Content Marketing is a critical strategy for increasing your customer base and reach. While it is a relatively new approach to marketing, those who are doing it right are reaping big rewards. While there is no substitute for traditional face-to-face relationship building, more and more businesses need to build them online also. These 9 content marketing mistakes are preventing you from building your online relationships and improving your SEO!

1. FOCUSING PRIMARILY ON SELLING
Building relationships and providing valuable information are how you increase brand loyalty.
While it’s always OK to promote sales and other special events via email blasts and social media postings, you need to balance those with education, information or entertainment.

2. FAILURE TO REACH YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
You first have to start with demographics. Research both current and target customers. Create content for both your website and your blog. Your content should be balanced between existing customers and those who are visiting for the following reasons: education, problem-solving, humor or inspiration. You need to achieve a balance between the current and potential customers. Make sure you do not try to appeal to an broader target than you need to. It’s a fine balance.

3. LACK OF FRESH CONTENT
A static website and blog is never a good thing. Updating website content and adding blog posts on a schedule are critical to retaining interest and visitors. You need to do the legwork to find fresh content, follow trends and look for feedback.

4. NOT USING ALL AVAILABLE POSTING VENUES
Once you create and post your fresh content, you need to get the word out! Preparing teasers with a link to the content on your website is crucial. You want to generate enough interest to get them to click the “Read More” link. You need to use all of the social media sites where you maintain a presence (those that are appropriate for your business type.) Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn are the foundational sites and Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and others can also be useful. These can all help with SEO, as well.

5. NOT MEASURING EFFECTIVENESS
Google Analytics does a good job at determining the sources of traffic to your content (from Facebook, a tweet, mobile, etc.), and best of all: it’s free. You can then fine-tune your approach to increase your responses.

6. NOT BEING MOBILE FRIENDLY
Tablet and smartphone use is increasing exponentially. Having a mobile-friendly website is a must-have today. Viewers will most likely leave your site if they cannot easily navigate it or read the content.
Understanding what times of days these devices are in use is also critical for scheduling updates.

7. NOT KNOWING YOUR AUDIENCE
If your audience will be bored and/or confused by your content or the “tone” of your writing style, you will lose return visitors. If you are publishing technical content versus retail, general audience content, you need to adjust accordingly.

8. NOT SETTING/STICKING TO A SCHEDULE
Sticking to a regular schedule of updates is a discipline that must be adhered to. Too much content can be a negative and you need to find the balance between too little and too much.

9. NOT USING A PROFESSIONAL
While you know your business better than anyone else, creating effective and successful marketing content is not a skill many people have. Partnering with a seasoned professional like Your Web Marketing Coach will allow you to participate in the process but leave the heavy lifting to the pros. Feel free to contact us to discuss your needs.