Content is king! As well-used as that phrase may be, it just doesn’t work without good content. After all, it is the content that causes users to spend countless hours on social media or websites. Because good content is simply addicting.
So that your content scores with the addiction factor and engages your target audience, we have compiled the most common mistakes that keep appearing in content creation. This is how you can learn from others’ mistakes – and expand the success of your own content!
1. Confusing quantity with quality
More is more? Not necessarily. Because just because you publish a lot of articles with a lot of text doesn’t mean great results in the form of traffic and customer inquiries. Too often, the mere production volume of the content is confused with quality.
Much more important than two articles a week with over two thousand words is the quality of these articles. The goal must always be to produce valuable content for your target audience. Of course, you should have a certain output in order to attract those who are interested. Ultimately, however, countless words are of no use if they do not offer any added value.
Sometimes five hundred words are enough to get to the heart of a topic in a concise and readable way. Then the article should not be longer. Sometimes, on the other hand, in-depth research is necessary, which is at the expense of publication frequency. Then it makes sense to take the time for this very long and complex article.
2. Ignore the design
The vast field of website design offers countless content elements. For WordPress, there are various design options for your article pages, which you can adapt. And you still expose your users with dry text?
You can do better than that! Be sure to make your content varied. In any case, use media such as pictures or videos to loosen things up and make your content more interesting. In addition, you should occasionally dare to think outside the box to discover exceptional content elements. With good content, good packaging is also important!
3. Over-optimize content
Of course, SEO is an important part of content marketing. It is not without reason that a keyword analysis usually forms the basis of every content strategy. But even today there are still misconceptions about SEO all too often SEO is often perceived as very technical and regular. As a result, texts are over-optimized and written rigidly in such a way that they do justice to supposed SEO tools and instructions.
This is poison for any content. Because you primarily create content for your users – not for any search engines. Creating relevant and good content is half the battle, and relevant SEO tweaks are just the icing on the cake. If keyword research is the fire, then the content is the warming stew in the cauldron above it—and SEO is the spice that adds an extra kick.
4. Losing sight of the target audience
If you don’t have much experience in content marketing, it is often overlooked for whom the content is created. That’s not surprising either: you lose yourself in your own perspective of the company. Content is then produced that appears relevant to the company itself – but gives nothing to the target group.
Therefore it cannot be emphasized often enough: The content you create is intended solely for your target audience. Not for you, not for your bosses, not for the company itself. First and foremost it goes always about the target group and about providing them with relevant added value. Not more, but also not less.
5. Reduce texts tightly to budgets
Whether in internal editing or in cooperation with the agency – companies must of course keep in mind that work is being done efficiently. Ultimately, a presentable result should be created for the resources (time/money). That’s why texts are often measured against a certain number of hours, an effort that should be put into practice as much as possible.
It’s only understandable that people act like that. However, effective content work makes it difficult. Because every article is different. As I said at the beginning, the respective topic specifies the necessary scope of the text and thus also the effort. Sometimes it is done in half a day, sometimes two full days are needed to get the text done properly.
Accordingly, there is no help with strict text budgets and clear production quantities (e.g to work eight hours/per week for two texts with thousand words). If a time frame is already defined, which is of course necessary when working with an agency, then this should not also be linked to a fixed production volume. This leaves room for maneuvering to decide how many articles will actually be published on a monthly basis based on a content plan from topic to topic.
6. Having expectations that are too high or wrong
We create a little content and the sales figures are already skyrocketing?! That is an expectation that no content in the world can live up to. Content marketing can do a lot for a business. Realistic goals are e.g:
- Increase brand awareness
- Build the image
- Establish expert status
- Increase Website Traffic Effectively
- Build Community
- Contribute to lead acquisition and quality in the long term
Well-prepared content has a great impact on your company in the long term. However, it is not a magic weapon that you activate once and suddenly everything runs by itself. Rather, there is a lot of work, diligence and behind successful content marketing staying power. But don’t worry: it’s worth staying tuned!
7. View content as a chore
“We create content because that’s what people do today!” That’s how you can do content marketing, of course. But then it is doomed to fail from the start. Because if you see content creation as a chore, you will never create content that inspires the target group.
So if that’s the premise, you should rather let it be and invest time in other areas. Because you can only take your target audience with you if you are passionate about your content yourself.
8. Acting without a strategy
A social media post here, a blog post there… of course it works. There might even be a hit. However, long-term success with an impact on the relevant KPIs will hardly occur.
Content marketing needs a clear strategy. This starts with basic considerations about objectives and the company itself and goes through the target group and keyword analysis to concrete contributions and posts. This is followed by monitoring to monitor whether the measures have met the intended goal – and then it starts all over again.
So don’t start carelessly. Take plenty of time to develop a real content strategy and then implement targeted measures.
9. Too little willingness to experiment
Another blog post, another social media post with a fixed template … Sometimes even the person responsible gets bored. Because with all the strategic considerations and precise requirements, the fun sometimes falls by the wayside. That’s a problem. Because content on the web should inspire and give pleasure, it should provide rich information or entertain.
So once in a while, forget everything you’ve ever read about content marketing – and run experiments. It’s about consciously breaking your own routines in order to develop real creativity. That can be quite easy: Do you usually just write blog posts with text and images? Then use self-recorded audio to loosen up or create small videos that you embed.
Try out a different perspective, rely on elements such as storytelling or use a completely different format. The basic rule is: Anything that inspires your target group and therefore works is allowed. So enjoy!
Summary: Avoiding Errors for Better Content
- Confuse quantity with quality
- Neglect the design
- Over-optimize content
- Losing sight of the target group
- Reduce texts closely to budgets
- Having too high or wrong expectations
- Consider contenting a chore
- Act without strategy
- Not enough willingness to experiment
If you avoid all of these mistakes, you’re already on your way to creating great content.
And if you now feel trapped because you are still committing many of these mistakes at the moment? Then that’s no problem either! Because errors are completely normal in the content area. It’s always a form of trial and error, and mistakes are a great way to learn how to do things differently in the future!
