Content Writing: 7 Common Mistakes You Should Avoid.

Writing content for the right audience isn’t always an easy task; there is always room for improvement. I remember the first time I set out to write blog content. Oh my! It was a funny experience…and yes, it was a terrible piece.

There were lots of mistakes I made that I had to take note of. The thing is the mistakes are common mistakes most content creators make. You too could be making them and not know it. Avoiding these mistakes has made me a better content writer and I’m certain you too can become better.

What are these 7 mistakes to avoid in content writing?

1. Not knowing your audience

The content you create isn’t created for you; it is for your audience. If your audience doesn’t like and are not interested in your content, everything you have done and will continue to do afterwards will be a total waste of time. Take the time out to understand your audience. Know their needs and give them what they want.

Many make the mistake of just writing something that is interesting to them and totally neglecting the people they write for in the content creation process. The fact is consumers; you audience hold the power. Without them everything you do as a brand will be irrelevant. When writing content, be able to identify who your target audience is and write to and for them.

2. Forgetting to promote

Always remember that one of the P’s of marketing is “Promoting”. So when you write or create content and do not promote that content across your social media channels, you would have just done content without marketing. Social media is where your audience lives, eats, sleeps, plays and most importantly, shares. Social media can be everything to your audience or almost. If your content must reach its audience, promote it on social media.

P.S: Knowing your audience is key if you want to know what social media platforms to promote on

3. Typos

I personally really don’t like this one. No matter how interesting your blog content is, too many typos tend to reduce interest and credibility. Yes! Even the best of us make this mistake but it is easily handled. Before releasing content to the public, check for typos. Have an editorial team review your work over and over again till no typo.

4. Not using pictures

It is a fact that the brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text. Images are engaging. The more images on your post, the more engaging and interesting it gets.

5. Wrong post title

The most important part of your post is the title. Everyone who clicks on your post did so because your post title was engaging enough for them to want to know what the post is about. More people will see your post title than your post itself. To get the most of those people to read your blog post, use catchy and engaging post title.

Do not, in a bid to get people to engage with your content, use a title that doesn’t relate to the main content. This would see you losing credibility and relevance at the speed of light.

6. Ignoring comments

Your audiences need to know that you understand them. They also want you to know that you have reached them. They might ask questions or make some sort of comment in the comment box. When you see this, take time to acknowledge it by replying. This shows you listen to and value your audience. It builds a really personal relationship with your audience.

The key emotional factor in marketing is trust and in the comment box is one very good place to build trust. You may be thinking what if it is a negative comment? Even when the comment is negative, still respond to it in the nicest and truest way possible Conversations are healthy, indulge. If you ignore your audience, eventually they will ignore you.

7. Lack of analytics

You know how you just put out a post and you are excited about the increasing high number of views yeah? Well with content marketing, view count is just one metric that matters but not the only metric. Take time to monitor your metrics such as bounce rates, dwell time and traffic sources. Monitoring your metrics lets you know what it is you are doing right and what it is you should improve on.

I hope these tips are useful to you and can help improve your content creation skills. If you want to share some more tips that could help the content writer/creator, please do so in the comment box. I’d love to hear from you.

This article was first posted on www.theideapress.com