Content marketing hits and misses

7 content marketing best practices.

Before reviewing this article, check that you know everything you need to know about content marketing or content marketing.

1. Know your audience. The success of a content marketing strategy lies in being able to offer valuable content to the brand’s target audience. Logically, what is valuable to one type of user may be completely irrelevant to others. So before planning the content we are going to create, we must clearly define who our ideal customer is (what in marketing is known as «buyer persona»).
2. Be consistent. One of the keys to content marketing is frequency and consistency. It is necessary to refresh the blog or brand page with new content on a regular basis, and maintain this periodicity over time to reap results in the medium and long term. A resource that can be very useful is to draw up a content calendar that establishes the dates of creation and publication.
3. Check before publishing. Sometimes the rush can lead us to the temptation to sit this step, but it is essential to avoid mistakes that can negatively affect the image of the brand.
4. Think about your dissemination strategy. The best content in the world won’t do us any good if we don’t make users reach it. This is where you have to think about synergies between content and other brand channels, such as social networks, SEO or paid advertising.
5. Seize the moment. The popularity of a content on the Internet can be very ephemeral, so you have to take advantage of trends and jump on the bandwagon at the right time. For example, we can plan our content around seasonal events, such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day.
6. Recycle and reuse your content. Content marketing is a long-term investment and requires time and resources, but the good news is that some content does not lose value over the years. Think of ways to republish or recycle them, for example, with a new format or a compilation of content related to a specific topic.
7. Measure the results of your content marketing. This practice can (and should!) be applied to any marketing strategy we carry out. Periodically, it is necessary to review the results of what we are doing, see what are the strengths and weaknesses and use this information to continue improving.

5 mistakes to avoid in content marketing.

1. Stagnate I always say that the motto of digital marketers should be «Renew or die! If a format or type of content gives good results we can always repeat it, but we have to keep in mind that consumers’ tastes and habits evolve. That is why it is essential to incorporate new formats, techniques and ideas to our content marketing to keep evolving.
2. Being too promotional. This mistake is very common among brands that want to get quick results from their content strategy, but it is not at all effective. The idea of content should always be to provide value, never to sell. If it is too promotional, users will identify it as advertising and it will not achieve the effect we are looking for.
3. Not including calls to action. If we cannot sell directly, how can we link the content to our marketing? The answer lies in calls to action, that is, buttons or links that tell the user what we want them to do next: visit our website, leave us their details, request a free trial…. In this way we will connect content marketing with our digital marketing objectives.
4. Disregarding quality. The saying «quality is better than quantity» also applies to content marketing. Yes, it is necessary to publish regularly, but never at the expense of publishing sloppy articles, videos or images. Keep in mind that content represents your brand and your image depends on it.
5. Not optimizing the content for social networks. Although the most important thing is always the quality of the content, the presentation is also essential when it comes to users deciding to share a content or not. The main thing is to have a good image and headline and optimize the description to suit the requirements of different social networks (more or less brief, with or without hashtag …).

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