Not All Content Marketing Strategies Work For Everyone
It would take a lot of time for you to analyze the most common practices of content marketers. In fact, you really don’t have to make all that effort, since there are tons of online guides and insights from experts, telling you about the successful practices that the best marketers implement. The only problem is: not all of those strategies work for everyone.
If you tried following every single tip and copying all techniques that content marketers rely on, you would be up for a disaster. Truth be told, you are already aware of the most important elements of your content marketing campaign: high-quality content, consistent posting schedule, influencer marketing, and heavy promotion.
Let’s try seeing things from a different viewpoint: what you shouldn’t do! When you avoid these 5 mistakes, you’ll have a cleaner, more successful approach to content marketing.
Making Getting Viral the Single Purpose of Content Creation
Viral content means a lot for your brand. It can drive tons of visitors to your website, and it will boost the awareness in no time. A viral content marketing strategy, however, can easily go wrong. You’ve seen those articles on Distractify, with an obvious purpose behind them: the authors are trying too hard to achieve the status of viral. The only impression a normal reader can get is: they are lame.
What you should do instead:
Always focus on providing quality and value. That’s the main purpose of a content marketing campaign. Of course, you will benefit from tips and tricks that will help make an article viral, but don’t make those attempts the core of your marketing campaign. Quality always comes first, and the viral status will follow.
Playing it Safe
Do you know where missed opportunities come from? – The safe zone. When marketers keep following the same old rules, the chances of developing successful campaigns are minimal. Do you know why that’s the case? Everyone else is doing the same thing. The audience is getting used to seeing articles on “evergreen” topics, top 10 lists, and the same calls to action over and over again. Those things are important, but they will get you nowhere if you don’t find that element that makes you different.
What you should do instead:
Go big and bold with your content marketing campaign! Try developing different types of content, including infographics, gifs, gifographics, podcasts, videos, and everything else you can think of. Develop elaborate articles on topics that attract the interest of your audience. They can turn you into an authority.
Focus on telling bigger stories, and always be brave with the claims you make. That’s the only way for you to break through the crowd.
Doing Everything Alone
When content marketers try to cut down the costs of their campaigns, they are attempting to do the impossible: they turn themselves into article writers, social media managers, bloggers, guest post writers, forum members, commenters, and website maintainers. The truth is, no one could deal with such a workload. If you intend to develop a successful brand, you should be aware that there will be tons of writing and marketing involved. It is almost impossible for a single person to cope with that challenge.
What you should do instead:
Outsource! It’s the only way to success. A content marketer can write, manage social media and blogs, and promote content at the same time, but everything would be much simpler if they stay in charge of the strategy and hire a successful team to do the rest of the work.
You can find qualified writers from your niche through content writing services, such as AussieWriter. You can hire freelance social media managers through CloudPeeps, and you can easily locate talented graphic designers on Upwork.
Focusing on a Single Kind of Content
You were writing great articles, but then you realized that infographics had more potential of getting viral. Thus, you focused on publishing infographics and you abandoned all other types of content that were part of your strategy. That’s a serious mistake. Yes, a certain type of content may get you more visitors than another kind of publication, but that doesn’t mean you should turn a blog into an endless list of infographics.
What you should do instead:
Offer diversity! Some topics are great when you present them as videos. Some themes are a great foundation for an infographic, whereas other ideas would be best represented through lengthy, insightful textual guides. Think about the idea you want to convey and the type of content that’s most suitable for it.
Regardless of their personal preference, a content marketer has to think about the audience and the types of content that would engage them more and more. Some people like videos, others prefer articles and eBooks. You need to make the website a nice spot for every member of your target audience.
Your content marketing calendar has space for different types of content. It’s great to take risks and explore all opportunities your field offers, so be brave and offer something new to your audience.
Be Different; Don’t Make These Content Marketing Common Mistakes!
When you take time to plan your content marketing strategy and develop great content, you shouldn’t worry about things going downhill. The important thing to keep in mind is that you’ll inevitably make mistakes. Everyone does! However, you should keep monitoring the achievements of your campaign, identifying the mistakes, and taking proper actions to fix them. As a good start, avoid the 4 serious mistakes described above, and you’ll be on the right track to success.
Amy Cowen is a content marketing strategist who specializes in maximizing the commercial impact of the content. She manages her own team of content writers at A-Writer and contributes to different sites and blogs on marketing topics.
