Content marketing can be tricky. When it’s done well, it’s an incredible asset to build your brand, spread awareness about your business, and drive traffic to your website. When it’s done poorly, it’s a great way to quickly tarnish the reputation of your company and alienate your customers. And it’s incredibly hard to come back from lousy content marketing tactics; once you’ve lost your trust with your audience, it’s nearly impossible to gain it back. So play it safe and try to avoid the following content marketing strategies that are guaranteed to be a turnoff to your clients. Additionally, check out this post to learn more about the effective content marketing trends we expect to see throughout 2019!

 

1. Only publishing blog posts

 

 

Gone are the days when quality content only existed in blog form. In fact, nowadays people prefer looking at images and watching videos as opposed to paragraphs and paragraphs of text. So if you’re only publishing blog posts and wondering why you audience isn’t engaged, you should probably consider switching it up a little. There are TONS of varieties of content that your audience will want to consume, including: social media posts, how-to graphics, any kind of infographic, checklists, videos, memes, podcasts, animations, and more. So start thinking outside the box- your audience will thank you for it. And don’t worry, blog posts ARE still relevant, so you don’t have to completely put them to rest….but definitely add in some other types of content to your marketing strategy as well.

2. Not having a plan

 

Any content is better than no content, right? WRONG. You absolutely need to develop a solid content strategy before you begin publishing. 62% of successful content marketers have a documented strategy vs. 16% of the least successful. Additionally, 72% of content marketers who increased their level of success over the past year credit their strategy as a major contributor.

 

Your content should have direction, with goals and an end-point in mind. Your audience will know if you’re just publishing to publish, and it will be a huge turn off to them. They want quality content that will teach them something, or that will solve a problem for them. So before you start writing social media posts, making videos, or publishing blogs, consider these important questions:

  • Who is this content for? Who will find it most relevant?
  • How will my audience benefit from this content?
  • What do I want my audience to do once they’ve consumed this content?

 

Your content strategy should be based on both the needs of your business and the needs of your consumers, so spend some time evaluating both before you start clicking “post”.

3. Focusing only on clicks

 

You’ve seen the clickbait headlines, and how many times have you fallen victim to them only to find out that the content they link to is in no way related to the headline? It’s frustrating, and it’s a major turn-off to your audience. While it is important to write a catchy and engaging headline, it’s more important follow up the headline with quality content. All it takes is a couple sub-par posts to sever a relationship with your consumers; if you post a few click-bait blog posts it won’t matter how many quality posts you publish down the line- your audience isn’t going to trust you, and they’re not going to click.

 

Ultimately, clicks don’t equal conversions. So it doesn’t matter if you get a million clicks on a spammy post- it’s not going to result in a million conversions. If you’re getting clicks but no conversions, you need to reevaluate the quality of the content you’re publishing. Do more research into your audience and ask yourself the 3 important questions listed above.

 

4. Making sales your main goal

 

Hard-selling content is popular with business owners, but not with consumers. People don’t want to feel like they’re being sold to; they want to feel like they’re valued by a business. While using an obvious, “salesy” call to action is a good way to get an immediate ROI, it’s not a good way to develop a long term relationship with your audience. Consumers want to see how a product will fit in with their lives- how will it make their life easier, or solve their problems. So instead of overselling a product, try spending your time educating your audience on its benefits. Personalize your pitch to speak to them, explain how your product (and your content) makes sense for them, and then listen to their feedback. If they’re saying “no”, don’t try to sell harder- listen to the reasons behind why they’re saying no, and then come up with alternative solutions.

 

5. Publishing content with poor design

 

The design of your content is just as important as the content itself; if a consumer can’t find it, or read it, they’re going to move on. Immediately. There’s too much good content out there to spend time trying to read a post with too many popups or broken links. So put some thought into how your content looks and not just about how it reads. You’ll want to avoid the following content design mistakes:

  • Bad image/text ratio
  • Broken links
  • Missing contact info
  • Too many popups/overlays
  • Complicated contact request forms
  • Fake reviews

 

In conclusion…

Avoid these spammy content marketing tactics and you won’t have to worry about losing trust with your audience; they’ll be happy to consume your content and they’ll reward you with conversions from your website, mobile, email marketing and more. Best practices are considered “best” for a reason; stick with them and take the time to figure out what works best for your company, and your audience. It will be worth it, I promise. And if you’re worried your business doesn’t have the budget to be successful a content marketing, be sure to check out this post!

 

Can you think of any bad content marketing tactics that we should add to the list? Comment in the section below!

 

feature image credit: business.linkedin.com