Caleb Ulku Shares 8 Unforgivable Content Marketing Mistakes Companies Make
We all make mistakes. We are human; that’s how it is. There are, however, mistakes that can severely impact our goals. In content marketing, these mistakes are more common than you would think.
80% of marketers believe that content marketing is the future of marketing in general.
That is a lot of marketers. So, why don’t companies give it the importance and relevance it deserves?
“Many companies continue to do traditional marketing and “push†marketing campaigns based on interrupting the user, annoying them; pushing them to see an ad, to visit a website, or see the information they did not request. This marketing, quite simply, is dead,†says Caleb Ulku, the founder and CEO of Ulku Logistics.
“The sooner brands move away from this annoyance marketing, and into content marketing which provides the users with real value, they will be able to make users fall in love with their brand. First, however, we have to be clear about some mistakes that brands make in content marketing,†Ulku adds.
From his own experience as a marketer and entrepreneur, Ulku shares the most common mistakes brands make when attempting to switch to content marketing strategies:
- Not having a defined strategy (in writing)
The main objective of most companies with social media or content marketing is to get more sales. Still, they blindly post content without thinking about the path users take and what their funnel looks like.
If you don’t have a strategy, you don’t know what you’re doing.
When creating your strategy, you should define a target audience and map them in the sales funnel. Analyze topics, formats, and times. Establish clear workflows and goals, create work teams with specific roles and tasks.
If this strategy does not exist, the work, effort, and money put into content marketing is likely to be a big waste of time.
- Lack of planning
Planning is essential. You must have a clear strategy for the content to align with your business objectives or you will be wasting your time. You need to develop people well – to develop content that impacts the needs of your users well.
- Lack of patience
Success never comes overnight. Patience and perseverance means trying, and trying, and trying. Businesses owners, no matter the size of the company, must be given an opportunity to fail, make mistakes, then find what works and succeed.
If you don’t reach your goals on day one, don’t worry; no one ever does. The result will come if they strategy is well-thought out and you know your audience. You must give your audience exactly what they need, answer their questions, and allow your strategy to change if something doesn’t work.
- Not having a content manager
A content manager is essential to any business, but especially if you want your business and brand to grow. Imagine, for example, if eight people are writing every week for a corporate blog. If they do not have a content manager, the content would not work well.
You must have a traffic manager to control communication, perform quality checks, and ensure the strategy is being met and the editorial calendar is being respected so that business objectives are met.
- Lack of personality
Most companies that try to do content marketing adopt a personality and tone that is far removed from what users expect. Personality is closeness, talking about yourself, your brand, and being different in the way you tell things.
Only once brands become more personal will they be successful in communicating – and only then will we achieve actual engagement with users.
- Lack of ethics and transparency
Never betray your audience, it’s the worst thing you and your brand could do. If someone subscribes to your newsletter, never take advantage of that by sending them communications they don’t expect. They are giving you their information because you have a message that they care about.
- Not understanding your audience
The only way to truly understand your audience is to ask them what they want and listen to the topics they care about. Until your clearly understand who your audience is, what they do, what they want, what they care about, and what their problems are, you and your brand will not be able to resonate with them.
- Make content and forget about the business’ goals
Most content marketing strategies do not work because there is no planning, there is no strategy, and there is no path forward. With a clear definition of what you want to achieve and how you are going to achieve it, and who your target audience is, your business can offer value and turn users into customers.
It is important to not make mistakes, but as humans, we do make mistakes. The best thing we can do is plan for success, be willing to modify our strategy and plan a path forward and adjust and correct any mistakes we make. To conquer a goal, you must first have a clear starting point and end point.
Do you have your business goal already? How do you get there?
