Not too many years ago, the phrase "content is king" was coined; with it came a typhoon of content agencies whose promise is to take your company to the next level. But have you ever thought that if everyone is doing content and every agency is an "expert," how can you stand out?
And in an age where content is one of the most vital marketing investments, opportunistic agencies increase the empty content they produce. That's why, on this occasion, wowessay unveil the mistakes that give inexperienced agencies away.
Do you remember that time when you used to go out to eat in restaurants? And do you remember the disappointment you felt when the waiter offered you a dessert and when you got there -despite looking spectacular- it was dry and tasteless? Now you have to decide to keep eating or avoid unnecessary calories and, unfortunately, the most common (although not logical) is to keep eating.
Of course, the next time you have the opportunity to order dessert, you remember the bad taste in your mouth and prefer to ignore the waiter's recommendation.
Well, the same thing happens today with content marketing: many agencies have created eye-catching cakes that sweeten the eyes of prospects with flashy titles and outstanding designs; however, when you taste them, the reality is blunt: they don't taste like anything.
It generates a significant risk: people become more skeptical of the content they consume, and that input you once had to them finds new roadblocks.
These are the content marketing mistakes of a nasty agency.
1. Measuring clicks
A common problem with agencies is that they focus on the wrong metrics in their eagerness to deliver results.
It's useless for thousands of people to click on your content if they immediately bounce away.
There are excellent agencies to create click bats. However, it would help if you stayed away from them because what they offer to your customers is air, which ultimately affects your brand's reputation and credibility.
In any case, the most common metric to measure the success of your content marketing strategy is total sales, as HubSpot reminds us.
2. Many blogs, little substance
Not all content can be excellent dissertations of more than 2,000 words, but if what you are given is piecework or wholesale work, all you will have are hundreds of links on your site that do not attract any traffic and make you one more in a pile.
Writing a lot is easy. Writing often and doing it with authority is the real challenge.
3. Writing without authority
To do this, you not only need an expert pen to help you bring your expertise to a blog, but you need an agency that immerses itself in your business to absorb their knowledge and generate content that resonates with your prospects.
If you and your agency aren't passionate about what you will publish, how can you expect an outsider to be interested?
4. Not having a Customer Avatar
When you want to attract new prospects, one of the most critical points is to be clear about who they are, how they behave, what interests they have, and how your brand can help them.
Although your content can be aimed at a wide variety of profiles, you want to attract those who are most likely to buy your product or service.
5. Just blogging
Having a good base of blog posts is very important for your content strategy. However, thinking only about this type of content is limiting the reach you have.
Not every prospect will come to your site at the end of the day, or simply not everyone will want to read a 1,000-word blog.
You need to create video content, infographics, and other formats to reside in your different communication channels and impact your customers and prospects where they are, as exemplified by HubSpot.
6. Lack of vision
If your agency produces content on the fly and without any clear path, it means that there is no strategic vision.
A good content strategy is based on providing value to people at every stage of their buying journey. Each of these contents accompanies the user in the different phases, understanding that the strategy's mission is to educate users and help them solve their problems with your company's solutions.
If you feel that your agency improvises the topics and doesn't see a real planning, it's time to look for a new one.
7. Publish
The work does not end when you publish. In addition to this, you have to create a distribution strategy so that the content reaches more people; yes, many will arrive organically, but it never hurts to give them a helping hand.
And, as I mentioned at the beginning, it will be increasingly common to find new content generators, so it is vital that your agency can create good messages and knows how to read the data to make better decisions perfect the strategy.
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