2 Deadly Content Marketing Mistakes (9 OUT OF 10) B2B Startups Make!
Updated: Apr 19
Are you wondering why people don’t read your b2b blog or startup content?
Chances are your startup or agency is making one or both of these 'deadly' content marketing and SEO mistakes today.
Content is king! Content is king!!
I’m positive you’ve come across this phrase more times than you can count.
Everyone is aware that content is king but is it really king?
Yes! But there's more.
Content is king but why do other businesses and marketers fail at content marketing?
My short answer?
Content PLUS effective marketing or promotion is actually king!
You can have the best content but no one knows about it.
According to this report, the biggest challenges for content marketing are reportedly a lack of data and a lack of strategy (according to the same report).
2 Deadly Content Marketing Mistakes to Avoid [9 out of 10 PRO b2b marketers make these mistakes]
Let me tell you something.
I'm not a fan of "SEO hacks".
Well, it’s simply because it is the (true) cause of all other content marketing mistakes digital marketers still make today.
B2b content pieces don’t fail because you don’t have a strategy.
It’s also not because you can’t write great blog posts.
You do have a content plan, a content calendar and a clear goal that you want your content marketing efforts to aim at.
You may or may not publish on your business websites regularly but your posts barely cut through.
Maybe your business gets a few shares, and retweets on social networks but are your blog posts doing as you hoped they would?
Are they converting?
The problem here is; focusing too much on "SEO hacks" actually creating and promoting good content.
Are your b2b content pieces converting visitors to subscribers, and customers?
How many customers came from your content last month?
Do you generate at least 10,000 organic visitors to your business website monthly through your blog posts?
Firstly, here’s why SEO is the reason online marketers make these deadly content mistakes they don’t even know.
It’s simple…
The hunger for Google search traffic causes 99 out of 100 marketers and SEOs to FOCUS on creating content for GOOGLE rather than creating content for their target customers!
Are you on Pinterest? Help me pin to your favourite Pinterest boards :)
Content writers stuff keywords (AKA “keyword stuffing“) into sentences and paragraphs within blog posts just to rank higher.
Some even teach black-hat SEO strategies to help content marketers trick search engines like Google.
Here’s what this has caused:
Switching content headlines to suit and please search engines.
Stuffing so many keywords into articles to try to trick search engines into crawling faster.
Writing your articles strictly based on keyword research insights and not what your customers want (Quora).
Content marketers and your SEO crave Google traffic so much, they are willing to break the rules for it. (Black-hat SEO).
I lost a ton of Google traffic a while back and fell for Google’s penalties. Just because I wanted quick backlinks (thankfully search engine crawlers are paying less and less attention to backlinks or backlinks profiles).
Here's how it happened;
In pursuit of quick backlinks, young me paid for a $10 SEO tool (that I came across on IG stories) and began running the backlink campaigns.
Within a few months, my website and blog dropped off Google and my organic traffic which was around 5,000 monthly visits dropped to 100. It hurt my business so much, I had to relaunch the website with a different domain (ZAKUSimon.com).
Online business owners and marketers strongly believe Google is the blood they need in order to survive as a business.
You see, the 2 common content marketing mistakes to avoid at all costs.
Writing blog posts strictly for search engines. AND;
Not having a clear understanding of the structure of a healthy blog post designed to take your customers on a marketing or sales journey.
#1 Content Marketing Mistake to Avoid: “Writing Content Strictly for Search Engines & Not for Customers”.
Focusing on SEO during the first few months as a digital business or brand forces the team to skip out what I call the 3 Es of creating high-converting blog posts for every online business.
Every content your startup publishes must:
Entice your target audience to read.
Educate and enlighten them on a specific topic.
Excite them about your products or services.
Over the past 10 years in my content marketing career, I've worked with this strategy.
Every blog post that I write and publish for my clients must possess these 3 elements to succeed.
From my experience writing tens of thousands of words, I’ve found that most successful b2b blog posts have all 3 (or at least 2).
Content marketing is about getting people excited about a particular topic with the hopes of getting a return for your business or startup.
The power to entice your audience to be hungry for your content is key.
Each blog post must have a unique angle to lure readership to your blog. It could be using your headlines or within the main content.
Your blog posts can focus on educating each reader on a particular topic. You should be able to tell us the one problem or challenge each blog post will help your readers solve.
I try to answer this before and after writing every blog article here or for my content clients.
SEO plugins or Google tools can also stop content creators from hitting these key fundamentals for every blog content they write.
You find yourself writing content strictly based on keywords that Google keyword planner tells you to.
Your competitors are also doing the same.
They all have key