6 reasons why marketers aren’t keen on leveraging content marketing

Real reasons why marketers are losing faith in content marketing  

Modern marketers are getting vocal about the ineffectiveness of content marketing. Here are the real reasons why marketers are unable to leverage the process.

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When Mark Salinger, an entrepreneur, set up his website on buying and selling properties, he put a lot of emphasis on content creation. After a brief successful stint, his blog stopped garnering considerable views, and his website rank dipped as well. This was when he began to second-guess his decision to leverage content marketing for his online business.

This, in fact, is a reality for most businesses. According to a study conducted by Heinz Marketing, the content marketing methods adopted by marketers don’t always deliver expected real-world outcomes.

The study recorded responses from nearly 150 marketers. 63% of the professionals admitted that their own content marketing strategy was either unsuccessful or only partially successful. This data points towards a sharp decline from 35% since 2017.

Now, this inevitably raises the question, what could be the real reason for the ineffectiveness of content marketing? Let’s ponder over these reasons and the possible solutions.

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1. Failure to implement a well-defined strategy

As an aspiring marketer, you might carry out all the necessary practices of content marketing. You can create blog posts, and share them on social platforms. However, without any concrete plan or objective, your content will be as good as useless.

If that sounds familiar, you need to determine the purpose of the content, its type, audience, outreach and objective.

Also, it’s important that the content marketing strategy is aligned with your wider marketing strategy. That way, you can develop an integrated approach, because content affects different aspects of marketing, like social media and SEO.

2. The marketing process harps on generic content

If you are producing a similar type of content like a hundred other websites on your niche, then you will never be able to stand out. This will drive your potential consumers away.

So, you have to make sure that your content is more actionable, thought-provoking, and gets communicated effectively. Convey something that your competitors have ignored.

Also, make sure to use pictures, slides, podcasts, videos, infographics, other than the textual part. A well-written piece of content can be repurposed in different formats for greater exposure. You also have to convey your values, address the issues of your audience and make people want to come back for more.

3. Inconsistency in publishing content

The debate over “quality versus quantity” in content marketing isn’t new. While it’s essential that you emphasise on quality, you also have to be consistent with the number of contents you publish.

The success of your content marketing efforts also depends on the frequency with which you publish the pieces of content. Also, in case of email marketing, the ideal time for sending out the email newsletters is every two weeks (at the least). That’s the minimum interval you can consider to publish your content. However, some reputed content creators and bloggers often choose to publish after a month’s gap. In such cases, the content is laden with in-depth research, data, engaging insights, etc.

If you are capable of presenting that kind of work, you can try publishing once a month. Otherwise, you can publish at least every alternate week or preferably once a week or more. The best returns always go to the marketers who publish more than that.

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4. Content marketing isn’t aligned with the SEO practices

SEO and content are two sides of a coin. If you don’t optimise your content for search engines, then your target consumers will never find it.

It’s also possible that you’re applying black hat methods like duplicate content, or keyword stuffing. You may also be guilty of not making optimum use of Meta Descriptions.

Going organic (white hat) with your SEO process is the ideal way to do it. The idea is to write for humans and sprinkle some SEO best practices over it. You can employ different tools to carry out keyword research.  Install a plugin that will assist you in optimising your SEO.

Also, utilise your title tags and meta description to draw in searchers to your content. Even though Keywords are significant, but so is readability. So, it’s best to go with the flow and your keywords will find their way into your content.

Search engines value quality content written for humans. If your content is valuable, more people will link to it, pushing its rank higher and increasing its chance of gaining other high-quality links relevant to your business.

5. Lack of emphasis on the evaluation of content strategy

You’ve posted your content on your blog, but are you aware of its metrics? How many views or shares has your content had? Has your content brought in leads or significant engagement? This means you need to track whether your content has attained its goal. You need to monitor your content marketing process for it to function smoothly.

You also need to evaluate your content to find what’s working and what isn’t. It wouldn’t be wise to carry on with the same process if it’s not working and not garnering the desired results.

Check the performance of your content on a regular basis. Measure the KPIs using tools like Google Analytics, and make sure you’re receiving an ROI. Determine the specific types of content that work best for your audience and repeat them.

You are likely to have more misses than hits, more so because it takes time to develop an audience. That’s why analysing what is working along with a continuous modification of your strategy is critical to derive the best results.

6. Inability to carry on for the long haul

Now that you have a strategy, you can create relevant content that’s optimised for search engines, and track your metrics. In short, you’re doing everything, but you’re still waiting for a remarkable outcome.

Let us help you swallow the bitter pill first. Content marketing isn’t an overnight process. It’s a long drawn out process that demands hard work.

You have to maintain consistency in producing and distributing content in order to see the results. You can’t just post a few pieces of content and then give up. If you don’t see significant results, evaluate your KPIs, alter your strategy and try something different the next time you are at it.

If carried out appropriately, you will build a base of loyal customers and witness favourable results by offering the content they need.

Summing it up,

Make sure you employ these content marketing practices while your business is still salvageable. These pointers will provide you with insights that will bridge the gaps that prevented favorable results. That way, your dwindling faith in content marketing will be restored.  

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