Content marketing is a great way to increase traffic to your website.
Whether your business has a brick-and-mortar location or is entirely online, increasing traffic to your website helps to drive sales and increase awareness of your product, services, or cause.
With more than 600 billion websites active online, and that number increasing every day, competition online is tough.
Content marketing makes it easier by focusing your online approach and helping you rank well on search engines. But if you aren’t familiar with the content marketing process, it can be tough to get started.
Rather than learning by trial and error and wasting your time and resources, check out this list of nine mistakes to avoid when starting the content marketing process.
1. Focusing on quantity over quality
When you’re just getting started with the content marketing process, it can be tempting to try to crank out tons of content all at once.
But trying to produce too much too quickly is likely to cause sloppy work.
Your content will be unfocused, the information is unlikely to be in depth, and your pieces may be full of grammar and spelling mistakes.
Your readers won’t mind having less to read if they get more out of the content that you produce.
2. Not narrowing your keyword choices
One of the most important parts of the content marketing process is choosing keywords.
You’ll then sprinkle these keywords throughout your content. Doing so effectively is great for SEO. You need to make sure that your keywords are narrow enough to make it possible for you to rank well on search engines.
For instance, if you owned a restaurant, choosing only the keywords “Italian,” “pasta,” and “family-friendly” won’t do you much good. There are likely thousands of family-friendly Italian restaurants around the world that serve pasta.
Instead, you need some keywords that narrow the information further, like a location. It would be much easier to rank for the keywords “Italian,” “pasta,” and “Cincinnati.”
3. Only utilizing one medium
Your content marketing strategy is going to include a lot of written content. But mixing it up can be a great way to keep visitors to your website entertained.
Short videos are a great way to generate interest. In fact, 76.4 percent of marketers and small business owners reported that video content directly impacted their business’ success.
Another great medium is infographics. Visitors to your site will love to share these, spreading your company’s message even further.
4. Not watching the competition
The world of marketing is constantly changing. Your content marketing process should also stay adaptable.
Keep your content fresh. It’s a good idea to stay up to date on changes in the marketing industry, as well as in the industry that your company is focused on.
Pay attention to the type of content that seems to get a lot of shares on social media. Read comments that followers leave on competitors pages, including both positive and negative feedback. Then, use this information to adapt your own approach to creating content.
Then, use this information to adapt your own approach to creating content.
5. Giving up if results are slow
The content marketing process won’t provide instant results.
Creating great content and growing the number of visitors to your site takes time. Stick with it and continue creating quality content, and the results will come.
6. Only focusing on selling your product or service
Even though the object of your website is to sell a product or service, your content shouldn’t scream that.
Instead, your content should be something that your followers want. Answer their questions, offer them advice or how-tos, or tell them an interesting story.
Make sure that your content is related to your industry, and find ways to mention your company without sounding like a sales pitch. If visitors to your site enjoy the content that you are producing, they’ll stay on your website, and eventually, learn about your product or service through their searching.
7. Not utilizing social media
One of the best ways to spread your message is through social media. But while most companies have a Facebook, Twitter, and sometimes an Instagram account as well, they don’t always use it to effectively spread their message.
Create a content marketing plan that is universal across your website and social media platforms. When you post new content on your site, make sure it’s shared on your social media pages.
That way, your followers will see that you have something new to offer, and are likely to go to your website. It also allows your followers to share your content, giving you some free advertising.
8. Neglecting the details
This tip may seem like a no-brainer. But many companies get so caught up in the content marketing process and improving SEO that they neglect the tiny details.
Having spelling or grammar mistakes in your content is an easy way to lose followers. It makes your company look unprofessional, and ruins all of the hard work you put into researching and crafting your content.
9. Not learning what works
How many people visit your website each day and what they look at while they’re there can help you see what works and what doesn’t.
Tracking this information is easy with the right software. You’ll get a simplified view of your traffic and patterns on your site. Create more of the content that gets a lot of views, and try improving the pages that don’t.
Starting the content marketing process
Now that you know the mistakes to avoid while developing your content marketing strategy, you’re ready to get started.
One of the easiest ways to make sure that your content marketing strategy is as strong as it can be is by getting help from a professional.
Riserr can help. Their professional digital marketing services can help take your company’s online presence to the next level. They’ll help you connect with your customers and deliver the quality content that they expect.
If your website is still in the design phase, Riserr also offers professional web design services to help you get started!
