if you’re simply tossing it out to the masses. If you haven’t done so already, develop audience personas. Then develop content and marketing strategies that target and connect with those specific personas.
4. Failing to Follow Up
If your marketing plan doesn’t include follow-up, then you better revisit that plan. Never simply publish something and then leave it alone. Whether it’s a marketing drip, a video campaign or a blog series, you absolutely need to follow up with your content distribution. Respond to comments, monitor your lead generation forms, interact with and follow engaged users, encourage engagement, and share, share, share. To ensure both engagement and follow-up, always include a call to action in your content, whether it’s to post a comment, download a white paper or subscribe to a list.
5. Not Measuring
Remember above, when we said content without marketing is a waste and strategy without content is pointless? Well, failing to measure any endeavor renders everything worthless. You can only prove that your content is brilliant and your strategy flawless if you measure your efforts. Furthermore, because marketing impacts business growth, you must measure your marketing initiatives so that the business can monitor and manage its own operation and trajectories. So, as part of your content marketing plan, pinpoint the metrics you’ll track to gauge the effectiveness of your campaign. Consider consumption, shares, lead generation, and sales conversions.
While most buzzwords eventually fall into obscurity or antiquity, content marketing isn’t going anywhere. Sure, the term is fairly new, but the concept isn’t. More importantly, it has legs, and if you employ it effectively—steering clear of the pitfalls outlined above—then content marketing will help you lead your business to success.
[image courtesy Google Images]