A Big Content Marketing Mistake I Make
This article is going to be useful for the following:
- People who spend a lot of time online
- Guys who are into Internet Marketing and online business
- Copywriters who are really interested in consumer psychology
- People with a technical/academic background for their writing
- Folks who are trying to make money providing services for offline businesses
- People who really want to read about my mishaps and mistakes
In this article, I’m going to tell you about a big mistake I’ve made in the past and will probably make in the future.
It’s something that’ll probably lose you traffic and conversions.
Also, it’s something that is silent – and you won’t realise you’re doing it. In a lot of ways, it’s a positive.
Put Me Out Of My Misery… What’s The Content Marketing Mistake?
Put in the simplest way (ironically): it’s pitching your content too high.
By that, I mean that it’s very easy to pick topics or write in a way that’s too complicated for the average reader. In a lot of cases, it’s better to assume that your reader knows absolutely nothing than it is to write as if they know a little.
Soon, a little becomes quite a lot. This is especially true if you research diligently and you know your topic inside out.
How I Realised My Content Marketing Mistake
I came to this realisation today, so it’s all pretty new in my head.
I’m redesigning a service website I have. As part of this redesign process, I’ve been looking at other websites in the niche.
They’re all dreadful.
Poor design, poor copy, not very popular at all. Considering it’s in a marketing niche – you’d expect some of these companies who’ve been in business “since the 90’s” to have more than five website visits a day.
Anyway, that’s good news.
The bad news is that I couldn’t fathom why some of the better ones were doing so well. (Generally, if something is popular and you can’t see why, it’s a problem with you and not the thing you’re observing.)
The content for the blogs and pages on these popular sites was so basic. I’m talking “Ten Ways To Read A Tweet” basic.
The Error Of Optimism
Hopefully you read the title above and thought, “Do you really need an article about how to read a Tweet?” If you did, we’re on the same page.
The problem is that a lot of web users aren’t on the same page. The reason that list articles are popular is because the average reader loves list articles. They love cute animal pictures and they don’t like putting too much effort into consuming web content.
In the marketing niche I’m redesigning for right now, you might think (I certainly did!) that that wouldn’t be the case. After all, these are professionals and businesses willing to pay thousands for a service. You’d think that the level at which you’d set the information bar for an article would be high.
You’d be wrong.
Let’s say you’re a graphic designer. You have a website where you sell logos, book covers, website headers and the usual fare.
You might think that your customer market would know what Photoshop is.
Or be under the mistaken impression that someone looking for website images actually had a website already.
Maybe you think that your potential customers understand the benefits of your service?
From my current research… our graphic designer is probably being a bit optimistic.
My Pseudoscientific Explanation
My completely-arbitrary explanation for this all lies in the following facts:
- The internet – and the online economy – is very Most people in most industries know nothing about the internet.
- The internet acts more like television than traditional media. People instinctively compare screen time to screen time, and not reading time to reading time.
- The amount of people who are internet literate and hiring pales in comparison to the amount of people hiring in general
- List articles and really simple information hook people easier than in-depth material
- People can consume ten “14 Reasons to Love Cats” articles in the time it takes to read a single “How to Learn Something Useful” article.
- The long-tail for simple information picks up more readers than more technical material long-tail does
These are just justifications that I’ve made up – essentially though, the in-depth material you can write on a subject is only going to attract a fraction of readers (thus shares, likes and other exposure) when compared to the basic, simple information that most readers are after.
The Level You Should Assume At The Beginning
When I was writing academically, my professor told me that the level I should pitch an assignment to was an “enthusiastic amateur scholar.”
When you’re writing for an online audience, you have to take out “enthusiastic” – because it’s your job as a copywriter to build enthusiasm – and you have to take out “scholar.”
If there’s one way to overcome the mistake of writing at too high a level, it’s that: A scholar is someone who wants to understand how something works. If you’re in any of the groups I mentioned right at the beginning of this article (save the last one) then you’re probably in some form a scholar by that definition.
The majority of your readers online don’t want to know how something works. They want at-most a surface level understanding, and then to follow a call to action.
Luckily, that makes your job easier – providing you get the first part right and pitch to a level that interests them to the point of building enthusiasm.
Final Thoughts
This is a hastily put together article based on findings of the day. At some point, I’ll rehash the ideas into a more coherent whole. However, there’s enough of a point to summarise:
Assume you’re talking to a person who isn’t enthusiastic about your subject and knows very little of it. Don’t try to teach them or assume they want to be taught. Instead, simply tease and coax them into engaging with your call-to-action.