How to Avoid Bad Content Marketing

Story Time: We’re great with marketing but terrible with analogies, so bear with us on this one. Imagine you start going to the gym once a week in between your incredibly busy work schedule and family. You have about 45 minutes a day and you want to fill that with something because you want to improve your physical and mental condition.

As you start this journey, you begin to think how good it would be if you went 2,3, or even 4 times a week instead. The staff recommends instead of going more, finding more suitable ways to train your body and learn the value of the exercises instead.

You don’t listen. You only have 45 minutes a day to focus on the gym and you spend that time running in, jumping on a machine, and running out. You know that you need to run, so what does it matter?

But even as you begin going to the gym more and more, you notice that you plateau both physically and in the metrics you measure. You spend a few weeks trying to go to the gym 2-3x a day and nevertheless, the results are relatively the same. All of a sudden, you remember the staff member that told you that there are more suitable ways to train your body and maximize the depths of your workout.

Although it’s scary, you go back to 5 times a week, then 3, all with the help of that individual teaching you the value of maximizing your time at the gym. The importance of technique, craft, and patience. The value of a balanced lifestyle outside of the gym. A few weeks later, you find the improvements you’ve been looking for since you started.

The story I just told is how 99% of small businesses look at the success of their content marketing. quantity>value until quantity doesn’t perform. Until you have someone that you can trust to teach you that there’s other ways to receive higher results, you’ll end up going to the same gym over and over until you give up. Replace gym for “posting content” and replace “staff member” with us.

We hate to break it to you but…

content is how you showcase who you are, not just what you do.

-Alex

With that said, here are some tips to avoid bad content marketing, and how to ensure that the time you spend on your content marketing is the most valuable it can be

1. Don't sacrifice quality for quantity

   • It's better to focus on creating a few pieces of high-quality content rather than churning out a large quantity of mediocre content. Quality content is more likely to be shared and engage your audience, leading to increased visibility for your business. Remember to always ask yourself “would I engage with this?” If the answer is no, it’s time to relook at what you’re posting.

2. Know your audience

   1. It's important to understand who your target audience is and what kind of content they are interested in. This will help you create relevant and valuable content that resonates with them. Sometimes, we make content we need them to like vs. what they actually like. Convincing an audience is about influence and authenticity. It’s a slower path than you think, but cutting corners will only damage your brand perception.

3. Stay true to your brand

   1. Make sure your content aligns with your brand's values and message. Authentic, genuine content is more likely to connect with your audience and establish trust in your brand. Rapid pivot or changing of tone for the sake of a certain KPI must be clearly understood prior to executing. 1 post can ruin months of hard work.

4. Keep it simple

   1. Don't try to overcomplicate things. Keep your content clear, concise, and easy to understand. No one wants to spend hours trying to decipher a rambling, incoherent blog post unless it’s an analogy from us. :)

5. Proofread and edit

   1. It's important to take the time to proofread and edit your content before publishing it. Typos and grammatical errors can be a turn-off for readers and may damage your credibility as a business.

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