Content Marketing for your Brand

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January 12, 2017 · 1:11 pm

7 Content Marketing Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make in 2017

Many of us are still in the leaf-turning phase of the new year, eager to identify and implement key areas for personal and professional change. Perhaps some of your own resolutions include improvements to your company’s content marketing endeavors. And if not—well, maybe they should.

There is never a bad time to revise your content marketing mechanisms—to be more strategic about consumer outreach, relationship-building, and thought leadership. Getting more serious about content marketing can yield many benefits, and the good news is, making constructive content marketing resolutions doesn’t have to be anything too nebulous or complex: It can be as simple as learning from yesterday’s mistakes.

With that in mind, we’ve got some suggestions for you: Some content marketing mistakes we’ve seen before, and ones we encourage you to learn from as you move forward toward bigger and better content endeavors.

Mistake #1: Blogging Inconsistently

Anyone can resolve to start a blog. Even writing that first post can seem pretty easy. Maintaining robust and regular blog content, though, is another matter altogether—yet it requires consistency for you to keep your audience engaged, increase our search engine exposure, and develop your brand’s authority.

Mistake #2: Making Grade-School Grammar Mistakes

Be honest: Have you ever posted a company blog that interchanges your with you’re, or that mixes up their and there? These aren’t just little errors. They make your business look shoddy and unprofessional. Make sure you have a skilled editor proof your content before it’s posted.

Mistake #3: Overlooking SEO Opportunities

You don’t have to be a technical whiz to fill in the meta description for your company blog post (WordPress and other content management systems will offer you a place to do this), or to include a few judicious keywords in your posts and your titles. Don’t forfeit these opportunities to tell the search engine what your content is all about.

Mistake #4: Missing Email Marketing Opportunities

Remember that when you post a really good entry to your blog, it’s something you ought to be promoting everywhere—and that includes in emails. Your email marketing list is a great place to turn when you want to get attention for a new piece of content. Spread the word, and make sure you’re conveying real value to your readers.

Mistake #5: Misusing Social Media

Your Facebook and Twitter accounts aren’t just for promoting your latest products or sales, though that’s certainly a good use for them. You should also be using them to spread meaningful, value-adding content, though—not just your company blog posts, but curated content from other industry resources, too.

Mistake #6: Poorly Formatting Your Content

Are your company blog posts difficult to read—or difficult to skim? Sub-headings, lists, and bullet points can really make life easier for your readers. If nothing else, shorter paragraphs are generally recommended.

Mistake #7: Not Offering Value Through Your Content

It ultimately comes down to what you’re writing about: You should be developing content that truly makes life better for your readers, answering their questions and posing actionable solutions to their problems. Otherwise, why would they bother?

Content development happens to be our strong suit—so if you’re looking for a hand in making big content improvements in 2017, give Grammar Chic a call at 803-831-7444, or visit us at www.grammarchic.net.

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Filed under Brand Management, Content Marketing, Content Writing, Email Writing, Social Media

Tagged as Blogging tips, Brand Management Marketing, Business Content Marketing, Company marketing, content marketing, Content Marketing Advice, content marketing and blogging, Content Marketing and SEO, content marketing for businesses, Content Marketing for your Brand, Content Marketing Help, Content Marketing mistakes, marketing, Marketing Tips, Social media content marketing

March 21, 2014 · 11:27 am

Is Your Brand Too Boring for Content Marketing?

Let’s face a tough truth: Your business is probably a lot more interesting to you than it is to other people. This is somewhat relative, of course, and some businesses are inherently more compelling than others. Say that you’re a financial planner; your clients probably don’t care quite as much about investment strategy as you do, but they likely do care about receiving advice on how they should spend and save their money.

For a financial planner, then, content marketing is relatively easy to adopt. For other businesses, though, it may seem a lot more daunting. You may own a company that manufactures drill bits. That’s good and important work, and we’re glad that you’re doing it—but with all due respect, that’s not something the rest of us want to spend a lot of time reading about.

Too Boring for Content Marketing?

These basic truths have led many business owners to assume that their industry is simply too boring for successful content marketing. We want to be clear in saying that we don’t think this is true; at Grammar Chic, Inc., we believe that all companies can benefit from content marketing. Some just might have to think outside the box a bit more!

If you’re concerned that your industry is a little too blasé for good content marketing, we’d recommend you implement all of the following steps:

First, remember that all good content starts with your consumers. If there are people who are buying your products, then there are people who have at least some interest in your company—simple as that. Start the process with some good, detailed buyer personas.
Think about the kinds of questions your clients and customers tend to ask about your products, and about the ways in which your products offer value. The answers to these questions may point you toward some smart avenues for content creation; they may not be flashy, but they will at least be helpful and informative, which is what content marketing is supposed to be.
Think about content creation not in terms of your products or services, but in terms of the end benefits that your customers receive. Lowe’s has mastered this. Rather than show their customers countless Instagram photos of a drill or a screwdriver—which would obviously be pretty tedious after a while—Lowe’s shows images of finished DIY projects and home improvement endeavors, also offering tips for homeowners seeking to use these tools properly. This is a great example of what it means to create value-driven, rather than product-driven, content.
Think like a curator. You may be stuck on how to make your industry come across as interesting and compelling, but we guarantee there’s someone in your line of work who has found success in content marketing. See how your peers are doing it, and leverage their content approach for your own brand.
Finally: We cannot stress enough the importance of having an editorial calendar in place. This will help you get the most of your hard-earned content—not just posting and promoting it, but then reusing it down the road.

The team at Grammar Chic, Inc. offers full, creative content marketing campaigns for all companies; to learn more, visit www.grammarchic.net or call 803-831-7444803-831-7444 today!