Why is Your Content Failing?

November 4th, 2013 | blog, blogging

You’ve read all the blogs and advice telling you that content is the best way to market your business on line.

Religiously, you’ve followed all the advice of the experts, generated loads of content, created your own content strategy and yet, nothing’s happening.

Your content isn’t drawing in the traffic promised by the experts.

What’s gone wrong?

There are a number of reasons why your strategy isn’t working, but here are, potentially, the 10 most likely culprits:

1. You

You are writing stuff you love.

What about your readers?

What do they want to know? Surely, you’ll be more effective if you write about things that they want to know. After all, your content is there to attract readers not to massage your ego.

It’s time to put your wants on the back burner and think about your readers.

2. Experimentation

Look at your posts. Are they all pretty similar?

Your audience wants variety. They want to learn new things from you, so don’t regurgitate the same old stuff over and over.

Be bold and experiment with different ideas and different types of posts. Offer written posts, infographics, videos, podcasts etc. Mix it up a bit and keep them interested.

3. Go for quality

Are you obsessed with the number of times you post in a week?

Forget it. So long as you post regularly, it’s more important to concentrate on the quality of your posts. What’s the point in publishing 10 mediocre posts in a week that don’t attract anyone, when working on 2 or 3 high quality posts that give your readers what they want will be far more effective?

It’s this attention to detail and quality that will set you apart from other bloggers in your industry.

4. Be true to your style

Corporate blogs create their own problems, namely the number of contributors. Keeping the same style and brand image can be difficult, which is why it’s essential you produce some firm guidelines for everyone to follow.

5. Challenge

If you just write about safe subjects in a safe way, your readers are going to get bored.

Don’t be afraid to be controversial, after all that’s what’s going to get you noticed.

Challenge the status quo, throw in some radical ideas now and then and get some conversations started with your readers. Getting your stuff noticed is what it’s all about.

6. Call to action

How often do you add a call to action into your blog posts?

It doesn’t have to be a ‘buy my product/service now’, but a simple ‘what are your thoughts on this? Leave a comment below’ will show your readers you’re interested in what they have to say and want to hear from them.

You can also use your call to action to encourage people to subscribe to your newsletter or RSS feed – whatever you want really.

7. Where to post?

It’s important to have one main channel for your posts. Ideally, this will be your blog.

Then, you can create new posts and guest posts for other websites to attract a whole new audience to your work. However, by having one main outlet your readers will know where to go for their next fix.

8. Tow the line

Following on from point 4, when you have a number of contributors to your blog it is vital you have one person to oversee everything. It will be their job to make sure posts are written, that they follow your style guidelines and that comments are responded to.

9. Niche

People read blogs because they want to learn from experts.

You are an expert in your field so carve out a niche for yourself and write about what you know best.

Before long, they will get to know you are the expert in the field of pink widgets (or whatever your niche happens to be) and they’ll keep coming back for your latest words of wisdom.

10. Schedule

Your readers are creatures of habit and like to know when you’re next nugget of wisdom will be published. That’s why it’s important to stick to your posting schedule.

If, for any reason, you have to deviate from your normal posting pattern, let them know.

These are just 10 potential reasons why your content is failing to hit the mark.

When you decide to enter the world of content marketing, it’s essential you realise that it is an ongoing marketing strategy and not something you can just pick up when you get a spare 5 minutes.

Commitment, originality and determination are what will help you succeed.