Five frequent content marketing mistakes that can harm your digital advertising

Content marketing is an excellent thing for the promotion of your brand. Rational logic says that any brand that regularly publishes digital content can only profit from posts on digital channels.

Content marketing will help the brand connect with followers by regularly publishing blog posts, attractive social media statuses, or great newsletters aimed at followers.

However, as much as content marketing is proclaimed to be „the king of digital marketing“, it's good to notice that lousy content publishing could make an opposite effect – seriously harm your brand. This article will turn your attention to the five most frequent mistakes brands make in digital advertising.

1. Do not publish promotional content only

We know that your brand is your main concern, but the world doesn't revolve around your products or services. As Content Marketing Institute warns: „If you ignore the needs of your followers, they’ll assume you’ve got nothing for them and head elsewhere.

That's why people behind CMI recommend sticking to the 80:20 ratio in favor of native advertising when publishing on social media or digital channels. For example, dedicate most of your digital content to informing or entertaining your followers. Create content that will help solve their problems or doubts, and only a minor part of the content should be devoted to your business. A similar could be said for your blog articles, newsletters, and other digital channels.

Don't sell your products or services aggressively. Instead, stick to the native marketing approach and create stories that intrigue followers. And don't forget to define your strategy, marketing goals, and practice before you start publishing content.

2. Define your strategy, demographic, and goals before publishing

Before opening digital channels and writing blogs or publishing posts, define your marketing goals clearly. Set up a communication strategy and tone of voice. Define your target. Without that, even the best-written blog in the world will end up unnoticed since you haven't taken into account the interests of your brand's followers.

According to IBM research from 2015, around 63% of buyers think that the brand they follow doesn't understand their needs. What is even worse, there's a massive gap between brand owners' expectations and the desires of their consumers.

That's why it is essential to research consumers' habits so that you won't have to spend the time and resources of your digital marketing department in vain.

3. Be active! Publish your digital content regularly

Some sources estimate that there's around 1.8 billion web pages on the internet. Half of a billion has its blog, but only a tiny fraction of them (about 200 million) publish content regularly.

And that's what matters – regularity. Only the web pages that regularly publish their digital content get better sales results. Those inactive pages lag in popularity, SEO ranking, and relevance. For example, search Engine Journal states that companies that refresh their blog articles regularly achieve 68% pore leads per month compared to the pages that do not do so.

Also, there are three additional reasons you should always be present in digital media and conduct digital marketing activities. First, suppose you regularly publish content on your web page. In that case, you will increase organic traffic. Second, your content will be available for sharing on social media channels. Third, you will increase the SEO ranking of your page in the eyes of Google's algorithms.

4. Avoid publishing the same content on all your digital platforms

Content Marketing Institute alerts to one more frequent content marketing mistake – duplicating the same content on all brand's platforms.

Many brands publish the same content on the web, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook to save on time. And that's completely wrong.
One should always keep in mind that each digital channel is unique. It requires communication in its unique style, its particular way of addressing the fans. In addition, it has a distinctive taste for visual and verbal expression.

When publishing on LinkedIn, be more professional, informative, and serviceable. On Facebook, be casual and relaxed, play around with innovative formats like motion graphic animations, infographics, and memes. Do not write long statuses on Instagram, be visually stimulative and appealing.

Adjust the message, tone of voice, and approach to each channel separately. If you do not do that, your audience will ignore you or stop following. As a result, your email and native marketing on social media will not be as effective as they should be.

5. Put the quality in front of quality – do not churn out lousy content

Every day, tons and tons of lousy online content is being produced, and followers consume only a tiny fraction. Why is it so? Some brands want to satisfy the „SEO machine, “ so they churn out blog article by article or publish tens of social media statuses to feed the hunger of digital algorithms.

This rat race for KPI achievements is another reason why so much lousy content is being produced. Instead of, let's say, publishing 20 blog posts per month, publish only two but of superior quality.

Twenty average blog articles could cost you much more – you'll spend more money on their production and promotion, you will not make anyone interested in them, and you'll miss on the desired action of your fans.
Put your efforts into two definite blog articles instead. Write one intriguing newsletter or four great Facebook posts per month and promote them through digital marketing. Optimize their content, include an appealing CTA button, and you will get readership, engagement, and conversions.

Keep in mind that competition is solid in this regard. Search Engine Journal states that today's brands invest lots of effort in writing digital content, so they publish thoroughly researched and written blog articles and social media statuses. For example, in 2014, it took an average of 2 hours and 24 minutes for a content writer to produce a blog, while today, they spend 3 hours and 55 minutes working much more on their style and content.

As Julia McCoy says: „Producing a large amount of content that is cranked out quickly isn’t going to be high-quality, and that’s what SEO is all about – useful, relevant content that is well-written, organized, and easy to read.“

And that's not all: the list of three more frequent mistakes of content marketing

We have mentioned the five most common mistakes of content marketing that brands make. To better your promotional activities, we enlist three more you should avoid:

• You are neglecting email marketing. There's no medium with better ROI than a newsletter (marketing). Search Engine Journal informs that 1 US dollar of investment in a powerfully written newsletter returns 42 dollars of ROI! So, don't neglect such an effective and cheap medium.
• You are expecting that content marketing will bring you quick results. Let us remind here about Dave Gerhardts' quality insight: „Blogging for your business is an investment, not a get rich quick scheme.“ It means that you should be patient and regular in publishing content. It would be best to build your reputation and trust with followers slowly over time to build a fan base of loyal buyers and clients. Do it step by step, be consistent, stick to the quality, and you will get success.
• You are avoiding digital analytical tools at hand. 

  Everything is measurable in digital marketing. So, do not hesitate to test whatever you produce regarding your content. Monitor which Facebook posts perform the best among fans what types of blog articles bring excellent web traffic. Some results will surely surprise you, but be open-minded and adjust your strategy and content plan to developments. Change the style and approach if necessary and start with the testing again. Finally, after a couple of trials, you'll come up with the success formula!

If your efforts still do not yield results for some reason, feel free to contact our content marketing experts, who will help you with the advice and support.

Further reading material:
httpshttps://contentmarketinginstitute.com/articles/digital-content-mistakes-hurt-brand
https://www.coredna.com/blogs/content-marketing-mistakes
https://www.drift.com/blog/six-things-we-learned-about-content-marketing/
https://www.searchenginejournal.com/common-marketing-mistakes/415511/#close