Zev Brodsky is the Community Manager at WhiteSource, the industry leader in open source management. Zev enjoys writing about all aspects of marketing. You can follow Zev on Twitter@zevbrodsky.
So, your company has spent six figures on a fancy new website, with all the requisite engaging and modern features. Of course, you’ve made sure to include a blog, which your website developer recommended. But weeks to months have passed and blog is still a wasteland, with a total of around 50 all-time visitors (and 40 of them are your employees and their friends). You are not alone; Most people think they can become content marketing experts. After all, anyone can write, right?
But even if you’re one of the world’s leading influencers in your field of expertise, it takes a certain skill to transform your message into something that’s persuasive and engaging for an external audience. Here we discuss 5 ways your content strategy needs fixing.
Your Blog Isn’t Active
Just because you spent a lot of money on your site, that doesn’t mean visitors will come (unless you want to pay for every single one). Once it’s launched, your real marketing work is only just beginning?—?now it’s time to show your followers what your brand is all about with clear, gripping content. If you’re not using your blog for this purpose, you’re not likely to win any new followers or customers through your site.
Your Content is too SEO-Focused.
It might have worked five years ago but now, Google’s algorithms are not impressed with your keyword-stuffing efforts. Writing blog posts that use different variations on a few key phrases 25 times aren’t likely to win you any new engaging followers or potential clients. Shallow, keyword-focused content that doesn’t add much value to the conversation will be ignored in favor of richer, more intelligent, and more engaging content.
New Article, Same Old Content
If you’re actually managing to put out content regularly, congratulations?—?you’re a step ahead of the game. However, if you find yourself constantly writing content about the same subjects with nothing new to add, it’s probably time to get a fresh set of eyes on your editorial calendar, your competition and your industry, just to see how you can liven up your content.
Great Content, but Who Cares?
Maybe you’re spending hours creating each piece, and sharing your expertise knowledge about your industry?—?but still, no one’s paying attention? You may not need a content creation team, but chances are, you’ll gain significantly from having a content expert or agency come in and recommend strategies for engaging with your target channels and markets, so that you’ll finally start getting some new views on your blog which could lead to some leads.
No Industry Visibility and Recognition
Finally, content marketing isn’t just about raising your site traffic or organic search results?—?it’s also a primary component of building a strong personal and business brand. An external or internal content marketing team can likely give you recommendations on how to raise your profile beyond your own website, through guest posting and syndicating content on highly relevant and high traffic sites, and engaging with industry leaders on Twitter and other forms of social media. Done right, you can use content marketing to catapult from unknown to industry leader.