Content marketing is an important
digital marketing tool for businesses these days, as more and more companies are utilizing content as a way to attract and engage customers. However, simply creating content doesn't necessarily guarantee success.
If your content marketing isn't working as you had hoped, there could be some underlying issues causing this problem. Let's discuss the potential reasons why your content marketing is struggling and what steps you can take to turn the ship around.
1. Insufficient Research
One of the biggest mistakes in content marketing is not doing enough research on the target audience, competitors, and industry trends. Without having a clear understanding of who you're targeting with your content marketing campaigns and what those people want to read, watch, and listen to, your content efforts will be far less effective.
2. Poor Content Quality
More isn’t always better when it comes to content marketing. Low-quality, badly written, or outdated content can send the message that you don’t really care about your users’ experience — one of the key factors that make up successful content marketing campaigns.
Invest in creating high-quality, engaging content and take time to ensure everything is factually accurate before publishing it.
3. Unclear Call-To-Action (CTA)
Creating great content is only half the battle in content marketing; ensuring readers take the desired action (e.g buying a product / subscribing to a service) is equally as important.
But if you don't have a clear CTA at the end of every piece of content you publish — either written or visual — then it's unlikely you'll achieve any meaningful results from your efforts.
4. Re-Posting Existing Content Too Often
No matter how great your existing pieces might be, rehashing them and sharing them too many times just isn't going to cut it if you're serious about gaining traction with your target audience and building credibility for your brand online.
Make sure to regularly produce new and original pieces of thought leadership that will help keep readers engaged over time and create loyal fans.
5. No Strategic Approach
Content for content's sake rarely works; there needs to be direction behind your efforts. An effective content marketing strategy should include key components, such as:
- Developing relevant topics
- Determining objectives
- Researching keywords
- Matching content to user intent
- Optimizing for SEO
- Analyzing the impact of content
- Refining the strategy
6. Inadequate Budget
Putting together a content marketing strategy usually calls for some expenditure — whether its hiring freelance writers or working with a
digital marketing agency that can provide strategic guidance on effective mediums (e.g.
web pages, blogs, videos, podcasts).
Allocate sufficient resources so your efforts don't end up wasted with few people visiting/interacting with the content.
7. Failing to Properly Measure Results
Getting more clicks and page views doesn't necessarily indicate an increase in conversions or sales. To effectively track your content marketing's ROI, it's important to measure key performance indicators (KPIs) beyond basic metrics.
Get a complete picture by tracking metrics like organic search engine rankings, bounce rates, average time spent on page, conversions, and engagement (e.g. shares, comments, likes).
Fix Your Content Marketing to Reach More Customers
Content marketing is an essential part of any digital marketing strategy, but it can be difficult to properly implement. It requires an understanding of the target audience, researching relevant topics, selecting the right platforms, and consistently producing high-quality content.