October is here at last, and the witching hour of Halloween spooks and specters is drawing near. As I began to write, I figured there was no better time to address one of the most frightening aspects of many business’s marketing strategies:
Bad content management.
Yes, friends, your improperly conducted content strategy is a menace right up there with chainsaw madmen and bloodthirsty vampires. And possibly even worse—Freddy Krueger might be a crazed maniac, but he can’t put a dent in your ROI the way an un-optimized blog can.
In the spirit of Halloween, just think of your poor content management as a horror movie slasher working their way through your material, chopping away any value that your blogs may have once had. Fortunately, your content woes have solutions, provided you have the will to confront them.
Let’s review some of the worst habits that are holding your content back:
1. You Don’t Have Goals
You’re not setting sail without your map, are you?
Clearly defined goals are the framework that your content strategy is based on. Before you even THINK about creating, you must establish the purpose of your content, your proposed outreach options, and your plan for delivering it. Many marketers have found success in this area by keeping their goals SMART:
- Specific – Clearly identifying who is involved and what you want to accomplish.
- Measurable – Goals aren’t much use if you can’t track their progress.
- Attainable – Your goals should be within reach, yet should still challenge you to push yourself.
- Relevant – Are your goals aligned with your future plans for your business?
- Timely – Goals should have an established time frame.
2. You Don’t Know Your Market
Even with structured goals, you can’t expect to deliver content of quality if you’re unsure of who you’re writing for. It’s scary how many content strategists blindly post material without considering whether their market will actually find it useful.
The point of content marketing, after all, isn’t to generate views or build a following—it’s to provide something of value to the people taking the time out of their day to read what you write. And at its core, providing value to your audience is what marketing is all about. Research your user base to learn who’s reading and why they’re reading to better tailor your outreach to their needs.
To paraphrase a great man:
3. Your Content Isn’t Customized
Content is good. Personalized content is better.
Ninety-four percent of businesses agree that personalized content is essential to marketing success, yet over half (56 percent) of the companies surveyed admitted to not customizing their web experience for visitors. Personalizing your content means actively applying the knowledge we gained from our above market research to create material that proactively addresses the pain points of your readers.
Customization can do wonders for building brand engagement, retention, and loyalty—don’t try to sneak by with generalized material.
4. You Haven’t Done Your Research
Yes, unfortunately, you should really do your homework before you begin crafting your content.
This research can translate into broad-strokes concepts like segmenting your market into demographics for more targeted content creation (as we just discussed), but it also relates to another practice essential to getting your material found—SEO.
While it’s a little old-fashioned, Search Engine Optimization is still a necessary part of your content creation. Several strategies to include here involve:
- Performing keyword research to see which phrases are commonly searched for by your audience and strategically including them where applicable.
- Optimizing your site for maximum ease of use and accessibility.
- Building a library of content to increase the number of indexed pages, search visibility, and opportunities for authority-adding backlinks to your site.
5. You Think You're Finished
Biggest mistake of all. Your content strategy will never truly be “finished.”
Your goals must be continually updated to reflect the growing needs of your company. As your business scales, you’ll encounter new challenges that will require a new set of strategies to overcome. Perform an assessment of your content every once in a while to make sure what you’re producing is aligned with the goals that you’ve established for your business.
