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Failure is like the “he who must not be named” of the business realm. Every business owner wants to distance themselves from it. There will always be those on the wrong end of the table. One of the quickest ways to be on the wrong end is through content marketing.
The marketing narrative is no longer traditional as we have always known it. Content marketing is now the new face of branding and businesses are grabbing it with both hands. However, as promising as content marketing is, some businesses just can’t determine how to maximize it. So, why do these businesses suck at executing a successful content marketing plan?
Related: 5 Steps to Creating a Content Marketing Strategy That Actually Works
Content marketing and its core role in business
Content marketing is a strategy for creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to your target audience and generating more leads. There is more to content marketing for businesses than meets the eye. Technology has made content marketing become ever so prominent in marketing, enabling businesses to reach a wider audience.
One of the most important roles of content marketing is to educate your target audience. That’s where the creating helpful and informative content bit comes in. With so many things vying to take away your audiences’ attention, informative content will help you grab it, demonstrate your expertise and build trust with potential customers.
In today’s marketplace, where competition is the name of the game, standing out is a necessity. Content marketing is how you can achieve that, as it differentiates your business from the competition. It helps you showcase your unique perspective and voice such that when your target audience reads your content, they get a sense of what makes your business different — and why they should choose you over your competitors.
Related: Why Content Marketing Is Crucial to Your Business
Why your content execution plan is failing (and how to fix it)
Now, you must be wondering why some businesses still fail to execute their content marketing plan if it holds this many promises and benefits. Your content execution plan might be failing for a variety of reasons. But, whatever the reason, if your content execution plan keeps lacking, it’s important to take a step back and figure out why. Once you identify the problem, you can put a plan to fix it and get your content strategy back on track.
Below are five reasons why your content execution plan keeps failing and how to fix them.
1. Poor content quality
One of the most common reasons why content execution plans fail is poor content quality. If your content isn’t well-written, researched, or relevant to your target audience, it will not perform well. According to Pestle Analysis, buyers don’t consider brands with poor content quality, thereby decreasing the probability of a sale by 40%. You sure don’t want that happening to your business.
To fix this problem, start by raising the standards for what kind of content you publish. Make sure all of your content is thoroughly researched and well-written. It’s okay to outsource your content to a professional content writer to get the job done. It may take some time to come together, but it will pay off and yield the desired results when done right.
2. Undocumented content marketing strategy
Without a content marketing strategy, your content will lack direction and you’ll likely see little results. Content marketing never works on “spraying and praying” that it reaches your target audience. Unfortunately, when you do not have a documented content strategy, you are failure bound. Having a documented content strategy is very important. It contributes to 66% of successful businesses with content marketing.
To fix this, you should focus on knowing your content audience and channeling it to them. Discover what content they love and how they like to consume it. Do they prefer it in blog posts, videos or infographics?
Take the time to develop a strong content marketing strategy. It will save you time and effort in the long run.
Related: Here’s How to Improve Your Business’s Content Marketing
3. Inconsistency in your content flow
Content inconsistency can be a major issue for businesses, especially regarding their online presence. You can not make a series of posts on your social media pages and then go into ghost mode for the next two or three weeks. That’s not how content marketing works. It will confuse your customers and decrease your search engine rankings. Therefore, businesses need to have processes and strategies in place to ensure that their content is consistent across all channels.
Successful content marketers create at least one piece of content every day. The more content you have on your social media pages and website, your audience becomes more engaged. To fix this, consistency is important and should be prioritized.
4. SEO keyword deficient
When your SEO keywords are poor, they can affect your website’s ranking in search engines. There are many aspects of search engine optimization you should be looking out for and principles to adhere to. Not paying attention to them will result in a negative outcome for your content marketing.
Instead, focus on using well-researched and relevant keywords that will help improve your website’s visibility on search engine results pages. Tools such as SEMRush, BuzzSumo, Google Analytics Keyword Planner and others will come in handy to bridge that gap.
5. Not having patience in the process
Content marketing is everything a business could wish for, but it will not happen overnight. It is a process that takes time to come together. If you are looking for some instant returns, paid ads are what you should be looking at. As far as content marketing is concerned, it takes weeks and months to deliver results. Thus, to thrive with it, you must have patience with the process.
To overcome this hurdle, give your content marketing process time to grow and yield results. When done right, content marketing will yield results long after it is distributed.
The wrap-up
Knowing where you are with your content marketing is also as important as knowing where you are going. Content marketing may be a long way home, but it is certain to bring you a successful result.
While success is what every business owner yearns for, measuring success alone will only seem like a mirage until you figure out what factors are positioning you toward it. Pay attention to know what works and what needs re-addressing.
Once your goals are set, and there is a content strategy in place to execute it, you will have gone one step better than those whole fail with their content marketing game.
