The aim of any content marketing campaign is to spark your customers’ interest without making them feel like they are at a used-car dealership. Content marketing combines media, text and graphics to draw in potential customers by giving them information they feel they need in their lives. Any type of sales pitch is guaranteed to chase potential customers away. Here are some things to avoid when developing a content marketing strategy:
- Writing fluffy content. Fluff is always fluff, no matter how you look at it. Your customers will recognize unusable filler information right away and will be turned off by it.
- Not having a clean marketing plan or strategy. This is a killer mistake because your content marketing will not be focused. Having a clear plan will make everything easier in the long run and will give yourself a template from which to work.
- Self-aggrandizement is something your potential customers do not want to read. Avoid bragging about yourself at all costs. Instead, focus your content on your business and why your business is relevant to your customer.
- Not understanding your target audience. Your target audience should be your biggest fans. Therefore, your writing and marketing should cater to their interests and needs. Think about what would be interesting to your target audience and provide content that will attract them to your site.
- Not recruiting other people to help you with your site. Often you have very talented people right under your nose who have vested interests in the success of your marketing strategy. Bring them in and allow them to contribute to the content and/or blogs.
- Impersonal, completely professional talk. This turns casual readers off. There will be a great number of people in your target audience who will come to your site and read your blog casually. While you should not brag about yourself, telling stories from your life and experiences that are relevant to your target audience is very interesting reading and will bring your readers back.
- Being too unprofessional or casual. You need to sound like you understand what you are talking about on your own site. Do so in a conversational tone, but maintain your knowledgeable voice as well. Your readers need to feel that you have experience and know what you are talking about.
- Keyword stuffing. Keywords are important, but if they sound artificial in your posts, people will notice. Absolutely pay attention to SEO, but don’t overuse keywords. They need to fit naturally.
- Not paying attention to the advantages of social media. If readers find your content useful, they will want to share it, but if it’s difficult to share, you’ll have a problem. Make sure to include links and buttons for sharing under each post.
- Letting content get stale over time. When you write for a while, you can run out of ideas. If this happens, it’s time to recruit guest bloggers. Guest bloggers can introduce new ideas, have new takes on your topic and add new voices.
Successful content marketing is clearly a balancing act between making people understand how much they need your product and making people feel like you are not out to hard sell. It’s important to remember that people dislike being pushed into buying something. However, if they are gently convinced that they can’t live without your product or that they really should try it, they will eagerly buy. Therefore, be sure to edit, edit, edit; revise, revise, revise; and always keep your content fresh and interesting to your potential customers.
77 Secrets to Writing Winning Sales Copy that SELLS
Discover 77 insider secrets used by the world's greatest copywriters to write powerful money-making sales letters, emails, and advertisements.
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