There are many reasons why you don’t want to do something: “I don’t have time.” “The team only consists of me.” “Our audience needs new content.”
But are these the real reasons? Or are they excuses to allay your fears of the unknown, the unexpected and the unknown?
If the latter, try some of these techniques to overcome the uncomfortable and tackle these five things in your content marketing program:
1. Talk to your ideal customers
Why you are afraid of it: I admit it. This is my fear because it takes time to schedule interviews with members of your target audience. Your feedback can also be scary. Your ideal customers may not tell you what you expect, but that’s exactly why you should get to know their needs, challenges, and tasks to be completed. Without a detailed and well-researched buyer persona, your content can fall short in terms of relevance and engagement.
Actionable steps to do this:
Task the entire marketing team with documenting a detailed buyer persona that fits your content strategy.
Analyze your company’s existing customer base and market research to understand your ideal customer.
Talk to members of the target audience to understand their pain points, learn more about their needs, and find out what tasks they need to complete. Schedule interviews for in-depth conversations or send surveys for quick answers.
Integrate the research into a comprehensive buyer persona document that details problems and challenges, goals and motivations, tasks to be completed, preferred channels and content types, and other relevant points.
2. Pause new content and refresh existing content
Why you are afraid of it: Many marketers are concerned about spending less time creating new content and more time editing content that has already been published. This shift goes against what they have been taught about publishing frequently.
I’ve never had this fear. Since my first year in content, I have updated content as often as possible. I wrote two original articles each month and then analyzed previous articles and edited them accordingly. This approach improved rankings and reader engagement.
Actionable steps:
- Evaluate the key metrics of each content asset, such as: B. Traffic, engagement, conversion rates and search rankings. Identify the best-performing content, of which there are typically only a handful in a large content library.
- Use SEO tools to re-evaluate your targeted keywords to see if interest has changed or if the term has new meaning in searches.
- Establish criteria for prioritizing content to update (e.g., high-potential keywords, always-on topics, content with outdated information).
- Update the content resources by making any necessary changes and improving their quality.
TIP: Conduct these content reviews and updates regularly. Do you have little time? Set the expectation of updating one content asset per week, whether this is done in-house or outsourced.
3. Ask industry colleagues for honest feedback
Why you are afraid of it: Nobody likes to hear negative comments about their work, especially when they are harsh. It can be discouraging or damage your confidence. Imposter syndrome, lack of time, or a lack of colleagues can cause problems for many marketers. Some worry that seeking feedback might expose their weaknesses or reveal ideas that their colleagues could use.
Actionable steps:
- Understand that the content marketing community is large and supportive.
- Build a network of your industry colleagues. Attend in-person networking events, participate in online forums, and join relevant social media groups on LinkedIn or Facebook.
- Talk to the colleagues you meet. Post a group message or reach out directly to people you know. Chat informally or schedule a call to discuss an urgent challenge or something cool you just heard about.
4. Run a plagiarism check on your content
Why you are afraid of it: You think your ideas and wording are unique and you don’t want to discover someone who has already published something similar. You don’t want to give authors, partners, and other internal and external collaborators the impression that you doubt them. But with so much information overload, someone has probably already thought about what you want to publish – maybe even the exact words.
If you work with authors, partners, and other external collaborators, checking for plagiarism should be mandatory. Plagiarized content can significantly damage a brand’s reputation, leading to loss of audience trust and potential legal issues. In addition to a possible penalty from Google, there are also legal consequences to consider.
Actionable steps:
- Accept that plagiarism is a dangerous possibility that could damage your trust with your audience, result in a penalty from Google, or lead to a lawsuit.
- Use plagiarism checking tools like Copyscape or Grammatically to ensure your content is unique. Microsoft has integrated a “similarity check” into Word’s editor tools.
- Check the grade to see if the text needs to be reworded and requoted or if this is enough, since “plagiarism” is actually the use of commonly known phrases, idioms, etc.
TIP: Use plagiarism checkers on your published content to find out if other websites have copied it in its entirety or published snippets.
5. Ask internal teams for help
Why you are afraid of it: They don’t want to bother their developers or customer support staff. You believe your requests are neither supported nor understood. You may also work for an employer where cross-departmental support is not part of the organizational structure.
Actionable steps:
- State what your needs are and identify which require input from internal teams. Do you need technical insights, customer feedback or creative ideas? Which team members have the relevant specialist knowledge for your requirements, e.g. E.g. developer, customer service representative or designer?
- Make an articulate request. Explain why it is important and how their contribution can make a difference. The latter can motivate them to do so.
- Simplify the process and communicate deadlines. For example, give a developer writing an article for your tech blog a high-level overview of the core ideas. Edit their work so they can prioritize their thoughts.
- Organize cross-departmental meetings and brainstorming sessions to promote collaboration. Consider projects that require input from different teams so everyone feels valued and included.
Overcome your fear with new techniques
These strategies may seem daunting, but doing what you’re afraid of can significantly improve your content marketing. You can ensure your brand is distributing original content that reflects a deep understanding of your audience. You will benefit from prioritizing quality over content and benefiting from feedback from your industry peers and input from your internal teams.
What fear will you tackle next?
All tools mentioned in this article were suggested by the author. If you would like to suggest a tool, share the article on social media with a comment.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute