Each year when New Years Eve comes around we all make new years resolutions. To lose weight, to stop smoking, to save more money… do any of these sound familiar? Well what about making some resolutions around your business and its success in 2013? This year we have seen some bad content marketing techniques, or lack thereof, and we think its the perfect time to kick these out and replace them with the right ones! Some of these bad habits are…

Irregular blogging schedule

One of the most common excuses when it comes to blogging is “I don’t have time”! This may be true in some circumstances, but if you put this activity into your schedule like anything else you will find the time. Research by HubSpot shows that websites that maintain their blog receive 55% more website visits than ones that don’t. In order to maintain your blog, you need to consistently be adding new content. Posting up once every blue moon does not constitute having a regular blog.

Not doing your research

There is nothing worse than reading a blog that has completely false or made up information in it, it just makes the company and brand look stupid. Although properly researching for a blog article may take extra time, it is well worth the pay off. Not only do you keep your business’ image in tact by doing so, you are also showing that you are a trusted source for information – this is one thing that brings people back to read more of your stuff. Also, it is always good blogging etiquette to reference where you get your information from so that you can give proper cudos to the real people who conducted the research.

Using the wrong content format

Don’t just assume that your audience will want to see your content in all formats. Although there are many to choose from:

• Blogs
• How to guides
• eBooks
• Videos
• Infographics
• Images
• Audio recordings

You really need to track and monitor your audience’s behaviour around the different mediums. Although you may love to do videos, your audience’ may not connect with these as much as your written blogs so this needs to be taken into consideration when creating your content. On the flip side, only sticking to written blogs and not doing anything else means that you have no way of knowing whether images or videos may engage your audience more and create more leads for you.

Lack of engagement

Always remember to regularly check and respond to comments on your content. If someone has engaged with your content you need to acknowledge this so that you can retain them as a viewer.

No social sharing capabilities

Although a lot of companies out there have already embraced social media, not a lot of companies are utilising it to the fullest. Adding a social sharing strategy to your content not only means that your content is being spread further, but it also has strong impacts on the SEO of your website. This can be done in many ways – sharing your content through all social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn. Also commenting on other posts or answering questions in forums and linking back to your own posts (where relevant and helpful of course) is a great way to build your credibility. There are many ways you can socially share your content… you just need to put in the time to do it!

So let’s make 2013 your best content marketing year yet! Leave those old, bad habits in 2012 and start fresh with a new strategy and game plan to take on the world!