Content marketing is without doubt one of the most sustainable ways to build engagement and conversions. But not all content is made equal. According to a survey conducted by Fleishman Hillard, marketing content like coupons and promotions fetch higher value among consumers compared to generic content pieces like expert advices and how to advice. In other words, customers like receiving direct promotions as compared to “high authority” pieces that work towards establishing authority and brand name.
While promotional content is regarded to be of higher value than generic content pieces, they are also the trickiest. The frequency of reach out, the content of the promotion and your sale trigger words all have an impact on whether your marketing message is perceived as a promotion or a spam. But this is just one aspect of content marketing that can go wrong. In this article, we will take a look at a few such strategies that can make or break your content marketing campaign.
Not Adhering To One Strategy: One of the biggest reasons for content marketing to fail is the absence of a strategy. It doesn’t matter whether you are pursuing a guest blogging approach or are publishing white papers to establish authority. Neither of these strategies work overnight and as a marketer, it is important to pick a strategy that will work for your organization and stick to it. The success of a content marketing campaign depends on a multitude of factors and by not sticking long enough with a strategy, it is difficult to ascertain the exact cause behind a strategy not working.
Not Having A Lead Capture Strategy: Content marketing by itself is not enough to bring sales. It needs to be accompanied with a robust strategy to lure in visitors and capture their details that can in turn be used to promote your content and thus improve your conversion rate. Having a custom landing page to get email subscribers or lead generation forms to receive product enquiries is marketing 101 and the absence of a strategy here is a definite fail.
Not Measuring The Right Metrics: How do you measure the success of a content marketing campaign? It is common for marketers to measure the efficacy of their content marketing campaigns through the number of likes, retweets and shares that they receive. While these vanity metrics tend to bring about a sense of authority to your website, they may not necessarily contribute to increasing sales. The right way to measure the success of a content marketing campaign would be to track the number of leads you generate or the sales you bring over a long term period using a content marketing strategy.
Making Radical Changes To Strategy: While sticking to one strategy is quite important, it is also vital for marketers to measure the performance of their campaigns and make incremental changes. For instance, if your blog marketing is not bringing in sufficient leads, you could try making incremental changes like altering the content length, reworking the copywriting strategy or targeting a different traffic source (like targeting your blog article for the search engine rather than Facebook). Such minor tweaks help study the impact of various factors on your audience and thus help you refine your strategies and get your campaigns to actually work.
