As traditional forms of advertising have garnered less and less attention from the public, more businesses than ever before have embraced content marketing. The idea is that, instead of trying to bribe the audience with good deals, or bombard them with catchy slogans, a business will instead forge a relationship with their customers and potential customers by creating content the audience values. Whether it’s a blog full of health food recipes, or a YouTube channel on car maintenance, the point of content marketing is to create something that showcases your expertise, and provides value to the customer. In time, they’ll support you with their business because they’ve come to trust your knowledge and skill.
It seems simple, but it can often feel like a business is walking a tightrope. Which is why you should pay close attention to these content marketing mistakes small business owners need to avoid in order to maximize your content marketing efforts.
4 Content Marketing Mistakes You Need To Avoid
Mistake #1: Creating Bland, But Functional, Content
One of the biggest mistakes a company can make is to create content that sounds just like everything else that’s been said on a topic. Your content has to have its own, unique voice, and to create the feeling of exclusivity, according to Entrepreneur. Whether you have an on-staff expert, an interview with an inside source, or you present the content in a way no one has before, you need something that makes you stand out from the crowd.
Mistake #2: Turning Your Content Into A Sales Pitch
The whole point of content marketing is to build a bridge between your business and your readers. You want to give them a steady stream of content that keeps them coming back to you of their own volition, instead of trying to sink a hook in them to yank them back. You need to trust in the quality of your content, and resist the urge to turn it into an informative commercial for your product. Customers who feel they’re being set up for a sales pitch are significantly less likely to come back.
Mistake #3: Choosing Quantity Over Quality
Some businesses, in an attempt to build up a large archive of content, will set a break-neck schedule. However, it’s important to remember that quality is more important than quantity, particularly when setting a content marketing foundation. The goal is to be polished, professional, and to convey expertise… that’s really hard to do if a business doesn’t take the time and effort to craft their content, and put a shine on it before offering it to the public. It’s better to have a handful of Da Vinci paintings, than an entire museum worth of stick figures.
Mistake #4: Only Using Social Media To Talk Up Your Content
This mistake was pointed out by Business News Daily. On the one hand, social media is a great way for businesses to interact with customers and potential customers free of charge. On the other hand, businesses need to do more than use their social media pages as a soap box to advertise their latest content.
This is a classic case of new marketing done in the style of the old, to the detriment of a business. Social media can be used to market your content, and it should definitely be a part of your overall plan. It should not, however, be the only thing your business uses its social media for. If all a business does is promote itself, and its own content, then pretty soon followers are going to get tired of what they’ll view as spam cluttering up their news feeds. Change it up, just like you would if you were having a conversation with a friend, instead of marketing to the biggest audience in the world.
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