In my previous post, I talked about some smart things businesses can do to enliven their marketing content and make it more effective. But for every set of "dos" in the world of marketing, you'll find at least as many "don'ts." So let's take a quick look at three kinds of errors you want to avoid as you plan, create, and distribute your marketing content.
Error #1: Content Personalization Problems
Do you know your ideal customer's age range, location, and background? Do you understand that person's buying likes, dislikes, goals, and frustrations? If not, then you can't know how to direct your marketing content toward that ideal person. Before you waste too much time marketing to nobody in particular, conduct market research, gather the marketing data you already possess, and construct a buyer persona. Now you can create marketing content for that mythical individual with a reasonable chance of hitting your real-life target dead center.
How much personalization counts as too much? Yes, you should try to personalize your content so that it really speaks to your target market. But you shouldn't personalize it to the point that it sounds like you've been peeping through your audience's curtains or rummaging through their personal calendars.
Error #2: Blog Bloopers
I've said it before, and I'll say it again here: You need to blog. Businesses that maintain a blog snag 68 percent more of those lucrative leads than those businesses that just sit on their hands. not only do you need to blog, but you need to blog consistently. Maintain a regular posting schedule so your audience gets used to expecting more of that brilliant, engaging, useful content from you. Remember, if they like your posts enough, they'll share them with friends and colleagues!
On the other hand, more blog content can hurt instead of help if you throw quality out the window for the sake of sheer quantity. First, Google's search ranking algorithm gives preference to relevant, high-quality content over mass-produced garbage. Second, poor writing and off-target topics will just make you look indifferent at best and incompetent at worse to your prospective clientele.
Error #3: Lack of Content Diversity
I've been going on about blogging, but blogging doesn't represent the sum total of successful content marketing creation and distribution. If you only blog, you're missing out on the opportunities generated by other forms of marketing content such as infographics, Tweets (and other social media mini-posts), YouTube videos, case studies, white papers, eBooks, you name it. Your blog fills one channel, but you need to look at filling up at least some of these other channels as well.
I say "at least some," not "everything out there." No target audience member maintains a presence on every social media channel on Earth, so neither should your company. Remember your buyer persona? Look into that data carefully to see which channels your ideal customer most likely frequents. Then focus your own content marketing efforts on those few channels instead of wasting time and energy trying to impress the whole world. You don't need the whole world; you just need the people who will buy from you.
I've just scratched the surface here, but you get the idea. If you need help creating the right content for the right viewers, contact me and apply my professional writing services toward your marketing success!
