Why Your Content Marketing Isn’t Working – Reason One of Five

Here are five main reasons why businesses and groups aren’t seeing a return on their content marketing, blogging, and posting in social media networks.

  1. You’re publishing the wrong content
  2. You’re not posting enough
  3. Your content is not optimized for search
  4. You’re not listening to what’s important
  5. You’re not connecting with those connecting with you

Let’s take a look at reason one of five reasons Why Your Content Marketing isn’t Working.

  1. You’re publishing the wrong content

One of the biggest reasons groups don’t see ‘the dial move’ with their social media and blog posts is because they’re publishing the wrong content. Too often businesses post promotional and advertorial content; i.e., “our product is now available,” “we just received the next round of funding,” “read this article about how awesome we are,” “here’s a funny and unrelated animal video,” “take advantage of our special offer,” etc. Most groups post the wrong type of content because they don’t understand the underlying premise behind social media networks. Let’s take the three words, ‘social’, ‘media,’ and ‘networks’, one at a time.

Social

When Facebook debuted what was the most striking thing about the platform? There were no advertisements. Visitors connected to other visitors over similar interests or ‘Likes’. People don’t like to be sold or pitched and frankly often pay not to see ads. There were no ads on Facebook so people felt comfortable jumping in. The network grew in leaps and bounds. All the while traditional media experts poo-pooed the platform saying, “here’s a company that’s going to eventually go public and it has no business model.” So maybe they didn’t have the model fleshed out but they did have one thing traditional media outlets didn’t have, a groWING audience.

The point being that instead of posting ads about your business you should be posting compelling, original content, specific to your industry, that connects with your target audience. There is a popular craft brewery near my office. Each day they post new content on their social media networks about dinner specials, new craft brews, and holiday hours. Their audience is people who love craft brews. Many of them actually brew their own beer. So they know beer and they’re into it. This amazing location brews the beer on site. So they actually have tons of content. Educating visitors about the four main ingredients in beer, the fermentation process, where the name India Pale Ale came from etc. through blog posts and videos are all great ways to earn the trust and business of future and repeat customers. That type of content shows that the brewery knows what it’s talking about. So while it’s OK to share special events and menu items, the larger more valuable content is the type that doesn’t ‘pitch’ to your audience.

You should be posting these four types of content:

  1. Informational – educate the visitor about your industry
  2. Entertaining – share fun content that’s related to your brand
  3. Local and/or Topical > local – talk about other businesses and attractions in the area, or if you’re not a retail or local business > topical stories that relate to your brand
  4. Promotional – not more than 20% of the time and not always about special offers but more importantly about rewards for visitors to your website and social media followers for ‘Liking’, ‘Following’, and ‘Subscribing’

Media

Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook Live, and YouTube have value because they all focus on images and video. What’s another way of saying those words? Media. You simply have to post images and video on these platforms. We have some clients where Instagram isn’t so much of a fit but videos explaining the value of their product or service, owners, executives, managers, and employees sharing insights about the company, and info graphics that spell out your group’s mission can all be optimized for search and posted regularly to keep your messaging fresh. You have to have media and it has to be optimized for search for your social media networks and your blog posts to be effective.

Networks

In working with top performing real estate agents their biggest mistake is only posting about open houses, sold properties, and new listings. For top performers, they know that there’s a lot that goes into closing the wealthiest buyers and sellers. Often agents are asked to recommend a restaurant, builder, plumber, electrician, landscaper, hairdresser, lender, etc. The list is endless. These agents are often more like a concierge service than a real estate agent. But it’s because of their network that buyers trust them and ultimately list and sell or search and buy property.  Sharing posts about your network is critical to letting people understand and ultimately trust your brand. “We use this technology because _______.” “We provide a team of professionals to address all your concerns including this one.”

And of course you need to follow and connect with the social media networks of your connections. In short, “STOP SELLING ME I DON’T LIKE IT and start educating me because I need to understand that you’re actually an expert on this stuff so I can trust you and then do business with you.”

READ: Two of Five Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Isn’t Working

 

 

Taft Moore is CEO of the content marketing and digital asset management firm VOX Communications, LLC. Established in 2009, VOX has helped clients in apparel, construction, entertainment, finance, government, healthcare, non profit, and startup spaces build brand awareness, drive engagement, and ultimately increase sales. Taft is a Google and Facebook Agency Partner and a Linked In Advisor/Pro. In that capacity, Taft has driven millions of views for his clients across multiple platforms. Successes include raising tens of millions of dollars in funding for startups, geometrically increasing online sales for established brands, generating national news headlines and mainstream media coverage on the future of healthcare, effective treatments for opioid use disorder, protecting oil and natural gas pipelines in the environment, and saving rhinos. Over the course of more than ten years Taft and his team have also generated above the fold organic search engine results for hundreds of terms in numerous, highly competitive industries.

VOX researches your industry, competitors, and influencers, builds, manages, and optimizes your websites, connects all your social media networks, generates compelling content, and then drives engagement while building awareness through organic and paid search campaigns. Connect with VOX to see what we’ve learned about how to leverage the internet on your behalf.

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