[Ed: Arline Ramirez is our new Content Marketing Strategist. She has years of experience doing Content Strategy for the BPO industry before joining us here. Say hello!]
Content marketing has received the same attention as social media marketing. Unfortunately, this also meant some businesses are spamming the internet with content, the same way they’re flooding their social media accounts with thinly veiled promotional snippets.
Here are five ways that businesses end up sabotaging their content marketing initiative:
Misguided Objectives
C-Suite discovers this new thing called content marketing. The marketing team hires a web content writer to breathe life into a bland company website. He/she is happy to find a job that doesn’t involve a quota but soon finds out that he/she is left to generate content for content’s sake.
Businesses need to treat content as part of a long-term strategy if they want a return on investment. If not, it will be a useless, time-consuming pet project.
Lack of an Enabler
Manager X wants to boost online presence but too busy to promote the blog. Manager X keeps reminding the team about the competitor’s fancy newsletter but doesn’t help in improving the company’s own. Manager X questions the effectiveness of content but doesn’t provide any insight. Manage X pressures the online marketing team but doesn’t invest in tools. Obviously, there’s a pattern here.
The C-Suite should be invested in content marketing (and online marketing in general) if they want it to generate leads. Someone from top management should act as an enabler to ensure that initiatives are supported and sustained. Content marketing is a cycle that involves creation, promotion, and curation. Execution is everything.
Lack of Alignment
Business development is too busy poking existing clients. Sales are too busy luring new ones. The PR and Marketing team is left to make brochures. And there, in some corner, is a writer left to recycle whatever is newsworthy and trending online.
Business development should provide clear directions for the marketing team, who in turn will help the sales team to chase the right customers. All departments should exchange market research and customer intelligence with each other. As a result, the web content writer will now have something substantial to say, produce targeted content and become part of a team strategy.
Vanity Metrics
There you are, excited about showing graphs of the amazing results from your Analytics report. Line graphs soar through the PowerPoint slide. Pie graph wedges burst with colors. Then at the back, some smart-ass asks a question – how many qualified leads did we get?
It’s easy to get swept away by high social media shares, pageviews, and other metrics. But in content marketing it’s all about CTR rates and goal conversions. Never confuse hype for substance.
Blitzkrieg Promotion (or lack of it)
If you build it they will come, right? If not, let’s get the social media guy and drop links everywhere. A lot of people will see it and someone will eventually click it.
Social media outreach is like talking in a crowded room. Any well-written content can get easily overshadowed by a meme. You need to find out what works for your audience or else it will surely be a huge waste of time and resources. Likewise in blog outreach, all you can do is pitch an idea and wait for a response. You need to target the right channel to reach the target audience.
If you’re one of the businesses that managed not to commit any of these mistakes, good for you! If yes, it’s clearly time to get help from experts who will make sure that your efforts make a difference to your bottomline.
