Content creation is at the core of many marketing strategies. Yet sometimes your content simply won’t attract visitors. If your content isn’t up to the task, it’s time to reconsider your content strategy.
Yet how can you tell whether you need a new content strategy or not? As creating a new content strategy can be a long process, you need to make sure it’s worth it.
That’s why we’ve created this guide. We’re going to take a look at the key signs that you need a new content strategy. Keep your eyes peeled for these issues and if they start happening to you, it’s time for a new content strategy.
Are you ready to learn more? Then let’s get started!
1. You Aren’t Increasing Visitor Numbers
The main reason that you’re putting content on your site is, ultimately, to get more visitors to your website. You can convert these visitors into leads and then into customers. If your content isn’t increasing your visitor numbers, either directly or through backlinks from other websites, something has gone wrong.
Not increasing doesn’t necessarily mean a decline in your traffic figures, although it certainly can. It can also simply mean that your traffic figures have plateaued. If you’re trying to increase your traffic, a plateau clearly isn’t good enough.
Keep a close eye on your traffic figures: they can tell you a lot about your content.
2. Your Content Doesn’t Have a Unified Voice
When it comes to branding, your business’ voice is very important. If every article on your website is written with a different tone, using a different vocabulary, and at vastly different technical levels, you’re going to be in trouble.
It’s not that there’s only one voice that a business can use: it’s that you should only use one voice across all of your branding. It’s up to you and the conventions of your industry to decide what kind of voice that is. A lawyer’s content will be more serious than that of an advertising agency, for instance.
3. No One Is Linking to Your Content
Backlinks are important for any website. These links from other sites increase your perceived authority, which in turn can help your search ranking.
Yet they do more than this one task. They also provide access to new visitor bases. Let’s say that a blog that’s influential in your industry links to your site, perhaps citing you as a source.
The audience of that blog will then find out about, and hopefully access, your website, even if they’ve never heard of you before. This gives you the opportunity to increase your traffic a great deal.
Backlinks are very important, and you can keep track of who is linking to your site. If you’re not getting many backlinks, it’s time to reconsider the content that you’re putting online.
4. Your Search Ranking Isn’t Going Anywhere
If your objective is to increase your search ranking but it’s not going anywhere, you probably need a new content strategy. Being stuck on the second page of Google is a very common issue for companies that are new to digital marketing.
However, it’s important to wait long enough before seeing whether your content is working or not. SEO often takes several months to take effect, for instance, so don’t expect miracles from your content strategy. If it’s still not producing the goods after several months then yes, consider a new strategy.
5. Your Content Feels Like a Sales Pitch
When people come to your website to read your content, the marketing should be implicit until the very end of the article. People came to read a blog post (or watch a video, etc), not to have a website try to sell something to them.
We get that this can sound a little confusing: surely marketing is all about selling your company, right? Well, yes, but there’s a clear distinction between sales and marketing that you need to respect. Marketing is about showing why your business is a good choice for them, and in content marketing, this is all about demonstrating value.
Don’t make your marketing content too self-promotional. Leverage it as a crucial part of your content funnel, and leave the sales work to your sales team.
6. You Don’t Post Consistently
This indicates a lack of any current content strategy as much as the need for a new one. When you’re using content marketing, you need to make sure that you post regularly. This can be as often as twice per day or as little as once per month, but no matter how often you post, you always need to post at the same time.
This gives your visitors a sense of comfort and also lets them know when there will be new content for them to consume. If you post sporadically, they’re likely going to give up on your website after the first few fruitless visits.
7. No One Engages With Your Content
Having a small but dedicated following is better than a larger one that barely cares about your content. Is anyone engaging with your content by sharing it, commenting on it, or discussing it online?
If the answer is no, something has gone wrong with your business’ content. It could be that it simply isn’t interesting enough or it could be that something about your site’s voice annoys people.
Whatever the cause, you need to refresh your content strategy and make sure that you’re creating engaging content for your site.
Is Your Content Strategy Working?
We hope that you’ve enjoyed this look at key content strategy warning signs. If you’ve noticed a few of these issues happening to your business’ content, it’s time for a refresh.
We can help you: we’re experts at converting visitors into customers and subscribers. For more information, take a look at our showcase today!