Theoretically, content marketing seems pretty simple but when it comes to practice, content marketers might find it complicated. Most content marketers fail in their job because instead of going with the tried and tested method, they are more inclined to experiment. Experimenting and taking risk is a good thing only if there is a chance that it might bear fruits which is clearly not the case here. These days many companies are overlooking the fundamentals due to a number of factors ranging from deadlines, unorganized content and other interruptions. The following strategies should not be neglected at any cost.

Make Sure that the Visual Content is Engaging: The power of visuals shouldn’t be underestimated because they tend to attract more attention than the written word. Make sure the images you attach with your topic/story have a narrative of their own and are visually striking and relevant to the content. Branded imagery can definitely increase brand awareness and stretch the reach of your product.

Create Content that Entices Readers: Write content that will still be appealing after 2 years. This is called ‘green’ content. Play with words in such a manner that you garner attention and eventually you can see your website among the top ranks in the search engines.

A few tips to write fantastic content are:

• Include Images.
• Make it relatable.
• Break up the information into digestible chunks or bullet points.
• Promoted extensively.
• Text is usually ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 words for whitepapers and eBooks.

Frequency of content publishing: This is a classic mistake, which many content marketers seem to make. Initially they start of pretty well but as soon as they see that they are attracting a certain amount of audience, they tend to become complacent. Make sure that you post something weekly otherwise your readers will quickly forget you and replace you with some other interesting writer.

Use Data to Inform Your Content Strategy: Be creative when you are using data; generally there is an ideal length for everything. Don’t go overboard and make it a thesis and at the same time don’t be too strict and adhere to just 100 words. Neither strategy will work, so play somewhere in the middle and strike a balance.

Utilize What You Already Have: Research shows that most websites do not use 60-70% of B2B content. Just think how much time and effort went to waste. Instead of restarting, go back and find out which piece could be repurposed and reused. Since creating content takes a lot of time, patience and money, it is best advised that you use your tweaking skills and make fresh and interesting content from the older ones.

Use Quality Images and Embedded Content: If you are able to purchase stock images for your content that is the best option. Today thanks to Google, one can find out pretty easily if an image has been borrowed from other websites. In fact there are teams of attorneys that scour the Internet for images that do not have proper copyright permissions. So always purchase when you can. If you have a limited budget you can always use free image sites. Be sure to give credit where credit is due and make it a point to use authentic images. If your image lacks quality your digital marketing game has finished before it began.

Find your Audience and Engage: Many site owners continue publishing content without having the slightest clue if their target audience is consuming their content. First and foremost do thorough research and find out where your audience is interacting. If its Facebook and Twitter, you know that those are the places you should go to and if it’s some other site like Linkedln then you should publish for your audience there.

Ignoring Your Customers’ Questions: Many a time the comment box provided below posts gets overlooked for tons of reasons. Keep in mind that it is one of the most important areas of the site and you need to keep going back to it frequently to figure out what your customers like and what are their grievances. Sometimes the best approach would be to directly ask them what they want in the form of polls, emails, etc.

Talking about Yourself: A subtle and indirect approach always works for self-promotion. Today’s consumers have become very smart and often they can easily see which seller is duping them and which seller is genuine. If you talk non stop about yourself, you are going to leave a bad impression on your consumers.

Sharing It: An extremely unintelligent move on the part of a business owner is indifference towards sharing their content. An excuse often given for this kind of mistake is their focus on organic/search traffic. Content was created to be shared. There are no two ways about it. And shared content leads to increased traffic. Make sure that an influencer, yourself or even your employees, promotes your article. Take the initiative when it comes to sharing. At the end of the day, you have to put your content out there to get noticed.