By Prince Kapoor
If you are in business, you must have heard it for a thousand times that content is king. It sits on a golden throne and rules an entire industry with an iron fist. Content has a strong role in the center of all marketing strategies and is used in multiple aspects of inbound marketing, SEO, social marketing, website posts, and of course, for branding.
It is fine to conclude that content is almost everywhere, and we are consuming it on a daily basis. But it might so happen that your content marketing strategies are just not working out.
You have tried it all perhaps. You have gone lengths to ensure the success of your content marketing strategy, but somehow, it’s not just working out! Now, though the content might be king, if all the efforts fail, your content will become more of a jester and not a king!
Thus, you have to know why all your efforts are going down the drain. What is it that you are doing wrong? Here is a list of 5 reasons why your content strategy might be failing and how you can fix it.
1. Lack of a Strategy
You know your goal is to reach out to the maximum number of people with your content. For this purpose, you might be writing a few occasional blog posts, sending a few old tweets but you really don’t have a big plan.
If that is the road that you are taking, you might want to reserve and develop a content marketing strategy which is well thought out and worked.
It’s important you have a proper plan and you get a proper idea about what you will be doing with your content.
So how to fix it?
While creating a content marketing strategy you need to focus on the reach, type of content, audience, goals and such other elements. Your strategy must have some room for KPIs, and the goal you want your content to achieve. The content marketing strategy must be aligned with your greater marketing strategy so that it’s possible for you to form an integrated approach.
2. Not Creating Content for the Audience
You may be creating content which you think will be appealing to your target audience or clients. But as a business owner do you really know what your clients are really looking for? Do you know what is in trend? Are you answering their questions? Do you know the audience like the back of your hand?
Well, those are a lot of questions, and they must be addressed. The content that you might be creating may not be useful or appealing to your customers.
So how to fix it?
First, it’s important to focus on your target audience by setting a narrow niche within a given demographics. Accept that you cannot give everything to everyone. Once you are focused on one particular group, your content is more likely to be specialized and relatable.
Once you have done this you have to create an individual persona. It is important to identify different personas that you cater to, where in the big social media web they hang out and what their interests are.
There are multiple tools and forums that you can use to understand the behavior of your audience. Additionally, focus your attention on the platforms that your audience stay the most active on.
3. Your Content Is No Different
In this big world where everyone is trying to grab the attention of your target audience, you need to create some content which stands out. If your content is like that of everyone else, your audience will not be able to distinguish you from the others.
So how do you fix it?
It’s important that you make your content very interesting and thought-provoking and ensure that your audience understands what is being dished out. The content should be able to solve the problems that your customers are facing.
Even if your business idea is considered quite matte and boring, approach the ideas from interesting angles to grab the attention of your target audience.
In that light, say something which your competitors are not. However, be original in your ideas and have a contrasting point of view.
4. Content Is Not SEO Friendly
SEO and content are the two sides of the same coin. If your content is not sunk with your search engine then it will remain lost.
So how do you fix it?
It’s important to use organic methods to promote your content. However, remember to write for humans and use only a dash of SEO to be easily available online.
For this purpose, you must run a few keywords finding texts such as the Keyword Explorer or Google’s Keyword Planner. Additionally, take some time to install a few plugins that can help you get SEO friendly. Yoast and WordPress SEO plugins are something that you can use.
Though keywords are important, you cannot negate the importance of readability. In that light, it might be a wrong idea to stuff a lot of keywords in your content. Keep in mind to write in a natural flow and let the keywords just be a part of it.
5. Not Promoting Your Content
Content marketing is an easy game. All you have to do is write blogs and share them around on different social media sites! Do you do that?
Well, it’s not exactly that easy. Content creation is just the tip of the iceberg. Promoting the content is a different ball game altogether.
So how do you fix it?
Here are a few points you can try:
- Tweeting and retweeting your content
- Post it on platforms such as Facebook and repeat sharing
- Include a link of your content in your email newsletter
- Republish your blog if more information needs adding
- Get your team members to share the content on their personal social media handles
While these are a few things you can try, make sure your content is backed by some powerful visuals. These can be in the form of pictures, infographics, and GIFs. Visuals play a big role in creating a larger impact on your content. Creating these visuals is also not a big deal. You can do it with Canva in a jiffy.
What tips do you have for creating content that makes a big impact?
