Are you incapable of obtaining good results doing content marketing, do you consider that this technique does not work?
You should know that this strategy helps to get three times more customers than PPC ads, according to the Content Marketing Institute.
To make matters worse, this same source found that almost half of the companies (42%) have a professional specialized in the development and programming of contents related to their brand.
However, to say that all e-commerce can succeed by doing content marketing is a lie. Not everyone dominates this little art.
To tell the truth, there are many mistakes in content marketing that companies make. Undervaluing customer interests, using bad practices such as Clickbait or underestimating the importance of SEO or mobile-friendly design stand out among them.
To develop a brilliant content marketing strategy, following the example of professionals is inspiring.
But it can also be instructive to study the mistakes of others. Below we will delve into a selection of common mistakes in content marketing.
What are the most common mistakes in content marketing?
Did you know that the most common formats used for content marketing are blogs, social networks and case studies?
Whichever format you use to develop your strategy, you should avoid making the following mistakes:
Produce content without setting goals and objectives
As in any other marketing strategy, it is important to work with defined goals and objectives.
How many e-commerce visits do you want to generate per month, how many subscribers, how many conversions derived from content marketing? Before starting a campaign, we must answer these questions with something more ‘many’ or ‘as many as possible’.
The need to set short, medium and long term goals has a purpose in itself: to record useful data in the present, to compare it with past data and thus determine if we are improving our performance.
Disregarding the client’s interests
Another of the mistakes in content marketing to avoid is to forget about the users. Certain corporate blogs abuse postblogs focused on their insiders and the culture of the company.
Although small doses of backstage can generate interest, it should never be the backbone of a content marketing strategy.
In addition, blogging and other content marketing strategies have a strong customer orientation – you need to know their interests and concerns!
For example, if your e-commerce sells orthopedic shoes, you must generate content related not only to the benefits of these products. It should also focus on foot care with bunions and other ailments.
And yet a large number of companies make this mistake. According to a study by Rapt Media, 5 out of 10 users (55%) claim not to be interested in branded content because of its lack of relevance and value.
Betting on Clickbait and forgetting about quality
Digital yellowing has a name and it’s called Clickbait.
In content marketing, more clicks mean more sales opportunities. Therefore, it is not surprising that certain brands bet on using Clickbait titles and approaches.
But this is a very damaging practice for the reputation of e-commerce, especially when it coincides with a lack of quality. Undoubtedly, one of the biggest mistakes in content marketing.
On the other hand, e-commerce must abandon the commercial tone in formats such as blog or social networks. Instead of trying to sell something, they should strive to add value to their readers.
Undervaluing mobile consumers
The progression of mobile traffic has been impressive! According to Statista’s data, 27.1% of internet users connected from mobiles in 2014.
Less than three years later, this percentage had exceeded 50%. Today more than half of online consumers use mobiles and tablets to surf.
It would therefore be a mistake to forget these users when designing content marketing campaigns. First of all, your ecommerce should be mobile friendly, but also your blog and other initiatives should be compatible with mobiles and tablets.
Underestimating the importance of SEO
Various studies have shown the importance of SEO traffic versus paid traffic.
Users are more inclined to click on organic results than on PPC ads. On the other hand, SEO is part of the very essence of content marketing. Therefore, underestimating its importance would have a negative impact on any marketing campaign.
Do not publish evergreen content
Universality is a quality sought by all brands in their products.
Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and other giants want their product offerings to never go out of style. Let the new generations be delighted with the same intensity as the previous ones.
In the same way, content marketing specialists try to make their strategies have a lasting impact over time. However, many of them underestimate evergreen content.
This type of content is characterized by having an unlimited useful life, as opposed to initiatives based on specific dates or temporary fashions.
Forgetting to measure and optimise results
The importance of setting specific goals and objectives has been mentioned above. In this sense, another of the most frequent errors in content marketing is forgetting to measure the results obtained.
This is a failure that shows a great negligence, and must be avoided at all costs.
It is important to know everything about user behaviour in the app, blog or content marketing format used: subscriptions, e-commerce visits, click rate, bounce rate, average reading time, etc.
These data are valuable because they ‘tell’ us about the success or failure of the strategy used!
But it is not enough to measure results: they must also be optimised. For example, if certain content has few visits and rebound rates above average, the message will be clear: they do not interest or add value to users. What to do? Discard such content in the future.
In short, these and other errors in content marketing must be studied carefully to avoid making them in the future.