The 7 Deadly Sins: 7 Mistakes You Should Not Do In Marketing

In the world of marketing, business owners have applied methods when working on content to grow and improve their business because when it comes to business, content marketing strategy is one of the key priorities that can determine a business’ success. There are many types of content marketing strategies, but even until today, content marketers are still making huge mistakes in the marketing history. I remember seeing annoying advertisements about this game (that I don’t even want to mention the name of the game). The game itself is so wrong in so many ways and they had to go and make it worse with their endless advertisements. I’m not going to go into details about the game, but their ads are not only insanely repetitive on every social media platforms especially Facebook, but the content in those ads is notably cringe-worthy. In short, based on their ads, people can tell that they are ‘subtly’ promoting body shaming activities and degrading women in such a way that is not ethical, although not directly. Ads like these are very lacking in several parts of marketing strategies, especially in the content part. For that reason, I am tempted to write these 7 deadly sins when it comes to planning content marketing strategies so that you won’t do the same mistakes. Please enjoy your reading.

In content marketing strategies, there are 7 main mistakes – deadly sins, as I would like to call it, that you should never do in your business.

Not doing keyword research properly

Some content marketers might think that keyword research is only about keywords and search volumes. However, in the context of marketing, keyword research is a medium for planning your content strategically. Most people would just guess a selection of keywords and depend solely on gut feelings. However, they tend to forget the real meaning behind keyword research itself. When you are looking for certain keywords, you are actually looking for what your customers need. It’s amazing how we can see many people looking for something on search engines using different kinds of keywords. In this case, you are basically connecting the content with the people searching for keywords. If you conduct keyword research properly, the keywords can be used as your benchmark in producing good quality content that is needed by your target audience.

Not testing out content ideas

When you come up with ideas, the first thing you need to do is test the ideas before fully applying them to your content marketing strategy. You might not know if your ideas can work well with your marketing strategy or not; therefore, you have to test your ideas first to identify what kind of content is more engaging to your target audience and what kind of content works best with your business instead of recklessly applying random ideas without testing it out first because a plan needs certain preparations in order for the plan to succeed.

Following trends without being relevant

This is a very common mistake a business has ever made; following trends without being connected and relevant to the business. Let me tell you this, there is one thing about a restaurant business that provides mostly salty and savoury menus that follow the food trends, but it is another story if a bakery business providing sweets and desserts follows what seems to be food trends that belong in the savoury classification. For example, in my city, salted egg chicken has been the trend among restaurants and cafés. However, if a bakery business decided to put salted egg flavour in their dessert recipe, what would happen?

Making random content

I am fully aware that ideas may appear out of nowhere and that is sometimes so sudden that you can’t force them to come out as you please. However, making random content is not only reckless, but chances are, the content may also not have values. Why? When content is recklessly made without a thorough review, it will end up being random and low in quality. This may result in people assuming your content is a scam.

Relying solely on website

Building a website may be the best way to improve your business online visibility; however, when it comes to business, you can never rely solely on website. There are other factors that can help boost your business online visibility or online presence, such as social media platforms, forum, blogs, and even videos. There are times when your audience might find you on social media profile first instead of your website and your social media profile leads your audience to your website. Therefore, create content in every platform you think necessary and relevant to your business.

Making fake promises

One of the biggest marketing strategies a business should never do is including false promises in their content marketing strategy. A business should be as honest as possible. When you give false hopes to people and when things go wrong, it will immediately damage your business reputation and reliability. Help people with your products or services and do it as honestly as possible. Nothing is perfect in this world, not everything can be fixed by your products or services and it’s okay as long as you are honest; people will appreciate that.

Being apathetic to your surroundings

Natural disasters, crimes, and any unwanted accidents are inevitable. It may happen to you, to us or to anyone around the world. However, just because something doesn’t happen to us, that doesn’t mean we don’t need to respond to it. I know we can say our prayers from our heart, but as a business entity, you have to show respect to those people affected by the incidents by responding to public tragedy on your social media profile. Your pray and thoughts matter. Also, if you can, giving donation to those people in need is a good deed indeed. People will appreciate you more and this is not just about your response as a business entity, but it is also about your response as a human being.

There may be many more mistakes people make in content marketing strategy. If you make one or two of those mistakes, know that it is never too late to change. As long as you are still breathing, you can fix your mistakes and make better plan for your business.