There is plenty of information about the things to do in content marketing, but there are still so many things that you shouldn’t do. It’s time to learn the four deadly sins, so you don’t make the same mistakes as many other businesses and marketers out there. Knowing the deadly sins to avoid will effectively help with audience development.

Putting Up Content and Leaving It at That

You can’t expect your audience to just stumble upon your content. That is not the way it works anymore. There is a fine art in getting people to find the stuff you’re talking about. Some of that involves marketing afterwards, but it also involves some before posting work. You’ll need to think about who your audience is, and the type of searches they’re doing on Google. Use keyword research tools to get the best phrases people are searching for, and then use them to your advantage.

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Afterwards, focus on the promoting of your content. There are plenty of ways to do this, including through social media.

Talking About Yourself

You’ve created this great blog post that tells people all about you and your problem. You’ve then gone onto the solution you created. That post is useless and boring to the people reading it. It’s your problem, and your solution. It asks your audience for no input at all, and could even miss their needs entirely.

You need to work with your audience. Ask them questions throughout, and give them a reason to comment. Help them become engaged with the content and you will soon improve your audience development.

Jumping in Feet First

Yes, you need to get the content out there, but you don’t want to jump straight in without any planning at all. When you jump straight in you haven’t done the research into the target audience, and you have no idea if you’re answering your readers’ questions or not. It’s important to take a step back and create a persona for your blog. Some companies create various personas. When you write a blog post or have one written, those personas are in mind to make sure the words speak volumes to the audience.

Talking About Anything and Everything

One of the worst things you could do is not focusing your niche. Your blog doesn’t need to talk about the Oscars one week and then move onto the current political situation the next. It’s important to keep your blog tightly focused to a niche that works with your business or needs. Do you offer services in gardening? Talk about gardening, offer tips for helping plants in the winter or talk about making compost heaps. It will show your knowledge, and you soon develop an interested audience.

It’s time to focus on the things that you shouldn’t do while content marketing. The above are the four deadly sins of content marketing, and sins that many businesses and individuals have made over the years. It’s time to get it right the first time, and make the most of your content marketing plan to improve your audience development right away.