Why Your Content Marketing Strategy Is Failing: Key Mistakes to Avoid

Content Marketing DiagramI want to ask you to look at the diagram above, for just a few seconds.

Have you done it?

Now I want to ask, is that how you do your content marketing campaign?

If I’m going to make a wild guess, I think “No” is probably your answer. And if I’m going to be really frank with you, this is also why your content marketing campaign is failing.

In this article, I would like to tell you about the step-by-step process of content marketing and the importance of each. You’ll also find misconceptions of many people about content marketing and how to avoid them. Hopefully, by the end of this post, you’ll realize that as much as content marketing is fun and effective among any other online marketing strategies, it also requires time and patience.

Reason #1: You think you can write whatever topic you like

Sure you can, it’s your blog anyway. But if you’re aiming for visitors, take time to plan for your topics. You can’t write random topics and expect your traffic to spike.

Here’s how you should do it:

Step One Topic Creation

Option 1: Follow the skyscraper technique

If you’re not familiar with it yet, you may check it here or here.

You can use BuzzSumo or Ahrefs Content Explorer to look for topics that are already gaining good numbers of traffic and social shares, then create a better version of it.

This technique not just expedite the process of topic creation, but also gives you a clear view of what audience are really interested in.

Option 2: Find an answer to, “what is the world asking for?

Some people assume that topics that they think are interesting are also interesting to others.

That’s why you end up writing content that only you can relate to.

You need to stop assuming and start building content that people are actually searching for.

You may browse questions in Quora where real people interact with each other. You’ll be amazed by the amount of questions people have, and how they crave for answers.

Quora Asking Questions

Once you know what people want to read, you can start writing epic content to quench their curiosity. When you’re done, don’t forget to share it on threads where you found those questions.

Reason #2: You think SEO is not important

Some marketers think that optimizing content for search engines is too technical, that SEO is only all about keyword stuffing.

Well, then, you’re missing a big chunk of success whenever you think that way.

Step Two SEO

SEO is a vital part of content marketing, hence you don’t have to overdo it.

In fact all you need is a little bit of keyword research, because let’s face it, you want to rank for keywords that people are searching for.

After that, you just need to allow yourself at least five minutes to put proper title tags, meta descriptions, slugs, alt tags for images, and interlinks.

Don’t take SEO for granted. There are tons of great content out there, but failed with putting proper meta descriptions and title tags, this diminished their chances of getting higher click-through rates.

Reason #3: You think that you’ll miraculously be viral

You might think that after hitting the ‘publish’ button that your job is over.

Heck no, you’re not even close.

You can’t write and hope that someone will notice and share your blog post. It doesn’t work that way.

Step Three Amplification

When I started blogging about my personal experiences almost a year ago, I only have two readers: myself and a friend from college.

But, my blog isn’t a diary, and no matter how random my blogs are, I still want readers – we all do.

So, I started joining communities, started asking questions and started answering questions through my blogs. That’s when good things start happening.

To amplify your content, you can:

1. Join or build community – being part of a community will not just give you an avenue to share your post, but will also help you build relationships with other bloggers or experts
2. Broadcast – share your post in all your social media accounts, as well as through e-mail.
3. Tap the same people who already shared related content – if you used BuzzSumo or Content Explorer to look for popular content, there’s an option where you could check where it’s being shared, and who’s sharing it. List it down, and start reaching out to those people.

Referring Domain

You may also check comments from the original post, and reach out to those who commented. Let them know about your remake content.

Here’s a good example of an outreach:

Outreach

This usually works because you know that you’re tapping the right people.

4. Paid advertisement – if you have the budget, it’s completely okay to advertise your content through Google AdWords or Facebook. It’s been working for us so far.
5. All of the above – it’s best to try all the options

Reason #4: You disregard analytics

Step Four Measurement

Creating topics, producing content, optimizing and amplifying it – I know, the whole process of campaign is such a tedious task, that’s why most marketers stop on the amplification part.

But measuring your success is very important, especially if you’re planning to do the same process again. You can’t keep following the same flow if you don’t have any proof that it’s working well for you.

Reason #5: You gave up too easily

Just because your efforts are not converting to high traffic or sales, doesn’t mean you should give up.

Content marketing takes time, and there will be occasions when you will need to analyze each step, find out what’s lacking. Then, there will also be times when the whole strategy wouldn’t work – at least not yet, and it’s okay.

Success doesn’t happen overnight.

When the SEO Hacker blog started mid of 2010, it didn’t have a lot of visitors.

Traffic is inconsistent.

These inconsistencies only inspired us to write better content. From 500 visits a month on 2010, now we’re getting 50, 000+ visits per month.

SEO Hacker TrafficSEO Hacker Traffic 2015It’s because giving up is not part of our vocabulary.

Conclusion

The problem with many marketers is that they look for the easiest and fastest way to market their content, while it’s not bad, let’s admit that long term benefits usually come from long and hard work.

Now, it’s time for you to share your experiences. What’s your content marketing process? Do you have any content marketing misconceptions? And were you able to avoid them? Share us your insights by commenting below!

Bonus: Check out this article by Marco Mijatovic on the 3 best blogging SEO tips by experts.

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Sean Si

About Sean

is a Filipino motivational speaker and a Leadership Speaker in the Philippines. He is the head honcho and editor-in-chief of SEO Hacker. He does SEO Services for companies in the Philippines and Abroad. Connect with him at Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. Check out his new project, Aquascape Philippines.