9 Ways to Identify If You Are Having Content Problems
Getting hard candy stuck in your teeth can be a very uncomfortable experience. It can feel like a sharp object is stuck between your teeth, and it can be difficult to remove. The candy can also cause your teeth to have other problems, and it can make it difficult to do normal functions. This is an analogy for when poor content causes problems that get you stuck with your marketing activities and can cause even more problems in other areas.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, only 42% of B2B marketers believe their organization is effective at content marketing, and 58% of B2B marketers struggle to create content that engages their target audience.
Common content marketing problems show up as lack of engagement, low traffic, poor lead generation, lack of budget, and difficulty in measuring ROI. By identifying and addressing these common content problems, you can improve the quality and effectiveness of your content marketing efforts. Here are 10 problems and solutions on how to identify any issues you may be having with your site, blog, social, or video content:
Problem 1: Low conversion rates
If your content is not driving clicks to your site, it may not be enticing or persuasive enough and result in a low click-through rate. If your content is not converting visitors into customers, you may need to revisit your messaging and call-to-actions.
Solution 1: Better define your target audience. Who are you trying to reach with your content? Once you know the segments of the audience you’re writing for, you can tailor your content to their specific needs and interests. Conduct research to understand your target audience’s needs and interests.
Problem 2: Inconsistent branding
If your content does not align with your brand values or messaging, it may create confusion for your audience. Maybe your content is not well-written in a way they can understand quickly. If your brand does not carry identity and uniqueness, there will be confusion.
Solution 2: Write clearly and concisely. Use simple language that your audience can understand. Avoid jargon and technical terms. Depending on your and your team’s skills, you may need to hire a professional writer or editor to help you improve the quality of your content.
Problem 3: Unengaging content
Your content is not engaging and your audience is not stopping their scroll to pay attention.. A study by SEMrush found that 47% of marketers struggle with producing engaging visual content. Gone are the day of simple text posts unless it’s part of the overall content strategy along with other content. Also, the simple posts work better in variety and volume so unless you are posting often to a consistent audience, it’s more likely you’ll need more engaging content.
Solution 3: Use images, videos, infographics, and other multimedia to make your content more visually appealing and engaging.
Problem 4: Low search rankings
If your content is not appearing on the first page of search engine results, it may need to be better optimized for SEO or it will difficult to be found. Also, you may not have enough backlinks. If other sites are not linking to your content, it may not be considered valuable or authoritative by others.
Solution 4: Use relevant keywords and phrases throughout your content to help it rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs). Seek out opportunities for links from other sites, posts, and blogs. You can also look into ad buys on your keywords.
Problem 5: Poor engagement
If your content is not receiving enough likes, shares, comments, or other types of engagement, it may indicate a value problem. You are probably not getting enough feedback on your content if it’s not reaching enough or resonating enough with your best audience. If your content is not shared or promoted often, then you are not sharing the right mix and depth of content.
Solution 5: Limit to one or two platforms with your best audience so you can focus your work. But, share your content on more specialty social media, groups, and other online platforms, more frequently, to help it reach a more specific audience. Typically content that is educational, inspirational, or controversial is more likely to be shared. Guest posts will help you share audiences with others. Ask your audience for feedback on your content to help you improve it. Test and test more. Watch your variety and cadence. Mix content.
Problem 6: Stale or old content
If you are not updating your content on a regular basis then the posted dates will indicate your lack of attention. If there are large gaps of time between posts it will be noticed. If statistics are quoted from more than a year ago, it indicates stale content.
Solution 6: Create a content calendar to help you stay on top of your content creation and publishing schedule. Ensure that you dedicate the proper resources to keeping the post schedule consistent. If you do not have enough internal resources, then you might need to hire outside help.
Problem 7: Not enough content
You are not creating enough content if your analytics spike and drop often, or if you see that you are not growing. If your analytics do not indicate a pattern of progress, then you are not doing enough.
Solution 7: Set a goal for the amount of content you want to create each week or month. Then, create a content calendar to help you stay on track and maintain consistency. Consistency is more important than frequency.
Problem 8: High bounce rate
If visitors to your site leave quickly without exploring other pages, it could be due to uninteresting or irrelevant content. If your content is not tracked or measured, you may not know what’s working and not. Without knowing what works, you cannot gauge results or even know what to create next. If there is a low time spent on a page then visitors are not spending much time on your site. This could indicate that your content is not engaging or informative enough.
Solution 8: Use analytics tools to track the performance of your content and see what is resonating with your audience. Test and re-test every part of the content from title to copy to color to the layout.
Problem 9: Not using tools for efficiency
If you are not using any tools to help with media and content creation, then you are probably spending too much time on the wrong activities. You do not have the right tools in place for content management and tracking.
Solution 9: Invest in the right tools to help you create, manage, and track your content more effectively. This can even be as simple as using your own file system but creating connection between charts and documents to better track content creation and results. It’s more about creating efficient processes than necessarily buying new tools.
It’s important to remove hard candy from your teeth as soon as possible to prevent it from causing further problems. The same with your content issues. You should do a content audit to evaluate the performance of your existing content and identify areas for improvement. It’s important to be patient. It takes time to build an audience and create successful content. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results immediately. Just keep creating great content and promoting it, and eventually, you will start to see results.
Lastly, here are some extra tips for fixing content problems:
- Use analytics tools. Analytics tools can help you to track the performance of your content and see what is resonating with your audience. This information can be used to improve your content in the future. You can use tools such as Google Analytics, social media analytics, or surveys to gather feedback from your audience.
- Use a content calendar. A content calendar can help you to stay on top of your content creation and publishing schedule. This will help you to ensure that you are consistently creating new content that is relevant to your audience.
- Hire a professional. If you are struggling to fix content problems on your own, you may want to consider hiring a professional content writer or editor. A professional can help you to create high-quality content that is engaging and effective.
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