Top 9 B2B Content Marketing Mistakes

Many blogs out there give you lists of top content marketing mistakes to avoid while executing your B2B content marketing. In this blog we’re going to look a bit deeper from a more strategic perspective and also alert you to what mistakes you should avoid while creating your content marketing strategy.  

Mistake 1: You don’t know why you’re doing this marketing activity

What it is meant to achieve?

• Is it to increase sales?
• Is it to get more qualified leads?

Mistake 2: You don’t establish your buyer persona i.e., your typical customer

Have you

• given them a name, a face, an age?
• established their role in the company?
• found out where they ‘hang out’ online?
• established their problems?
• established their goals?

 

Mistake 3: You don’t build your content marketing strategy according to your buyer persona

Have you identified

• which social media they frequent?
• the type of content they wish to consume (videos, infographic, blogs, long pieces like white papers or ebooks)?

 

Mistake 4: You don’t build your progression plan

Have you established what tactics

• will attract strangers to you?
• will build trust and nurture your visitors to convert them into qualified leads?
• will convert leads into customers?

 

Mistake 5: You don’t set up a means to measure and track your results

You need to be able to close the loop so you can use your results to assist you in improving your tactics throughout each campaign. Remember, what gets measured gets managed.

Mistake 6: You perform random acts of marketing

You have good content but you’re not distributing it or promoting it effectively such as

• Sending out the same email to people that are in different stages of the buyers journey.
• Posting to your business blog irregularly, with out a call to action and/or not responding to any comments from the public.
• Posting to your social media channels irregularly and/or not responding to any comments from the public.
• Sending out messages containing different tones (we’re funny, now we’re serious, now we’re urgent).

 

Mistake 7: You try to sell your product/service too early

Like any relationship, you have to earn trust before you can move forward. Your potential buyer must be at a certain stage in their buyer journey before you have earned the right to sell to them.
 

Mistake 8: You produce a whole heap of UN-remarkable content

Everyone’s time is limited, would you bother reading a blog post that was full of waffle or would you rather read a blog that was insightful and could help you do your job better? That’s why you’re reading this blog post…right? Don’t put content out there just for the sake of being present across multiple channels. Potential buyers care about certain things at different stages in the buyers journey. Develop a content plan based on solving your buyer persona’s problems. This includes establishing

• the topics that will be covered via your business blog and when they will be published. Keep in mind business blogs don’t always have to be the written word they can be infographics, slide presentations, videos or podcasts.
• the type of high value content pieces you will produce (white paper, webinar, ebook) and what topics they will cover.
• the content that will be communicated in your lead nurture campaigns.
• how you will promote your content. Via social media? Email subscribers?

Having a systematic approach to what content you produce, how it’s distributed and when it is published will demonstrate to your potential buyers, competitors and search engines that you know your industry and what your buyer needs are. The more quality and insightful content you put out there, the more you establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry.
 

Mistake 9: You don’t incorporate keywords into your content

You’re putting so much effort into producing remarkable, educational, problem-solving, industry related content…but no one is reading it, why? You may have forgotten to include keywords within your content. Keywords play an integral role in helping your website get found by the search engines. For example in a blog, your keywords need to be in

• the blog title
• the page title
• the meta description
• if you have an image then the keywords need to be in the image file name and alt tags

Search engines are looking for the most relevant content based on the keywords people search with. If you don’t have those keywords in your content then the search engines won’t find you.   Successful content marketing relies on having a strong content marketing strategy. Stick to your strategy and avoid the above mistakes that can occur during the creation of your strategy or execution of your marketing. By doing this you will certainly be on the road to success!

(Image source: http://www.concentriccontent.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Eraser-mistakes-oops.jpg)