There are plenty of reasons why you don’t want to do something: “I don’t have time.” “The team is just me.” “Our audience needs new content.”
But are these the real reasons? Or are they excuses to thwart your fears of the unknown, the unexpected, and the unfamiliar?
If it’s the latter, try some of these techniques to overcome discomfort and address these five elements in your content marketing program:
1. Talk to your ideal clients
Why are you afraid of it: I admit it. This is my fear because it takes time to schedule interviews with members of your target market. Their comments can also be scary. Your ideal clients may not say what you expect, but that’s exactly why you need to know their needs, their challenges, and their work to be done better. Without a detailed, well-researched buyer persona, your content may miss the mark in terms of relevance and engagement.
Concrete steps to do it:
Engage the entire marketing team to document a detailed buyer persona that fits your content strategy. Analyze your organization’s existing customer base and market research to understand the ideal customer. Talk to members of the target market to understand their problems, learn about their needs, and explore jobs they should do. Schedule interviews for detailed conversations or send surveys for quick responses. Integrate the research into a comprehensive buyer persona document, which details their pains and challenges, goals and motivations, work to be donefavorite channels and content types, as well as other relevant points of interest.
2. Pause new content and refresh existing content
Why are you afraid of it: Many marketers want to spend less time creating new content and more time editing the content they’ve already published. This change goes against what they have been taught about posting frequently.
I never had this fear. From my first year in the content space, I updated content as often as I have the opportunity. I wrote two original articles per month, then analyzed the previous articles and edited them accordingly. This approach improved rankings and reader engagement.
Actionable steps:
Evaluate each piece of content key indicatorssuch as traffic, engagement, conversion rates and search rankings. Identify the best performing content, which is usually just a handful in a large content library. Use SEO tools to re-evaluate your targeted keywords to see if interest has changed or if the term has a new meaning in searches. Establish criteria to prioritize content for refresh (e.g. high-potential keywords, evergreen topics, content with outdated information). Update content assets by making necessary changes and improving their quality.
ADVICE: Run these audits and content refreshes regularly. Are you short on time? Set the expectation to update one piece of content per week, whether done in-house or outsourced.
3. Ask your industry peers for honest feedback
Why are you afraid of it: No one likes to hear negative comments about their work, especially if they are harsh. This can be discouraging or damage your confidence. Imposter syndromeTime constraints or lack of peers can confuse many marketers. Some worry that seeking feedback might reveal their weaknesses or reveal ideas that their peers could use.
Actionable steps:
Know that the content marketing community is large and supportive. Build a network of your industry peers. Attend in-person networking events, participate in online forums, and join relevant social media groups on LinkedIn or Facebook. Talk to peers you meet. Post a group message or contact people you know directly. Chat informally or schedule a call to discuss a pressing challenge or something interesting you just learned.
4. Run Your Content Through a Plagiarism Checker
Why are you afraid of it: Do you think your the ideas and wording are unique and I don’t want to discover someone who has already posted something similar. You don’t want to let editors, partners and other internal and external collaborators believe that you doubt it. But with such information overload, it’s likely that someone has already thought about what you’re about to post – perhaps even using the exact words.
Checking for plagiarism should be mandatory if you work with writers, partners, and other external collaborators. Plagiarized content can seriously damage a brand’s reputation, leading to a loss of public trust and possible legal issues. There are also legal implications to keep in mind, alongside a possible penalty from Google.
Actionable steps:
Accept that plagiarism is a dangerous possibility that could damage your public trust, result in a penalty from Google, or lead to a lawsuit. Use plagiarism checker tools like Copy landscape Or Grammar to ensure your content is unique. Microsoft has integrated a “similarity” check into Word’s editing tools. Review the assessment to determine whether the text requires rewording and further citations or is sufficient because “plagiarism” is actually the use of expressions, idioms, etc. known to everyone.
ADVICE: Use plagiarism checkers on your published content to find out if other websites have copied it entirely or published excerpts.
5. Ask internal teams for help
Why are you afraid of it: You don’t want to bother their developers or customer support representatives. You think your requests will neither be supported nor understood. You may also work for an employer where interdepartmental support is not part of the organizational structure.
Actionable steps:
Specify your needs and identify those that require the participation of internal teams. Do you need technical information, customer feedback or creative ideas? Which team members have the right expertise for your needs, such as developers, customer support representatives, or designers? Make an articulate request. Explain why this is important and how their contribution can make a difference, which can motivate them to do so. Make their process easier and communicate deadlines. For example, provide a developer who is writing an article for your technology blog with an overview of the main ideas. Edit their work so they can prioritize writing down their thoughts. Organize interdepartmental meetings and brainstorming sessions to promote collaboration. Consider projects that require input from different teams so everyone feels valued and involved.
Conquer your fear with new techniques
These strategies may seem intimidating, but doing what you’re afraid to do can dramatically improve your content marketing. You can ensure your brand delivers original content that reflects a deep understanding of your audience. You’ll benefit from prioritizing quality over content and reap the value of feedback from your industry peers and feedback from your internal teams.
What fear will you tackle next?
All tools mentioned in this article were suggested by the author. If you want to suggest a tool, share the article on social media with a comment.
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Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
