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As a business owner, you may have looked into the trend of content marketing and decided right away that it was the best strategy for your company. After implementing your content marketing strategy, you find yourself disappointed that you aren’t getting the traffic you expected…

If you’re wondering what’s going on, keep reading for some reasons as to why your content marketing may not be working!

According to the Content Marketing Institute, having a documented strategy leads to more effective content marketing than if you dot not have a strategy.

Of the B2B marketers surveyed, 60% of those that have a documented strategy consider their organization to be effective, while 32% that only have a verbal strategy consider it to be effective for their organization.

Documentation of your content marketing strategy is extremely important when trying to determine which aspects are effective and which aspects are ineffective, such as what type of content is shared more frequently, etc.

Your strategy may be documented, but it is also key to have a content calendar with hard due dates for all content assigned. It is important that your content calendar be as detailed as possible, so that individuals tasked with creating your content have no miscommunication issues.

Even with your strategy documented, you may still need to refine your strategy from time to time, to ensure that it is not unrealistic. You need to sit down with your team and define the key performance indicators that matter most to your company, as well as how you’ll track these indicators. Your strategy should change over time as goals change, or if you begin to notice that the strategy is not as effective as it once was. Your chosen strategy should always take in the big picture – audience, revenue, profit, and brand; not just the act of publishing content.

Now, with your content marketing strategy refined and physically documented, you also need to make sure that the quality of your content is able to stand up to those expectations that you’ve created. When creating content, you should focus on the questions and challenges that your audience may come into contact with on a daily basis in your particular industry. In order to focus on this type of content, you have to ensure that the individuals writing your content have knowledge of your industry that ranges from the beginners to the advanced. These individuals need to create content that is engaging and focused, while also providing detailed information to these audiences.

If you’ve gone through your content marketing strategy and taken the time to make sure all of the reasons listed above are correct and in working order, there is one last reason why you may not feel like your content marketing is effective…

You need to give your strategy time. Content marketing success will not happen overnight! Every good strategy needs time to gain traction and organic results, so try to be patient, even as you continue to make slight adjustments to improve your strategy.

If you could use some help refining your content marketing strategy, fill out the contact form below!

– Marissa Katz

Sources:
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/content-isnt-working-for-you/
http://www.backbonemedia.com/blog/many-content-marketers-failing-malcontent-vs-megacontent-part-2-3/
http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2014/10/2015-b2b-content-marketing-research/
http://www.mycustomer.com/feature/marketing/all-art-and-no-science-5-reasons-content-marketing-strategies-fail/169387
http://blog.newscred.com/is-content-marketing-ineffective/