The right answer totally depends on the business. Some need to publish new content every day while others can get by with only publishing 2 to 3 new articles a week (or even less). There are a number of factors that search engines like Google take into account when ranking websites, and fresh content is a big one. However, another critical component that search engines take into account is the quality of the content, which can often be sacrificed if SMBs are too focused on churning out a large quantity of content.
Here are 5 of the most common reasons why your content creation strategy has become derailed:
1. You’re trying to handle content creation all on your own.
As an SMB owner, you have to wear many hats in order to successfully run your business. More often than not, content creation is one of the hats that SMB owners must wear. While you probably are highly ambitious and enjoy having a lot on your plate, adding content creation to your long list of responsibilities may be more than you can chew. When faced with a pressing matter, you’ll probably give priority to it over creating new content, placing your content marketing strategy on the back burner.
2. You don’t have a system to hold yourself accountable to consistently creating content.
If you don’t have a game plan for the topics that you want to address, the audience that you want to direct your content towards, the keywords that you want to target, and when you want to publish the content, content creation is going to be 10 times more difficult and time-consuming. And, when writing content becomes something that you dread, you’ll be less likely to follow-through with your strategy. This is where a content calendar can come in handy.
3. You have a communication issue due to too many different contributors.
Some brands have multiple contributors to their content marketing strategy. For example, maybe several different employees would have access to the company’s blog to write posts. While having multiple contributors can definitely help with the manpower that producing content requires, it can also lead to some communication issues. These communication issues can easily put a halt to a content creation strategy.
4. The content that you’re creating is too generic.
Many businesses make the classic mistake of directing content towards one general audience. Often, these topics are too broad and generic, and the content earns little engagement. This can be very deflating, which causes many content creation strategies to fizzle out.
5. You don’t possess writing skills.
Not every business owner has good writing skills or enjoys to write. It’s important to remember that your content is a direct reflection of your business and can heavily impact your company’s reputation. If you don’t feel confident as a writer, you’re probably not going to consistently produce new content.
If you can relate to these scenarios, a great solution is to outsource content creation to an agency that is well-versed in creating high quality content. You certainly can’t afford to let content creation fall by the wayside.