It’s a tricky one: how do you tell if your content marketing strategy is working? You’ve spent time planning, designing and writing your content, you think it does a great job of distilling your brand’s key messages, and you’re sure that your audience will love it. Look out for these five key signs that your content marketing strategy isn’t working as well as you’d hoped, and follow the accompanying tips to improve the issues and drive your content to success.
Problem 1: Your audience isn’t engaging with your content
When you publish a piece of content, you should be measuring KPIs like social shares, comments, scroll depth and time spent on the page. If you’re not hitting these KPIs, it’s a sure-fire sign that your content is missing the mark somehow.
Solution: Seek assistance from professionals
Working with a copywriting agency will take your content from lacklustre and under-performing to memorable and effective. Agencies can offer years of experience within your business’s niche, meaning that they already know how to connect with your audience and drive key messages home.
Problem 2: Your content isn’t getting any links
For your content marketing to really shine, it’s important that important influencers and publishers want to share it within their networks. If you’re not getting any traction from key names in your industry, it’s time to wonder why.
Solution: Refine your approach to meeting your audiences’ needs
Your content should above all things be useful, interesting, helpful or important to your industry. Think about your audience – what questions and problems do they have that need solving, and what valuable insight or information can you give them? Meet their needs and you’ll earn authentic shares and links to your website.
Problem 3: Your content isn’t ranking in Google
61% of marketers say that growing their SEO presence is a high priority – and if it’s top of their list, it should be top of yours. If your content isn’t ranking well for any of the keywords that matter to your business, there is a problem with your content marketing strategy.
Solution: Optimise your content for search
Google wants to see useful, relevant content that answers the questions or intent behind a person’s search term. The more helpful and relevant your content is, the higher you’ll rank. Use natural language that includes the keywords in question plus lots of supporting, related language. Make sure your content is technically optimised, too.
Problem 4: Your content isn’t designed for mobile
Test your content on your mobile device and ask your colleagues to do the same on theirs. If it’s slow to load or not designed responsively, your audience (and Google) will immediately black-mark you.
Solution: Always design your content mobile-first
Your content has to provide a fast, simple and pleasing mobile experience to be taken seriously in the modern, digital landscape. Use Google’s free tool to test your existing content and if it’s not fit for purpose, fix it immediately.
Problem 5: Your content isn’t driving leads or sales
The ultimate goal of your content marketing strategy should be to drive business growth. If you aren’t growing your lead or customer base through your content, something is wrong.
Solution: Use data to shape your strategy
Talk to your customers, review what your competitors are doing, listen out for the latest industry news and trends. Use this insight to create data-driven content, then use an analytics package to track key metrics and learn which pieces of content drive more growth than others. Take these learnings and apply them to your upcoming pieces.
Your content marketing strategy should be a work in progress, always open to optimisation, iteration and improvement. Don’t get disheartened if your content is suffering from the issues above. Follow the solution tips, take note of what you learn in the process and steer your strategy towards success.
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