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These days it seems like every business has their own blog, Facebook feed, and YouTube channel—trying to make good on the promises of content marketing. Not all content marketing efforts are created equal, though, and for every business that finds smashing success, there’s one that comes up short. One way to ensure your content marketing efforts thrive is to review some of the most common content marketing misfires—then taking care to avoid them at all costs.

The Top 5 Content Marketing Mistakes

These are the content marketing errors we see most commonly.

1. Not putting the audience first.

Great content doesn’t mean anything if you don’t have an audience to receive it—yet too many brands create content more or less in a vacuum. For one thing, they fail to identify the social media channels and digital platforms where their customers actually congregate—a fatal mistake. And, they neglect to ask questions, solicit feedback, and engage with their audience, effectively ignoring the social part of social media. These errors can make your content marketing feel one-sided and ultimately ineffective.

2. Focusing too much on SEO.

To be clear, content marketing and SEO are not at odds with one another. In fact, they’re really two sides of the same coin. With that said, it is possible to focus so much on optimization—stuffing keywords into every single sentence—that your content comes across as robotic or formulaic. Really, the best thing you can do is focus on creating real value for human readers that the algorithms will figure it out from there.

3. Having overly high expectations.

You can and should set goals for your content marketing, and expect your efforts to generate some results over time. With that said, content marketing isn’t something that yields fruit immediately. It’s ultimately about building relationships, and that requires a long-term commitment. We see a lot of companies that assume their blog or their tweets will send their sales through the roof overnight, and that’s just not reasonable. Be patient and stick with it!

4. Being inconsistent.

Simply put, if you only post a blog post or update your Facebook page once every five months, you can’t expect to get any traction. Again, you have to think of content marketing as a relationship, and relationships need to be nurtured. Make sure you maintain a schedule of regular content updates. Using an editorial calendar can help you achieve this kind of consistency in your posts.

5. Focusing on quantity instead of quality.

While consistent posting is essential, that doesn’t mean you should focus on the number of articles over the quality of those articles. The most important thing of all is providing your readers with valuable insight and useful information. Find a rhythm that works for your business—one where you’re creating new content at a regular interval but never sacrificing your standards of quality.

Develop a Content Marketing Approach That’s Right for You

As you consider your content marketing needs, and as you strive for a campaign that avoids these common errors, we invite you to give Driven2020 a call. We help businesses create digital marketing strategies that get real results, and that includes everything from content creation to content distribution.

We’d love to sit down with you, learn about your business, and help you establish some content marketing best-practices that deliver higher customer loyalty and increased sales. Reach out to Driven2020 today to start a conversation with us about your content marketing needs!