Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

By Adam  |  6 Nov 2015 12:00:00

Every day more and more businesses are realising that content marketing is a great way to reach new people and every day businesses are making sales as a result of their content marketing strategies. If you're not doing it, then now is as good a time as any to get started! In today's blog post I would like to go over some of the most common mistakes people make when doing content marketing so that you can avoid them when you start to do it yourself (or, indeed, so you can stop them if you're already doing it).

Writing Too Much About Your Business
Yes, it is content marketing but that doesn't mean that you need to constantly be trying to sell your product in your content. The idea is that you'll produce things which potential customers will want to read, which is how you hook them into your site, where they'll hopefully make a purchase. Even if they don't buy something right away, they'll now be familiar with you and have a good impression of your brand. If you write something which is just like "my product is really good and here's why..." people will quickly identify it as something which is trying to sell a product to them and they will lose interest. Having said, an occasional post which is just all about your business will be fine, but think of them like salt; a little might really help enhance things, while a lot could spoil it all.

Being Boring
In the world of business, professionalism is important. When going into a meeting with another business you'll wear a smart outfit, adopt a very formal attitude and lots of other things like that which I'm sure you're already completely familiar with. But just because business often calls for a very serious approach, it doesn't mean that you should write your content in an unengaging corporate tone. Content can be light-hearted and you mustn't be afraid to joke around a little. The idea is that you're writing something people will enjoy, something people will want to share with their friends and something which will convey a good image for your business.

Not Proof Reading
I know that proof reading all of your blog posts before they go up probably seems like a really obvious thing to do, but a shocking number of businesses are posting pieces of content which are riddled with mistakes. Now, you don't have to be perfect; if you produce lots of content, typographical errors can never be eliminated entirely, but there's a difference between one in every ten posts featuring the word 'to' in the place of the word 'the' and every single post coming bundled with some mistake or another. If mistakes are large and regular, people will doubt the integrity of your business. The only people who can really get away with typos are huge businesses which have already become established around the world. It only takes a few minutes to double check a post before it goes live (and you might like to have someone else look it over too).

So I hope that gives you something to consider. If you avoid these mistakes, stick to a regular schedule and have a good supply of interesting ideas, then you will hopefully be able to reach lots of people through your content marketing. I hope that you will find success with this method.