Content is the bread and butter of any good marketing strategy. While it should never be used alone, it should be one of the primary focuses for any style of business of website.

This is a lesson that most businesses learn quickly, and so they will immediately set out to offer a content-heavy extension of their primary brand.

Despite this fact, many don’t use the technique effectively. In fact, some use it improperly for years before turning to a marketing expert in exaggeration.

I can tell you from experience that clients don’t appreciate being told they have been doing things wrong. But many businesses fail in this regard from the very beginning, and so lose a real opportunity at initial growth.

Here are some common mistakes businesses make in the category of content marketing:

1. Not Knowing The Difference Between Content and Advertising

Obviously, you want to talk up your product at any opportunity given. No one is going to blame you for doing so in your own content. However, there is a difference between mentioning your brand in relation to a genuine topic, and advertising.

You should not be writing up long winded posts that equal to sales copy. Save that for your advertising, and think of your content as a chance too create a larger conversation with customers.

2. Not Knowing The Difference Between Social Media Interaction and Content

Not long ago I was speaking to someone I know who recently opened a small business (in the last year), and was talking about how useless he had found content marketing. It didn’t take long before I got the whole picture: he believed he was generating content by writing daily Facebook posts.

I was flabbergasted, and explained to him that he was thinking of social media marketing… a Facebook status does not equal content. Think of social media as a chance to gain visibility for your content, not generate it.

3. Lack of Consistency

If you have a blog, you should be updating it regularly. Period. It drives me crazy when I see businesses selling things like apps, and even though there have been changes to the product there has been nothing published to the blog for as much as a year.

Don’t make this mistake, and don’t merely update when you have something that could sell your product. You are supposed to be regularly providing something relevant to the user within your industry, not upselling them.

Here are a few examples of companies being consistent with their content marketing efforts.

4. Failure to Update Information

Again, updates are important. If you have some change coming to your product, company, site or just the industry, you should at least comment on it. Things in every genre change and grown and adapt over time.

You should be taking old posts and writing something to follow up on them on a regular basis. Maybe this is a whole new post, maybe it is an update with reference to the old one. In any case, make sure all information provided on your site is up to date.

Depending on the blogging platform you chose, there are various plugins and modules that make it easier to monitor and fix broken links and keep your content updated.

5. Being Too Technical

Some of the people who hop on over to your blog are going to be experts. Most of them are probably not. You should be trying to break everything down for an easier understanding by the average reader.

There is a time and a place for technical jargon, which you can provide separately. But assume that for the bulk of the post you are explaining it to someone new to the concept.

6. Not Being Technical Enough

While the above rule is true, not being technical enough can also be an issue. I have heard people say that anything published for the purpose of content marketing should be “presented as if to a five-year-old”.

I don’t believe this, at all. There is no need to talk down to the reader, so you can feel free to present the data you need to. Going too far in either direction is a mistake.

UXCeclipse is the perfect example of the right balance: Check out this article.

7. Lack of Engagement With Readers

Content doesn’t stop at the content. I cannot stress this enough. You are not just plopping down some information and bolting. You are starting a dialogue with the people who read it, and as such, you should be encouraging the conversation.

That means responding to questions and comments on the post, as well as on social media sites where you link to it.

Do you know of a common content marketing mistake made by businesses? Let us know in the comments.

By Jessica Davis

Content marketing has been blowing up over the last few years. Most companies already have a content marketing strategy in place, or are planning to implement one. Small businesses struggle to come up with a content marketing strategy that is compliant with their budget as well as goals. Competition within the industry has driven the cost of content marketing up but small businesses can still keep up. For small businesses with tight purse strings, here are some ideas that can help you shine.

1. Start Sharing

Content marketing relies on sharing; everything from views to visitors to sales depends on it. Without good social media presence and sharing, your content will only be read by those associated with your company. It is necessary to share your social media content at least 5-6 times a day and build good relationships.

If you can’t spare the time to create it, curate it with a good curation tool like DrumUp or Feedly for content discovery. Engage with people who comment on your posts and take their feedback constructively. Employee advocacy and influencer marketing are also excellent ways to help you spread the word with your content.

2. Know Your Target Audience

The first part of a content marketing strategy involves figuring out who your ideal viewer is and how your business can provide value to them. The more accurate your target audience persona is, the more likely you are to get ahead. Target audiences can be defined by various characteristics like location, occupation, age, gender, race etc. Some of these characteristics are obvious. For example, most fashion brands target women of all ages starting from teens to older women. This is because they tend to do the most shopping both for themselves and their families.

Depending on your niche, you will find common characteristics are easy to find while others need detailed research.

3. Do the Research

Now that you know whom to target, research the kind of content you should be creating. This content has to appeal to your target audience and intrigue them. Your research should also include going through more successful companies’ content and getting ideas.

Content curation is also a great way to gauge what kind of content works best for your audience. There are tools that make content curation on social media simple and effortless. Social media trends are another good indicator of the topics you should cover. Keep an eye on the hashtags and discussions related to your industry and gather ideas from them.

4. Commit to a Blog

Blogs are a must for content marketing. They provide great value for your readers and improve your SEO efforts. The deeper the blog content, the better it is for SEO. Content marketing relies on search engine rankings as users tend to visit sites at the top of the search results. Make sure your business website has a blog page that is easily accessible to visitors.

While creating blogs, give good information that helps your readers solve daily problems. Doing blog posts just for the sake of it will get you nowhere in terms of gaining recognition and credibility.

5. Create Compelling Content

This is one area where marketers must let go of their budget in return for quality content. Businesses need to hire good writers that are experienced in their field. Check to see if they have done this kind of work in the past and evaluate it. Hiring sub-par writers can hinder content marketing efforts as the content is the main part of your campaign. Visitors that you gain through social media and other marketing efforts will leave if the content is disappointing.

