Top Ten Content Marketing Mistakes by Angela Booth

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Slide Notes

Content marketing looks so easy. Sadly, it's also easy to make expensive -- in time wasted, opportunity wasted, and money wasted -- mistakes.

Luckily, all those mistakes have fixes.

(c) 2015, Angela Booth.

Help with content marketing: http://angelabooth.com/

Top Ten Content Marketing Mistakes

Published on Nov 06, 2015

You need a content marketing strategy, otherwise you risk making too many mistakes. Those mistakes can be expensive in time, money, and energy. Let's look at easy fixes for the most common mistakes. Once you've got the mistakes fixed, you can develop a strategy which helps you to make content work for you.

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

Mistake 1. Thinking it's all about SEO

Fix: Content marketing is MARKETING - integrate content into your marketing plan

SEO is important, but marketing is much more important. The days of "top ten search engine results " are over, and thank goodness for that.

Your content marketing both supports and enhances all your marketing: use the wonderful opportunities you have to get closer to all your audiences, including your customers.

Mistake 2. No content strategy

Fix: Develop objectives, set goals, and create plans

If you don't know where you're going, you could end up anywhere. You can't get results without a strategy.

Adjust your strategy as you get feedback.

Photo by marfis75

Mistake 3. Wasting content opportunities

Fix: Add calls to action to content

Although your Calls to Action (CTAs) seem obvious to you, they're not obvious to others.

Your customers won't know what to do if you don't tell them.

Photo by cmaccubbin

Mistake 4. Content for "everyone"

Fix: Create personas for your audiences

Who's your content for? You have various audiences:

* People who are new to your kind of services and need information;

* People who are ready to buy a service you provide;

* People who've purchased from you, and need help with the service they purchased.

Create a persona (personality) to represent each of your content's audiences.

Photo by 55Laney69

Mistake 5. Not knowing what's working

Fix: Find ways to track and measure

Your website's analytics are a simple way to track your content marketing when you're starting out.

Later, you may want additional information. There are many companies which provide services to track your marketing.

Review results, and make adjustments as needed.

Photo by Andreanna Moya Photography

Mistake 6. Not encouraging participation

Fix: Engage with your audience

You can encourage participation in obvious ways, with surveys, polls, and contests.

Look for ways which work for your business. Talk to customers. When was the last time you spoke to someone who purchased something from you?

Encourage content consumers to engage with you. Encourage reviews, comments, and questions.

Photo by griangrafanna

Mistake 7. Not pitching your content

Fix: Create media-worthy content and pitch it

You can promote your content, and you should.

Also, consider whether any of your content is newsworthy. Is it funny, or important in some way? Could you create media-worthy content?

Although newspapers have diminished in recent years, press attention is still powerful.

Photo by NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Mistake 8. Not telling stories

Fix: Engage with customers to find stories

Storytelling works. Check your customers' stories.

Could you create heroes from customers and share their stories?

Photo by meshmar2

10.

Mistake 9. All alone: do everything yourself

Fix: Get everyone in your company involved

Content marketing takes time. You can't devote all your time to it, so get everyone involved.

Brainstorm ways to create content, then share out the creation.

Consider user-generation content too.

11.

Mistake 10. No content diversity

Fix: Diversify your content: images, audio, video, text

Aim to create a variety of content, to keep people interested, and to reach more people.

Make a list of content types you could create, and ask your colleagues for ideas and contributions.

12.

Need content advice?

Contact Angela for a marketing audit, and a content strategy which works for you.

Angela Booth wrote one of the first books on making the Internet work for your business way back in the 1990s.

Today, she develops content ranging from books to advertising.

Every company is different. Get a marketing audit today; it's the foundation of a content marketing strategy which works for you.

Contact Angela at: http://angelabooth.com/

(c) 2015, Angela Booth.