Skip to content
LOOKING FOR WEBSITE INSPIRATION? Check out our website portfolio!
x
Buzzy-chat
Ask AI Buzzy
close chat
fullscreen chat
Buzzy-chat

Buzzy AI Assistant

Human Chat
Buzzy-chat

I'm HIVE's AI assistant and I'm here to add a dash of nectar-sweet fun to your day! Whether you're navigating just for information or looking for a partner with your marketing needs, I'll be your guide on this whimsical journey. So let's make a beeline to adventure and turn your experience into the bee's knees! 🐝✨

Today
- AI: Hi there! I'm Buzzy!
- AI: How can I help you today?
Buzzy-chat
buzzin for answers
How would you like to interact with Buzzy?
Speak
Text
microphone ai
Speaking to Buzzy Sending message Buzzy is responding
** Buzzy might make mistakes occasionally. It's always a good idea to double-check important information with HIVE.
close chat
Let Buzzy ...

5 Reasons Your Content Marketing Strategy Sucks


Dustin Brackett
May 31, 2016

Trying to decide which CMS is right for your website?

View CMS Comparison
Read Time:
Don't have time? Download Now as a PDF
Remember the good ol' days when just being on social media was a big deal? When just sending out a tweet or a Facebook post could get your business seen by thousands and bring in customers nearly immediately? Yeah...they're gone. Forever. And ever.
 
That doesn't mean that you should give up though! There is still hope. Your hope lives in your content marketing strategy. It's your life blood. It's your future. It's your EVERYTHING when it comes to marketing online.
 
It's been said approximately 12,702,568 times, but that doesn't make it any less true - CONTENT IS KING.
 
Now that we've decided that your content marketing strategy is how you'll succeed, let's look at 5 reasons your content marketing strategy, well, yeah...it sucks.

1. No Targeting

Who are you talking to? Who is your content for? Why do they want it? When do they want it? Where are they in your buyers journey when they want this content?

You. Have. No. Idea.

Developing target personas is a fundamental piece to creating a content marketing strategy yet it's ignored by far too many businesses. Some will say, "well, our target market is women over 35". That is not a persona. That is a start to a persona. Is this target woman anywhere between 35 and 100 years old or is it a smaller range than that? Do they have a family? Are they working full time? Do they live in the suburbs? Why do they care what you have to say? Are they the decision maker? Are they buying for their family or work? Plus a million other questions that you could ask.

There are many questions that you must ask to really dig down and determine the personas that you'll target. It can be done by looking at your current customers, building a perfect customer, and even by interviewing your customers and salespeople. No matter how you do it, take your time and really think through every aspect of this person's life. It will help you talk directly to them and develop content that resonates with them.

2. You have no idea what a content marketing strategy is

We have heard it a million times..."I have a website", "I'm on Facebook", "We send out emails when we can". Those are NOT content marketing strategies. Gone (long, LONG gone) are the days of 'build it and they will come. Simply having a website, spending a little bit of time on a single social network, or sending out occasional emails is not going to cut it anymore. 

Developing a robust content marketing strategy means determining the tactics (yes, plural) that you'll use to attract strangers to you, convert those strangers into leads, convert those leads into customers, and then make those customers so thrilled with your brand that they become evangelists for you. It's important to take into account your personas and develop your strategy around where they can be found online. 

Some common tactics that you should consider include website design (or redesign), search engine optimization, social media marketing, pay-per-click, email marketing, blogging, calls-to-action, forms, landing pages, and content offers (whitepapers, checklists, videos, eBooks, etc).

3. You're not mobile

Everything is going mobile. As of last year, Google announced that more searches are being done on a mobile device than on a desktop! If your content does not translate well between devices (all devices) then you're missing the boat. User experience is a big deal and if your design is cropping weird, site is difficult to navigate, or your content isn't easy to find then you've lost that visitor.

Today, you simply cannot afford to not be mobile.

4. No teamwork

Please, for everyone's sake...be consistent! It's important to understand what your goals are and focus on achieving them through all channels. Your goals are likely to change throughout the year. Maybe your business is seasonal, you focus on a different part of your business during different times, or maybe you just have goals to grow a specific part of your business. Whatever you're trying to do, be consistent across your tactics. 

Portraying the same message from social to web to email to blog to whatever else you're doing will build credibility and push all your goals together. Tactics working together are always better than when they work alone.

5. You forgot offline

Yes that's right...offline. Successful marketing strategies incorporate all elements of your marketing plan. Having your offline and online marketing strategies working together to increase leads, traffic to your site, customers, and revenue will make your campaign more successful. This means including your social media pages on printed material, telling customers on your radio ads to fill out a survey on your site to win a prize, and sharing your hashtag on your television commercial in order to make every customer touch valuable, no matter where you reach them.


Creating a successful content marketing strategy is no walk in the park. It takes time, strategic thinking, and creativity, but when you get all of your tactics working together with a unified message, you will be successful.

Everything is moving online. Customers are doing their research and making decisions before they even reach out to you or visit your store. Providing them with engaging, interesting, fun, and informational content will help you stand out from the crowd, but you have to do it with a diversified campaign. Think through your strategy and get opinions from those in your organization that you trust and value. Taking time now to focus on your strategy can (and probably will) be the difference between a successful campaign and a failure.

Get Your Google Ads Checklist



 

Latest Blog Posts

Negative Brand Sentiment: Using It for Growth Opportunities
Sep 13, 2024

Negative Brand Sentiment: Using It for Growth Opportunities

Dustin Brackett
Branding, Brand Sentiment, MarketingGrader.ai

No matter how successful businesses are, they will naturally experience their fair share of ups and downs. Brand owners and business stakeholders count on positive feedback and repeat customers to carry them through the lean times. However, it's how...

Conversion Killers: 10 UX Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make
Sep 12, 2024

Conversion Killers: 10 UX Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make

Dustin Brackett
User Experience, MarketingGrader.ai

User experience (UX) plays a huge role in determining how effective your website is at converting visitors into customers. If your website doesn't offer a smooth, engaging experience, users will likely abandon it and head elsewhere. Every small...

8 Innovative Ways to Utilize Chatbots
Sep 11, 2024

[Updated] 8 Innovative Ways to Utilize Chatbots

Jill Schneider
HubSpot, Chatbot

This blog post was originally published on August 4, 2020, and has been updated with new information on September 11, 2024

Technology has changed the way that consumers engage with companies. Consumers are doing their own research, interacting with...

HIVE Hexagon
HIVE Hexagon
HIVE Hexagon
HIVE Hexagon
HIVE Hexagon
HIVE Hexagon