Over the years, I’ve worked with businesses of all sizes, from small start-ups to medium-sized businesses to large organizations. No matter the size, they all have the same goal: to be seen as a leading expert — someone sought after by people wanting to hire them.
They’re tired of relying on the unpredictability of word-of-mouth advertising and dream of a pipeline full of qualified leads who are ready to say yes.
Running a business, especially as a solo entrepreneur, involves countless responsibilities that demand your time and attention. It can be difficult to find space in your busy schedule to write and publish blog posts, especially when juggling other core tasks like client work, meetings, and administrative duties.
- Coming up with engaging and relevant topics for blog articles isn’t always easy — if you can even find the time to sit down and write.
- Consistently brainstorming new ideas that align with your expertise and resonate with your target audience takes time and practice.
- Seeing our own expertise when we’re so close to the subject matter can be tough. Working on my own content is 10 times harder compared to when I work on content for a client.
- When writing, you may face challenges with grammar, structure, or achieving the desired tone in your content.
- You may lack strong writing skills or confidence in your ability to produce high-quality content. Not everyone likes to write and that’s okay.
- You might still have little to no traffic coming to the website if the search engines aren’t indexing your articles, even after producing a lot of content.
- You can be so focused on writing content that showcases your knowledge, expertise, and unique perspectives that you miss the most important piece: your customer’s pain points.
Writing The Right Content For Your Business
Focusing solely on general topics and whatever you’re in the mood to write about leads to content failing to produce results. While writing broad, surface-level articles may seem like a safe approach for attracting a wider audience, you’re doing yourself a disservice.
- It dilutes your expertise and makes it harder for you to position yourself as an undeniable expert in your specific niche.
- Readers can’t find the answers to their questions and have a hard time connecting with your message or realizing you are who they’ve been searching for.
- Your business will experience a lack of engagement and ultimately, a lower likelihood of converting those readers into loyal customers or clients.
In today’s competitive professional landscape, it’s crucial to be seen as an expert in your field. By demonstrating that you get your customers or clients like no one else does you can establish yourself as a sought-after authority, and in turn, reduce the need to rely solely on word-of-mouth referrals in your business.
The result?
Attracting a more engaged and loyal audience and successfully differentiating yourself from competitors.
How do you do this? You need to create content tailored to your target audience, content that’s helpful, informative, and lets your readers know that you understand them and their problems — and that you can help them solve those problems.
Let’s dive a little deeper into how your content could be holding you back.
When You Don’t Go Deep Enough on a Subject
It’s all too easy to fall into the trap of only covering the what and the why and holding back on the really good stuff. No one wants to give away all their trade secrets, but if you don’t go deep enough into a subject and provide some of the how, it can leave readers frustrated and feeling unsatisfied with your content.
Trust me — the right clients are going to read your content and think to themselves: ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, that’s way more work than I expected!‘. They’ll then hire you to do it for them because you’ve proven you’re the expert and know what you’re talking about.
Finding balance can be tricky but consider your audience’s pain points and create targeted, focused, problem-solving content around it. When you follow this approach, you’re not only building trust and credibility, but you’re also increasing the chances of attracting qualified leads who are actively seeking solutions to their specific problems.
When Your Content Lacks a Clear Focus
Not having a clear focus or central theme for your content can have detrimental effects on the quality of your articles.
- When you try to cover too many topics at once, it often leads to a lack of depth and specificity. In turn, this can cause your website visitors to struggle trying to connect the dots as the subject matter jumps around throughout the article.
- A lack of specificity also hurts your ability to gain rankings within search engines. Search engines prioritize websites that provide detailed and specific information, as it enhances the overall user experience and increases the relevance of the content.
Remember to keep each piece of content focused on one main subject. If you find that you have a lot to cover in an area outside of that main focus, create a separate article and add a link from the first article to the second and vice versa. Readers can then continue reading down a specific path if they choose.
When You Fail To Address Specific Problems
Readers are coming to you because they have a specific problem that they need help solving. It’s essential for business owners to identify and address their audience’s pain points directly within their content. Neglecting to address the specific problems and questions your audience is seeking answers to, can result in content that feels disconnected and irrelevant. Plus it’s unlikely they’ll even find you in the search engines if your content is too generic.
Doing audience research, surveying your existing customers, and reviewing any customer service inquiries can help you better understand the common problems your target audience faces. Use this information to shape your content strategy and produce articles that directly speak to those issues, ultimately helping readers feel more connected and understood.
When Your Content Lacks Personalization
Content that lacks storytelling elements or personalization can feel impersonal to a reader, failing to engage them on an emotional level. I see this often in content written by AI tools — there’s nothing written to set you apart and the content could have been written by anyone in your field.
When you add personal anecdotes or relatable examples into your content you’ll create a stronger connection with your audience. You’re letting them know you’ve been there, or that you can identify with their situation. Helping readers connect with your content on a deeper level makes them more likely to trust and follow your advice.
When You Focus on Quantity Over Quality
At least once a week, I see a post online about a business owner wondering why their website isn’t getting any visitors or clicks. Often, they’ve relied on AI content tools or hired someone off Fiverr to write a bunch of articles for their site for cheap. Their hope is the more content they have, the more chances of someone finding them.
More is not always better!
One well-written, in-depth article is far more beneficial than 10 short, broad articles when it comes to engaging and educating readers — and getting ranked in the search engines.
Rather than spending 10 hours writing 10 short pieces of content, take those hours and write one or two long-form pieces of content that dives deeper into a subject, answering any questions your readers may have, and helping them see that you understand them and their problems.
Start Elevating Your Content Strategy
By avoiding these mistakes, you’ll be creating content that is more targeted, engaging, and valuable to your audience. You’ll be establishing yourself as the expert in your niche and start attracting the right people, turning them into paying clients.
The more strategic and focused you can be with your content — ensuring it aligns with your business and what you’re selling — the more impact it will have. Plus, when you share that content on social media you’re more likely to earn a click back to your website.
Remember, quality over quantity is key, and always keep your target audience in mind when creating content.
Don’t let your content hold you back any longer. I can help you craft a 90-day content marketing strategy that is engaging, targeted, and valuable.
