Every business should demand effective, well-written marketing content. Unfortunately, it seems many are settling for second-rate writing. The differences between the two may seem subtle, but ignoring them may be costing you sales. I’ve written marketing content for close to a thousand clients, representing a huge range of industries including medical devices, clothing and remodeling, manufacturing and craft beer. I’ve identified three of the most common signs that your marketing content may be hurting your business.
- Your writers aren’t actively involved with your overall marketing strategy. All marketing content should have a tactical purpose. The time and budget invested in creating it should have value. Your writers should produce content which demonstrates a clear understanding of your business goals. Your company’s marketing content isn’t a vehicle for creative expression, written just to entertain your audience. It should be part of an integrated, strategic framework designed to sell your products. That includes even your non-promotional, strictly informational content.
- Your content isn’t easy to read quickly. People like to skim. You have a short window of opportunity to grab someone’s attention. Your content should get straight to the point and be easy to understand. Otherwise, readers may move onto your competitor’s website. And also, while mistakes happen, your content should be clean of spelling, grammar and punctuation errors. Poor proofreading reflects badly on your company’s image.
- There are keywords in almost every sentence. You want SEO-optimized copy to help people find your site. But overusing keywords – called keyword stuffing – may have the opposite result by causing the search engines to penalize your site. Proper keyword use takes practice. Focus on posting original, interesting, well-written, persuasive content.
Your marketing content’s primary purpose is to help generate sales. You get as much value out of it as you put into it. If you don’t have time to write it yourself, our professional writing staff can help. We can suggest a budget based on your needs. We understand that not every business can afford to post a blog daily. Frequency is not as important as posting consistently. Best content marketing practices continue to emphasize quality over quantity.
Your goal should be creating enough quality content to influence your audience’s behavior. It should make buying decisions easier. Completing the form below, or calling us at 952-697-5269, to put our writers on a test project is a good place to start. Many new clients put $2,500 on account and try us an hourly basis. We’ll first identify your value points, messaging, target audience and project goals. Then, we’ll get to work producing clearly written, effective marketing content.
