There isn’t a business or sector that can’t benefit from a well-crafted schedule of content. For some brands, content alone – whether in the form of words, pictures or videos – drives the vast majority of sales. UK-based online bank Monzo and fitness brand Gym Shark can attest to that.
At Osborn Communications we are clear that getting content right is not always easy. It takes a solid understanding of your audience, first-class writing skills, an eye for aesthetics and, of course, time and resources.
On top of that, businesses should not only have sound expertise in their subject matter, but the confidence to share it.
In the clamour to create content, many small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) inadvertently make the same common mistakes. In this guide, we’ve outlined six of the most crucial mistakes, and how to fix them.
#1. Putting out low-quality content
There’s a seemingly infinite stream of content out there; we’re almost overloaded with it.
But that doesn’t mean content isn’t valuable; the challenge is to distinguish your content by making sure it’s high-quality and of tangible value to your audience.
What does high quality content look like? There are three essential components.
Firstly, and most obviously, it should be concise, easily digestible, interesting to read and thoroughly checked for spelling and grammatical errors.
Secondly, it should be written by a human being. Yes, AI is useful to get initial ideas, but it should never replace human-generated content. People can increasingly spot something that’s AI-generated; so can Google, and it will penalise you for it.
Finally, it should be highly relevant to your audience – whether it’s answering some of their most common questions, sharing time-saving advice, or enabling them to make better buying decisions.
#2. Posting inconsistently
We often see businesses start posting with the best of intentions, but after a while it diminishes or drops off altogether.
This usually happens because business owners and marketing officers are pulled in many other directions and simply don’t have the time to maintain the schedule they’ve committed to. But with content, as with all forms of marketing, consistency is key.
When your target clients see that you haven’t posted a blog for two years or a LinkedIn post for six months, it becomes harder for them to build trust in your brand. If you’re not proactive and consistent with content, they may wonder if you’ll be inactive and inconsistent in your service.
If a business has among its most recent posts an update on its Covid-19 lockdown business plans, you are unlikely to engage.
Without keeping your content updated, you’ll also struggle to remain visible and miss out on valuable chances to engage future clients. Planning everything in advance can help you work to a regular posting schedule.
If you’re short on time, see whether any existing content can be repurposed and updated, and use tools like Buffer and Hootsuite to schedule your socials in advance.
#3. Forgetting about SEO
Every piece of content you put out is an opportunity to boost your search rankings. Google favours regularly-updated, high-quality, non-AI-generated content and when it sees that people keep clicking on that content – whether it’s a LinkedIn article or blog post – it’ll start to rank you higher in associated searches.
SEO takes time and effort to build, but with so much competition out there, it’s vital that your prospects can easily find you when they’re looking for services like yours. Identify the right keywords for your business, sector and location, and make sure they appear frequently.
Add on-page SEO like headings and alt text for images, and remember – Google likes long-form content, so whether it’s a blog post, how-to article or product guide, try to hit the 1,000-word mark with some of your posts.
#4. Aggressive company promotion
Let’s face it – no one wants to be bombarded with sales messages. When it comes to social media, jumping straight into aggressive product or service promotion before you’ve built up a relationship with your audience is the fasted way to be unfollowed. The same applies to blog content.
There’s nothing wrong with occasionally reminding people what you do and how they can benefit from working with you, but there’s an unwritten rule. 80% of your content should be informational, educational or insightful, while only 20% should be promotional.
When you share your expertise and audiences begin to value and trust it, they’re far more likely to respond positively to sales messages in the future.
#5. Neglecting audience engagement
Content shouldn’t just be a one-way street where businesses simply broadcast their own messages; engagement is important too; crucial, in fact, for building relationships with your audiences.
If you’re not sure whether your content is too one-sided, look at the engagement levels.
Take a quick look at your active social accounts. Do you have a high number of followers, but extremely few likes on each post? Often, that means you’re either not creating opportunities for interaction, or your content isn’t connecting with followers.
It’s great to share your company news and success stories, but don’t forget to open up the conversation sometimes.
You can encourage engagement by replying to comments and messages, running polls (these work especially well on LinkedIn), asking questions to understand your audience’s experiences, and creating interactive posts like live videos, webinars or real-time Q&A sessions.
#6. Failing to check analytics
Analytics are invaluable, but few SMEs regularly check them to see how their content’s performing. Google Analytics and other website traffic tools like Jetpack Site Stats show you how many people have viewed your blog posts, and which ones were most popular.
You’ll be able to see how long users have spent reading your post, and at what point they clicked off. Knowing these metrics can help to guide the content you create in the future, because you’ll know what works.
For socials, tools like Hootsuite, Sked and Buffer, as well as Meta’s Business Suite and LinkedIn’s Page Analytics can give you valuable insight into how your content’s performing, as well as helping you understand the best days and times to share content and which content types are working best for different platforms.
- We know that time can be tight, and creating content can be challenging. Working with our professional writers here are Osborn Comms can help you create content that connects emotionally with your prospects, and keeps you visible in an increasingly competitive marketplace. Drop us a line to book in a chat.