Want to learn how to content market effectively? Or better yet, what about learning how optimally shape your content marketing in 2021 so you don’t end up failing? If so, then welcome!
For starters, there is no denying that in the world of marketing and branding, content is king. Having reliable and valuable content out there that resembles what your business stands for is the pinnacle for growing your bottom line and reaching your future growth objectives. But here is the zinger; there are several elements to this process that can work against you if you are not careful, causing you to fail despite your best efforts. With that being said, below are four of those spearheading “anti-success” reasons why you might fall flat with your content marketing in 2021, reasons that are easily avoidable if you are aware that they exist.
1. You are too damn impatient!
Coming in first and hot, one of the most prevalent reasons why people will fail with content marketing in 2021 is a lack of patience. Overall, we live in a very fast-paced world, and we humans have a keen tendency to want results quickly in just about everything that we do. But when it comes to content marketing, that “I want it now” mentality is only going to hurt you.
You see, people are often too impatient when it comes to content marketing and give up before real results begin because their perceived ROI in the first 2-6 months was not what they envisioned. Expecting quick results is a fallacy because content marketing is a long-term investment that takes time to pay off. You have to be willing to trudge through those early stages even when you are not gaining a profitable ROI because the real advantages come later if you play your cards right. Check out the following example:
Robin McKenzie invested $10,000 to create the book ‘Treat Your Own Back’ in 1980. He only made a fraction of that in the first three months when sales started. Now as an impatient soul, you might see that as a loss and quit (or in fear of such a result not even invest in the first place). However, until today that same book has been updated 7 times and sold a total of 4 million copies! So as a matter of fact he is still making money from that book even though he passed away in 2013. If Mr. McKenzie gave up in those first three months, he would not have experienced the massive ROI that came after it.
“Every company wants to create viral content that shoots them to fame on their first blog posts – content marketing rarely works like that. Content marketing is a long term game”
2. You Don’t Prioritize SEO
The success of content marketing in 2021 lies in the hands of those who understand Search Engine Optimization (SEO). You may know how to content market flawlessly and have top-notch stuff published out there, but that does not matter if you are not ranking in organic searches or promoting it. SEO is a very complex system that, when utilized, can help you become much more recognized and profitable. For some more insight, only 25% of searchers go to page #2 on Google. This means that if your content doesn’t show up on that golden first page, your chances of growing organic traffic go down by 75%. In summary, if you want to become a master at SEO and NOT fail, then it’s time to get studying the SEO basics.
3. Quality, Quality, Quality
Alright, SEO may be all about shaping your content marketing to thrive in the flooded digital world, but that is all null and void if your content is mediocre. Now, this does not mean you are publishing terrible/inaccurate content per se. It means that what you are sending off into cyberspace does not provide authentic value, promote engagement, or highlights your brand identity for people to resonate with. Or perhaps it is so complex and lengthy that it loses reader interest before they could get through the whole thing.
For this one, it all boils down to connecting your content marketing with your brand, making it easy to understand, and having open-ended engagement that welcomes people to come on in. In a nutshell, if you don’t want to miserably fail because of this reason, be mindful of your analytics and tweak it where necessary to get the outcome you want to see.
4. Not Knowing What Your Audience Really Wants
Did you know that during a survey of 500 global executives, Slideshare found that 71% of content marketing readers/buyers were turned off by the message because it seemed like a sales pitch? This means if your content marketing in 2021 tactics are “pitch”-angled, then your risk of failure skyrockets.
All in all, if you want to learn how to content market and get a favorable ROI from it, you have to give your audience what they want to see. Perform a deep dive market analysis, do target audience surveys, and study hard on what your competitors are doing. Finding out who you are writing for, what their pain points are, and how to address them to build brand loyalty is what will position you for the best chances of success. A good way to start this would be to create customer journey maps, Ideal Customer Profiles or Buyer Personas.
Let’s Avoid Failure, Shall We?
As you can see, there are several ways that your content marketing in 2021 could fail. Whether it be lack of audience knowledge, boring content, or simply being impatient, these are all things that are going to subject you to failure before you really even have a chance to begin. The good news is that this information does not have to be seen as just cynical realities. Use this data to potentially weed out vulnerable areas in your own content marketing tactics so you can remediate them.
In the end, content may be king, but so is your mindfulness on how you position it in the first place. As long as you do your due diligence to shape your content to dominate, recognize what NOT to do, and ditch that impatient mentality, then you may just find you will have a successful year after all.
