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Article by Ernan Roman Featured on Forbes.com |
Recently, AOL CMO Allie Kline said that content marketing “is an increasingly important investment that brands must make to engage consumers and authentically communicate a brand’s purpose.”
However, per recent research, companies are having a tough time succeeding with content marketing: 71% of marketers planned to up their video efforts, however 44% say they have no effective video marketing strategy. And, 81% of marketers are involved in content marketing, but only 28% of organizations say they are effective.
Here are five critical ways that CMOs are failing at content and what can be done to turn things around.
Pitfall 1: Content is being driven by what your team assumes it “should be”
Effective content is based on deep customer insights which drive content that resonates with your audience. It is not based on suppositions or general trends.
Pitfall 2: Content doesn’t have a strategic approach
Per research, while the majority of companies stated that they are heavily focused on creating engaging content and will produce more content, 55% are unclear or unsure about what content marketing success or effectiveness actually looks like. Additionally, only 32% of companies actually have a documented content marketing strategy.
Pitfall 3: Content doesn’t have the right metrics for measuring success
How do you determine what is working? The metrics that were rated as important by successful content marketers include increased lead quality/sales, increased web traffic, brand awareness lift, increased SEO ranking and increased renewal rates/subscriber rates.
Pitfall 4: Insufficient understanding of the importance of content for your customers
The effectiveness and sustainability of your content strategies requires a fundamental understanding by your team of the value of content marketing for your customers and what it can do for your brand perception.
Consumers are inspired by good content; 60% of people seek out a product after reading content about it, and 82% of consumers feel more positive about a company after reading custom content.
Pitfall 5: Not using content to power inbound marketing
One of the keys to successful content is the ability to generate a source of new inbound traffic to your website. Research indicates that companies are 3X as likely to see higher ROI with inbound marketing campaigns than on outbound. Inbound marketing also delivers 54% more leads into the marketing funnel than traditional outbound marketing.
No doubt, marketers know that content is a valuable engagement and sales tool. But the key is to develop tight strategies and tight metrics to avoid these five pitfalls that can sink the best attempts.
