“What really decides consumers to buy or not to buy is the content of your advertising, not its form.” — David Ogilvy
The above quote is so true in the marketing world. Talk about the X factor of marketing and it is the Content. Be it a small business or a large sector, content marketing is true to all.
94% of small businesses, 93% of B2Bs, and 77% of B2Cs use content marketing.
But does that mean that they are successful? No, not at all.
Wondering where they could have gone wrong or what would have pulled them down? There are specific reasons for it and few changes definitely, make a significant impact on the brand.
Here are 4 solid reasons why your content marketing strategy is not working anymore:
#1. Wrong Content Marketing Strategy
If you have been relaxing thinking that you have a marketing strategy, and it would fetch you results, hold on, ask you yourself, “Did you redefine your strategy?”
Most of the times the content marketing strategies go wrong as it is not redefined and documented.
In a survey, it was revealed that in B2B segment of all the successful marketers, 66% have text content strategy and of all the unsuccessful marketers, 11% have documented content strategy.
The remaining ones do not have any clear strategies. The strategy lack:
A. Consistency:
Content Marketing Strategies aren’t one time. You need to be consistent in publishing your content. If a single post fetches you 100 views, ensure that it is 2 posts per day. Increase your posts to increase your views is a tested formula.
B. Call To Action:
You need to trigger your visitors to take some actions. It could be in the form of subscribing your blogs, filling up the contact form, making a purchase and so on. Remember, the motto behind increasing your traffic is to convert them into leads. Add words like Subscribe, Book Now, Register now, Contact us and so on.
There are brands that have used content marketing effectively, yet they couldn’t achieve great results. Let us have a look at some of the brands that had created a stir with wrong content Marketing strategies:
1.Malaysian Airlines:
It was in the year 2014 when Malaysia Airlines had to face two flight disasters. Still, the company came up with a contest called ‘Australia/NZ’. It created a campaign requesting people to send their bucket list to win free prizes. Well, that was not the right time to create such a campaign. Certainly, the content marketing failed and left a negative mark on the brand.
2. Nesquik:
There are times when all your campaigning efforts go futile irrespective of having a great content? Happened with Nesquik.
Nesquik launched a marketing campaign wherein it created an app to give the photos chocolate bunny ears and a push for a new National Bunny Ears Day.
Guess what? It failed terribly! Because people didn’t know about the National Bunny Ears Day and so weren’t interested in downloading the app. Thought the content strategy was unique, and it impressed the marketers, the campaign as a whole failed.
These are just a couple of examples where content marketing strategies went completely wrong.
#2. You aren’t SEO focused
Both SEO and content marketing go hand-in-hand. You cannot ignore either of them. What is the use of writing a unique content when people are unable to find it?
It is the role of SEO to present your content to the readers. Do not write the content as per SEO, write it as per the topic and the way your audience would want it to be. Once you have created an excellent content, opt for Search Engine Optimization.
Check the keywords and add it as and when required. Keep the keyword density between 2% – 5%. No overstuffing, please!
Focus on the title, meta description, and keywords. Hyperlink the keywords with your website link. Thus, if you have ignored SEO, content marketing is futile.
#3. You do not Spend on Content Marketing
Nothing comes free, yes you read it right! If you want better results, you need to shell out some cash exclusively on Content Marketing.
Yes, content marketing is expensive, but if you want a better ROI, investment is a must. What do you do when you participate in a Formula 1 car race? You spend money, right?
The same rule applies to marketing.
B2B companies with strategic content marketing generate 67% more leads than those companies who do not have a strategic content.
You need to plan your strategies and find out where you need to spend.
#4. Creating Low and Thin Content
One of the primary reasons why content marketing goes wrong is due to the quality of the content. Content Marketing is just not about content creation but quality content creation. If you have word constraint or have hired inexpensive writers, the quality is sure to be affected. You might be happy by negotiating with the writer but is your content worth your negotiation deal?
Plagiarism is another issue which pulls down the content. Also, thin content will ward away the visitors as it is written just for the heck of writing.
Ensure you have the writers who work on creating unique and relevant content (Yes, it takes time to create wonderful content).
Make sure your content is free of jargons and grammatical errors. It should not only be relevant and interesting but equally lucid.
Do not by any means take content marketing as a lighter affair. Business and competitions are synonymous and if you want to be noticed, you need to plunge into your content marketing strategies.
Those as mentioned above are a few reasons why your content marketing isn’t working for you and fetching you tangible results. Other possible reasons affect content marketing. You need to figure it exclusively out for your brand and work on it.
Increase your ROI (Return On Investment) by working on these factors and see the difference. Content Marketing will soon become your biggest strength.
Let us know your feedback.
