7 Deadly Sins of Content Strategy

A lot goes into building a content strategy for a business. It is what defines who you are as a company and who will be your target audience. It also lays out your businesses writing style and shapes your entire marketing strategy. Most importantly, it’s what sets apart a great website from a good one.

What is Content Strategy?

Content strategy is defined as the development, distribution, and governance of useful, usable content.

It’s crucial that businesses use original, creative, and well-written web copy to promote their business online. You want your tone and style to be easily accessible and understandable for users. The purpose of your content, and ultimately your website overall, is to provide your audience with the information they need and make them comfortable with the research and evaluation process in order to purchase your product or service.

However, many companies struggle will constructing effective and resourceful content so here are the top 7 don’ts for business content strategy:

1. Use of stuffy content
Always write your content with a purpose and make sure it aligns with your business’s goals. An easy way to do this is by sticking to one point per page. Another way to write content that adds value is to look what your top competitors are doing well and how they are standing out in your space.

2. Be inauthentic
In order for your audience to buy your product or service, you must be honest and transparent, and listen to your audience. When customers share experiences about your business or service, take it as a learning tool to make your company better. Sharing what happens behind the scenes at your organization is also a plus.

3. Spelling & Grammar errors
Simple mistakes like this make your business look less than professional and reduce your credibility. Make sure to always double check your work and have others look over your content.

4. Inconsistency in voice across platforms
It’s important to maintain a consistent voice within your content strategy and brand in order to instill confidence and maintain an impression with your audience. While your tone may differ between your website and social media, having a constant voice helps businesses manage perceptions. It also reinforces a sense of professionalism and trust.

5. Use of difficult language
This is similar to your company being inauthentic. Make sure to understand your audience and ease up on hard facts and numbers. Always keep copy clean, neat, short, and conversational. It is best to assume that your audience knows nothing about your product or service.

6. Use of negative language
How a business presents their content and the tone used influences how an audience reads the information. Companies always want their content to be personable and use language that is light and simple for users to digest.

7. No use of SEO keywords within your content
This is very important in helping your content rank in search. Including keywords within your content help businesses gain quality traffic to their site. This is also a helpful tool when reviewing your analytics, it provides helpful insight on what your audience is reacting too.

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