Did you know only 30% of content marketers say their content marketing strategy is effective? As a content marketer, you need to connect with your audience in order to be successful. But many marketers aren’t aware that they’re turning their customers off with some of their techniques. Not sure if you’re part of this group of marketers? Here are some of the content marketing tactics that may be causing a disconnect between your customers and your brand.

Focusing on You and Not Your Customer

The customer should be at the forefront of your content marketing strategy. However, many marketers focus too much on their own brand instead of worrying about the needs of their audience. The purpose of content marketing is to provide useful content that benefits your customers. Your content should focus on the customer first, and your brand last.

It’s easy to create content that surrounds your brand’s interests. That information is great, but is it what your audience wants to see? If your customers don’t want to see this information, it’s doing nothing for your brand. Start every piece of content, whether it be a blog or white paper, with your customers’ interests in mind.

Not sure what your customer wants from you? These strategies will get you started:

  • Ask! At the end of your blog posts, ask your audience which topics they’d like to see from you.
  • Look at the blog comments. If you create a piece on a topic, chances are your audience will want to learn more. They’ll let you know in the comment section.
  • Investigate which keywords your audience and those within your industry are searching for. This helps you develop your content strategy around hot topics.
  • Utilize your analytic software. Which pieces of content are working better than others? This is a great indication of what you should focus on.

Putting Selling Above Everything Else

The whole purpose of any marketing strategy is to sell. You know this, and your customer knows this. But when you’re creating content, it shouldn’t be blatantly obvious that you’re trying to sell your products or services to your audience. Your first goal should be to educate your customers. Here are a few tips to help you create content that isn’t focused on selling:

  • Focus on education first.
  • Wait until the end of your piece for your CTA.
  • Establish trust with your audience before trying to sell them anything.

PayPal’s blog is a great example of this. Instead of trying to sell their customers their services and products, they’re instead creating blog posts that inform and educate their customers on the things they care about.

Over-Optimization

Content marketing is one of the best ways to boost your SEO strategy. However, there is a fine line between using SEO correctly and using it unnaturally. Not only will you get yourself in trouble with search engines, but your customers will take notice as well. No one wants to read an obviously keyword-stuffed blog post. Here are some of the key problems audiences may have with SEO-heavy content:

  • Too many keywords: Keyword stuffing is a no-no anyway. But if you’ve ever read a piece that’s obviously stuffed with keywords, it loses its meaning and credibility. Instead, sprinkle them throughout your content or try using keyword phrases to break up the monotony.
  • Excessive links: There’s no quicker way to lose your brand’s credibility than by inserting too many backlinks. Customers will appreciate helpful, quality links within a page. But stay away from too many links to avoid looking spammy and less credible.

Ultimately, your content should be readable to your customer. Otherwise, you’ll do yourself a disservice.

Churning Out as Much Content as Possible

Quality over quantity. This is much the case when it comes to content marketing. Brands often think if they put out a bunch of content, it’ll boost their rankings and authority in their industry. They think that putting out as much content as they can will benefit their brand, but it actually deters customers. If you share this mindset, consider switching up your game plan.

Here’s the problem with a “more, more, more” approach: it pushes customers away, and the content tends to become mediocre as time goes on. You want to provide your audience with helpful, quality content. While you may notice a boost in traffic at first, it won’t keep up for long. To avoid bombarding your audience with tons of content, update your blog regularly. However, avoid posting more than once a day. Posting once or twice a week keeps your audience updated with new information, but not overwhelmed by it.

Using Corporate Jargon

You want your brand to look as knowledgeable as possible. Sometimes content marketers think this means stuffing as many corporate terms as they possibly can within one piece of content. This isn’t the case, and it only turns your audience off. First, they may not understand some of the phrases you’re using. Second, the use of too much jargon makes it difficult to read and connect with a piece of content.

This is something you should avoid, especially if you’re in an already complicated industry, such as law. When writing your content, remember who your audience is. Keep your content conversational, yet professional. Your content should seem natural and easy to read. Your audience shouldn’t need a thesaurus to get through your content. Some questions you should ask yourself when writing and editing your content:

  • Will someone outside my industry understand this?
  • Is there a way I can simplify this piece?
  • How many buzzwords did I use in this piece of content?
  • What tone am I using in my writing?

Moving Forward

It’s easy to make these mistakes when you’re focused on bettering your brand. But the main takeaway? Focus on your audience and what they want. What are the important topics they want more information on? How are they reading your content? Learn who your audience is and cater to them—you’ll build lasting relationships with your content.