6. Include Strong Visual Content

Since social media evolves at a rapid pace, visual content including images and videos are a great way to get your audience hooked. Like written content,if you plan to involve visual content as part of your campaign, then you must be willing to spend money. Hiring good designers for images and multiple staff members for videos will require investment. Infographics with relevant and interesting stats also have an impact on your audience.

Content marketing strategies need to be planned carefully. You have to remember to plan carefully and not come off as too pushy. Put yourself in your readers’ shoes and create content to address their problems. The main goal of content marketing is to use content to spread brand awareness and consequently, improve the bottom line. Keep this is mind while devising and executing a content strategy.

Author Bio: Jessica Davis is a Content Writer with Godot Media – a leading Content Management company. She has years of experience in working closely with online businesses, helping them refine their marketing strategy through optimum use of content. Her other interests, besides online content strategy, copywriting and search engine optimization, are technology, sports and even fashion.

Featured image via Flickr cc: Little Calpurnia!

We’re living through a visual revolution right now.

Marketers have always had to write compelling copy, whether it was destined for a print brochure, a website, or an ebook. However, the stakes have been raised. It’s not enough to have snappy text and a big, beautiful image.

Now you need to consider whether to add live streaming video to your marketing toolbox.

Facebook Live, SnapChat, Youtube Live Streaming, Twitter (with Periscope), all allow you to instantly broadcast as if you are a mini programming director at a network.

It’s tempting to just push that big red button and start recording yourself.

Before you do that, let’s just run through a few key checkpoints, shall we?

Business Case

First stop is to evaluate whether live streaming video will actually help you meet your business goals.

• How will it take your strategy forward?
• Will your audience find value from it?
• What type of content will suit your mission? There’s a big difference between a quick series of behind the scenes Snaps and a weekly YouTube interview show.
• Do you have the resources to invest (time, money, staff)?

Technical Considerations

You’re not going to do anything half-baked, so be sure you think about all of the items below before you launch a live video project.

• Which platform to focus on – each platform has its own culture, demographics, and style. We all know that Snapchat was claimed by the Millennials first, but the rest of us are starting to join Snapchat too. Here’s a great article that offers demographic data for each social platform. Periscope was missing from that article, so here’s demographic data for Periscope specifically.
• Lighting – this might seem obvious, but don’t shoot directly into a light source (like a window behind you). Especially if you are doing a “talking head,” consider having at least a couple of different light sources. Sit facing a window, and add a lamp for warmth somewhere to the side.
• How do you look – whether you’re being formal or informal, dress for the part. Imagine the image you want to project to the world, and dress accordingly. Also try to avoid stark black, white, or tiny patterns. They don’t come across well on video. You don’t need a Kardashian glam squad, but check your hair and makeup (don’t look like a ghost).
• Scenery/backdrop – what’s your location? If you’re in your den or desk area, look at the books or objects on the shelf behind you…are they items you want the world to see? Does it look cluttered? If you’re shooting outdoors, will you have people coming into the shot? Is there a way to work your logo into the scene? Also, it goes against everything you’ve been taught, but on Snapchat, you shoot vertically (not horizontally).
• Audio – it’s not ideal to just speak into your built-in computer or smartphone microphone. Even using the earbud microphone is better. However, if you plan to routinely shoot live video, you might want to invest in a professional microphone (desktop if you’re stationary and lavalier if you’re moving around). You can get good equipment without breaking the bank.

Content Strategy

Live video should be just one component of your content strategy, and it should support the rest of the plan. You might want to host a followup live Q&A to discuss your latest blog post. You might consider shooting some live video at an event you’ve been promoting.

• How long – are you doing a Snap (currently only 10 seconds at a time)? Or are you doing a live Periscope stream at an event (currently no time limit)?
• What are your key points – unless you’re smooth like butter, you’ll want to plan your key content ahead of time. What are the main points you want to make? Don’t get caught in the trap of filling time by rambling and shooting random things in your house. Plan your words, and plan your shots.
• Do you have guests (do you need permissions) – if you’re including another person in your video, you may need them to sign a release or permission to broadcast them. Here’s a useful article that explains when you do (or don’t) need a video release.
• How will you save it – each video streaming platform has different mechanisms for downloading or saving your work. Be sure to check in advance how you do that (sometimes you need to specify in advance of recording). You’ll always want to save a copy of your work so that you can promote it and use it in the future.

Promotional Plan

If a video shows in the woods, will anyone see it? There’s no point in creating a fantastic live video stream if no-one is watching. In the case of live video, you have to promote to your audience in advance, so they know when to be there. The whole point of going live is to capture the magic of a particular moment in time, which is much different from just shooting a tutorial video that will sit on your website. Live streaming is all about action, insider access, and unmissable moments.

• Let people know where you are – once you’ve chosen your platform, tell your audience all about it. Some of the platforms give you special graphic codes to use in promoting your streams (you see those yellow ghost images all over the place for Snapchat).  There’s even a whole app for promoting Snapchat channels (Ghostcodes). For Facebook Live, be sure to post the date and time in your stream ahead of time, and tell them what your topic is going to be.
• Cross-promote on other platforms – incorporate your image code or link into the bios for all of your social outposts. Send an email to your list ahead of time, telling them where you’ll be popping up live. Build the excitement before the live stream, and let the audience know that they’ll be able to participate (all of the platforms include some way for the audience to comment or reply back).
• Long term game plan – don’t think of this as a one-time deal. Make a long-term plan and editorial calendar just like you do for your other types of content. You can’t reap the rewards without putting in the sweat equity!

Are any of you experimenting with live video? What have been your challenges and successes so far?