The Shark Tank

Content optimization plays a prominent role in success for businesses, which explains why many marketers and companies incorporate it into their SEO strategy. Content marketing can effectively extend reach and drives traffic, but like other marketing strategies, it has its ups and downs. Despite using best practices, businesses may find their content underperforming or failing to reach the audience it used to. When businesses notice their content is failing, it’s time to reevaluate the piece to understand what factors played into its lack of success.

Identifying Your Target Audience

When investing in content marketing, it is easy to begin writing on various topics to receive the most user traffic. However, it’s critical to understand the type of audience the content is geared towards and how it matches a company’s branding. Businesses should choose topics wisely to ensure the audience is interested in them and the organization has the proper expertise and knowledge to educate its readers. Headlines also play a large part in generating traffic and should create a first impression that will draw in more attention.

Similarly, content marketers need to adjust the length of the piece to the audience and the type of promotion they focus on. For instance, avid readers of scientific journals will dedicate more time to the content than a standard blog reader. Likewise, content advertised through email newsletters or websites will not have the same success rate as social media platforms. While the length of a piece can vary, content quality often takes priority over quantity.

Choosing Your Topic and Avoiding Overlap

With a built-out SEO strategy, businesses may already have several blogs and publications written. With that, content marketers should be mindful of the catalog a business has already produced to avoid repetition or overlap. Businesses may already have a well-performing piece with the same overarching topic, which may be driving more traffic than a newly published one. Instead, businesses should reevaluate their current content, reframe it, or solely focus on the original piece.

Another primary reason for content failure is that the topic has been overdone. Nowadays, readers can find hundreds of versions of the same topic, so content marketers need to pivot and choose a fresh and unique perspective. One way to go about this strategy is to look for gaps in what competitors are publishing and target those weak spots where there will be little to no competition. Another method would be to incorporate attention-catching components into your blogs. This can range from changing the headline, adding keywords like “free” or “instantly,” adding visuals and an easy-to-read format.

Failing content is not easy to overcome; however, it can be helpful for organizations to reevaluate their marketing strategies and work towards more effective SEO practices. When faced with the challenge, it’s an opportunity to reassess your content and take steps to give it a fighting chance.