The 6 fatal errors in content marketing and how to prevent them

1. Publishing poor-quality short-form content

When your boss comes to you and says, "we need to post something on Facebook" or the editorial schedule insists on two posts a week - you should stop and think. This is how poor quality content starts. Publishing content for content's sake is not worth the effort, even if it's just minimal. This type of content, more often then not, provides no added value for the user. It's better to focus on creating high-quality content that your visitors actually want to read.

Tip:

Before publishing blog articles, Facebook posts, etc. – think for a moment: does this information provide the user with something worthwhile or am I just bothered about short-term activity on my site?

There’s no need to create new content twice a week – it is much better to post really valuable, well-written long-form content online at regular intervals. This keeps your reader and the search engines happy.

2. Writing for yourself instead of your target audience.

Imagine you're a travel blogger and use your blog as a personal diary. Some have a huge fanbase while others are only read by friends and family. A subjective article in which you write about how delicious you found the food in France may interest your family, but it doesn't provide much added value to any other readers. Offer your readers an overview of restaurants in the vicinity that you think are worth recommending, including location and price, so that other travelers may get the valuable information they need to go and try the restaurant out.

Tip:

Irrespective of whether you are a blogger, writer, agency, or content creator, create an accurate image of your target audience and what you want to convey to them. Personas are almost a mandatory instrument for that. Always remember when writing: you are writing for your target audience and not for yourself! Be informative, relevant, and helpful. Think about which questions your target group will ask themselves when reading the article and what interests them. If you need a little help gaining a deeper understanding of your target audience, these 5 free tools are a great place to start.

3. You concentrate too much on SEO when creating content

Some SEOs still think content marketing means having a keyword density of 2%, keywords in the meta tags and as many keywords as possible in the headings.
If you are too focused on SEOs and keywords when creating content, then an SEO monster will emerge and frighten off your readers. Creating content your visitors want to engage with is now even important to Google, as user behavior is now so heavily weighted in the search algorithm. Content ranks better when people actually read it with interest.

Tip:
Simply write interesting and well-founded content about your subject. In doing so, relevant keywords will be included automatically in the article and Google can easily decipher what the content is about.

4. You forget that content is not just blog posts.

Content means content. Blog articles and website text are not the only type of content on the internet. Don't forget about:

• Whitepapers
• How-to Guides
• Check Lists
• Webinars
• Longer form videos (e.g. YouTube)
• Memes
• Infographics
• Case Studies
• GIFs
• Social media posts
• Podcasts
• Photographs
• Animations
• This is all content and relevant to both search engines as well as for users.

Tip:
Think about the content formats that are best for your product and use them to optimize your marketing strategy. For example, fashion and lifestyle products are ripe for interesting visual content. Cool graphics, UGC, or short videos may be better suited than mere text content alone.

5. You think that promoting content is not important

Just click on "Publish" and the new article is live on the net. However, this click doesn't mean your work is done. Interested readers might not always easily find the article themselves.

In order to generate new visitors with your content and thereby improve your ranking on Google, you have to promote it! This means making it accessible to the widest possible audience.

You can use the four methods in the PESO model for content promotion:

P – Paid Media: paid traffic, Facebook Ads, Google Ads etc.

E - Earned Media: well-earned promotion for good content which is picked up by bloggers, the press, or influencers who report about it, without you having to do anything yourself.

S - Social Media: Your content is being shared, liked and commented on in social media and therefore gains attention.

O - Owned Media: you advertise your content through your own channels - for example via your newsletter, the blog, etc.

If your content is relevant, provides added value and is thereby still entertaining or amusing, chances are it will be shared on social media.

Promoting content is about attention and increasing its range. In addition to generating traffic, promoting content can also have a positive effect on your ranking in the SERPs. If your content is seen and shared a lot, then it has a whole series of advantages:

• You are seen by the public and/or perceived to be an expert in your sector.
• Other webmasters will respond to your content, refer to it, and share it with their readers.
• If your content is shared by multipliers and influencers with a lot of followers, then it will be presented to a large audience – which will mean a corresponding boost to your traffic and your visibility.
• Visitors and interaction with your content, in‌ ‌turn, strengthen your “trust” on Google. Your website will be ranked better and your domain is perceived as a brand.
• Users who visit your website from an article often still look at other content and products. This earns ranking points for the length of stay, leads and sales.

So you can, therefore, see that promoting content is a building block of content marketing which is not to be underestimated!

Tip:
Stick to the 20/80 rule of thumb for content marketing: utilize 20% of your time for creating content and the other 80% for promoting content!

6. You don’t pay attention to your KPIs and don’t measure results

Last but not least, you fail to track and evaluate the content performance. Even when you are satisfied with your traffic and ranking, always check the website analysis for your domains regularly. Important indicators and content KPIs are, for example, time spent on pages, bounce rate and the visit sequence. Therefore on which page the user accesses, where they click next and which page they exit from. They show you exactly how well all content performs, which articles were clicked on and shared a lot and which sources your traffic mainly comes from.

Tip:
You can find an accurate overview of your KPIs on your Ryte dashboard – ideally, ideally hereby using the link to Google Analytics. So you get clicks, impressions, duration of stay, etc. displayed directly within Ryte and can see everything at a glance.

Conclusion

In order to operate a successful content marketing program, don't post every day, but post regular, high-quality long-form content. Content doesn't necessarily have to be just text, but can also include videos, photographs, webinars, memes, etc. on the Internet. Remember: you are writing for your target audience - not for Google and certainly not for yourself! So always favor providing informative content over SEO text.

Once you have published your content, the work is still far from over. One important aspect - promoting the content - comes initially afterward.

To promote your content, you can opt for paid media such as Facebook Ads and Google Ads. You can promote your content through your own channels such as newsletters or blogs and therefore ensure that it is entertaining and informative enough to be shared on social networks.

Encouraging people to interact with your content brings you visibility, reach, traffic, a boost in ranking and "trust" for your website on Google.
Last but not least: always keep an eye on your KPIs. Should the expected performance not initially materialize, then you can react in a targeted manner until the duration of the visit, clicks, impressions and reach are right again.