At times, attempting to plan and execute an online content strategy can feel akin to trying to launch a fitness regime. You might begin in a blaze of glory, only to hit upon problems later, while never quite knowing what is causing your lack of success.
So, for this blog post, we thought we would pick out just a few potential factors if your brand’s content strategy isn’t producing the results you had expected.
One of the most important things to point out here, is that the matter of what constitutes “success” or “failure” for a content strategy is extremely subjective.
After all, not every brand has the same objectives, and even as a given strategy is being implemented and producing outcomes, the goals for that strategy may change. That’s before you consider a variety of external factors that could also impact on a content strategy’s chances of succeeding.
Anyway, in this article, we won’t focus so much on external factors, but instead on three damaging flaws that all too often appear in an organisation’s content strategy. If you recognise any of these, by identifying the problem, you will have already taken the first step to fixing it.
Losing focus on your brand’s target audience
It might seem obvious that your brand needs to gear its content towards its target audience. After all, if you do deviate from your target audience, you will produce content that feels irrelevant or uninteresting to the people to whom your brand is supposedly trying to sell.
However, a failure to stick to your target audience might happen accidentally – for example, because your audience research is outdated, or due to misinterpretation of data.
This underscores the importance of not merely seeking to address your target audience’s needs, but also continually assessing your content strategy and execution to make sure this is still being achieved over time.
Not being clear about the purpose of your content
Any brand that is putting together and implementing a content strategy, needs to know exactly why it is producing each piece of content. If it is uncertain what your content’s purpose is, it will also be unclear what metrics should be used to determine the success or failure of that content.
So, if you’re publishing certain content on your site merely because a rival has put out something similar on its own blog, or purely because you’re trying to mention certain product features, you may struggle to get worthwhile returns from your content strategy.
Instead, you need to be squarely focusing on satisfying your target audience’s particular preferences, needs, and expectations.
Placing too much emphasis on brand and product-oriented content
We don’t seek to imply here that brand and product-focused content aren’t important when it comes to generating awareness and converting online traffic into sales. However, some brands make the mistake of excessively focusing on this type of content.
If your target customer looks over your content and perceives that you are merely aggressively trying to sell a product to them, this may leave them feeling disengaged and alienated. It could certainly lead to many such site visitors hitting that browser “back” button.
In any case, when a member of your target audience performs a Google search that might eventually lead to them landing on your site, they might not be looking for any specific brand. So, it makes little sense to focus the bulk of your content on brand and product messaging that may not feel greatly educational and helpful for your target customers.
Would you appreciate a more in-depth conversation about how our team at Jumping Spider Media can help you achieve the results you want from your content? If so, please don’t hesitate to contact us online or over the phone, on +44 (0)20-8089-1220.