These 5 content marketing mistakes can either make or break your campaign. Are you making them?

1. Moving forward without a strategy.

This is a very common mistake that can leave you spending a lot of time and effort put into content that does not convert. Before you even start to write your content, you want to understand how each piece will fit into your big picture strategy. Who are you trying to reach?

• Creating personas will help you to better understand who your customers are. Once you have your personas defined, you will need to have a plan for:

• Offering them value in order to gain trust A product or service to help them solve their problem or fulfill a need and/or want

• An understanding of what content will motivate them to want to sign up for more information or go directly to your product page to make a purchase.

Once you have your strategy you will need to understand which KPIs will help you measure your strategy’s success.

2. Focusing on the quantity of the content and not the quality.

Each content piece should be focused on building trust, increasing engagement, and ultimately converting the reader into a customer. It’s better to write 5 really valuable pieces of content rather than write 100 pieces of content that contain keyword stuffed, multi-subject fluff. Key elements that your content should be:

• Unique Content: Remember that you are building trust with your reader. They want to know what you think, not read someone else’s content and opinions. Make sure that each piece that you write is your take on the topic and that the information is relatable to the product or service that you are selling.

• Properly Optimized for SEO: Remember to avoid keyword stuffing and only use links to promote your product or service when relevant. Internal linking can be used strategically to ensure that a reader doesn’t leave the page before the call to action.

• Focus on the Topic. Make sure that you stick to the topic. If your topic is complex and can be broken down so that it is easier to understand, do so. Multiple posts on one subject help a reader will gain more trust than one large post on many different topics or one that strays.

• Avoid Fluff. Get to your point and guide the reader to the call of action while doing so, so that they will be inclined to convert. You want to keep your reader’s attention and keep them focused on your solution to their problem, fulfilling their need and/or want.

3. Focus on the buyer, not your company

This is very common mistake. The goal of content marketing is to inform, education, and convert. The best way to do this is to focus on the buyer’s needs and wants and provide them a solution to their problem. That, in itself, will make your company stand out and tell your customers that you care about them.

4. Forgetting the Call to Action

This is more common of a mistake than you may think. Content marketing pieces can easily be mistaken for blog posts by both the writer and the reader without a call to action included. Your content should not give everything away for free, just enough to offer them some value, gain their trust, and then explain how your product or service is what they are looking for. You want to add the call to action where appropriate and where it does not take away from the reader’s experience.

For example, if you offer an ebook on the topic that goes into more detail than your content piece does, be sure to link it where appropriate. Remember, your goal is to turn a reader into a lead so that you can ultimately convert them into a customer. Place your call to action where it’s relevant in the text in order to increase your content’s conversion rate.

5. Dismissing Distribution

Aside from everything that we just covered, without distribution your content will not reach your target audience. Be sure to distribute your content to relevant social media profiles and when possible include them in your paid campaigns. Getting your content out to the right eyes will increase your chances of getting a lead or customer.

Your expect your content marketing to bring in new business but it can’t do much for you if your strategy isn’t aligned to your customer personas.

Want to create your own customer personas? Download our free marketing persona templates to quickly create personas for your business.